'In my power!' I exclaimed; 'then, indeed, I am happy! Tell my brother there is nothing I will not do to show him my gratitude and to save him from the consequences of my folly.' "The slave who was sent by my brother seemed unwilling to name what was required of me, saying that his master was afraid I should not like to grant the request.

I urged him to speak freely, and he then told me the favourite declared nothing would make her amends for the loss of the mirror but the fellow-vase to that which she had bought from Saladin.

It was impossible for me to hesitate; gratitude for my brother's generous kindness overcame my superstitious obstinacy, and I sent him word I would carry the vase to him myself.
"I took it down this evening from the shelf on which it stood; it was covered with dust, and I washed it, but, unluckily, in endeavouring to clean the inside from the remains of the scarlet powder, I poured hot water into it, and immediately I heard a simmering noise, and my vase, in a few instants, burst asunder with a loud explosion.

These fragments, alas! are all that remain.

The measure of my misfortunes is now completed! Can you wonder, gentlemen, that I bewail my evil destiny?
Am I not justly called Murad the Unlucky?
Here end all my hopes in this world! Better would it have been if I had died long ago! Better that I had never been born! Nothing I ever have done or attempted has prospered.