rejoined the prince, “in requital for having saved your life, and the respect he has strewn for me, to make amends for the loss of his fortune.  In short, to repair the wrong I have done to himself and his family, I give him to you for a husband.”  Fetnah had no words expressive enough to thank the caliph for his generosity:  she then withdrew into the apartment she had occupied before her melancholy adventure.  The same furniture was still in it, nothing had been removed; but that which pleased her most was, to find Ganem’s chests and bales, which Mesrour had received the caliph’s orders to convey thither.

The next day Haroon al Rusheed ordered the grand vizier, to cause proclamation to be made throughout all his dominions, that he pardoned Ganem the son of Abou Ayoub; but this proved of no effect, for a long time elapsed without any news of the young merchant.  Fetnah concluded, that he had not been able to survive the pain of losing her.  A dreadful uneasiness seized her mind; but as hope is the last thing which forsakes lovers, she entreated the caliph to give her leave to seek for Ganem herself; which being granted, she took a purse containing a thousand pieces of gold, and went one morning out of the palace, mounted on a mule from the caliph’s stables, very richly caparisoned.  Black eunuchs attended her, with a hand placed on each side of the mule’s back.

Thus she went from mosque to mosque, bestowing her alms among the devotees of the Mahummedan religion, desiring their prayers for the accomplishment of an affair, on which the happiness of two persons, she told them, depended.  She spend the whole day and the thousand pieces of gold in giving alms at the mosques, and returned to the palace in the evening.

The next day she took another purse of the same value, and in the like equipage as the day before, went to the square of the jewellers’ shops, and stopping at the gateway without alighting, sent one of her black eunuchs for the syndic or chief of them.  The syndic, who was a most charitable man, and spent above two-thirds of his income in relieving poor strangers, sick or in distress, did not make Fetnah wait, knowing by her dress that she was a lady belonging to the palace.  “I apply myself to you,” said she, putting the purse into his hands, “as a person whose piety is celebrated throughout the city.  I desire you to distribute that gold among the poor strangers you relieve, for I know you make it your business to assist those who apply to your charity.  I am also satisfied that you prevent their wants, and that nothing is more grateful to you, than to have an opportunity of relieving their misery.”  “Madam,” answered the syndic, “I shall obey your commands with pleasure; but if you desire to exercise your charity in person, and will be pleased to step to my house, you will there see two women worthy of your compassion; I met them yesterday as they were coming into the city; they were in a deplorable condition, and it moved me the