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GIL B L A V
etl his prejudice, and he has promifed to embrace Ma- hometanilm.”
I own, I ought to have contradiftcd the favourite, •without any regard to the dangerous conjunaure in •winch I was : but being in the utmoff dejc&ion of lpirit, affected with the danger in which I l'a*w a woman whom I loved, and tiemiding for myfclf, I remained Ipcechlefs and confufed : I could not utter one word, and the dey, perfuaded by my filcnce, that his miftrefs laid nothing but ihc truth, was appea- fed. “ Madam, (laid he) I am willing to believe that you have not injured me, and that a defire of doing a thing agreeable to the prophet, has engaged you to hazard luch a delicate action. I forgive your imprudence therefore, provided that tiiis captive takis the .turban immediately ” He fent lor a Marabou * that iuftam, I was cinathed with a Turkifh drefs, and did all .that was required, without having power to refill. Or rather, 1 was ignorant of what I did, fo much were my lenfes difordered. Plow m ny chrif- tians arc there, who would have been as bale as I was, on fuch an occafion !
After the ceremony, I quitted the feraglio, under the name ot Sidy Hali, to cxccrcife a Imall empldy- iiifcnt be flowed upon ine by Solyman. I never faw the fultana again ; but one oi her eunuchs com- ing to me one day’, brought from her a prefent of jewels worth two thoufand lultanins of gold, with a billet, in which the lady affured me, that ffie would never forget my generous complaifancc, in fulferiug rayfelf to be made a Mahometan^ in order to fave her life. Truly, befides the prefents I received from FarrukKanz, I obtained, tin o’her canal, an employment more confiderable than the firft, and in ltis than feven years, became one of the richclt renC- gadoes in the city of Algier.
* Marabous are Mahometan prieffs.
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