r: you cannot see to
everything with your own eyes, and I believe I am able to show you one
worthy of Nourgehan."

"Name him to me," replied he, "and I will give him the charge this
moment."

"Your Majesty," replied the beauteous Damake, "must know him before
you accept him. I hope you will find in him whom I propose those
virtues and talents necessary in a man dignified with so great an
employment. He lives in the city of Balk, and is named Diafer. The
post of Vizier to one of the most powerful Kings of the Indies has
been in his family above a thousand years. Judge then, my lord, what a
collection of admirable precepts he must have upon all parts of
government, and yet a Prince, blinded by the pernicious counsels of
his favourites, has deposed him, and he passes his days at Balk--days
which might be happy if he had not lived in the habit of labour and a
hurry of great affairs, which seldom leave the mind at liberty to be
satisfied with anything less tumultuous."

Nourgehan immediately replied, "Diafer is my Vizier: Damake can never
be mistaken."

Upon the spot he wrote to the Governor of Balk, and sent him a note
for a hundred thousand sequins, to be delivered to Diafer, to defray
the expenses of his journey; and he charged the same courier with a
letter for Diafer, in which he conjured him to accept the post that he
had destined him for.

Diafer began his journey. He was received with magnificence in every
city, and the Emperor sent all the noblemen of his Court to meet him,
and conduct him to the palace which he had destined for him in the
kingdom of Visiapour, where he then resided. He was treated there with
incredible magnificence during three days, after which he was
conducted to an audience of the Prince. He appeared at the height of
joy for possessing a man whom Damake esteemed so highly; but that joy
was of no long duration, for the Prince, who was so gracious and so
prejudiced in his favour, flew into the most dreadful anger the moment
Diafer appeared in his presence.

"Go," said he to him, "depart this moment, and never see me again!"

Diafer obeyed, and retired in all the confusion, the sorrow, and the
surprise that such a reception must needs give him. He returned to his
apartment without being able to imagine the cause of the King's sudden
anger, who, in the meantime, held a council, and examined the affairs
of his kingdom, without taking any notice of what had passed with him
whom he had destin