seen a person
whom, by the description he gave, I instantly recognized to be myself.

My friend the dervish immediately divined how the matter stood; and
deeply versed in every stratagem of deceit, without hesitation took upon
himself to answer for the whole company.

He said that all were going to the capital, with the exception of
himself and his friend, who, both dervishes, were just arrived from
Constantinople; but that he had met one answering to the person he
had described, one who seemed oppressed with care and worn with grief,
wandering about in a sort of chance manner through the wilds of the
desert. He added many more particulars which corresponded so entirely to
my appearance and history that the horseman could not doubt for a moment
but that this was the person he was in search of, and rode off in
great haste according to the directions of the dervish, who, as may be
imagined, purposely led him wrong.

When he had been gone some time the dervish took me on one side, and
said, 'If you want to secure yourself from this man, you must instantly
depart; for when he finds his search fruitless, and is tired of
wandering about the desert, he will certainly return here, and then what
can hinder your being discovered?'

'I will do anything rather than be discovered by him,' said I: 'he is
evidently sent to seize me. I can expect no mercy from such a ruffian,
particularly as I have not enough money to offer him, for I know his
price. Where can I go?'

The dervish reflected a while, and said, 'You must go to Kom: you will
reach it before morning, and as soon as you arrive there, lose not a
moment in getting within the precincts of the sanctuary of the tomb of
Fatimeh. You will then, and not till then, be safe, even from the Shah's
power. Should you be caught without its walls, there is no hope for you.
You will be seized; and then may Allah take you into his holy keeping!'

'But when I am there,' said I, 'what shall I do? how shall I live?'

'Leave that to me,' said the dervish; 'I shall soon overtake you, and as
I know the place and many of the people in it, _Inshallah_, please God,
you will not fare so ill as you may imagine. I myself was once obliged
to do the same thing, for having been the means of procuring poison for
one of the Shah's women, who used it to destroy a rival. Orders were
sent to seize me, and I managed to reach the _bust_ (the refuge seat) at
Shahabdul Azim just five minutes before the execu