It was then that Sebastian, who had hitherto preserved a thoughtful silence, which the agitated Zaphna did not appear inclined to break, turned towards him, and giving him a written paper, which the boy took and put into his breast, began to inform him of his destination: at this juncture a band of armed men, headed by an officer of Prince Abbas’s, rushed from behind a thicket, and sprung on the astonished party. Seized before he could be aware of their approach, and ignorant of his crime, Sebastian knew it would be fruitless to attempt resistance; his calm undaunted air awed his captors; he listened with amazement to their accusation of perfidy; but perceiving the force of appearances, he simply requested to be taken either to the Sophi or to the English Ambassador. Neither of these requests were granted; he was hurried back to Ispahan, brought to the state-prison, and there thrust into its vilest cell. Zaphna, whose senses had forsaken him at these terrible words--“the Prince of Persia denounces you as a traitor,” was also confined in a dungeon, and left there to weep the consequence of a fatal abandonment of woman’s law. All these events passed with so much circumspection, secrecy, and promptitude, that not even Sir Anthony Shirley heard the news till the next day at noon: transfixed with horror, scarcely crediting his senses, and incapable of lightly attributing such unexampled baseness to the noble Portuguese, feeling too that not only his own honour was implicated, but the interest of his sovereign endangered by her ambassador’s indiscreet confidence, he lost no time in seeking an audience of the Sophi. The aged monarch’s faculties had received a stimulus from these extraordinary circumstances, and he spoke with as much discrimination as vehemence, while he refused to permit an interview between Shirley and the foreigner, until the return of Prince Abbas. Overwhelmed with regret and trouble, Sir Anthony retired, still wandering in a maze of contradictory fears, conjectures, and hopes. Meanwhile Sebastian remained in his dungeon the prey of agonizing thoughts: his guards had informed him that he was accused of intending to betray the Persians, that his guilt was proved by the evidence of the Italians, who confessed that they were employed to attend him to the Basha’s fortress; and that the pretence of going to release a favorite lady, was rendered absurd by the circumstance of his being detected in carrying off a Persian woman. That crime alone deserved death, more especially since this woman was now known to be the object of Prince Abbas’s concealed attachment.