t's quite true, though, isn't it, Abdullah?" turning to the dragoman.

"It's true as the Koran, itself," returned Jack. "Every pasha of
Alla-hissar must have thirteen wives."

"Good heaven! what'll Mrs. Mole say?" exclaimed Mole, in great
agitation; "hang it, you know, this will never do--Isaac Mole with
thirteen wives. I always thought I was very much married already, quite
as much as I want to be."

"Unless your excellency agrees," continued the interpreter, "I won't
answer for the consequences."

"I have had three wives already, and now you wish me to take thirteen.
I'd sooner resign my government at once," exclaimed Mole.

"Impossible!" returned the dragoman; "it is death to resist the
sultan's firman."

"Powers above! what a situation am I in!" exclaimed Mole, in increasing
dismay. "I find it's not all roses after all, being a pasha; but
thorns, stinging nettles, and torturing brambles. But about these
thirteen widows, Abdullah? Who and where are they, and what are they
like?"

"They are at present in a house not far off from here," was the reply;
"five of them, it seems, have been the widows of the pasha before last,
and they are rather old; six belonged only to Youssouf Pasha, and are
middle-aged."

Mr. Mole responded with a deep groan.

"The other two," proceeded Abdullah, "are fair Circassians in the very
summer of youth and beauty."

Moley Pasha uttered a profound sigh.

"Ah, that's much better."

"I expect they will be here soon, at least some of them," said
Abdullah, the interpreter.

The subject then dropped for a time, and the great Moley also
dropped--asleep, from the combined effects of the pipe, the coffee, and
the wine.

He was suddenly awakened by Abdullah shouting in his ear--

"May it please your excellency, they've come."

"Who--who?" gasped Mole, in fearful terror; for he had just been
dreaming of the rack and the bowstring.

"The noble Ladies Alme and Hannifar, widows of the late lamented
Youssouf-Pasha," was the reply.

"Gracious mercy!" exclaimed the persecuted Mole; "they've come to claim
me, perhaps to bear me off by main force."

"Ho, there, guards; stand round; not without a struggle will Isaac Mole
surrender his liberty as a single man, that is as a married man, but
not--Heaven, my brain is growing utterly confused in this terrible
position. Where's that boy Jack?"

"Their excellencies Yakoob and Haroun Pasha are both gone out," was the
response.

"Then, Abdul