elight of hunting and to follow the chase of fearful and flying
beasts.' In order to have more leisure for these sports he was wont to
depute all the business of government to his Grand Vizier, the aged
Albanian chieftain Kuprueli, who now, bending low before his young
master, so that the hairs of his white beard almost swept the ground,
was having one of his farewell audiences before departing for the
battlefield. Kuprueli, though over eighty years of age, was about to
face danger for the sake of the boy ruler, who lounged luxuriously on
his cushions, glittering with jewels, scented and effeminate, with
sidelong, cunning glances and cruel lips. Yet even Sultan Mahomet,
touched by his aged Minister's devotion, had been fired with unwonted
generosity: 'Ask what you will and you shall have it, even unto the
half of my kingdom,' he was exclaiming with true Oriental fervour.

The Grand Vizier again swept the ground with his long white beard,
protesting that he was but a humble dead dog in his master's sight,
and that one beam from the imperial eyes was a far more precious
reward than the gold and jewels of the whole universe. Nevertheless,
the Sultan detected a shade of hesitation in spite of the
magniloquence of this refusal. There was something the Grand Vizier
wished to ask. He must be yet further encouraged.

'Thou hast a boon at heart; I read it in thy countenance,' the Sultan
continued, 'ask and fear not. Be it my fairest province for thy
revenues, my fleetest Arab for thy stable, my whitest Circassian
beauty for thine own, thou canst demand it at this moment without
fear.' So saying, as if to prove his words, he waved away with one
hand the Court Executioner who stood ever at his side when he gave
audience, ready to avenge the smallest slip in etiquette.

The Grand Vizier looked on the ground, still hesitating and troubled,
'The Joy of the flourishing tree and the Lord of all Magnificence is
my Lord,' he answered slowly, 'the gift I crave is unworthy of his
bountiful goodness. How shall one small speck of dust be noticed in
the full blaze of the noonday sun? Yet, in truth, I have promised this
mere speck of dust, this white stranger woman, by the mouth of my
interpreter, that I would mention to my lord's sublimity her desire to
bask in the sunshine of his rays and----'

'A white, stranger woman,' interrupted the Sultan eagerly, 'desiring
to see me? Nay, then, the boon is of thy giving, not of mine. Tell me
more!