"And shall I bear your refusal to leave the city, to the Sultan?
Weigh the matter well; you can return to your native land with a
purse heavy with gold, but if you remain you die."

"You have then my plain refusal of the terms. Tell the Sultan for
me,"--Aphiz in his acuteness easily penetrated the monarch's
disguise,--"tell him I thank him heartily for the generous means that
he afforded me when I was poor and needy, and whereby I have been
supported in his capital so long. Tell him too that I forgive him
for this causeless imprisonment, and that if it be his will that I
should die, because I love one who has loved me from childhood, I
forgive him that also."

"You will not reconsider this answer."

"I am firm, and no casualty can alter my feelings, no threats can
alarm me."

The visiter could not suppress his impatience at these remarks, but
telling Aphiz that if he repeated his answer to the Sultan he feared
that it would seal his fate forever, he left him once more alone.

Aphiz, as we have said, knew very well who had visited him in his
cell, and now that he was gone he composed himself as best he could,
placing Komel's bouquet in his bosom and trying to sleep, for it was
now night. But he felt satisfied in his own mind that his worst
expectations would be realized ere long, for he had marked well the
expression of the Sultan's face, and he fell asleep to dream that he
had bidden Komel and life itself adieu.