The rebel vizier had entertained a mortal hatred against me for a long time upon this occasion: When,I was a stripling, I loved to shoot with a cross-bow; and being one day upon the terrace of the palace with my bow, a bird happened to come by; I shot, but missed him, and the ball by misfortune hit the vizier, who was taking the air upon the terrace of his own house, and put out one of his eyes. As soon as I understood it, I not only sent to make my excuse to him, but did it in person; yet he always resented it, and, as opportunity offered, made me sensible of it. But now, madam, that he had me in his power, he expressed his resentment in a very barbarous manner; for he came to me like a madman as soon as ever he saw me, and, thrusting his finger into my right eye, pulled it out himself; and so, madam, I became blind of one eye. But the usurper's cruelty did not stop here; he ordered me to be shut up in a box, and commanded the executioner to carry me into the country to cut off my head, and leave me to be devoured by the birds of prey. The hangman and another carried me, thus shut up on horseback, into the country, in order to execute the usurper's barbarous sentence; but by my prayers and tears I moved the executioner's compassion. Go, says he, get you speedily out of the kingdom, and take heed of ever returning to it, otherwise you will certainly meet with your own ruin and be the cause of mine. I thanked him for the favour he did me; and as soon as I was left alone, I comforted myself for the loss of my eye, by considering that I had very narrowly escaped a much greater danger. Being in such a condition, I could not travel far at a time. I retired to remote places while it was day, and travelled as far by night as my strength would allow me. At last I arrived in the dominions of the king my uncle, and came to his capital. I gave him a long detail of the tragical cause of my return, and of the sad condition he saw me in. Alas! cried he, was it not enough for me to have lost my son; but must I have also news of the death of a brother I loved so dearly, and see you also reduced to this deplorable condition? He told me how uneasy he was; that he could hear nothing of his son, notwithstanding all the diligence and inquiry he could make. At these words, the unfortunate father burst out into tears, and was so much affected, that, pitying his grief, it was impossible for me to keep the secret any longer; so that, notwithstanding the oath I had made to the prince my cousin, I told the king his father all that I knew.