Her joy took the character of delirium: she wept, and smiled, and sobbed; repeated the same unconnected words again and again; held Sebastian with wild strength, and gazed at him with such a fixed yet troubled look, as a person might be supposed to give, who feared to behold another vanish into air. This strange transport perhaps mixed a salutary alloy with that of Sebastian; he trembled for her delicately-constructed frame, and far from giving loose to his own feelings, was only assiduous to soften, and gently control hers. By degrees her joy lost its fearfulness and its tumult, and settled into delightful certainty: she ceased to speak; but she remained leaning on the shoulder of her hero; at intervals raising his hand to her lips with an expression of happiness and gratitude in her eyes, as she lifted them towards heaven. With what fulness of delight, with what tenderness, did Sebastian sit contemplating her, as their hearts only spoke to each other! The information of the Basha’s officer had taken away every sentiment of regret or self-blame at indulging an attachment which his bigotted tenets sometimes led him to condemn: it was now, that he felt privileged to pour his whole soul into hers,--to mix, to unite, to confound them indeed for ever. While his arms encircled her, he thought no more of camps or of courts, of the world and its vain pageants; nay, he ceased to think of the beauteous body which enclosed the spirit he loved: he felt that spirit only, and believed that an eternity of such sweet and pure emotions as the present, would be an eternity of beatitude. The Persian soldiers now re-entered, impatient for permission to sack the fortress and to return home; Sebastian roused himself, and moving with many a lingering look from Kara Aziek, hurried over the building to discover whether any Turks were concealed.--It was evident that these people had precipitately abandoned it on the news of their general’s defeat, (without caring for the women, whom they left as completely ignorant of their flight, as of the motive which prompted it) and had fled homewards. Having ascertained their absence, and booty, Sebastian prepared litters for his beloved and her women, which they joyfully entered, and borne by soldiers, set forward on their way to the capital. CHAP. V. It was night when the triumphant band entered Ispahan: they found the streets and the gardens illuminated; every place was crowded with people rending the air with acclamations, in which the names of the new Sophi and his victorious friend were joined.