nails. This an attendant opened, and an oblong open court received them, which they crossed expeditiously, and arrived at the foot of a narrow winding stair-case.

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Up, wretch!" said one of his brutal keepers, accompanying the words with an energetic push. "I warrant e'er long we will be freed from further trouble regarding thee." The prisoner ascended sulkily the steps, without deigning a reply. A small landing-place now presented itself, fronting which was a gate of massive iron bars; it was the entrance to such a cage as we often see used for confining savage animals. This gate was soon opened, and Alraschid, who pondered a moment on the dismal den before him, was thrust unceremoniously in, the gate fastened with its several ponderous bolts, and a supernumerary chain added by way of certain security. His gaolers having now withdrawn, he had a horrid but uninterrupted leisure to meditate upon the strange and deplorable circumstances into which he was thrown by fortune and curiosity. Accused and almost convicted of a crime he had not committed, but of which he could produce no proofs to substantiate his innocence, he threw himself on the floor, and gave vent aloud to his sorrows, and imprecations on that accursed implacable being, who had caused and triumphed in his destruction. In this hopeless condition we must for a short time leave him.

CHAPTER VII.

"Ah, what will not a woman do who loves!
What means will she refuse to keep that heart,
Where all her joys are placed!"

ALL FOR LOVE, &c.

Ir will be remembered we left Selim's daughter in a swoon, from which she soon recovered after the restoratives customary in such cases had been applied. She immediately ordered all present excepting her confidant Johorun to quit the room, and the obsequious menials withdrew like so many automatons.

"O my friend!" exclaimed she, when they were alone, "what shall we do?-How preserve the miserable boy?-Counsel me, Johorun, counsel me."

"Alas!" replied her companion, "am I not like thyself a timid maiden, and one not half so clever?-how can my advice avail thee?-and yet truly something must be done to save him."

"Do you suppose then," demanded Noorun, "my father will have so hard a heart as to kill him?"

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Assuredly," ," answered her attendant, "although if it depended solely upon him, I would not despair; but life and death will be in Omar's hands."

"Yes, yes, too true,' " murmured the young lady, giving away to a fresh burst of tears. "And yet my Alraschid is innocent-his heart can have no participation in such crimes; not all the evidence on earth could persuade me that those dove's eyes of his were made to gaze on deeds of blood, committed too by his hands!No."

"So I myself fully believe," responded Johorun,

"but being found in the castle (God knows how he came there,) covered with blood, and brandishing a reeking sword are facts very unintelligible.-Moreover Mootee is missing, and Omar runs franticly about blaspheming and declaring that Alraschid has murdered his venerable mother-would to God we were assured of his innocence !"

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"I tell thee, slanderous maiden," replied the Rajah's daughter angrily, "'tis impossible he can be otherwise -my gallant lover is as incapable of injuring woman, as the moon of scorching the ruddy blossomed pomegranate!-but why do we thus waste the waning night, in fruitless dilatory lamentations ?-Can we form no plan for releasing the prisoner?-Suppose I go and solicit my father-he might-nay, he would listen to my entreaties."

"By so doing," answered Johorun, "you would acquaint him with your affections, which were in sooth, an imprudent way of consulting Alraschid's safety; since it would aggravate instead of allaying the Omrah's fury."

"Then let us endeavour," said Noorun, "to make our way to the western tower.-Fortune may present some means or other for effecting his escape-and as a last resource, I will supplicate my father. At all events we shall see Alraschid-hear the history of his misfortunes-and bestow our sympathy and compassion."

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"Dearest lady," cried her friend, shuddering as she spoke, are you serious?—think of the undertaking !for besides the numerous gloomy passages we must thread before reaching the tower of iron, the dwarfish magician's apartments are hard by, and who in the castle has temerity enough at midnight to venture near them? besides all this, Omar himself I understand has possession of the keys."

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Cowardly girl!" answered her mistress," and wilt thou then hesitate to follow, where I would lead ?—but poor, fearful, yet fortunate damsel, you are not in love;

otherwise would you dare a dreadful, certain death :-I may excuse your timidity, you are not in love."

"True, Noorun," replied her handmaid with an arch but suppressed smile, "I am not in love, how can I be? no fault of mine, alas !--but nevertheless, think not that you may go whither I will not accompany you; I am ready."

"Come then," said the young lady, "if our consciences be pure, we have nothing evil to fear from the necromancer or his apparitions; we will at all risks make an effort to gain the iron tower, too rough a cage for my poor love-lorn nightingale." The two girls now began assiduously to prepare themselves for their romantic expedition, and although the undertaking was to them vastly solemn and important, female vanity induced them both to take more than one peep into their Delhi mirrors, before taking a final departure.

We must however now return to our hero, whose thoughts were far otherwise engaged. Alraschid had remained without once moving on the stony floor, as he at first threw himself, with his turban off, and forehead reclining on his clenched hands;-his raven ringlets hung curling around his bared neck, and so fair was the unfortunate youth, that any stranger who had thus first beheld him, would naturally have concluded he was a woman. It may better be imagined than told how many and discordant were the reflections which divers associations hurried athwart his mind in rapid and feverish succession to be under the same roof, so to speak, with her, for whom alone life was precious, but to be there as a criminal, as a murderer; whence he would on the morrow be brought most certainly to return no more, to die as a felon,-and what was worse, to be regarded as such by his beloved,-excited in him a complex feeling of rage, grief, and indignation, which generally ended in a long tirade of maledictions upon that mysterious dwarf for whose enormities he was a destined sufferer. But this selfish consideration was uniformly

succeeded by another yet more awfully poignant; namely, that his inveterate and unaccountable enemy, a spirit of undefiled malignity, should be intrusted in obtaining Noorun for another for Omar;-who was Omar?Was then the hand, perchance the heart of Selim's daughter engaged?-blighting thought! when this struck him he was frantic, and with tears of purest vexation he would offer up an unconnected petition to his prophet for assistance, but before that prayer was finished, he would break off into curses against his own miserable existence, and more especially upon the impious magician.

It was during one of those wildest fits of passion that he heard the great door at the bottom of the turret stair creak hoarsely, and a few seconds afterwards the sound of footsteps stealthily ascending, preceded by a sickly glimmering light. Soon afterwards the misshapen figure of the dwarf stood before his cell. He was in his usual attire, of black cap, red gown, and yellow slippers, but in his sash was stuck a dagger, and in his hand was poised that same fantastical firelock, which it would appear Fate herself had fabricated for Alraschid's destruction. He remained for some time motionless, regarding his prisoner with a scowl through which, however, gleamed faintly a smile that triumphantly bespoke contemptuous hatred.

"Cruel being!" exclaimed the lover, raising himself, and darting upon the wizard a glance which would have arrested the lion in his rush of anger, art thou come to imbrue thy hands yet deeper in blood?-has hell burst loose, and thou been particularly sent on earth to show that the atrocities of human nature are but virtues when compared with those of thy unearthly fraternity?" "Silence!" responded sternly the dwarf. Thy curiosity and presumption are thy ruin;-prepare for death; and if, boy, thou puttest efficacy in what the world calls prayer, pray quickly, whilst I prepare what shall translate your spirit to what befits it, that hell, you

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