so that at last he allowed them to do what they would.  When he was dressed in female attire, they brought him before the young lady, who laughed so heartily when she saw him, that she fell backward on the sofa.  The slaves laughed and clapped their hands, so that my brother was quite out of countenance.  The young lady got up, and still laughing, said to him, “After so much complaisance, I should be very much to blame not to love you with all my heart:  but there is one thing more you must do for me, and that is, to dance as we do.”  He obeyed, and the young lady and her slaves danced with him, laughing as if they had been mad.  After they had danced some time, they all fell upon the poor wretch, and did so box and kick him, that he fell down like one out of his senses.  The old woman helped him up again:  and that he might not have time to think of his ill-treatment, bade him take courage, and whispered in his ear, that all his sufferings were at an end, and that he was just about to receive his reward.

The old woman continued her discourse to Backbarah thus:  “You have only one thing more to do, and that is but a small one.  You must know that my mistress has a custom, when she has drunk a little, as you see she has done to-day, to let no one that she loves come near her, except they be stripped to their shirt; and when they have done so, she takes a little advantage of them and begins running before them through the gallery, and from chamber to chamber, till they catch her.  This is one more of her humours:  what advantage soever she takes of you, considering your nimbleness, you will soon overtake her; strip yourself then to your shirt, undress yourself without ceremony.”

My silly brother had done too much to hesitate at anything now.  He undressed himself; and in the mean time the young lady was stripped to her shift and drawers, that she might run the more nimbly.  When they were ready, the young lady took the advantage of twenty paces, and then began to run with surprising swiftness:  my brother followed as fast as he could, the slaves in the mean time laughing heartily and clapping their hands.  The young lady, instead of losing ground, gained upon my brother:  she made him run two or three times round the gallery, and then entering a long dark passage, made her escape.  Backbarah, who still followed, having lost sight of her in the passage, was obliged to slacken his pace, because of the darkness of the place:  at last perceiving a light, he ran towards it, and went out at a door, which was immediately shut after him.  You may imagine how he was surprised to find himself in a street inhabited by curriers, and they were no less surprised to see him in his shirt, his eyes painted red, and without beard or moustaches:  they began to clap their hands and shout at him, and some of them ran after him and lashed his back with leather straps.  They then took him and set him upon an ass which they met by chance, and carried him through the town exposed to the laughter of the people.