intended by tbe gracious Haroun for other
Sultanas, and was privately rewarded from the
coffers of the Ladies of the Hareem.

And now it was, at the full height of enjoyment
of my bliss, that I became heavily troubled.
I began to think of my mother, and what she
would say to my taking home at Midsummer
eight of the most beautiful of the daughters of
men, but all unexpected. I thought of the
number of beds we made up at our house, of
my father's income, and of the baker, and my
despondency redoubled. The Seraglio and
malicious Vizier, divining the cause of their Lord's
unhappiness, did their utmost to augment it.
They professed unbounded fidelity, and declared
that they would live and die with him.
Reduced to the utmost wretchedness by these
protestations of attachment, I lay awake, for hours
at a time, ruminating on my frightful lot. In
my despair, I think I might have taken, an early
opportunity of falling on my knees before Miss
Griffin, avowing my resemblance to Solomon,
and praying to be dealt with according to the
outraged laws of my country, if an unthought-of
means of escape had not opened before me.

One day, we were out walking, two and two—
on which occasion the Vizier had his usual
instructions to take note of the boy at. the turnpike,
and if he profanely gazed (which he always
did) at the beauties of the Hareem, to have him
bowstrung in the course of the night—and it
happened that our hearts were veiled in gloom.
An unaccountable action on the part of the antelope
had plunged the State into disgrace. That
charmer, on the representation that the previous
day was her birthday, and that vast treasures had
been sent in a hamper for its celebration (both
baseless assertions), had secretly but most
pressingly invited thirty-five neighbouring princes
and princesses to a ball and supper: with a
special stipulation that they were "not to be
fetched till twelve." This wandering of the
antelope's fancy, led to the surprising arrival at Miss
Griffin's door, in divers equipages and under
various escorts, of a great company in full dress,
who were deposited on the top step in a flush of
high expectancy, and who were dismissed in
tears. At the beginning of the double knocks
attendant on these ceremonies, the antelope had
retired to a back attic, and bolted herself in;
and at every new arrival, Miss Griffin had gone
so much more and more distracted, that at last
she had been seen to tear her front. Ultimate
capitulation on the part of the offender, had been
followed by solitude in the linen-closet, bread
and water, and a lecture to all, of vindictive
length, in which Miss Griffin had used the expressions:
Firstly, "I believe you all of you knew of
it;" Secondly, "Every one of you is as wicked as
another;" Thirdly, "A pack of little wretches."

Under these circumstances, we were walking
drearily along; and I especially, with my
Moosulmaun responsibilities heavy on me, was
in a very low state of mind; when a strange man
accosted Miss Griffin, and, after walking on at
her side for a little while and talking with her,
looked at me. Supposing him to be a minion
of the law, and that my hour was come, I
instantly ran away, with a general purpose of
making for Egypt.

The whole Seraglio cried out, when they saw
me making off as fast as my legs would carry
me (I had an impression that the first turning
on the left, and round by the public-house,
would be the shortest way to the Pyramids),
Miss Griffin screamed after me, the faithless
Vizier ran after me, and the boy at the turnpike
dodged me into a corner, like a sheep, and cut
me off. Nobody scolded me when I was taken
and brought back; Miss Griffin only said, with a
stunning gentleness, This was very curious! Why
had I run away when the gentleman looked at me?

If I had had any breath to answer with, I
dare say I should have made no answer; having
no breath, I certainly made none. Miss
Griffin and the strange man took me between
them, and walked me back to the palace in a
sort of state; but not at all (as I couldn't help
feeling, with astonishment), in culprit state.

When we got there, we went into a room by
ourselves, and Miss Griffin called in to her assistance,
Mesrour, chief of the dusky guards of the
Hareem. Mesrour, on being whispered to,
began to shed tears.

"Bless you, my precious!" said that officer,
turning to me; "your Pa's took bitter bad!"

I asked, with a fluttered heart, "Is he very ill?"

"Lord temper the wind to you, my lamb!"
said the good Mesrour, kneeling down, that I
might have a comforting shoulder for my head
to rest on, "your Pa's dead!"

Haroun Alraschid took to flight at the words;
the Seraglio vanished; from that moment, I
never again saw one of the eight of the fairest
of the daughters of men.

I was taken home, and there was Debt at
home as well as Death, and we had a sale there.
My own little bed was so superciliously looked
upon by a Power unknown to me, hazily called
"The Trade," that a brass coal-scuttle, a
roasting-jack, and a birdcage, were obliged to be put
into it to make a Lot of it, and then it went for
a song. So I heard mentioned, and I wondered
what song, and thought what a dismal song it
must have been to sing!

Then, I was sent to a great, cold, bare, school
of big boys; where everything to eat and wear
was thick and clumpy, without being enough;
where everybody, large and small, was cruel;
where the boys knew all about the sale, before I
got there, and asked me what I had fetched, and
who had bought me, and hooted at me, "Going,
going, gone!" I never whispered in that
wretched place that I had been Haroun, or had
had a Seraglio: for, I knew that if I mentioned
my reverses, I should be so worried, that I should
have to drown myself in the muddy pond near
the playground, which looked like the beer.

Ah me, ah me! No other ghost has haunted
the boy's room, my friends, since I have occupied
it, than the ghost of my own childhood, the
ghost of my own innocence, the ghost of my
own airy belief. Many a time have I