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As to the Princess, she is possibly with her father in Cassimir; but Mahoud is doubtless an inhabitant of Delhi, where he lived before his transformation; therefore, O Vizier, give immediate orders that the respective Cadis of each division of the city, who have the numbers and the names of every inhabitant within their district, be questioned concerning this jeweller's son; and let him to-morrow be brought before me."
"We are obliged to you for your care of us," said Misnar; "but I am eager to hear the cause of your transformation." My father, after a life of industry and parsimony, finding himself declining, sent for me, and on his death-bed said, "O Mahoud, my days have been the days of care, but success hath attended them.
The guards were then ordered to bind me on the pile, and I was led up and fixed to a post by the chains which had been fastened on my body the day before; and now, amidst the acclamations of the mob, was the pile kindled, and the smoke and the flame surrounded the unfortunate Mahoud.
"Mahoud first inquired of me the adventures of my life, and I had just finished them the day before you, O Sultan! appeared among us. While Mahoud was relating his history, your voice struck my ears, and I feared to ask whether my lord was in equal affliction with his slave." "Did you not, then," said Misnar, "hear the adventures of Hemjunah, the Princess of Cassimir?"
"O Mahoud," said Bennaskar, "the friend of my bosom, the partner of my secrets; although the power of love has not the rule in thine heart, yet pity those who are the slaves of its dominion; if the lovely Princess of Cassimir did but know the purity of my heart, the "
"What," said I, "cruel Mahoud! is this the return my friendship deserves, when, to save you from infamy and slavery, I gave way to your entreaties, and represented you otherwise than you really were?"
"Friendship, O Princess," said he, "is built on virtue, which Mahoud has disclaimed since he entered into the service of the sage Hapacuson; and by her advice it was that he told you a false tale to deceive you to your own destruction.
Even now is Mahoud in the house of a magician, to whom he is imprudently bound by the ties of honour: to draw back is meanness; but to persist is sin. When men act wrong, they subject themselves to the power of a wicked race; and we who are the guardians of mortality cannot interpose but in proportion to their remorse.
Here," continued he, "slave Mahoud, inflict fifty lashes on that obdurate female." I took the chabouc from Bennaskar, and began, with trembling, my cruel office, lamenting my own blind compliance in promising to obey a monster whom I had mistaken for a friend.
Dost not thou remember, Horam, the story of Mahoud, the son of the jeweller? And how am I sure but even now private malice may be wreaking as great cruelty upon some innocent person, as the Princess Hemjunah suffered from the enchanter Bennaskar?"
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