t; and she is one of the greatest in her country too."

"I thought so. But how did it happen that such a great princess became a
slave?"

"How was it that Dionysius the Tyrant became a schoolmaster? The fortune
of war, my dear viscount,--the caprice of fortune; that is the way in
which these things are to be accounted for."

"And is her name a secret?"

"As regards the generality of mankind it is; but not for you, my dear
viscount, who are one of my most intimate friends, and on whose silence
I feel I may rely, if I consider it necessary to enjoin it--may I not do
so?"

"Certainly; on my word of honor."

"You know the history of the Pasha of Yanina, do you not?"

"Of Ali Tepelini? [*] Oh, yes; it was in his service that my father made
his fortune."

"True, I had forgotten that."

* Ali Pasha, "The Lion," was born at Tepelini, an Albanian
village at the foot of the Klissoura Mountains, in 1741. By
diplomacy and success in arms he became almost supreme ruler
of Albania, Epirus, and adjacent territory. Having aroused
the enmity of the Sultan, he was proscribed and put to death
by treachery in 1822, at the age of eighty.--Ed.

"Well, what is Haidee to Ali Tepelini?"

"Merely his daughter."

"What? the daughter of Ali Pasha?"

"Of Ali Pasha and the beautiful Vasiliki."

"And your slave?"

"Ma foi, yes."

"But how did she become so?"

"Why, simply from the circumstance of my having bought her one day, as I
was passing through the market at Constantinople."

"Wonderful! Really, my dear count, you seem to throw a sort of magic
influence over all in which you are concerned; when I listen to you,
existence no longer seems reality, but a waking dream. Now, I am perhaps
going to make an imprudent and thoughtless request, but"--

"Say on."

"But, since you go out with Haidee, and sometimes even take her to the
opera"--

"Well?"

"I think I may venture to ask you this favor."

"You may venture to ask me anything."

"Well then, my dear count, present me to your princess."

"I will do so; but on two conditions."

"I accept them at once."

"The first is, that you will never tell any one that I have granted the
interview."

"Very well," said Albert, extending his hand; "I swear I will not."

"The second is, that you will not tell her that your father ever served
hers."

"I give you my oath that I will not."

"Enough, viscount; you will remember those two vows, wil