on the lovely lips of the Pacha's daughter, though, the plague to my
whiskers! if the gloomy Mahometans were in possession of my secret, I
should be impaled before sunrise, and my blue-eyed Sultana would doubtless
expiate the crime of "lighting up her heart" at the shrine of affection,
by being closed in a sack and thrown into the lake. But, I felt persuaded,
there was something _English_, in the tones of your voice. Did you forsake
Old Albion for the sultry, pestilential deserts of these infernal realms?"

"Not absolutely; my travels would have terminated at Constantinople--at
the Gem of Turkish Cities--if the Sultan had not commanded me to convey a
message to the Pacha of Aleppo, relative to the punishment of some
refractory rebels."

"Oh! oh! then you will remain here. But the time of my departure is
rapidly approaching, for when the beams of to-morrow's sun again illumine
the earth, I shall make my best bow to Aleppo--to its angelic Peris, and
retire with my beautiful Sultana--the charm and grace of this eastern
fairy land! But _diable!_ you love a story, and I will tell you of every
circumstance combined with my singular adventure for a wife. Sit down,
cavalier, and lend an ear to my romance."

I complied; and the associate of my solitude amused me by exhibiting his
humorous loquacity.

"It was sunset, and the starry loveliness of the skies had not assumed the
splendour which now deepens around them with a tinge of purple, when I
left the Turkish Divan, and, after dismissing my companions, proceeded _ad
libitum_ along the streets of Aleppo. You may feel surprise at my temerity,
but, remember, that a person delegated by the Porte is as secure in the
public walks as if he were honoured with the chains and straw of a dungeon