ned the
most horrid suspicions, and almost to a certainty convinced me that my
poor innocent, my hitherto unspotted, though wedded wife, had fallen
into the power of a most licentious tyrant.

'"Is it possible," said I, when they had related to me the horrid
expedients to which their chief, the serdar (for it was to two of his
bodyguard that I was talking), had recourse, for the accomplishment of
his wickedness,--"is it possible that selfishness can be carried to such
an extreme, that vice can have reached to such a pitch in the heart of
man? Women, by you Mussulmans, I know are treated as mere accessories
to pleasure; but, after all, they are God's creatures, not made for the
serdar alone, as he seems to think, but given to us to be our help, our
comfort, and our companions through life."

'My hearers only laughed at my sentiments, and tauntingly assured me,
that, if I was seeking one who had got into the serdar's harem, my
labour would be in vain, and that I might just take the trouble to
return whence I came.

'Little heeding what they said, I hastened my steps, without knowing why
or wherefore; but impelled by a sort of feeling, that it could not be
in the wisdom of the Almighty to heap such a load of misfortune upon a
wretched sinner like me, without at length giving some counterbalancing
reward, or some consolation which it is ever in His power to bestow.

'I was now near the camp at Aberan, where I knew the serdar in person
was settled, and, hoping to hear some favourable intelligence, I made
towards it. It was greatly agitated by the arrival of the detachment
of Persians who had attacked our village, and were giving proofs of the
success of their enterprise, by exhibiting the Russian heads which they
had brought away, and which were laid in several heaps before the tent
of the chief. One might have supposed that a great and signal victory
had been achieved, such were the rejoicings and boastings that took
place at the sight. The horrid objects were forthwith salted, and sent
off in great parade and ceremony to the Shah of Persia, who never will
believe that a victory is gained until he sees these palpable proofs of
it. However, in the midst of all this joy, a courier was seen arriving
in great haste from the Russian frontier, whose intelligence produced a
change of scene. He announced that the Russian army, having heard of
the late attack upon their outpost at Gavmishlu, was now in full march
against the ser