“One thing more;” replied Sebastian, sweetly smiling, “I would have the Persians respect Christians for my sake:--should such ever fall into their hands or settle amongst them, I pray you bid them remember that it was a Christian Knight who loved their Prince, and combatted in their defence.” “And is that all?” exclaimed Abbas, pleasure sparkling in his fine countenance--“have those bright eyes I warned you against, taught your heart no tenderer desire?--were you to claim the rarest beauty in Ispahan, nay even my sister Zelide, it is not the friend whose life, liberty, and honour you have saved, that dare deny the boon.” “Be under no apprehension Prince,” replied Sebastian, “the image of one, amiable as lovely, has long sealed both my heart and eyes against other impressions: no Persian lady can efface it.” The smile with which Sebastian concluded, was reflected by one from the young Persian, he then led the way to the state apartments, where the Sophi and Sir Anthony Shirley waited to greet their deliverer. A glow of modest pleasure sat on the face of Sebastian as he bent to the repeated thanks and eulogiums of Shirley: enfeebled by age and emotion, the Sophi wept like a child, while he embraced his son; after which he unclasped from his throat a massy collar of diamonds, and essayed to fasten it round that of Sebastian: but his shaking hands refused to obey his will, and Abbas hastened to supply his place. There was something so sacred in the feelings of an old man and a father, that the King of Portugal would not pain them by refusing this magnificent offering; he suffered Abbas to clasp the collar, then full of her who alone agitated his secret thoughts, proposed to the Sophi, that after the repose of a night, the troops should make a vigorous assault upon the camp of the Basha, and terminate the war at once, by crushing the whole Turkish force in Persia. Timid from misfortune, the Sophi adopted this counsel only in part: he insisted on the necessity of his soldiers having a longer period to recruit their strength, lest the Basha, re-inforced by a body of reserve, which it was believed he had stationed behind him in the country of Armenia, should prove eventually too strong for their diminished numbers. To the plausibility of this argument Sebastian opposed every reason which could be judiciously urged in support of the adverse opinion; the Sophi was absolute; and Prince Abbas, brave as a lion, but without a genius for war, inclined to his father’s judgment, Sebastian bowed gravely, and resigned himself to the decision. Abbas now eyed his friend with the unsteady and disturbed look of a man who fears the effect of what he is going to say; his cheeks by turns crimsoned and grew pale: at length coming close to Sebastian, he said in a low embarrassed voice, “imagine yourself in my place, what would be your desire at this moment?”