t at the gate of a house exactly like all
the others in the narrow noisy street. The beauty of an Oriental palace
is inside the walls. Within the blank outer wall of stone and mud-brick,
arched roofs, painted and gilded within, were upheld by slender round
pillars of fine stone--marble, jasper, porphyry, onyx, red syenite,
highly polished and sometimes brought from old palaces and temples in
other lands. Intricate carving in marble or in fine hard wood adorned
the doorways and lattices, and the balconies with their high
lattice-work railings where the women could see into a room below
without being seen. In the courtyards fountains plashed in marble
basins, and from hidden gardens came the breath of innumerable roses. On
floors of fine mosaic were silken many-hued rugs, brought in caravans
from Bagdad, Moussoul or Ispahan, and the soft patter of bare feet,
morocco shoes and light sandals came from the endless vistas of open
arches. A silken rustling and once a gurgle of soft laughter might have
told the Englishman that he was watched, but he knew no more what it
meant than he understood the Arabic mottoes, interwoven with the
decoration of the blue-and-gold walls.

Charatza's curiosity was aroused at the sight of a slave so tall, ruddy
and handsome. She sent for him to come into an inner room where she and
her ladies sat, closely veiled, upon a cushioned divan. Bogal's letter
said that the slave was a rich Bohemian nobleman whom he had captured in
battle, and whose ransom would buy Charatza splendid jewels. But when
spoken to in Bohemian the captive looked perfectly blank. He did not
seem to understand one word.

Arabic and Turkish were no more successful. At last the young princess
asked a question in Italian and found herself understood. It did not
take long for her to find out that the story her lover had written had
not a word of truth in it. She was as indignant as a spirited girl would
naturally be.

In one way and another she made opportunities to talk with the
Englishman and to inquire of others about his career. She presently
discovered that he was the champion who had beheaded three Turkish
warriors, one after another, before the walls of the besieged city
Regall. She made up her mind that when she was old enough to control her
own fortune, which would be in the not very distant future, she would
set him free and marry him. Such things had been done in Constantinople,
and doubtless could be done again.

B