his nose three times, there was some manœuvre on the Cadi's part which I did not understand, but the secretary said to me in a low whisper, 'You must make it four hundred,'-' Agreed, I replied.'

66 6

Away with him to prison,' exclaimed the Cadi, we shall have him privately bastinadoed.' They hurried me off to my dungeon, where I was duly visited by the secretary; my well-stored girdle was soon as empty as my stomach; after being half famished in that accursed prison, I was sent here. The rest of my miserable story you are acquainted with; if you would have its moral, think of my ruling passion, and behold my present condition.'

CHAPTER XII.

Hub.

There is your hand and seal for what I did.
King John. How oft the means to do ill deeds

Makes deeds ill done! Hadst thou not been by,
A fellow, by the hand of nature marked,
Quoted and sign'd to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind.
SHAKSPEARE.

NOTWITHSTANDING the length of the Dervish's story, Michelaki listened with imploring patience to every part in which there was no allusion to the heavenly bodies. His soul was sick of stars and giams, he loathed the title of the astharlab, and he never heard the name of that abominable pagan, Abou Rassed, without touching the image of the Madonna which he wore about his neck. But

as no man in the world, with the solitary exception of Jean Jacques Rousseau, ever gave an authentic history of his life, however criminal it might be, without propitiating in some degree the favour of the patient listener or reader, Michelaki felt a friendship for the adventurer insensibly steal over his spirit, in spite of all his efforts to reprobate his principles.

And

When the period of the Greek's redemption approached, even the joyful prospect of freedom was shadowed by the pain of separating from a good-humoured fellow-sufferer. the poor Dervish, who had still eight long years of slavery before his eyes, and the bitter reflection of his life's vicissitudes to endure, had still a tear for the loss of a kind-hearted companion, albeit he was an unbeliever.

The term of Michelaki's punishment at length expired, but less than a hundred piastres could not bring the fact to the recollection of the Captain of the Arsenal.

Many of Michelaki's friends were in affluence, but none were inclined to purchase the liberty of a former acquaintance at so dear a price.

The Dervish was aware of the unfortunate predicament in which his companion stood. He was still possessed of fifty piastres, his earthly fortune; and these he put at the disposal of his friend. He procured the means of sending a letter to Abou Rassed, which was couched in the following pithy terms.

"Friend of my soul! the stars have been unpropitious. I am in prison, and in want of every thing but your prayers; as an equivalent for which, send me fifty piastres. They cannot be bestowed on one in greater need of them than your ill-starred friend, ALI."

"That very evening the Dervish had a reply from the Astrologer; these were the contents:

"My son, I have no ill-starred friends. The cry of a chastised child is no proof of parental malice. I do not blame you, that you repine at what you cannot prevent: why should I! I only grieve that heaven has not endowed you with a better understanding. I heard of you when you were prosperous, but you did not come to me, nor did I then choose to be your

seeker. But now that you are in poverty, and in a prison, I see no reason why I should control my wishes: if it please the stars, I shall visit you to-morrow. I rejoice you did not ask me for one piastre beyond the fifty, for I should be sorry to refuse you any thing at such a time. Your demand has emptied the purse, but not diminished the friendship, of ABOU RASSED."

The Dervish's own hand counted down the ransom of the Greek; the gaoler asked him if he were mad to strip himself of his last paras for the soul of an infidel.

"I hate the giaours in my heart,” replied the Dervish," in the day of their prosperity, but in the night of adversity they are to be tolerated as the children of Allah and a community of suffering may even present them to our hearts in the relation of step-brothers."

The charm which had long linked the Dervish and the Greek was unriveted. The former dragged the clanking fetters at his heels to his dungeon, as the latter was led to the door; he did not wait to see him pass the threshold, for he was ashamed of the tears which trickled