The Sultan was as capable of revenge as he was of love or gratitude,
and this, Aphiz was destined to learn to his sorrow; for no sooner
did the monarch comprehend the scene we have just described, after
having heard the story of Aphiz related, than he immediately
summoned the guard, and the young Circassian found himself borne
away to a place of confinement within the seraglio gardens, where he
was left alone to ponder upon his singular situation. It was not an
easy task for him to divest his mind of the thought that all was a
dream, so singular were the threads of the past woven together since
the happy hours when Komel and himself bade good night at her
father's cottage door.

As to the fair and beautiful slave herself, she was conducted back
to the harem, at the same time that Aphiz was borne away to prison,
but a new world had opened to her. Her voice and hearing, lost by
the fearful shock she had realized by that sight of bloodshed on the
night when they stole her away from her parents, had, strangely
enough, been again restored by a shock scarcely less potent in its
effect upon her. That startling scream which she uttered on
beholding Aphiz had loosened the portals of her ears, and the
violent effort made in order to utter that exclamation had again
loosened the power of utterance. In spite of the attending
circumstances, she could not but rejoice at the return of those
faculties that she had now been taught the value of.

The delight of the Sultan at Komel's recovery of her speech and
hearing, was only equalled by his uneasiness at the extraordinary
position of affairs between himself and the man who had so gallantly