and
was traveling for pleasure.

The two young gentlemen were well pleased with each other, and
continued their journey together. On the second day of their
acquaintance, Labakan inquired of his companion Omar about the trust he
had to execute, and learned to his astonishment that Elsi Bey. Pasha of
Cairo, had brought up Omar from his earliest childhood, and the boy had
never known his parents. Now, when Elsi Bey was attacked by his
enemies, and after three unfortunate battles, was forced to fly from
the field, mortally wounded, he disclosed to his pupil that he was not
his nephew, but the son of a mighty ruler, who, frightened by the
prophecies of his astrologist, had had the young prince removed from
the palace, with the oath not to see him again until the prince should
have reached his twenty-second birthday. Elsi Bey did not give him the
name of his father, but had most particularly charged him that he must
be present at the famous pillar El Serujah, a four days' journey east
of Alexandria, on the fourth day of the coming month of Ramadan, on
which day he would be twenty-two years old. Arriving there, he should
hold out a dagger to the men who would be standing on the column, with
the words: "Here am I whom you seek;" and if they answered, "Praised be
the Prophet, who preserved you," he should follow them, and they would
lead him to his father.

The journeyman-tailor, Labakan, was astonished at this communication.
He looked on Prince Omar, from this time forth, with envious eyes;
exasperated that fate should have selected his companion, who already
passed for the nephew of a powerful pasha, to shower on him the still
higher dignity of a prince's son, while he, Labakan, endowed with all
the qualities of a prince, was degraded by a low birth and a common
occupation. He made comparisons between himself and the prince, and was
forced to confess that the prince was a youth of prepossessing
appearance, with fine sparkling eyes, aquiline nose, a gentle and
obliging manner--in short, all the external marks of a gentleman. But
numerous as were the good traits he noticed in his companion, still, he
whispered to himself, a Labakan would be far more welcome to a princely
father than the real prince.

These reflections occupied Labakan's mind the whole day; and they were
present in his sleep, at their next lodging-place. And when he woke,
and his eye fell on the sleeping Omar at his side--sleeping so quietly,
and dreaming,