the 'Ever-Victorious Army' has met with an unfortunate defeat." "How did it happen? Question these men, and translate their answers to me." "It appears, sir, that they were defeated with great loss at the siege of Tai-tsang, a large city a mile or two beyond the boundary. The force consisted of two thousand five hundred men of all arms, with twenty-two guns, backed by a brigade of about five thousand undisciplined soldiers. After breaching the walls, a storming party managed to cross a wide moat by ladders, which broke down, when they were repulsed under a galling fire from the walls, which killed and wounded five foreign officers and some three hundred men. After this a general retreat took place, and two large siege guns became so imbedded in the ground, and exposed to the enemy's fire, that they were abandoned." This was indeed disastrous news, as it might give the insurgents courage to renew their attempts on Shanghai, and put the Allies to the expense and trouble of another campaign. As Major Gordon elicited further information from stragglers who came into his camp on their way to Soong-kiang, the head-quarters of the force, he concluded that the defeat resulted from want of generalship on the part of the commander, who had no skill in handling a large body of troops. He ascertained, also, that there was a falling-off in strict discipline among the force since they were commanded by Ward. While he was cogitating upon the effects this unfortunate repulse was likely to produce, a mounted orderly rode up to his tent. "A despatch from the general, sir," he said, as he dismounted and opened his letter-bag, producing the document; "and I am to wait for an answer." "Go round to the mess-tent, orderly, and have some refreshment, after your long ride; and tell my servant to give your horse a good feed." As he anticipated, it was a despatch ordering his attendance at head-quarters without delay, to consult about his at once taking command of the disciplined Chinese force. He wrote in reply that he would leave for Shanghai on the morrow, as soon as he made arrangements with the lieutenants under his command to continue the survey in his absence. As these officers came in from the field with their men and instruments, after the labours of the day were over, he informed them of all that had transpired. They regretted his departure, but promised to continue the survey with assiduity. "I am confident, gentlemen, that you will do so; but we shall not be far apart, should I make a successful campaign across the frontier, for we can increase the area of the plan as we extend the line of march. I must, however, have you, Sergeant Cameron, with me, to communicate where the survey is to be prosecuted." I was called into the major's tent, and asked if I would volunteer to enter the Chinese service under my superior officer, and I did so most willingly, for I never served under any one for whom I had a higher respect. When it became known among the officers of the infantry regiments quartered at Shanghai that Gordon had taken command of the disciplined Chinese corps, several of them volunteered to accept commissions under him, thereby evincing their high opinion of his military abilities. These were accepted, as there were many of the old officers appointed by Ward and Burgevine who knew very little of their duties, and otherwise were of indifferent character. As they took rank in the Chinese army equivalent to those of colonel, major, and captain, with corresponding pay, it was necessary that the leader should have higher rank. Accordingly, Major Gordon was gazetted as a "general of division in the imperial service," and I, as his aide-de-camp, ranked as captain. After these appointments were made, we lost no time in proceeding to Soong-kiang, the head-quarters of the force. On a careful inspection it was found that they mustered about three thousand five hundred strong, including five batteries of artillery, each with six field-pieces. But they were not in an efficient state, from want of active service on the one hand, and on the other from the attempts of incompetent mandarins to manage them, who created much discontent and insubordination by neglecting to let them have their pay when it was due. These evils were quickly remedied by General Gordon, who displayed great tact and decision in dealing with the native authorities, acknowledging no superior but Lee Hoong-chang, the governor of the province; and as they came into contact with him, they learned to respect, and some to dread, the fearless foreigner who detested their proclivities to corruption and treachery. Without delay he took the field, and struck out an entirely new plan of military operations from that pursued by his predecessors, which proved in the end to be most successful. A mere summary of that brilliant campaign would fill many chapters. Instead of marching by land to the seat of war across the boundary line, the army was conveyed by water up the estuary of the Yangtsze, to a point where a wide creek led into the very heart of the country around Soochow, occupied by the enemy. The first operation of General Gordon was the relief of Chang-za, a considerable walled town built on the slope of a hill, and commanding an extensive view of the country from its heights. It contained a crowded population who had fled to it for refuge from the surrounding villages; and at one time the authorities and inhabitants had to become Taipings in order to save the place from destruction. However, when they saw the approach of a relieving force, they closed their gates against the rebels, who closely invested the city. Then they suffered from famine, having no animal food, and only a scanty supply of rice. They were likewise out of ammunition, and were unable to take any offensive measures against the besiegers, depending on the stout walls of the city for their defence. Great delight was manifested on the arrival of Gordon's force, and the defeat of their assailants. The gates were opened wide for their entrance, and the general was received with great honour by the authorities in their official robes, and by crowds of the rejoicing inhabitants. This Several other successful engagements followed this, the most important being the capture of Tai-tsang, where the disciplined force had been defeated. proved to be one of the toughest encounters with the enemy, as the place was garrisoned by ten thousand men, of whom one-fifth were veteran soldiers. There were also a number of foreigners in the place as artillery officers. It was captured, however, but at a heavy loss to the disciplined force, while the English officer bravely leading the storming party was killed in the breach. Besides the land force brought into the field in these engagements, Gordon saw, with his astute mind, that in a region so intersected with navigable channels for vessels of light draught, it would be advantageous to bring up a small armed steamer. Accordingly he obtained one, and found it an excellent auxiliary force. By putting on board 300 riflemen and some field artillery, he was enabled to do great execution, to the surprise of the foe. But what astonished the enemy even more was the extraordinary rapidity of his movements with the attacking force from one point to another. Hitherto it was the practice on both sides for the combatants to rest on their arms for several days after an engagement before another was commenced. Now each success was followed up by the immediate advance of the victorious troops, who carried everything before them. The Taipings saw at once that they had a different foreign general to deal with to any previously brought against them, and his name was mentioned with dread throughout their ranks. occasions, but he repelled the insinuations that he was merely a mercenary soldier by refusing a large money reward for his services offered by the Government beyond his legitimate pay. These honourable features in the character and conduct of General Gordon were exemplified at the siege of Soochow and the surrender of its garrison. By this time his armed force afloat was augmented into a flotilla of two steam gun-vessels and sixty Chinese boats armed with small brass guns. His land force was increased also, to about four thousand disciplined troops, assisted by double that number of undisciplined imperialists commanded by General Ching. On the other hand, the Taipings had an addition to their foreign auxiliaries, under the American Burgevine, who had joined the rebels with an armed steamer, which he and his companions had stolen from an imperial arsenal. At the first engagement between these mixed forces Gordon was victorious, and the foreign renegades intimated their intention to surrender if he would guarantee their safe conduct to Shanghai. With his usual generosity he agreed to this, and his fallen predecessor arrived safely at the settlement, where he was tried by the United States' consul-general, and sentenced to be deported from China. The most gallant exploit of this little man-of-war, which was named "Hyson "-a peaceful cognomen suggestive of tea-was before the capture of Quinsan, the chief strategical point at the seat of war. To reach this place it was necessary to make a detour through the country held by the enemy for a distance It was now evident to the Taiping leaders in of twenty miles. She had not proceeded far on her Soochow that the capture of the city by Gordon and route, when a large body of Taipings was met, march- his "Ever-Victorious Army" was only a question of ing to reinforce Quin-san. Immediately the artillery- time, so they counselled together as to the best terms men and riflemen opened fire with deadly effect, to on which they should surrender. Among the five the surprise of the enemy, who had no other alterna-Wangs there was one who dissented from the course, tive but to retreat along the banks of the canal. The namely, the Mo Wang, who was determined to hold steamer followed the retreating mass at slow speed, out to the last. Nevertheless, his colleagues opened driving the enemy in all directions. In her progress negotiations with Gordon and the Chinese general, she came to a stone bridge where fears were enter- and the former had an interview with Na Wang, tained that she could not pass through. Fortunately who had been the first to propose capitulation. He its arch was sufficiently high for the funnel to go told him that he wanted to make the Taipings and under, and the gallant little war steamer went along imperialists friends, so that the shedding of blood safely under easy speed. On each side of the canal, should cease; and that since the rise of the rebellion at intervals, stockades and strong stone forts had been the latter did not dare to perpetrate the wholesale erected. As the "Hyson" approached these, they executions they had done at Canton from fear of the were evacuated on a few shots being fired into them, foreign forces in China. Moreover, he explained to and the fugitives pursued. In this manner many him the small chance of success the garrison had strong posts were silenced, and their armaments de- against the disciplined corps, and that his cause was stroyed, until General Gordon and his gallant com- about lost. Na Wang, in reply, said he had every panions actually steamed up close to the walls of confidence in the honour of his noble foreign adverSoochow, and returned during the night in safety to sary, but he had not much faith in the promises of the army encamped near Quin-san. the mandarins. However, he would see General Ching, and if he showed the same clemency the garrison would surrender. This unexpected appearance of an armed steamer moving with unexampled celerity through the country created a complete panic amongst the rebels; while the villagers, who had suffered severely from the devastation of their farms, now rejoiced at their deliverance from the Taiping yoke. The garrison of Quin-san at last surrendered, of whom about two thousand were fine young men who had been pressed to join the movement on pain of death. In this and similar cases of prisoners captured General Gordon made it a sine qud non with the imperial generals that they must not be cruelly punished according to the barbarous practice of Chinese warfare, but that they should be dealt with as having surrendered to a British officer. This is an important point for consideration by those who might consider Gordon's services under the Chinese authorities as a servile obedience to their behests; for, as will be seen presently, a breach of this condition was the cause of his first throwing up the command. Not only did this magnanimous officer show his humanity on such I was present during this interview, which took place in a vacated stockade outside the walls, and after it was over took the opportunity of making some inquiries concerning the mandarin's daughter. I had previously questioned some of the foreigners who had left the city, whether there were any Chinese ladies arrived lately from Nanking, to which they replied in the affirmative; and one who had been on intimate terms with the chiefs informed me of one whom they considered the beauty of Soochow, but he did not know her name, only that she was residing with the Mo Wang's family. Following up this, I asked some other questions, which elicited the information that ho saw her on her arrival at Soochow with five other ladies, under the escort of Wo Cut-sing, the emissary, whom he knew personally. All this was verified by Na Wang, who told me her name was Loo A-Lee. Now, honourable sir," I said, "I know who that lady is. I take great interest in her, and would pro tect her from all harm. If you can aid me in doing so, I shall be much beholden to you, and may do good to you in return if you will undertake to deliver this missive to her." Saying this, I tore a leaf out of my note-book, on which I wrote my name, and a few words informing her that her father was safe, while I was at hand to succour should misfortune befall her. THE THE STORY OF THE LOST MONKEY. HE readers of the "Leisure Hour" are as curious about the conclusion of a story as were the Arabs whom we left sitting with open ears round the storyteller in the desert (ante p. 487). He told how the Sultan's dead ape was found, but many inquiries are made as to "who killed the monkey?" I will tell who it was. It was a custom of the Caliph Abdool Achmed -he inherited it from his illustrious ancestor, Haroun Alraschid, of happy memory to take rambles by night through the streets of his own city of Bag dad. On such occasions the Grand Vizeer Haleel accompanied him. Both, of course, went about in disguise: not but what the grand vizeer was horribly bored by these excursions-he would rather have been in bed, but he made pretence to enjoy them exceedingly. For the caliph was the most prying monarch in the world; and sometimes in these nightly perambulations he met with curious adventures, and obtained knowledge of things which happened in the city, things that would otherwise never have reached his ear. But in order that all this should be carried out successfully and secretly, a frequent change of disguise was obviously necessary. And sometimes his Majesty would don the habit and solemn air of a mollah, while Haleel assumed the sling box and thorough-going impudence of a pedlar; or, on the other hand, the grand vizeer would turn into a Damascus merchant, and the illustrious caliph become, for the nonce, an itinerant tinker. But there was always a certain difficulty in obtaining these disguises so as not to give wind to any floating suspicions. The way they managed it was this: Baba Mustapha, the only one of the caliph's household who was in the secret, would go to different tailors in needy circumstances, and for a bribe get them to allow themselves to be blindfolded, and come with him at midnight. He led them through narrow bye streets, and so by a private entrance through the seraglio gardens into the caliph's private apartments, where they sat and altered or arranged such dresses as were found necessary. Now, one day Baba Mustapha, in passing through the coppersmith's quarter, espied at the very end an elderly tailor sitting cross-legged out in the street, mending a garment for one of the shopkeepers. "This is my man," said he to himself. He accosted him. "My friend, where do you live?" The tailor, finding himself addressed by a sidi, or gentleman, put his needle aside and looked up over his spectacles. Sir," said he, "I am a poor tailor. I have a little shop just by the bazaars. My wife minds it for me while I go out to look for any odd jobs that I may pick up; for trade is so bad we scarcely sometimes get a meal of bread and beans." "What is your name?" asked Baba Mustapha. "Saadi, my lord, at your service." "Well, Saadi," said the other, as he slipped a gold piece into the tailor's hand, "I want some work done; lead me to your shop." The touch of the gold electrified the tailor. He arose with considerable agility, made a profound salaam, and begging his patron to follow, he shuffled off in the direction of the bazaars. Saadi's shop was about the size of a moderately capacious cupboard. It opened into the street. There was just room on the musnud for the two to sit down, and there they settled themselves for talk while the traffic of the street went on before them. "Now, my worthy friend," began Baba Mustapha, "if you have a mind for a good job, I can give you one. But, look you, you must suffer yourself to be blindfolded, and come at midnight where I lead you.” "Eh! What!" groaned the tailor in alarm. "Wallah! You would have me then do something against my conscience and my honour!" 66 "No, by the caliph's beard, brother, no; but simply to fit some clothes for a merchant going to Damascus, who wants his wife to travel with him in disguise." And here the tailor felt another gold piece slipping into his fingers, which unconsciously tightened upon it with much affection. "Well," said he, resignedly, "this is a strange world, and there are strange people in it. Times are hard. A man may certainly travel with his lawful spouse any way he pleases. And so, for my wife's sake, I will consent to brave the unknown. I will endeavour to serve you, sir. But how shall I return?" "Leave that to me," said Mustapha; "fear nothing." And so he bade adieu. At this point, the tailor's wife, who, being deaf, had not been able to listen effectually, now putting her head into the cupboard from behind, demanded imperatively of old Saadi what he had been saying about merchant's wives and blindfoldings. “Don't tell me," she cried, thoroughly exasperated. heard what you said. I'll have none of your " "I "Softly, my angel," whispered he, soothingly. And he lovingly showed her the two gold pieces, explaining thoroughly how that more gold might now come into their pockets to be a comfort to them in their old age, so that she was appeased. Punctually, at midnight, Baba Mustapha knocked at the door. Bidding the tailor to bring his sewingtackle with him, he led him out as far as the nearest mosque, and then, in the glimmer of the suspended lamp, blindfolded him with a handkerchief. Old Saadi did not feel so brave now as in the morning; quite the reverse. Nevertheless, he shambled along resolutely, while his companion led him by the hand through a perplexity of narrow back streets, until they came to a little gate in a wall. This they unlocked and opened. Then they traversed a garden, for Saadi smelt the evening breath of flowers, and heard the fountains babbling their quiet tune in the night. They entered a pavilion. Presently the handkerchief was taken off, and the tailor found himself in what was in fact an ante-room of the caliph's private apartments. He was told to wait. A small silver lamp swung from the ceiling over a rich divan. Saadi could hardly, in the dim light, make out the dimensions of the room, for it was hung with gorgeous curtains in heavy folds. But he could see neither door nor window. "Where did I come in at?" wondered Saadi, with a shiver, looking all round. "And how shall I get out again? Heads fly apace in these days, and a poor tailor's head would be counted for nothing. This a Damascus merchant, indeed! Verily he is favoured of the Prophet to live in such splendour! Wants his wife to travel in disguise! Go to, go to, old Saadi, thou art not such a fool as to believe that, though thou hast come on a fool's errand. Wallah! I wish thee well out of it. Old Mariam, my wife, too!" In the midst of the tailor's cogitations, Baba Mustapha entered by a fold of the curtain. Throwing down a bundle at his feet, "That is work to take home," he said; "but sit down now, and alter this tunic into a fisherman's dress to fit such another man as me. I will come to take thee back in an hour." Saadi was now in his element. He tucked his legs under him on the divan, and set to work with scissors and needle. He had nearly forgotten his strange fortune, so busy was he, that when an Ethiopian, who had entered noiselessly, stood before him, he looked up over his spectacles quite sedately, as if he had been a fresh customer. Making a salaam, this man inserted something that Saadi did not see in the bundle at his feet. With another salaam the intruder as noiselessly went out. "Good," thought the tailor to himself; "this seems like more work to do. Perhaps I am in luck after all." In a few minutes Baba Mustapha reappeared. Saadi's eyes were again bandaged, he was bidden to take up the bundle, and then his guide led him back to the mosque whence they started. He left him, saying he would call at the shop in a day or two. Not a little pleased was the old tailor to find himself safe at home again. Mariam opened the door and helped him in with the bundle. "It is heavy," she said. "What is in it? And where have you been? Who have you seen?" "Gently, my cherished one," pleaded her husband, softly; "one question at a time, if you please. My back is aching still with this bundle. By my beard, there should be work therein enough to make us rich. Let us see then, my Mariam, what fortune has sent us." So they two sat down on the floor, the tailor holding the lamp, while the old woman rummaged into the bundle, bringing out one thing after another. "A piece of Persian cloth-" "That's for a merchant's pelisse," said the tailor. "What lovely silk from Damascus !" "That's to line it with," said the tailor. "Silk for the caftan and tassels for the tarboosh," continued the old woman, feasting her eyes on such costly things. "But what's this common sacking?" "Stuff for a dervish's frock," said the tailor. "And this heavy bundle, wrapped in an old silk shawl?" And the tailor's wife proceeded to unroll the thing in question. "Oh, a black man brought that—” And the tailor was going on to explain; but suddenly his face turned to a ghastly pale. "Wallah!" he shrieked, starting up in a fright. "Aman, Aman, have mercy, save us! It is Eblis himself! The ghouls and the gins are here!" Mariam, too, ran into a corner, wringing her hands as if they had been burned; for when her unrolling of the bundle had come to an end it disclosed the limp form of a fat, portly monkey, evidently dead, but still warm. tion, all those hideous contortions of the face which had so scared the tailor. "It's the Evil One himself," cried he, "save us!" "You old dolt! exclaimed the wife, when she had found courage to come back and examine the mysterious thing, which after a minute's thought she seemed to recognise, "it is worse than the Evil One; it's the caliph's ape. Work, indeed! Fine work you have been doing to-night. In the name of the Prophet, what will become of us now? Why, all the bashis and police will be here as soon as day dawns, and then good-bye to our heads. Wake up! Are you a fool ?" she continued, shaking him. you not see that if they find the foul beast in our house we are undone ? "Do "By my father's beard!" said the tailor, arousing himself, "I understand it all now. That pestilent slave-may his limbs fail from under him!-who blindfolded me last night, led me to the caliph's palace that he might foist on me the dead monkey which some of his fellows have killed. He did it to save his own head. Wallah! he has made me to eat dirt-dog that he is! But what shall we do? Tell me, my cherished one, my Mariam! Thou hast a clever head; seek some escape from our toils." "Well," said the old woman, a little softened, "we may be sure of this, that when the caliph finds it out many heads will fall. Thus, when the bashis come, we must know nothing about the matter." "But what is to be done with the-creature?" rejoined the tailor, putting it mildly. "Well, we cannot cast it upon our neighbours' premises, that's sure; for that would be found out, and we should have to eat more dirt. I bethink me of a way. Take thy needle, and make quickly a loose scarlet coat for the beast, and put a small red tarboosh well down over his head, so that he may look like a doll, such as the children in our street play with, and we will get him off our hands in peace. Just in the bazaar there is a stall for dolls. There is a long string of them hanging up; go and hang this up among them as if it were for sale." Old Saadi entered heart and soul into the carrying out of his wife's proposition, and at least an hour before daylight the monkey was so cleverly dressed that none but a professional eye would have detected him to be anything but a very distinguished doll. So, hiding it under his robe, the tailor crept out in the dark, picked his way through two or three narrow streets in the bazaar quarter of Bagdad, and at last came in front of the stall his wife had indicated. There was only a thick netting hung up in front of the wares. Saadi in the silence of the night warily unstitched the fastenings. He then hooked up his burden in company of the other dolls, and having cautiously and securely sewed up the net as at first, he slunk back home, feeling very much like a thief. "Hast thou done it?" whispered Mariam on the threshold. "Yes, verily, O my wife!" he answered. "Let us close the door and go to bed." Now it was the custom in Bagdad for the bazaar to be open very early, so that the dust and odd bits might be swept out into the street for the dogs and other scavengers to clear away before sunrise. Thus it came about that Hadji M'hammud, who sold dolls and all manner of knick-knacks, which he had brought with The beast had just been strangled, for the cord him from the holy cities and from Turkestan, hapwas still tight round its neck, causing, by its constric-pened to be dusting his stall so early. For in fact the muezzin had only just begun crying out the first call to prayer from the mosque hard by: "La illa, il alla!" Hadji, the proprietor of the shop, was a man of some note in the bazaars; for he had been a great traveller. No man could tell so good a story as he; no man had so many curious things for sale-things that ran away with children's hearts; and so, in the ordinary way, it was bright-eyed children that came clustering about Hadji's stall; but on this particular morning a gathering of dogs was there. It was no use driving them away; they would come back; something interested them very much; and there they stood, their noses in the air, sniffing up at the string of dolls, just as if they wanted to buy one. his "Here, Y'hammud," cried Hadji, calling out to son, come and drive these dogs into the next street, while I go and get a cup of coffee." And Hadji departed for his morning coffee and gossip in the next street. The urchin went in to fetch a whip to that end; but by the time he came out, one of the dogs had jumped up on the stall, and had got hold of old Saadi's doll in disguise by the leg. "Eh," said the boy, who thought it great fun, "here's a pretty trick somebody has been playing us. Well, this is a good joke. They have hung up a monkey in our shop. I'll run in and tell my father." "It is a bad world," said old Hadji. "Some wicked man has been laughing at our beards. Well, let them have their laugh. By the pasha's salt that I have eaten, if we find them out, they shall laugh to another tune. But watch them, my boy; say nothing about it. While you are the anvil, have patience; when you are the hammer, strike straight and well." For Hadji did not recognise the caliph's ape. But Y'hammud, when his father was gone, said to himself, "I'll take this to old Hassan's, the confectioner. His son played me a trick. I can stuff the monkey into one of his stew-pans. I know they're going to make confection this morning, for I saw the pans ready last night to put on the fire. It will not be found out till the monkey is cooked." It was yet too early for Hassan's shop to be open; but Y'hammud knew the place, for he and the confectioner's son had been playfellows. So, with the monkey tucked under his robe, he got in stealthily, and gently drawing off the lid of one of the pans, he emptied the contents into a jar, curled the doll round so as to fit in, replaced the lid, and set the pan again in right order to go on the fire. touched the monkey's ear; then, getting bolder, he ventured up, and getting hold of the tarboosh, lugged the beast bodily out of the utensil. They were uncertain at first whether to laugh or cry, for fear of being found out; but seeing the thing dressed up as a doll, they said, "Let's take him away, and have some fun." Now the fun that these two young gentlemen, after some consideration, hit upon and finally carried out was this. Old Ali, the fisherman, lived in a sort of hovel or roost at the back. He had no wife; but the neighbours used to come and do for him—make his bed, put his place in order, and so on; for he was always off by daylight with his net to the Tigris hard by, and never came back till noon. He was a nervous old man, with one eye, and these youths thought that if they were to put the monkey in his bed, and he not to know it until he retired at night, it would be great fun to see how frightened he would be. So they got unseen into the fisherman's room-an easy matter, for he was away on the river fishing—and tucked the ape well down in his bed. But their plans were thwarted; for it happened that Ali's old cat, being of a very suspicious nature, becoming convinced that something was not quite right about the bed, jumped up and went on scratching at the clothes until she uncovered and brought to light the monkey's head. Just at that moment the old fisherman came back for his noontide meal, and found her on the bed, her back arched up, her tail ruffled out and set perpendicularly, and she with a look of horror on her face, swearing as cats do when they are not pleased. By my father's beard!" said Ali, as soon as he had stripped off the coat, "it is the caliph's ape. I must be wary. My enemy is set to blacken my face. All the bashis in Bagdad will be after me, and old Ali's head will come off." So without more ado, leaving his meal untasted, the fisherman secretly wrapped up the monkey in some old garments he had by him, tied it round in a bundle of palm-leaves, and stealthily crept out with it under cover of his nets, as if for an afternoon's fishing. With an air of studied unconcern he then jostled his way through the streets, got on board his craft, and thus finally, when no one was looking, the dead ape was dropped overboard into the Tigris. The reader already knows of the consternation of the illustrious Caliph Abdool Achmed when he became Now, Hassan the confectioner had two sons, and aware of his loss, and how all Bagdad went into the sons were the plague of his life. He could not mourning. The reader also knows how the body of keep them in order at all; and for that reason I sup- the lost ape was found. Suffice it to say that the pose it was that they were always running to their grand vizeer, together with the chief mollah, the neighbours, and so became the plague of their neigh-chief bashi, and the principal imaum, by their active bours' lives too. On this particular morning they measures found out that the murderer was Mustapha, had somehow got scent of the fact that sweetstuff the chief of the Ethiopians, who it will be rewas in the course of manufacture, and at the risk of membered nearly choked himself with a melon pip a good beating, they, as soon as they got up, forced (very suspiciously) when the news was imparted to their way into the back shop-a place strictly prohi- him in the harem gardens. After a severe whipbited-to have a taste all round. Nobody saw them; ping, this man was induced to confess that he had so they began taking off the lids of all the pans in been jealous of the ape's position and high standing turn, and dipping in their fingers to see which was at court, and had killed him. It was he, in fact, nicest. By-and-bye they came to the one into which that in the absence of Baba Mustapha had put the Y'hammud had stuffed the monkey; but when they ape into Saadi's bundle. What was his punishment lifted off the lid and caught sight of the contents, is not recorded, for they kept no record of sentences they started up, for it scared them rather, and they in those times and countries. Perhaps he was tied in felt inclined to run away as from a bogey, the more a sack and thrown into the water as the ape had been. so because they felt very guilty. But Achmed, the Whether this larger bundle ever was found, and who youngest, an inquisitive urchin, crept warily up and found it, must be left to a future story-teller. |