Not long after Bameea’s departure, Yakoot was summoned to attend the Sultana. He instantly followed the messengers, and passed into the royal presence. Ruzeea Begum was seated upon a fine cashmere shawl spread over a thick rug woven from the same wool, and worked in the richest devices. Behind her stood Bameea, waving over her mistress’s head a beautiful bird of Paradise. Beside the latter was a gold ewer containing perfumes which produced around her an atmosphere of delicious fragrance. Her hookha, sparkling with gems, stood on her left hand, the highly decorated tube resting on a brocaded cushion. Her slippers, formed of the finest Bagdat tissue, worked in gold and embroidered with pearls, were placed beyond the rug upon a costly japan tray. A small circular mirror of burnished steel in a silver frame, and having a handle of the same metal, lay upon her lap. This she occasionally raised in order that she might ascertain if the henna had been properly applied to her eyelids, or if the various cosmetics employed in her toilet had produced their proper effects. The Sultana’s dress consisted of fine white muslin worked in gold, disposed round her body in loose flowing drapery, and covering trousers of the palest sky-blue silk, fastened at the ankles by bands of woven gold. On her head she wore a plain turban, loosely twisted round her high broad forehead, and composed of white cashmere. When the Abyssinian entered, she beckoned him to approach, without raising her eyes from the mirror upon which she had at that moment fixed them. He advanced with manly reverence, but not in the smallest degree awed by the presence of the sovereign, whose voice was a fiat, and her will an ordinance. Ruzeea Begum was a woman of commanding person, handsome but repelling, and exhibiting in her countenance the somewhat stern and decisive tone of her mind. “Slave,” said the sovereign, still keeping her eye upon the mirror, “you have won the approbation of your royal mistress, who intends to advance you to the dignity of an appointment in her household.” The slave was silent. “Do you prefer the drudgery of bondage to the lighter labours of attendance upon your Queen?” “I am a bondsman, at the will of a mistress which must be to me a law; I have therefore no choice; wherever I may be placed I shall know how to do my duty.” “Does the approbation of your sovereign give you no satisfaction?” “Much, because it assures me that I deserve it, for the approbation of sovereigns is seldom bestowed unless it be fairly won.” “To show you that mine has been won, from this moment you are free; and may your future conduct show that I have not disgraced my confidence!” “My conduct will never be influenced by obligations, however nobly conferred. I have a conscience upon which is recorded, in characters stamped by the hand of Heaven, my rule of life--that I shall obey.”