in words of approbation and encouragement-but the blushes of the princess undeceived him. The riddle was read, and the sage thoughtful and silent. But one thing was wanting to complete their happiness. This was the friendship of the calif; and as if Heaven meant to grant their utmost wishes, the Commander of the Faithful returned from Raccah, and received them again into favour. The strange scene that had occurred on the evening of his daughter's nuptials seemed entirely effaced from his remembrance; its traces were no longer visible in the countenance or demeanour of the calif; all was buried in silence, if not in oblivion. Giafar, who was, even in the Eastern acceptation of the word, the faithful friend as well as servant of his master, had looked upon the estrangement of his affection as one of the greatest evils that could befall him. These evidences, therefore, of the calif's returning love, failed not to fill his bosom with delight. If at times he distrusted the unvarying calmness that was visible in his master's countenance, fearing lest it were a mask covering dark suspicion, yet oftener he banished all uneasiness from his mind, and gave himself up without reserve to the full anticipation of returning fortune. Nor was the happiness of the princess less than Giafar's, to find her father again kind. She loved him with an affection, only to be surpassed by that which she felt towards her husband; and now, what could she ask from Heaven? All she wished was hers. It is true, the presence of Haroun placed upon them a restraint, at times, irksome and hard to be endured. Great vigilance and self-control were needed lest some sudden impulse, some unwary yet most natural display of tenderness should disclose to the calif all that it was most necessary to conceal. Yet it may be questioned, if this very constraint, which felt at times like a chain of iron upon them, did not heighten and render more delicious their hours of retirement. Such is man! Pleasure that is debarred him, or that flies from his pursuit, he ever values the most highly. The enchanted castle and dames there imprisoned appear rich and beautiful only to the knight without, who must win them from the arms of danger. When the barriers which excluded him are surmounted by his valour, bleak walls and withered hags alone remain, of all the charms that enticed him to the perilous deed. The report of the calif's reconciliation to his children went abroad throughout Bagdad; and the sight of his well-known barge, as it passed to and fro upon the river, stopping with unvarying regularity at the prince's villa, confirmed the rumour. Giafar's abode was now the frequent scene of splendour and festivity. His brightly lighted gardens shone afar. Charming voices and instruments of music threw their tones across the waters, sounding upon the ears of the envious and disappointed, as the angels' song in paradise, when heard by those malignant fiends who are debarred for ever from its enjoyment. Again he was sought, again courted. Coming together as they are wont, fortune and the world's favour again revisited his dwelling. Moments thus passing, what should disturb them in the possession of such enjoyment? Nothing, unless some thought of the future should be the unwelcome intruder. But they sought not to know its secrets. Surrounded by pleasure, as with the drapery of a curtain, they wisely abstained from looking beyond its folds. Fortune, like a kind host, has sweetly lodged them in the fairest chamber of nature's spacious caravansary. Why should they peer through the closed lattice, or question the mute hours that wait upon them, if their journey on the morrow will be rough or no? Repose, repose, even till the trumpet's* sound shall rouse the travellers to their onward way. * A trumpet usually sounds at daybreak to arouse the caravan for its journey. CHAPTER II. E'en so my sun one early morn did shine, Suns of the world may stain, when Heaven's sun staineth. SHAKSPEARE. SIGHS are heard in the harem, and bright eyes are looking in vain for him who is the sun of their narrow world. Fair forms, each of which would grace a throne, are walking disconsolately through latticed galleries, or adown the shaded avenues that wind through those extensive grounds. They meet, perchance, and smile at each other's grief, though weeping for their own. All is one universal sorrow. The bower of love is faded, and the tears of its beautiful guardians water its withered roses, though they fail to freshen or revive them. But 'tis soon over. Except in a few souls sensitive and peculiarly constituted, love unreturned is of brief duration. Amusements, or the more serious occupations of life, soon usurp that place in the bosom which, a while gone, seemed destined to be occupied by ceaseless and powerful passion. Emulation in dress and jewels, the care of singing birds, music and the bath, soon become the pleasures of hese beautiful prisoners. Their faces are again like the day, and their eyes tearless. Stay there is one who yet weeps, who cannot so soon forget him she has lately learned to love. 'Tis a sweet girl from the vales of Khorasan. The poverty or avarice of her parents had rendered Khatoun a slave, and fortune gave her a kind master in Prince Giafar. Fifteen warm summers had ripened the wild flower, when in the perfection of her loveliness, she was transplanted into the garden of the prince. She had been reared in the shade, and had never enjoyed that culture which is only to be acquired by an intercourse with polished and artificial society. She had not been taught either to control or conceal her emotions, nor when passion swelled her bosom to wear a face of calmness. A child of nature, tender, sensitive, and variable, she was now wrapped in an ecstasy of delight, and now trembled and wept like a very infant, when misfortune or its dark forebodings came upon her. When she first entered the palace of Giafar, no inmate of that abode was happier than Khatoun. She had left and regretted no humble lover in her own land, whose image might follow her to these new scenes of her existence, to trouble the repose which for a long time she here enjoyed. Separation from her parents she had been taught from childhood to expect, and so long and so often had she anticipated that event, that its occurrence formed no new era in her life or feelings, from |