case of
sickness; is not your highness sick; was the wine of Shiraz given by
Allah to be thrown away? Allah karim! God is most merciful; and the
wine was sent that true believers might, in this world, have a foretaste
of the pleasures awaiting them in the next."

"Mustapha," replied the pacha taking his pipe out of his mouth, "by the
beard of the holy Prophet, your words are those of wisdom. Is a pacha
to be fed on water-melons? Staffir Allah! do we believe the less,
because we drink the wine? Slave, bring the pitcher. There is but one
God, and Mahomet is his prophet."

"The words of the Prophet, your highness, are plain he says. `True
believers drink no wine,' which means, that his followers are not to go
about the streets, drunken like the Giaours of Franguistan, who come
here in their ships. Why is wine forbidden? because it makes men drunk.
If then we are not drunk, we keep within the law. Why was the law
made? Laws cannot be made for all; they must therefore be made for the
control of the majority--Is it not so? Who are the majority? Why the
poor. If laws were made for the rich and powerful, such laws would not
suit the community at large. Mashallah! there are no laws for pachas,
who have only to believe that there is one God and Mahomet is his
prophet. Does your slave say well?"

"Excellently well, Mustapha," replied the pacha, lifting the pitcher to
his mouth for a minute, and then passing it to Mustapha. "Allah karim!
God is most merciful! your slave must drink; is it not the pleasure of
your highness? As the wine poured down the throat of your highness,
pervades through your whole frame to the extremities, so does your slave
participate in your bounty. Do I not sit in your sublime presence? Can
the sun shine without throwing out heat; therefore if your highness
drink, must not I drink? Allah acbar! who shall presume not to follow
the steps of the pacha?" So saying, Mustapha lifted up the pitcher, and
for a minute, it was glued to his lips.

"I think that story should be written down," observed the pacha, after a
pause of a few moments.

"I have already given directions, your highness, and the Greek slave is
now employed about it, improving the language to render it more pleasing
to the ears of your sublime highness, should it be your pleasure to have
it read to you on some future day."

"That is right, Mustapha; if I recollect well, the caliph Haroun used to
command them to be writte