who they are, because we will let them take some rest before we trouble them with our questions. Fetnah, without being able to give any reason for it, had a curiosity to see them. The syndic would have conducted her to his house, but she would not give him the trouble, and was satisfied that a slave of his should go and show her the way. She alighted at the door, and followed the syndic’s slave, who was gone on before to give notice to his mistress, she being then in the chamber with Alcolomb and her mother, for they were the persons the syndic had been talking of to Fetnah. The syndic’s wife, being informed by the slave that a court-lady was in her house, was going out of the room to meet her; but Fetnah, who had followed close to the slave’s heels, did not give her so much time, and coming into the chamber, the syndic’s wife fell down before her, to express the respect she had for all that belonged to the caliph. Fetnah took her up, and said, My good lady, I desire you would let me speak with those two strangers that arrived at Bagdad last night. Madam, answered the syndic’s wife, they lie in those two little beds you see close by each other. The favourite immediately drew near the mother’s, and viewing her carefully, Good woman, said she, I come to offer you my assistance: I have a considerable interest in this city, and may be assisting to you and your companion. Madam, answered Ganem’s mother, I perceive by your obliging offers that Heaven has not quite forsaken us, though we have cause to believe it, after so many misfortunes as have befallen us. Having uttered these words, she wept so bitterly that Fetnah and the syndic’s wife could not forbear letting fall some tears. The caliph’s favourite, having dried up hers, said to Ganem’s mother, Be so kind as to tell us your misfortunes, and recount your story. You cannot give the relation to any persons better disposed than we are to use all possible means to comfort you. Madam, replied Abou Ayoub’s disconsolate widow, a favourite of the commander of the true believers, a lady whose name is Fetnah, is the occasion of all our misfortunes. These words were like a thunderbolt to the favourite: but suppressing her concern and uneasiness, she suffered Ganem’s mother to proceed, who did it after this manner: I am the widow of Abou Ayoub, a merchant of Damascus; I had a son, called Ganem, who, coming to trade at Bagdad, has been accused of having debauched that Fetnah. The caliph has caused search to be made for him every where, to put him to death; and not finding him, wrote to the king of Damascus, to cause our house to be plundered and razed, and to expose my daughter and me three days successively, stark naked, to be seen by the people, and then to banish us out of Syria for ever.