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

"Stop a moment, thou lying kafir!" said the pacha, "dost thou really
mean to say that the wine was better than the rest?"

"Why should I tell a lie to your sublime highness--am not I a worm that
you may crush? As I informed you, I did not taste it, your highness;
but after the aga had departed, my master expressed his surprise at the
excellence of the wine, which he affirmed to be superior to any thing
that he had ever tasted--and his sorrow that the aga had taken away the
cask, which prevented him from ascertaining the cause. But one day I
was narrating the circumstance to a Frank in this country, who expressed
no surprise at the wine being improved. He had been a wine-merchant in
England, and he informed me that it was the custom there to throw large
pieces of raw beef into the wine to feed it; and that some particular
wines were very much improved thereby."

"Allah kebur! God is great!" cried the pacha--"Then it must be so--I
have heard that the English are very fond of beef. Now go on with thy
story."

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

Your highness cannot imagine the alarm which I felt when the cask was
taken away by the aga's slaves. I gave myself up for a lost man, and
resolved upon immediate flight from Smyrna. I calculated the time that
it would take for the aga to drink the wine, and made my arrangements
accordingly. I told my master that it was my intention to leave him, as
I had an offer to go into business with a relation at Zante. My master,
who could not well do without me, intreated me to stay; but I was
positive. He then offered me a share of the business if I would remain,
but I was not to be persuaded. Every rap at the door, I thought that
the aga and his janissaries were coming for me; and I hastened my
departure, which was fixed for the following day,--when in the evening
my master came into the store with a paper in his hand.

"Charis," said he, "perhaps you have supposed that I only offered to
make you a partner in my business to induce you to remain, and then to
deceive you. To prove the contrary, here is a deed drawn up by which
you are a partner, and entitled to one third of the future profits.
Look at it, you will find that it has been executed in due form before
the cadi."

He had put the paper into my hand, and I was about to return it with a
refusal, when a loud knocking at th