frightful desolation which I had seen in all places as I came along.
'My dear lady,' said the young man, 'have patience for a moment.' At these words he shut the Koran, put it into a rich case, and laid it in the niche. I took that opportunity of observing him, and perceived so much good-nature and beauty in him that I felt strange emotion. He made me sit down by him; and before he began his discourse I could not forbear saying to him, 'Sir, I can scarcely have patience to wait for an account of all those wonderful things that I have seen since the first time I came into your city; and my curiosity cannot be satisfied too soon: therefore pray, sir, let me know by what miracle you alone are left alive among so many persons that have died in so strange a manner.'
'Madam,' said the young man, 'you have given me to understand that you have a knowledge of the true God by the prayer you have just now addressed to Him. I will acquaint you with the most remarkable effect of His greatness and power. You must know that this city was the metropolis of a mighty kingdom, over which the king, my father, did reign. He, his whole court, the inhabitants of the city, and all his other subjects were magi, worshippers of fire, and of Nardoun, the ancient king of the giants, who rebelled against God.
'And though I had an idolatrous father and mother, I had the good fortune in my youth to have a governess who was a good Mussulman; I learned the Koran by heart, and understood the explanation of it perfectly. "Dear prince," would she oftentimes say, "there is but one true God; take heed that you do not acknowledge and adore any other." She taught me to read Arabic, and the book she gave me to practise upon was the Koran. As soon as I was capable of understanding it, she explained to me all the heads of this excellent book, and infused piety into my mind, unknown to my father or anybody else. She happened to die, but not before she had instructed me in all that was necessary to convince me of the truth of the Mussulman religion. After her death I persisted with constancy in this belief; and I abhor the false god Nardoun, and the adoration of fire.
'It is about three years and some months ago that a thundering
