the nobles to present their daughters to the King, when they entered their eighteenth year; an event which Almerine had often anticipated with impatience and hope, but now wished to prevent with folicitude and terror. The period urged forward, like every thing future, with filent and irresistible rapidity, at length arrived. The curiofity of Soliman had been raised, as well by accidental encomiums, as by the artifices of Omaraddin, who now hafted to gratify it with the utmost anxiety and perturbation: he discovered the confufion of his daughter, and imagined that it was produced like his own, by the uncertainty and importance of an event, which would be determined before the day fhould be paffed. He endeavoured to give her a peaceful confidence in the promife of the Fairy, which he wanted himself; and perceived, with regret, that her diftrefs rather increafed than diminifhed this incident, however, as he had no fufpicion of the caufe, only rendered him more impatient of delay; and Almerine, covered with ornaments by which art and nature were exhaufted, was, however reluctant, introduced to the King.

Soliman was now in his thirtieth year. He had fate ten years upon the throne, and for the fteadiness of his virtue had been furnamed the Juft. He had hitherto confidered the gratification of appetite as a low enjoyment, allotted to weakness and obfcurity; and the excercife of heroic virtue, as the fuperior felicity' of eminence and power. He had as yet taken no wife; nor had he immured in his palace a multitude of unhappy beauties, in whom defire had no choice, and affection no object, to be fucceffively forfaken after unrefifted violation, and at last fink into the grave with

out

out having answered any nobler purpose, than fometimes to have gratified the caprice of a tyrant, whom they faw at no other feafon, and whofe prefence could raise no paffion more remote from deteftation than fear.

Such was Soliman; who, having gazed some moments upon Almerine with filent admiration, rose up, and turning to the princes who stood round him, "Tomorrow," said he, "I will grant the request which you have so often repeated, and place a beauty upon "6 my throne, by whom I may tranfmit my dominion "to pofterity: to morrow, the daughter of Omarad. din fhall be my wife."

66

The joy with which Omaraddin heard this declaration, was abated by the effect which it produced upon Almerine who, after fome ineffectual struggles with the paffions which agitated her mind, threw herself into the arms of her women, and burst into tears. Soliman immediately dismissed his attendants; and taking her in his arms, inquired the cause of her distress: this, however, was a secret, which neither her pride nor her fear would fuffer her to reveal. She continued filent and inconfolable; and Soliman, though he fecretly fufpected fome other attachment, yet appeared to be fatiffied with the fuggeftions of her father, that her emotion was only fuch as is common to the fex upon any great and unexpected event. He defifted from farther importunity, and commanded that her women should remove her to a private apartment of the palace, and that she should be attended by his phyfician Nouraffin.

No.

No. CIV. Saturday, November 3. 1753.

-Semita certe

Tranquilla per virtutem patet unica vitæ.

But only virtue fhews the paths of peace.

Juv.

NOURASSIN, who had already learned what had happened, found his defpair relieved by this opportunity of another interview. The lovers, however, were refrained from condolence and confultation, by the prefence of the women who could not be difmiffed: but Nouraffin put a fmall vial into the hand of Alme. rine as he departed, and told her, that it contained a cordial which, if administered in time, would infallibly restore the cheerfulness and vigour that she had loft. These words were heard by the attendants, though they were understood only by Almerine; she readily comprehended, that the potion fhe had received was poifon, which would relieve her from languor and melancholy by removing the caufe, if it could be given to the king before her marriage was completed. After Nouraffin was gone, the fate ruminating on the

infelicity of her fituation, and the dreadful events of the morrow till the night was far spent ; and then, exhausted with perturbation and watching, the funk down on the sofa, and fell into a deep fleep.

The king, whofe reft had been interrupted by the effects which the beauty of Almerine had produced upon his mind, rose at the dawn of day; and fending for her principal attendant, who had been ordered to watch in her chamber, eagerly inquired what had been her behaviour, and whether he had recovered from her furprise. He was acquainted, that she had lately fallen asleep; and that a cordial had been left by Nouraffin, which he affirmed would, if not too long delayed, fuddenly recover her from languor and dejection, and which, notwithstanding, she had neglected to take. Soliman derived new hopes from this intelligence; and that the might meet him at the hour of marriage with the cheerful vivacity which the cordial of Nouraffin would infpire, he ordered, that it fhould, without asking her any question, be mixed with whatever she first drank in the morning.

Almerine, in whofe blood the long-continued tumult of her mind had produced a feverish heat, awaked, parched with thirst, and called eagerly for fherbet : her attendant, having firft emptied the vial into the bowl, as she had been commanded by the king, prefented it to her, and fhe drank it off. As foon as the had recollected the horrid business of the day, fhe miffed the vial; and, in a few moments, the learned how it had been applied. The fudden terror which now seized her, haftened the effect of the poison; and fhe felt already the fire kindled in her veins, by which in a few hours fhe would be deftroyed. Her diforder

was

was now apparent, though the cause was not suspect. ed. Nouraffin was again introduced, and acquainted with the mistake. An antidote was immediately prepared and administered; and Almerine waited the event, in agonies of body and mind, which are not to be defcribed. The internal commotion every instant increased; fudden and intolerable heat and cold fucceeded each other; and, in less than an hour, she was covered with a leprofy: her hair fell, her head fwelled, and every feature in her countenance was diftorted. Nouraffin, who was doubtful of the event, had withdrawn, to conceal his confufion; and Almerine, not knowing that these dreadful appearances were the prefages of recovery, and thewed that the fatal effects of the poison were expelled from the citadel of life, conceived her diffolution to be near, and, in' the agony of remorfe and terror, earneftly requested to fee the king. Soliman haftily entered her apartment, and beheld the ruins of her beauty with astonishment, which every moment increased; while fhe discovered the mischief which had been intended against him, and which had now fallen upon her own head.

Soliman, after he had recovered from his aftonish. ment, retired to his own apartment; and, in this interval of recollection, he foon difcovered, that the defire of beauty had feduced him from the path of justice, and that he ought to have difmiffed the perfon whofe affections he believed to have another object. He did not, therefore, take away the life of Nouraffin, for a crime, to which he himself had furnished the temptation: but as fome punishment was neceffary, as a fanction to the laws, he condemned him to perpetual banishment. He commanded, that Almerine should be