You must know all this while the king my uncle was absent, and had been a-hunting for several days.  I grew weary of staying for him, and having prayed his ministers to make my apology to him at his return, I left his palace, and set towards my father’s court, from which I had never been so long absent before.  I left the ministers of the king my uncle in great trouble to think what had become of the prince my cousin; but, because of the oath I had made to keep his secret, I durst not tell them any thing of what I had seen or knew, in order to make them easy.

I arrived at my father’s capital, the usual place of his residence, where, contrary to custom, I found a great guard at the gate of the palace, who surrounded me as I entered.  I asked the reason, and the commanding officer replied, Prince, the army proclaimed the grand vizier king instead of your father, who is dead; and I take you prisoner in the name of the new king.  At these words the guards laid hold of me, and carried me before the tyrant.  I leave you to judge, madam, how much I was surprised and grieved.

The rebel vizier had entertained a mortal hatred against me for a long time upon this occasion:  When,I was a stripling, I loved to shoot with a cross-bow; and being one day upon the terrace of the palace with my bow, a bird happened to come by; I shot, but missed him, and the ball by misfortune hit the vizier, who was taking the air upon the terrace of his own house, and put out one of his eyes.  As soon as I understood it, I not only sent to make my excuse to him, but did it in person; yet he always resented it, and, as opportunity offered, made me sensible of it.  But now, madam, that he had me in his power, he expressed his resentment in a very barbarous manner; for he came to me like a madman as soon as ever he saw me, and, thrusting his finger into my right eye, pulled it out himself; and so, madam, I became blind of one eye.

But the usurper’s cruelty did not stop here; he ordered me to be shut up in a box, and commanded the executioner to carry me into the country to cut off my head, and leave me to be devoured by the birds of prey.  The hangman and another carried me, thus shut up on horseback, into the country, in order to execute the usurper’s barbarous sentence; but by my prayers and tears I moved the executioner’s compassion.  Go, says he, get you speedily out of the kingdom, and take heed of ever returning to it, otherwise you will certainly meet with your own ruin and be the cause of mine.  I thanked him for the favour he did me; and as soon as I was left alone, I comforted myself for the loss of my eye, by considering that I had very narrowly escaped a much greater danger.

Being in such a condition, I could not travel far at a time.  I retired to remote places while it was day, and travelled as far by night as my strength would allow me.  At last I arrived in the dominions of the king my uncle, and came to his capital.