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Shortly! after his departure, Mirza Shaffi surrounded the houses of these agents, and arrested Majad-ud-daulah on the 11th September, 1782, and the Rajput on the following day, confining them in his aunt's house under his own eye. The Prince upon this received orders to negotiate with the Mizra, who was appointed to the office he had been so long endeavouring to compass.

They had given out that he was dead, and the people were therefore highly rejoiced to have again their beloved lord. So much the more, however, burned their hatred against the impostor Mizra. They proceeded to the palace, and caught the old magician and his son.

The drums and fifes sounded, and a man in a scarlet robe, embroidered with gold, came riding along on a richly caparisoned horse, surrounded by servants in glittering garments. Half the town were at his heels, and all were shouting, "Hail to Mizra! Caliph of Bagdad!"

The enchanter, Kaschnur, who enchanted you, brought me also into misery. He came one day to my father, and desired me for wife for his son Mizra. But my father, who is a quick-tempered person, had him kicked down stairs.

That same sorcerer Kaschnur, who transformed you, has plunged me also in this affliction. He came, one day, to my father, and asked me in marriage for his son Mizra. My father, however, who is a passionate man, cast him down the steps.

Half Bagdad was running after him, crying, "Hail, Mizra! Lord of Bagdad!" All this the two storks beheld from the roof of the palace, and the Caliph Chasid exclaimed, "Perceivest thou now why I am enchanted, Grand-Vizier? This Mizra is the son of my deadly enemy, the mighty sorcerer Kaschnur, who, in an evil hour, vowed revenge against me. Still I do not abandon all hope.

The two storks looked at each other as they sat on the roof, and the Caliph Chasid said, "Do not you begin to understand how I come to be enchanted, Grand Vizier? This Mizra is the son of my mortal enemy, the powerful enchanter, Kaschnur, who in an evil hour vowed vengeance against me. But I do not yet give up all hope.

Her father, Mizra Gheas Bey, or Itimad-Ud Daula, as he was afterward known, was grand vizier of the Mogul empire during the latter part of the reign of Akbar the Great. An obscure but ambitious Persian scholar, hearing of the generous patronage extended to students by Emperor Akbar in India, he started from Teheran to Delhi overland, a distance of several thousand miles.