pointment. As the parched earth craves the refreshing rain of heaven, as the rose longs for the nightingale, so do I pant for thee, surpassing man of men!

Perhaps the sweet news I have to impart to thee, will call thee sooner back to my arms. A new and tender life buds in my bosom. Dost thou not love thy Ayesha the more warmly for this? Be not uneasy about the consequences. Shouldst thou not succeed in purchasing me from the hateful dark man I have the misfortune to call lord, still the superintendant of the Oda is my friend, and she will readily assist me to deceive the detestable old man.

"O come once more, this night, which without thee I should pass so drearily. All arrangements are so made, that we have not the least to fear. The Jewess who will deliver

thee this, will report thy answer to me.

"Thou comest then, light of my life? Yes, this day, thy Ayesha must make thee no request in vain. Thou comest surely."

Ali Mustapha, Capi Aga of the imperial harem, to Paolo Lascaris 1638.

2.-"THOU hast perhaps forgotten, Frank, how two months ago, thou didst valiantly rescue me on the Armeidan, from the knives of the three Arnauts, whom Allah confound: but old Mustapha has not forgotten it, and sends thee back, in token thereof, a letter he has taken from thy paramour, that it may not peril thy head. The fate of thy beloved Ayesha, has altered in a very rapid manner since thou hast seen her. The Sultan, whose splendour Allah increase, whose days may he prolong, deigned to honour the worthless Kislar Aga with his visit. He saw the fair Ayesha on this occasion, and she found favour in his lustrous eyes. He had her immediately placed in his harem, and put in the place of the lately deceased favourite. This very day I learn that Allah has blessed her womb, whereat the sultan is beside himself with joy; and as the heir of the throne, Mahomet Sultan is sickly, it is very possible, that within a year she may become Hasseky Sultan. "Thus thou seest, good frank, that she is for ever lost for thee; for thy consolation I may tell thee, that she has quickly got over the loss of thee, I have seen her look very contented and fond in the sultan's arms, which I think very natural. I trust that thou wilt also quickly console thyself for her loss, since everywhere one may easily find abundance of such light creatures,

"If my advice has any weight with thee, quit Stamboul on the instant. In matters that concern his harem, the Moslem is inexorably severe. True that, for thy security and my own, I have had thy Jewess privately strangled. But treason never sleeps; and were the accursed vile dog of a Kislar Aga to become aware of thy transgression, thou wert irretrievably ruined, and I too. This letter, which my trustiest mute will deliver to thee, thou shalt burn in his presence, and send me the ashes, that I may sleep secure. The great prophet enlighten thee! May thy end be happy !"*

The same to the same, 1644.

3. "IF thou, most wise and most illustrious grand master, most magnanimous prince and father of a most glorious dominion, retainest the same sentiments now that animated thee six years ago, then will this letter more welcomely glad thine eyes, than the costliest conserves thy palate.

"I am tired of being Capi Aga, of counteracting and counterplotting, in just self defence, the endless series of intrigues with which my old enemy the Kislar Aga persecutes me, and of always trembling, in spite of all my artifices, with apprehension of the bowstring. I have therefore embraced the resolution of betaking myself to thy protection, with the treasures with which Allah has blessed me.

The still very

"The opportunity now presents itself. beautiful Ayesha, who has not indeed become Hasseky Sultan, but who has still remained the sultan's prime favourite, sets out, two months hence, on her pilgrimage to Mecca: her little sou. Osman Sultan, who bears a very striking resemblance to thee, accompanies her, and I am named their micmandar.

"If thou wilt cruise about that time, between Candia and Scarpanthe, our ship cannot escape thee. I will take care that a black and white turban cloth, wave on the fore-deck as a signal to thee; thou wilt chase us, and it shall be my care that thou encounter no great opposition from us. Thou wilt take us and carry us to Malta. What shall be done then with Ayesha and young Osman, let thy wisdom decide. But for myself, I stipulate on a quiet hospitable abode in thy town, where I may smoke my pipe in peace, and sip my sherbet till Allah calls me.

"If this plan meets thy approbation, send me by the Greek

May thy end be happy. A friendly expression from orthodox mo hamedans to christians.

skipper who will deliver thee this letter, a chest of red Maltese oranges, on the upper part of which thou shalt trace a little five pointed star; if not, a chest of the white curative earth that grows on thy island. All interchange of letters is now dangerous and may entail death.

Allah, enlighten thee !"

Ayesha to Paolo Lascaris, 1644.

4.-"NEAR the dread bridge, by which the two examining angels await me, does the thought suddenly strike me from above, once finally to reckon with thee, harsh man!

"Once thou didst enjoy in my arms, the full rapture of love, and now, in return for this, thou hast by one pirate stroke destroyed all my earthly joy, and wouldst even rob me of the bliss of paradise.

"But seven days ago, adored by the mightiest lord of the earth, universally reverenced as the mother of his son, revelling in all the delights that wealth, united with art, alone may procure, what am I now become through thee?. The most illfated of mortals.

"Thy wife I cannot be. Shall the spouse of the commander of the faithful, demean herself to be thy concubine, the scorn of thy people?

"Wouldst thou send me back to Stamboul, with what face should I appear before Ibrahim, after I had been so long in thy power, and without his darling Osman Sultan ?

"It was to get him into thy power, and make him a christian, thou didst ravish me; not from love for me; that has become fearfully clear to me, since thou hast sought to make me abandon the sacred faith of Islam, and go over to that of thy Messias. Thy odious plan, if thou shouldst succeed, in talking over the women of thy love, is to shut her up for life in a cloister.

"From this defend me, Allah and his great prophet, who declared in the Coran, that at the day of judgment he will collect all the people who believe in the old scriptures, that dashing to pieces against each other, they may fall headlong into the fiery gulph.

"But then will I thrice cry out loudly to Allah, that I have set none up as his equal, and therefore I fly from temptation and from life.

"The work of God,* that has so often produced sweet sleep

*Mash Allah. The work of God, the Turkish name for opium.

and blissful rapture, shall help me too to the long sleep of the grave, and to the heavenly ecstacy of paradise.

"Thou hast robbed thy son of much, Lascaris, of a fond mother, of a brilliant earthly lot, perhaps of a throne. Recompense him therefore with thy fatherly love, and keep for him the treasures of the treacherous Ali Mustapha, whom Allah has judged. I pay for them with my life.

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May thine end be happy, Lascaris."

The Sultan Ibrahim I., to Lascaris, 1645.

5.-"THE artful net of lies with which thou hast entrapped the council of thy Order, deceives not me, Lascaris. The boy thou hast taken from me was not the stepson of the Capi Aga, but the actual child of my Ayesha, who so died suddenly, and unexpectedly at Malta. Hitherto I held him for the issue of my loins, but my Kislar Aga has made known to me a hellish series of intrigue and treachery, of which my faithless Capi Aga was the main spring. It is now clear to me thou holdest him for thy son, and refusest him to me, that thou máyest educate him as a christian.

"Thou didst also six years ago audaciously pollute the harem of the lord of two quarters of the globe, and cast upon him the inexpiable insult that must drive the meanest Mussulman to madness. Allah curse thee for it! Hence

forth shall the fiercest death-feud rage between us: and if the prophet blesses my arms, if thou fallest into my power, infinite as the scorn thou hast done me shall be the fury of my revenge."

II. GERMAN LETTERS.

Bertha von Flamming to the Captain Paolo Gozzo, 1639. 1.-"YESTERDAY, when with tears, and burning blushes, I imparted to thee the holiest secret of our love, thy features became disordered. It was not a lover's pain for the distress of the loved one; I read in it bewildered surprise, pangs of conscience, and I might almost say, self-abasement. Like a condemned culprit thou stoodst before me: thou didst shudder in my embrace, and thy cold lips trembled under the parting kiss. What meant that, Paolo? A fearful suspicion crosses my soul. Couldst thou betray the maid who so boundlessly loved thee, so wholly gave herself to thee? Am I betrayed? Answer me, Paolo, am I betrayed?"

The same to the Commandator Paolo Lascaris three days later.

2.-" From the sick bed, on which your letter has thrown me, I have ventured for the first time to reply to it.

"You have fearfully wronged me, commandator. How could the knight, whom his vows precluded from the joys of wedlock, and bound to be the defender of the defenceless, how could he, with false name and station, deceive an orphan maiden, betray her innocence, and darkeu for ever her life's joy, and the golden peace of heart? When I lay in your arms, full of intense love and childlike trustfulness, did not pity at least awake in your iron breast for the poor girl you had undone? But I mean not to upbraid you. The keen anguish your confession bespeaks, proves that your eyes are now opened to what you have done.

"I too was near despair, and suicide or madness would have ended my sorrows, had I not held fast to that blessed anchor, against all life's storms, -religion. The tempest has now spent its force, and over the appeased billows moves, in mild radiance, the Spirit of the God of mercy.

"I pardon you. May these words give you strength, by great and noble deeds to atone for your transgression, so that God too may pardon you, and the judge within your bosom. Your request excuse in consideration of the passion that dictated it: that I should reject it, is what you must have anticipated. The vows with which you have consecrated yourself to God at the altar stand for ever between us. I loved you with all the strength of my soul, I love you still : You too loved me-as men can love : but how could I dare hope to be happy as the wife of the man I had torn from his bride, the holy church; who could only be mine through perjury.

"You venture to propose to me flight to a foreign land? Have you forgotten the divine words If I take the wings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall find me?' Oh, Lascaris, sin and conscience have sorely bewildered you. Pray, pray, that you fall not into temptation. "I cherish the confidence in you, that you will fulfil my last request. Make no attempt ever to speak to me. Never write to me again. Have no care about the pledge of those hapless hours: I will truly fulfil my duties as a mother. hope of rearing it up for a friend to virtue, for a citizen of heaven, is the only ray of joy that falls upon my night. Farewell, God bless you, and send you peace!"

The