ot rest until I know the result of your visit. I shall
wander about these gardens, and destroy the flowers, which is the only
pleasure now left me."

Kaflis motioned to his companions to advance, and they entered the
Seraglio.

At the end of a long gallery they came to a great portal, which Kaflis
opened, and Iskander and Nicaeus for a moment supposed that they had
arrived at the chief hall of the Tower of Babel, but they found the
shrill din only proceeded from a large company of women, who were
employed in distilling the rare atar of the jasmine flower. All their
voices ceased on the entrance of the strangers, as if by a miracle; but
when they had examined them, and observed that it was only a physician
and his boy, their awe, or their surprise, disappeared; and they crowded
round Iskander, some holding out their wrists, others lolling out their
tongues, and some asking questions, which perplexed alike the skill
and the modesty of the adventurous dealer in magical medicine. The
annoyance, however, was not of great duration, for Kaflis so belaboured
their fair shoulders with his official baton, that they instantly
retreated with precipitation, uttering the most violent shrieks, and
bestowing on the eunuch so many titles, that Iskander and his page were
quite astounded at the intuitive knowledge which the imprisoned damsels
possessed of that vocabulary of abuse, which is in general mastered only
by the experience of active existence.

Quitting this chamber, the eunuch and his companions ascended a lofty
staircase. They halted at length before a door. "This is the chamber of
the tower," said their guide, "and here we shall find the fair captive."
He knocked, the door was opened by a female slave, and Iskander and
Nicaeus, with an anxiety they could with difficulty conceal, were ushered
into a small but sumptuous apartment. In the extremity was a recess
covered with a light gauzy curtain. The eunuch bidding them keep in the
background, advanced, and cautiously withdrawing the curtain slightly
aside, addressed some words in a low voice to the inmate of the recess.
In a few minutes the eunuch beckoned to Iskander to advance, and
whispered to him: "She would not at first see you, but I have told her
you are a Christian, the more the pity, and she consents." So saying,
he withdrew the curtain, and exhibited a veiled female figure lying on a
couch.

"Noble lady," said the physician in Greek, which he had ascertained
the e