d strangle body and
soul!'

The Princess shrieked, and fell into the arms of the advancing Honain,
who bore her out of the dungeon.

After the fall of Hamadan, Bostenay and Miriam had been carried
prisoners to Bagdad. Through the interference of Honain, their
imprisonment had been exempted from the usual hardships, but they
were still confined to their chambers in the citadel. Hitherto all the
endeavours of Miriam to visit her brother had been fruitless. Honain
was the only person to whom she could apply for assistance, and he, in
answer to her importunities, only regretted his want of power to aid
her. In vain had she attempted, by the offer of some remaining jewels,
to secure the co-operation of her guards, with whom her loveliness and
the softness of her manners had already ingratiated her. She had not
succeeded even in communicating with Alroy. But after the unsuccessful
mission of Honain to the dungeon, the late Vizier visited the sister of
the captive, and, breaking to her with delicate skill the intelligence
of the impending catastrophe, he announced that he had at length
succeeded in obtaining for her the desired permission to visit her
brother; and, while she shuddered at the proximity of an event for
which she had long attempted to prepare herself, Honain, with some
modifications, whispered the means by which he flattered himself that it
might yet be averted. Miriam listened to him in silence, nor could
he, with all his consummate art, succeed in extracting from her the
slightest indication of her own opinion as to their expediency. They
parted, Honain as sanguine as the wicked ever are.

As Miriam dreaded, both for herself and for Alroy, the shock of an
unexpected meeting, she availed herself of the influence of Honain
to send Caleb to her brother, to prepare him for her presence, and to
consult him as to the desirable moment. Caleb found his late master
lying exhausted on the floor of his dungeon. At first he would not speak
or even raise his head, nor did he for a long time apparently recognise
the faithful retainer of his uncle. But at length he grew milder, and
when he fully comprehended who the messenger was, and the object of his
mission, he at first seemed altogether disinclined to see his sister,
but in the end postponed their meeting for the present, and, pleading
great exhaustion, fixed for that sad interview the first hour of dawn.

The venerable Bostenay had scarcely ever spoken since the fall