"Ah! Prince," cry'd the favourite, "what have you said?" "'Tis fact," replied the Sultan; "I will regale you with that story some other time: but in the mean while seek another string to your bow." "Egle, the virtuous Egle, has at length given herself the lye," says the favorite in a surprize; "indeed I cannot recover myself." "I see you are quite unhinged," replies Mangogul, "and know not whither to turn yourself." "Not so," says the favorite; "but I own to you that I depended much on Egle." "Pray think no more about it," added Mangogul; "only tell us if she was the only virtuous woman that you know." "No, Prince, there are a hundred others, and amiable women too, whom I will name to you," replied Mirzoza. "I will answer, as much as for myself, for----for----" Mirzoza stop'd short, without having pronounced any one name. Selim could not refrain from smiling, and the Sultan from bursting out into laughter, at the favorite's embarrassment, who knew so many virtuous women, and could not recollect any one. Mirzoza, piqued at this, turned to Selim, and said: "pray, Selim, help me out, you, who are so great a connoisseur. Prince," continued she directing her discourse to the Sultan, "apply to----whom shall I name? prithee, Selim, assist me." "To Mirzoza," says Selim. "You make your court to me very ill," replied the favorite. "I am not afraid of the trial, but I abhor it. Name some one else quickly, if you would have me pardon you." "One may try," says Selim, "if Zaide has found the reality of the ideal lover, which she formed to herself, and to whom she was formerly wont to compare all those who made love to her." "Zaide?" replys Mangogul. "I must own that she is a very proper subject to make me lose." "She is," added the favorite, "perhaps the only woman, whose reputation has been spared by the prude Arsinoe and the coxcomb Janeki." "This is strong," says Mangogul: "but the trial of my ring is a better argument. Let us go directly to her Toy. "_That Oracle is surer much than Calchas._" "How," adds the favorite smiling: "you retain your Racine, like a player." CHAP. XLIX. _Twenty-ninth Trial of the Ring._ Zuleiman and Zaide. Mangogul, without answering the favorite's joke, departed instantly, and went to Zaide's house. He found her retired in a closet, at a small table, on which he observed some letters, a portrait, and some trifles scatter'd here and there, which came from a cherished lover, as it was easy to presume, by the fondness she expressed for them. She was writing; tears ran down her cheeks, and wetted the paper. Every now and then she kiss'd the portrait with transport opened the letters, wrote some words, returned to the portrait, snatched up the above mentioned trifles, and pressed them to her breast.