eem, my child of children; go then to the young
prince, and see what can be done: for if he die, we can scarcely ransom
him, and I shall lose the piastres, and your father the backsheesh which
I meant to have given him on the transaction.'

'This is very woful,' murmured Eva to herself, and not listening to the
latter observations of her grandfather.

At this moment the curtain of the pavilion was withdrawn, and there
stood before them Fakredeen. The moment his eyes met those of Eva, he
covered his face with both his hands.

'How is the Prince of Franguestan?' inquired Amalek.

The young Emir advanced, and threw himself at the feet of Eva. 'We
must entreat the Rose of Sharon to visit him,' he said, 'for there is
no hakeem in Arabia equal to her. Yes, I came to welcome you, and to
entreat you to do this kind office for the most gifted and the most
interesting of beings;' and he looked up in her face with a supplicating
glance.

'And you too, are you fearful,' said Eva, in atone of tender reproach,
'that by his death you may lose your portion of the spoil?'

The Emir gave a deprecating glance of anguish, and then, bending his
head, pressed his lips to the Bedouin robes which she wore. ''Tis the
most unfortunate of coincidences, but believe me, dearest of friends,
'tis only a coincidence. I am here merely by accident; I was hunting, I
was----'

'You will make me doubt your intelligence as well as your good faith,'
said Eva, 'if you persist in such assurances.'

'Ah! if you but knew him,' exclaimed Fakredeen, 'you would believe me
when I tell you that I am ready to sacrifice even my life for his. Far
from sharing the spoil,' he added, in a rapid and earnest whisper, 'I
had already proposed, and could have insured, his escape; when he
went to Sinai, to that unfortunate Sinai. I had two dromedaries here,
thoroughbred; we might have reached Hebron before----'

'You went with him to Sinai?'

'He would not suffer it; he desired, he said, to be silent and to be
alone. One of the Bedouins, who accompanied him, told me that they
halted in the valley, and that he went up alone into the mountain, where
he remained a day and night. When he returned hither, I perceived a
great change in him. His words were quick, his eye glittered like fire;
he told me that he had seen an angel, and in the morning he was as he
is now. I have wept, I have prayed for him in the prayers of every
religion, I have bathed his temples with liban,