my friends, and my acquaintance,--are not these sufficient reasons
for my keeping a silence your majesty has thought so strange and
unaccountable? The love of our native country is as natural to us
as that of our parents; and the loss of liberty is insupportable to
every one who is not wholly destitute of common sense, and knows
how to set a value on it.'

'Madam,' replied the king, 'I am convinced of the truth of what you
say; but till this moment I was of opinion that a person beautiful
like yourself, whom her evil destiny had condemned to be a slave,
ought to think herself very happy in meeting with a king for her
master.'

'Sire,' replied the fair slave, 'whatever the slave is, there is no
king on earth who can tyrannise over her will. But when this very
slave is in nothing inferior to the king that bought her, your
majesty shall then judge yourself of her misery, and her sorrow,
and to what desperate attempts the anguish of despair may drive
her.'

The King of Persia, in great astonishment, said 'Madam, can it be
possible that you are of royal blood? Explain the whole secret to
me, I beseech you, and no longer increase my impatience. Let me
instantly know who are your parents, your brothers, your sisters,
and your relations; but, above all, what your name is.'

'Sire,' said the fair slave, 'my name is Gulnare, Rose of the Sea;
and my father, who is now dead, was one of the most potent monarchs
of the ocean. When he died, he left his kingdom to a brother of
mine, named Saleh, and to the queen, my mother, who is also a