Terms! Terms
with a captive victim?'

'Why victim?'

'Is Arslan then so generous?'

'He is a beast, more savage than the boar that grinds its tusks within
his country's forests.'

'Why speakest thou then of hope?'

'I spoke of certainty. I did not mention hope.'

'Dear Honain, my brain is weak; but I can bear strange things, or else
I should not be here. I feel thy thoughtful friendship; but indeed there
need no winding words to tell my fate. Pr'ythee speak out.'

'In a word, thy life is safe.'

'What! spared?'

'If it please thee.'

'Please me? Life is sweet. I feel its sweetness. I want but little.
Freedom and solitude are all I ask. My life spared! I'll not believe
it. Thou hast done this deed, thou mighty man, that masterest all souls.
Thou hast not forgotten me; thou hast not forgotten the days gone by,
thou hast not forgotten thine own Alroy! Who calls thee worldly is a
slanderer. O Honain! thou art too faithful!'

'I have no thought but for thy service, Prince.'

'Call me not Prince, call me thine own Alroy. My life spared! 'Tis
wonderful! When may I go? Let no one see me. Manage that, Honain. Thou
canst manage all things. I am for Egypt. Thou hast been to Egypt, hast
thou not, Honain?'

'A very wondrous land, 'twill please thee much.'

'When may I go? Tell me when I may go. When may I quit this dark and
noisome cell? 'Tis worse than all their tortures, dear Honain. Air and
light, and I really think my spirit never would break, but this
horrible dungeon---- I scarce can look upon thy face, sweet friend. 'Tis
serious.'

'Wouldst thou have me gay?'

'Yes! if we are free.'

'Alroy! thou art a great spirit, the greatest that I e'er knew, have
ever read of. I never knew thy like, and never shall.'

'Tush, tush, sweet friend, I am a broken reed, but still I am free. This
is no time for courtly phrases. Let's go, and go at once.'

'A moment, dear Alroy. I am no flatterer. What I said came from my
heart, and doth concern us much and instantly. I was saying thou hast no
common mind, Alroy; indeed thou hast a mind unlike all others. Listen,
my Prince. Thou hast read mankind deeply and truly. Few have seen more
than thyself, and none have so rare a spring of that intuitive knowledge
of thy race, which is a gem to which experience is but a jeweller, and
without which no action can befriend us.'

'Well, well!'

'A moment's calmness. Thou hast entered Bagdad in triumph, and thou hast
entered the