rd,
and a turban like the tower of Babel, then rose. His sacred reputation
procured silence while he himself delivered a long prayer, supplicating
Allah and the Prophet to confound all blaspheming Jews and Giaours, and
to pour forth words of truth from the mouths of religious men. And
then the venerable Sheikh summoned all witnesses against David Alroy.
Immediately advanced Kisloch the Kourd, to whom, being placed in an
eminent position, the Cadi of Bagdad drawing forth a scroll from his
velvet bag, read a deposition, wherein the worthy Kisloch stated that he
first became acquainted with the prisoner, David Alroy, in some ruins in
the desert, the haunt of banditti, of whom Alroy was the chief; that
he, Kisloch, was a reputable merchant, and that his caravan had been
plundered by these robbers, and he himself captured; that, on the second
night of his imprisonment, Alroy appeared to him in the likeness of a
lion, and on the third, of a bull with fiery eyes; that he was in the
habit of constantly transforming himself; that he frequently raised
spirits; that, at length, on one terrible night, Eblis himself came in
great procession, and presented Alroy with the sceptre of Solomon Ben
Daoud; and that the next day Alroy raised his standard, and soon after
massacred Hassan Subah and his Seljuks, by the visible aid of many
terrible demons.

Calidas the Indian, the Guebre, and the Negro, and a few congenial
spirits, were not eclipsed in the satisfactory character of their
evidence by the luminous testimony of Kisloch the Kourd. The
irresistible career of the Hebrew conqueror was undeniably accounted
for, and the honour of Moslem arms and the purity of Moslem faith were
established in their pristine glory and all their unsullied reputation.
David Alroy was proved to be a child of Eblis, a sorcerer, and a dealer
in charms and magical poisons. The people listened with horror and with
indignation. They would have burst through the guards and torn him in
pieces, had not they been afraid of the Karasmian battle-axes. So they
consoled themselves with the prospect of his approaching tortures.

The Cadi of Bagdad bowed himself before the King of Karasme, and
whispered at a respectful distance in the royal ear. The trumpets
sounded, the criers enjoined silence, and the royal lips again moved.

'Hear, O ye people, and be wise. The chief Cadi is about to read
the deposition of the royal Princess Schirene, chief victim of the
sorcerer.'