necessity like this."--"Go," said the monarch; "You can now judge what
you have made me suffer, in murdering my son. Ambition has rendered us
the two most wretched beings in the empire. But, be it your comfort,
that your ambition can soar no higher; for this last deed has brought
you on a level with your sovereign."[7]

Abbas received from his subjects and posterity the surname of THE GREAT.
Bebut the Ambitious was presently known only by the title of Bebut THE
INFAMOUS. It is said, he was a short time after stabbed by the son of
the unfortunate jeweller, whom he had so unjustly condemned to death
when divan-beghi. Thus were the words of the poet Ferdusi verified. His
first fault was the cause of all the others, and their common
punishment.--_Oriental Herald_.

[4] _Zekath_ is the Persian name for the tithe of alms which the
Koran enjoins to be distributed among the poor.

[5] _Schah-nameh_ signifies the royal book. It was composed by
order of Mahmoud the Gaznevide, and contains 60,000 distichs,
the history of the ancient sovereigns of Persia.

[6] That is to say, the _Castle of the Dead_. It was situated in
the Mazanderan, (the ancient Hircania), and had been the abode
of the Old Man of the Mountain, the Prince of Assassins.

[7] A king coolly ordering one of his subjects to cut off the
head of his own child, and being obeyed, is a circumstance so
monstrous, that it would appear beyond all possibility, if it
were not supported by numerous examples. But, incredible as it
may seem, it only paints the common manners of a court, where