said the mirza, as he looked up from his knee, upon which he
rested his hand to write his letter, and quoting a well-known passage
in Saadi, 'Falsehood mixed with good intentions, is preferable to truth
tending to excite strife.'

The vizier then called for his shoes, rose from his seat, mounted the
horse that was waiting for him at the door of his tent, and proceeded to
the audience of the Shah, to give an account of the different dispatches
that he had just received. I followed him, and mixed in with his large
retinue of servants, until he turned round to me, and said, 'You are
dismissed; go, and take your rest.'

[Illustration: Death of Zeenab. 21.jpg]

CHAPTER XLIII

He relates a horrid tale, the consequences of which plunge him in the
greatest misery.

In a few days after the camp was struck, and the Shah returned to his
winter quarters at Tehran, in the same pomp and parade with which he
had left it. I had resumed my post as sub-lieutenant to the chief
executioner, and was busily engaged in disposing of the men under my
command, that the best order might be preserved during the march, when
I was commanded to send off a messenger to Tehran, with orders that the
bazigers, the dancers and singers, should be in readiness to receive the
Shah on his arrival at Sulimanieh. This place, as I have said before, is
a palace situated on the banks of the Caraj, about nine parasangs from
the capital.

On receiving this order, my long-forgotten Zeenab came again to my
recollection, and all my tender feelings which, owing to my active life,
had hitherto lain dormant, were now revived. Seven months were elapsed
since we had first become acquainted; and although during that time I
had lived with men of a nature sufficiently barbarous to destroy every
good feeling, yet there was something so terrible in what I imagined
must now be her situation, and I felt myself so much the cause of it,
that my heart smote me every time that the subject came across my mind.
'We shall soon see,' thought I, 'if my fears be well founded. In a few
days more we reach Sulimanieh, and then her fate will be decided.'

On the day of our arrival I headed the procession, to see that every
proper arrangement had been made within the palace; and as I approached
the walls of the harem, within which the bazigers had already taken
their station, I heard the sounds of their voices and of their musical
instruments. What would I not have given to have