humour, every
day gave him rewards and gratuities; but the wretch always appeared
before me in the same clothes that he had been accustomed to wear,
and they even were dirty and soiled.

"One day I said to him, you have received a good deal [of money] from
the treasury, but your appearance is as wretched as ever; what is the
cause of it? have you spent the money, or do you amass it?" When the
boy heard these encouraging words, and found that I enquired into
his condition, he said with tears in his eyes, 'Whatever you have
bestowed on this slave, my preceptor has taken from me; he did not
give me one _paisa_ [172] for myself; with what shall I make up other
clothes, and appear better dressed before you? it is not my fault,
and I cannot help it.' At this humble statement of his, I felt pity
for him; I instantly ordered the eunuch to take charge of the boy from
that day, to educate him under his own eye, and give him good clothes,
and not to allow him to play and skip about with other boys; moreover,
that my wish was, he should be taught a respectful mode of behaviour,
to fit him for my own princely service, and to wait on me. The eunuch
obeyed my orders, and perceiving how my inclinations leaned, he took
the utmost care of him. In a little time, from ease and good living,
his colour and sleekness changed greatly, like a snake's throwing
off its slough; I restrained my inclinations as much as I could, but
the [handsome] form of that rogue [173] was so engraven on my heart,
that I fondly wished to keep him clasped to my bosom, and never take
my eyes off him for a moment.

"At last, I made him enter into my companionship, and dressing him in
a variety of rich clothes and all kinds of jewels, I used to gaze at
him. In short, by being always with me, my longing eyes were satisfied
and my heart comforted; I every moment complied with his wants and
wishes; at last, my condition was such, that if on any urgent occasion
he was absent for a moment from my sight, I became quite uneasy. In a
few years he became a youth, and the down appeared on his cheeks; his
body and limbs were well formed! then there began to be a talk about
him out of doors among the courtiers. The guards of all descriptions
began to forbid him from coming and going within the palace. At length,
his entrance into it was quite stopped, and without him I had no rest;
a moment [of absence on his part,] was an age [of pain on mine]. When
I heard these tidings of de