y
hour when I could appear without suspicion.

[Illustration: 'I beheld her fair form in the air, falling down the
giddy height.' 19.jpg]

'I had been watching the windows of the seraglio in this manner for more
than a fortnight, and had not ceased to parade up and down the bridge at
least three times every day, when one evening, as the day was about to
close, I saw the lattice of the window over the willow tree open, and
a female looking out of it. I watched her with breathless suspense. She
appeared to recognize me. I extended my hand; she stretched forth hers.
"It is she!" said I; "yes, it must be her! It is my Mariam!" Upon which,
without a moment's hesitation, without thinking of the consequences, I
plunged into the river, and having waded through it, stood at the foot
of the precipice immediately under my beloved wife. She stretched her
arms several times towards me, as if she would have thrown herself out.
I almost screamed with apprehension; and yet the hope of pressing her
to my heart made me half regret that she had not done so. We stood there
looking wistfully at each other, fearing to speak, yet longing to do so.
At length, she shut the lattice suddenly, and left me in an attitude
and in all the horrors of suspense. I kept my post for some time without
seeing anything more of her, when again suddenly the lattice opened, and
she appeared, but with looks that spoke of intense agitation. I scarcely
could tell what was about to happen, but waited in dreadful anxiety,
until I saw her lean forward, retreat, lean forward again--then more
and more, until, by a sudden effort, I beheld her fair form in the air,
falling down the giddy height.[77] My legs refused to perform their
office, my eyes were obscured by a swimming, and I should have
probably sunk under the intenseness of my feelings, when I saw her half
suspended, half falling, from a branch of the willow tree. I bounded up,
and in an instant had mounted the tree, and had clasped her senseless
in my arms. I seemed to be impelled by new vigour and strength; to reach
the ground, to recross the river, to fly with my precious burden from
the inhabited outskirts into the open country, appeared but the business
of a second. I was perfectly drunk with the thousand feelings which
agitated me; and although I acted like one bereft of his senses, yet
everything I did was precisely that which I ought to have done. Nature
guided me: the animal acting only from instinct wou