m that now he must go down to
the sea and gather some healing herbs. He then hurried away to the sea,
that was not far off, where he took off his various disguises and flung
them into the water, where the waves tossed them about. He then
concealed himself in the bushes until evening, when he stole quietly up
to the burial vault of Thiuli's castle.

Hardly an hour after Mustapha had departed from the castle, word was
brought Thiuli that his slave Fatima was dying. He at once sent down to
the shore to have the physician brought back, but his messengers soon
returned with the information that the poor doctor had fallen into the
water and been drowned; his black cloak was floating on the waves, and
occasionally his magnificent black beard might be seen bobbing up and
down in the water.

When Thiuli saw there was no hope of her recovery, he cursed himself
and the whole world, tore out his beard, and butted his head against
the wall. But all this availed nothing, for Fatima, under the care of
the other women, soon ceased to breathe. When Thiuli heard of her
death, he ordered a coffin to be hastily made, as he could not suffer a
dead person to remain in the house, and had the body carried to the
tomb. The bearers carried the coffin there, dropped it hastily, and
fled, as they heard groans and sighs proceeding from the other coffins.

Mustapha, who had hidden behind the coffins and frightened away the
bearers of Fatima's coffin, now came out from his hiding place, and
lighted a lamp that he had provided for this purpose. Next he produced
a phial containing the restorative, and raised the lid of Fatima's
coffin. But what was his amazement when the rays of the lamp disclosed
features entirely strange to him! It was neither my sister nor Zoraide,
but quite another person, that lay in the coffin. It took him a long
time to recover from this latest blow of fate, but finally pity
overcame his vexation. He opened the phial, and poured some of the
contents into the mouth of the sleeper. She breathed, opened her eyes,
and seemed for a long time to be trying to make out her situation. At
last she recalled all that had happened, and, stepping out of the
coffin, flung herself at Mustapha's feet. "How can I thank you,
gracious being?" cried she, "for freeing me from my terrible prison!"
Mustapha interrupted her expressions of gratitude with the question how
it happened that she and not his sister Fatima had been rescued. She
looked at hi