, others full of disappointment. Among the latter, and those who
paid him the finest compliments, was Mirza Fuzul, the man who had
been nominated to succeed him in his situation, and who did not cease
exclaiming, 'Your place has been empty, and our eyes are enlightened,'
as long as he remained in the room. At length, a great bustle was heard,
the doors were opened, and an officer from the king was announced, who
commanded the poet forthwith to repair to the presence, which he did in
the very clothes, boots, dust and all, in which he had travelled.

The party then broke up, and I left the house in the determination of
returning the next day; but as I was going out of the yard, I met the
Nazir, with whom I had had a conversation as before related. He did not
appear to me to be among the happy ones. 'In the name of Allah,' said I,
'you see that my words have proved true: the Khan is alive!'

'True enough,' answered he, with a sigh; 'he is alive; and may his life
be a long one! but God is great!' and then making two or three more
similar exclamations, he left me, apparently full of care and misery.

I passed the remainder of the day in strolling about, and building
castles in the air. I walked through the bazaars, went to the mosques,
and lounged among the idlers, who are always to be found in great
numbers about the gate of the royal palace. Here, the news of the day
was the poet's return, and the reception which he had met with from
the Shah. Some said, that his majesty, upon hearing of his arrival had
ordained that it could not be; that he was dead, and must be so. Others,
that, on the contrary, the king was happy at the intelligence, and had
ordered ten tomauns to be given to the bearer of it. The truth, however,
was this; the king had been disappointed at the poet's resurrection,
because it destroyed the arrangements he had made with respect to his
house and effects, and he was not disposed to give him a good
reception; but Asker who well knew his majesty's passion for poetry, and
particularly of that kind which sings the royal praises, had long since
foreseen the event, and had provided himself with an impromptu, which he
had composed even when he was living an exile among the Turcomans.
This he repeated at the proper moment; and thus the tide of the king's
favour, which was running full against him, he entirely turned, and made
it flow to his advantage. In short, he had his mouth filled with gold
for his pains, was