hing was hushed
throughout the mansion, then made my way quietly to the principal
entrance, which having easily opened, I fled as if pursued. I watched
the best opportunities to steal along the streets without meeting the
police, and without being discovered by the sentinels on duty. The day
at length dawned, and the bazaars, little by little, began to open.
Dressed as I was in the mollah bashi's clothes, my first care was
to make such alterations in them that they should not hold me up to
suspicion, and this I did for a trifling expense at an old clothes'
shop, although, at the same time, I took care not to part with any of
the valuable articles which had fallen into my possession.

I then proceeded to the house of the chief executioner, where I
presented my note to a servant, an utter stranger to me, saying, that
the mollah bashi requested an immediate answer, as he was about going
from the city on important business.

To my delight, I was informed that the great personage was in his
anderun, and that he must for the present delay sending a written
answer; but that in the meanwhile he had ordered one of his horses to be
delivered to me.

O how I eyed the beast as I saw him led out of the stable, with the
gold-pommelled and velvet-seated saddle, with the gold chain dangling
over his head, and the bridle inlaid with enamelled knobs. I almost
dreaded to think that all this was about to become my property, and that
such luck could not last long. So strong was this apprehension that
I was about asking for trappings less gaudy and more serviceable; but
again, I thought that any delay might be my ruin; so without mincing the
matter I mounted him, and in a very short time had passed the gates of
the city, and was far advanced into the country.

I rode on, without stopping or once looking behind, until I had got
among some of the broken ground produced by the large and undefined bed
of the river Caraj, and there I made a halt. I recollected to have heard
that the village of the mollah bashi lay somewhere in the direction of
Hamadan, and consequently I directed my course thither. But, to say the
truth, when pausing to breathe, I was so alarmed at the extraordinary
turn which my fortunes had taken, that, like one dizzy on the brink of
a precipice, invaded by a sort of impulse to precipitate himself, it
was with some difficulty that I could persuade myself not to return and
deliver up my person to justice. 'I am,' said I, 'no