506 NOUBJAHAD,

but he said to himself, It is the interest of Nourjahad to conceal
his faults from me, and my attachment may blind me to his
defects, I will probe Nourjahad’s soul. Frdém himself I will
judge of him; and if he passes through the trial unsullied, he
shall be second only to myself in the empire.

Shortly after, the sultan invited Nourjahad to walk with him
one evening by moonlight in the garden of the seraglio. Schem-
zeddin leaned on the shoulder of his favourite, as they rambled
from one delicious scene to another, rendered still more enchant-
ing by the silence of night, the mild lustre of the moon, and the
fragrance which arose from a thousand odoriferous shrubs. “Tell
me, Nourjahad,” said the sultan, carelessly throwing himself
upon a bank of violets, and inviting his favourite to sit near;
“Tell me truly, what would satisfy thy wishes, if thou wert
certain of possessing all thou couldst desire?” Nourjahad
remained some time silent, till the sultan, with an affected smile
of levity, repeated the question, “ My wishes,” answered the
favourite, “are boundless, I should desire to be possessed of
inexhaustible riches ; and I should also desire to have my life
prolonged to eternity.” Wouldst thou, then,” said Schem-
zeddin, “forego the hopes of Paradise ?”—“ I would make a
paradise of this earthly globe,” answered the favourite, “by
the variety of my pleasures, and take my chance for the other
afterwards.” —“ Begone !’” said the sultan, starting from his seat,
“thou art no longer worthy of my love. I thought to have
promoted thee to the highest honours, but such a sordid wretch
does not deserve to live. Ambition, though a vice, is the vice of
great minds; but avarice, and an insatiable thirst for pleasure,
degrades a man below the brute.” Thus saying, he was about
to depart, but Nourjahad, falling on his knees, and holding the
sultan’s robe, said: “ Let not my lord's indignation be kindled
against his slave for a few light words which fell from him