hen left to myself, 'for a bleeding woman is here in evidence
to corroborate what he has advanced; but then should I permit him to
proceed, and the serdar was to hear that I had done so, what would
become of me? I should certainly lose my place, and perhaps my ears.
No; compassion does not suit me; for if it did, I ought not to remain a
nasakchi. I will stick to what the sage Locman, I believe, once said
on this occasion, which runs something to this purpose: "If you are a
tiger, be one altogether; for then the other beasts will know what to
trust to: but if you wear a tiger's skin, and long ears are discovered
to be concealed therein, they will then treat you even worse than if you
walked about in your own true character, an undisguised ass."'

I kept turning over in my mind whether I should release him or not; and
was fluctuating in great perplexity between the ass and the tiger, when
Yusuf returned. He told me that his Mariam was considerably refreshed by
repose; but, weak from loss of blood, and stiff by the violence of the
contusions which she had received (in particular, one upon her leg,
which was of consequence), it would be impossible for her to move for
several days; 'except indeed we were pursued by the serdar,' added he,
'when I believe nothing but force could hinder us from proceeding.' He
said that not until now had she found strength enough to relate her own
adventures from the time she had left him at Gavmishlu.

It appears that the instant she had darted from the nuptial chamber,
only covered by her veil, she had been seized by a Persian, who,
discovering by the glare of the lightning that she was young and
handsome, ran off with her to some distance, and there detained her
until, with the assistance of another, she was mounted on a horse and
taken forcibly away; that these two men carried her straight to the camp
at Aberan, and offered her for sale to the serdar; who, having agreed
to take her, ordered her to be conducted to his seraglio at Erivan, and
there put into service; that the horrid plight in which she stood, when
exhibited to the serdar, her disfigured looks, and her weak and drooping
state, made her hope that she would remain unnoticed and neglected;
particularly when she heard what was his character, and to what extent
he carried his cruelties on the unfortunate victims of his selfishness.
Mariam, alluding to herself, then said, 'Hoping, by always talking of
myself as a married woman, that