another, and seemed to
struggle for utterance, approached the Count, and tenderly embracing
him; "What a woman is this Queen, my lord," said he, "and by what
miracle does she reign over these barbarians! what have we done to
deserve her generous care of us! Ah! my lord, I find her companion
dangerous---Alas! my dear Princess!" added he, "you alone were wont to
raise these emotions in my soul!" "I don't know," replied the Count,
"what will be our fate, or what are the designs of the Queen: her
goodness does not affect me as it does you; you are young, and your
heart still preserves a fund of passion, which may cause more violent
perturbations in it than mine; yet I own, I have felt for her the
tenderness of a father; and that when she spoke, my daughter came into
my mind---But I am afraid, my dear Thibault, that you will doubly lose
your liberty in this fatal place." Thibault made no other answer than by
sighs; and some refreshments being brought in, they were forced to drop
a discourse, that did not admit of witnesses.

The Queen, in the mean time, was too much interested in the affairs of
the day to be very easy, and was no sooner left alone with her dear
Sayda, than giving a loose to the transports she had so long restrained,
her beautiful face was bathed all over in tears. The faithful slave,
astonished at her excess of grief, kneeled down at her feet, and taking
one of her hands; "Alas! madam," said she, "what is this sudden
misfortune---are these strangers come to trouble the tranquility you
were beginning to enjoy!---you have hitherto honoured me with your
confidence---may I not now know what has occasioned this grief?" "Ah!
dear Sayda," replied her royal mistress, "let not appearances deceive
you.--Love, joy, nature, and fear, makes me shed tears much more than
any grief---that husband so dear to me, and of whom thou hast heard me
speak so much, is one of the captives whose lives I have saved---the
other is my father, and the young lad my brother. The horror of seeing
my father die for the diversion of a people to whom I am Queen, has
pierced me with so lively an affliction, that I wonder the apprehension
of it did not a second time deprive me of my reason---my husband,
partaker of the same fate, his melancholy, his resignation before me,
his looks full of that love and tenderness which once made my happiness,
has touched my soul in the most nice and delicate part: I dare not
discover myself, before I know their