If Mirglip hath offended his prince, let thy 'guards, O sultan! here strike, and sacrifice him to thy just resentment.'

'What!' said Adhim starting, 'art thou, 'too, Mirglip? Officious slave! was it not suf'ficient to send this flattering crew before me, brat must thou also act thy base hypocrisy in person here?'

'Merciful Adhim!' said the vizir Lemack, let this trusty scymitar lay bare the traitor's bosom, and relieve my prince from such daring rebellion.'

Hold, Lemack!' said the sultan sternly, ' and defile not my reign with so mean a sa'crifice: no, let him live; and if indeed he be the man fame speaks him, he well were 'worthy of a monarch's favour.'

The subjects of Adhim, hearing the noble sentence of their prince, made the vaulted divan echo with their praise, and every eye but Lemack's sparkled with a joyous tear.

However, the cautious vizir, perceiving the purpose of his master Adhim and the satisfaction of the populace, veiled his malice with a courtier's smile, and, descending from his seat, he gave his hand to Mirglip, and raised the prostrate Persian from the earth.

VOL. II,

U

O royal Adhim!' said Mirglip ere he rose, "if with a view to worldly honour only I had 'done my duty, or to court the soft air of 'gentle-breathing flattery, then might my prince with indignation view the rebel Mirglip; but surely, prince, to follow the holy precepts of our law, in honour of my prophet, is not a deed deserving royal Adhim's 'hatred.'

'Mirglip,' said Adhim, rise; thy prince applauds thy holy zeal, and thou shalt live within my spacious walls, that daily I may hear thy virtuous converse.'

Bountiful sultan!' answered Mirglip, in 'humble meanness bred a native of the forest, 'the honours of my lord would sit unhandsomely upon thy slave, and I should act the courtier with an awkward grace: rather, if it please my prince, let Mirglip still among the meanest wander, sufficiently rewarded for his labours that Adhim once hath deigned to bless his life with an approving • smile.'

'What!' said the sultan astonished, 'canst ⚫thou resist the offers of thy prince? Are not the tribes of Xemi the mightiest of my sub'jects? Are not the captains of the host of

Feriz in the long toils of war renowned?'Are not these all anxiously soliciting to be ad'mitted into the palaces of the plains of Orez, ' and shall Mirglip, a base peasant, dare refuse 'the bounties of his lord?—Yes, peasant as 'thou art!' continued the sultan, 'thy folly be

thy punishment; go live inglorious, in the 'cottages of the forest, and every hour lament 'the lost affections of thy prince.'

Thus said the sultan, nor suffered a reply, but hastily withdrew with Lemack from the divan; while the populace with tears departed, all wondering at the abstinence of their favourite Mirglip.

The pride of Adhim was severely rebuked by the indifference of Mirglip; and he looked on his palaces with contempt, since they were unable to raise his fame among his subjects, or to tempt the admiration of a rude peasant.

Lemack with pleasure saw the emotion of his master: the peace of Adhim was indifferent to the vizir, so long as no upstart favourite was likely to destroy his interest with his prince.

The well-instructed and the ingenious 'mind alone,' said the vizir to Adhim, 'can

'admire the extensive works of Adhim my lord to Mirglip, and his tribe of peasants, these beauteous piles look like the steep 'mountains which the labouring hind toils ' over

without reflecting on its mighty founder; as the bird, with out-stretched wing, poised on the buoyant air, obliquely 'skims upon a palace or a cottage, and, in its 'native ignorance, knows not the sultan of 'Persia from the peasant of the mountain.' Thy words,' replied Adhim, 'meant to soothe my gloom, do truly add

though

a poignant sting thereto. I have seen, O Lemack! the busy thrush, with impotent anxiety, framing its little nest, and I have 'smiled to view the insignificant beams of its dwelling-place: yet, Lemack, that thrush perhaps is now, regardless of my palaces, with a few airy circlets circumscribing thy Adhim's magnificence; and, should I venture forth, might chirup out a careless note above, and mute upon thy prince, whom all the armies of the Persian empire might vainly follow to revenge his pastime.'

6

My prince,' answered Lemack, is merry "with his slave.'

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Thy prince,' answered Adhim, is dissatis

'fied with his own magnificence, when he sees ' that a peasant may be more esteemed for his 'private virtues than the sultan of Persia for 'his stately palaces: nay, Lemack, I myself ' esteem this Mirglip, and thou shalt haste ' and pay that widow whom he so charitably supported, a hundred sequins.'

Alas, glory of the east!' answered the vizir, shall Adhim then, the sultan of Persia, stoop beneath a peasant? Shouldest thou

heap half the wealth of thy kingdom on this woman, not thine, but Mirglip's, would be 'the praise, and the hypocritical peasant 'should seem to make thee but the treasurer of his coffers.'

'Sooner let the widow waste like the live ember,' said the sultan, than such reflec'tions glance on Adhim!'

'But why, O prince!' said Lemack,' should a peasant's follies haunt thy fancy? Hath not my lord ten thousand slaves that wait upon 'his pleasure? For thee the undaunted huntsman rouses with his well-poised spear the ' tawny monarch of the forest, or with dex'terous eye marks where the panther hides its callow offspring; or drawing with keen aim the feathered arrow, buries its bearded