rooms.

The pasha slept soundly and peacefully.

Well for him had his dreams warned him against the peril that hovered
over him like a black shadow.

For the form of a woman, tall, thin, closely-veiled, glided along the
passages of the harem.

Her steps gave forth no sound, and she disturbed not the sleeping
servants.

She glided like a smooth serpent, or an invisible spirit; her presence
was unseen, unfelt, unsuspected.

She enters the inner chamber where lies the unconscious pasha.

She bends over him, she draws forth a knife, slender, tapering to a
point almost like a needle.

The pasha still slept on, the fountain outside made sweet music, heard
through the curtains and windows.

A smile played upon the pasha's lips.

He was dreaming, perchance, of the rosy bowers and the dark-eyed
_houris_ of Paradise.

Suddenly the knife descended, there was the flash of a moment, while it
hovered like a hawk over its quarry, the next instant it was buried in
the pasha's heart.

A deep groan was the only effort of expiring nature.

The fiercely flashing eyes, and a part of the face of the murderer were
now exposed; the dress was that of a woman, but the form and features
were those of Abdullah the interpreter.

For a moment he stood gazing on his deed, then lifted some tapestry
which concealed a small door, and disappeared.

* * * *

What cry was that which startles the seraglio from its siesta?

What combined lamentation disturbs the whole palace with its harrowing
intensity?

All the inmates of the establishment have been rudely awakened from
their slumbers.

It was the pasha's favourite wife who had broken in upon the privacy of
her lord, and she had found him dead.

Dead, plainly by the assassin's dagger, but what assassin, none could
even suspect.

None could conjecture by what means any stranger could have obtained
entrance and exit.

Then arose that dreadful wail of despair, that beating of breasts, and
tearing of tresses.

The news soon spread, and the whole town was in a fever of commotion.

Who had done the deed?

Who was to be Moley Pasha's successor?

The conspirators played their parts well.

Ibrahim Bey pretended to be terribly amazed and shocked: he refused to
be placed at the head of affairs until the sultan's will should be
known, and he offered rewards for the discovery of the assassin.

A council, consisting of Ibrahim and others