consequence.  This tenderness increased as they grew in years, and to such a height, that I dreaded the end of it.  At last, I applied such remedies as were in my power:  I not only gave my son a severe reprimand in private, laying before him the horrible nature of the passion he entertained, and the eternal disgrace he would bring upon my family, if he persisted; but I also represented the same to my daughter, and shut her up so close that she could have no conversation with her brother.  But that unfortunate creature had swallowed so much of the poison, that all the obstacles which by my prudence I could lay in the way served only to inflame her love.

“My son being persuaded of his sister’s constancy, on presence of building a tomb, caused this subterraneous habitation to be made, in hopes of finding one day or other an opportunity to possess himself of that objets which was the cause of his flame, and to bring her hither.  He took advantage of my absence, to enter by force into the place of his sister’s confinement; but this was a circumstance which my honour would not suffer me to make public.  And after so damnable an action, he came and shut himself up with her in this place, which he has supplied, as you see, with all sorts of provisions, that he might enjoy detestable pleasures, which ought to be a subject of horror to all the world; but God, who would not suffer such an abomination, has justly punished them both.”  At these words, he melted into tears, and I joined mine with his.

After a while, casting his eyes upon me, “Dear nephew,” cried he, embracing me, “if I have lost that unworthy son, I shall happily find in you what will better supply his place.”  The reflections he made on the doleful end of the prince and princess his daughter made us both weep afresh.

We ascended the stairs again, and departed at last from that dismal place.  We let down the trap door, and covered it with earth, and such other materials as the tomb was built of, on purpose to hide, as much as lay in our power, so terrible an effect of the wrath of God.

We had not been long returned to the palace, unperceived by any one, but we heard a confused noise of trumpets, drums, and other instruments of war.  We soon understood by the thick cloud of dust, which almost darkened the air, that it was the arrival of a formidable army:  and it proved to be the same vizier that had dethroned my father, and usurped his place, who with a vast number of troops was come to possess himself of that also of the sultan my uncle.

My uncle, who then had only his usual guards about him, could not resist so numerous an enemy; they invested the city, and the gates being opened to them without any resistance, soon became masters of it, and broke into the palace where my uncle defended himself, and sold his life at a dear rate.  I fought as valiantly for a while; but seeing we were forced to submit to a superior power, I thought on my retreat, which I had the good fortune to effect by some back ways, and got to one of the sultan’s servants on whose fidelity I could depend.