with which it had pleased Allah to temper his splendid
destiny, and which fits are, indeed, the common lot of those who are
raised by fortune above the ordinary fears and vicissitudes of life.

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"I can't say that I ever have them," observed the pacha. "How is that,
Mustapha?"

"Your highness has as undoubted a right to them as the great caliph,"
replied Mustapha, bowing, "but if I may venture to state my opinion,"
continued he, drawing down to the ear of the pacha, "you have discovered
the remedy for them in the strong water of the _Giaour_."

"Very true," replied the pacha; "Haroun Alraschid, if I recollect right,
was very strict in his observances of the precepts of the Koran. After
all, he was but a pastek--a water-melon. You may proceed, Menouni."

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The caliph, oppressed, as I before observed to your highness, with this
fit of melancholy, despatched Mesrour for his chief vizier, Giaffar
Bermuki, who, not unaccustomed to this nocturnal summons, speedily
presented himself before the commander of the faithful. "Father of true
believers! descendant of the Prophet!" said the minister, with a
profound obeisance, "thy slave waits but to hear, and hears but to
obey."

"Giaffar," replied the caliph, "I am overwhelmed with distressing
inquietude, and would fain have thee devise some means for my relief.
Speak--what sayest thou?"

"Hasten, O my prince, to thy favourite garden of the Tierbar, where,
gazing on the bright moon, and listening to the voice of the bul-bul,
you will await in pleasing contemplation the return of the sun."

"Not so," replied the caliph.

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"By the beard of the Prophet! the caliph was right, and that Giaffar was
a fool. I never heard that staring at the moon was an amusement
before," observed the pacha.

"Not so," urged the caliph. "My gardens, my palaces, and my
possessions, are no more to me a source of pleasure."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"By the sword of the Prophet! now the caliph appears to be the fool,"
interrupted the pacha.

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"Shall we then repair to the Hall of the Ancients, and pass the night in
reviving the memory of the wise, whose s