"Some time
elapsed
before
I learned
the
history
of
my friends.
It
was
one
which
could
not
fail
to
impress
itself
deeply
on
my mind,
unfolding
as
it
did
a
number
of
circumstances,
each
interesting
and
wonderful
to
one
so
utterly
inexperienced
as
I was. "The
name
of
the
old
man
was
De
Lacey.
He
was
descended
from
a
good
family
in
France,
where
he
had
lived
for
many
years
in
affluence,
respected
by
his
superiors
and
beloved
by
his
equals.
His
son
was
bred
in
the
service
of
his
country,
and
Agatha
had ranked
with
ladies
of
the
highest
distinction. A
few
months
before
my
arrival
they
had
lived
in
a
large
and
luxurious
city
called
Paris,
surrounded
by
friends
and
possessed
of
every
enjoyment
which
virtue, refinement
of
intellect,
or
taste, accompanied
by
a moderate fortune,
could
afford. "The father
of
Safie had been
the
cause
of
their
ruin.
He
was
a
Turkish
merchant
and
had
inhabited
Paris
for
many
years, when,
for
some
reason
which
I
could
not
learn,
he
became
obnoxious
to
the
government.
He
was
seized
and
cast
into
prison
the
very
day
that
Safie
arrived
from
Constantinople
to
join
him.
He
was
tried
and
condemned
to
death.
The
injustice
of
his
sentence
was
very
flagrant;
all
Paris
was
indignant;
and
it
was
judged
that
his
religion
and
wealth
rather
than
the
crime
alleged against
him
had been
the
cause
of
his
condemnation. "Felix had accidentally been
present
at
the
trial;
his
horror
and
indignation
were
uncontrollable
when
he
heard
the
decision
of
the
court.
He
made,
at
that
moment, a
solemn
vow
to
deliver
him
and
then
looked
around
for
the
means.
After
many
fruitless attempts
to
gain
admittance
to
the
prison,
he
found a
strongly
grated
window
in
an
unguarded
part
of
the
building,
which
lighted
the
dungeon
of
the
unfortunate Muhammadan, who, loaded
with
chains,
waited
in
despair
the
execution
of
the
barbarous
sentence.
Felix
visited
the
grate
at
night
and
made
known
to
the
prisoner
his
intentions
in
his
favour.
The
Turk, amazed
and
delighted,
endeavoured
to
kindle
the
zeal
of
his
deliverer
by
promises
of
reward
and
wealth.
Felix
rejected
his
offers
with
contempt,
yet
when
he
saw
the
lovely
Safie,
who
was
allowed
to
visit
her
father
and
who
by
her
gestures expressed
her
lively
gratitude,
the
youth
could
not
help
owning
to
his
own
mind
that
the
captive
possessed a
treasure
which
would
fully
reward
his
toil
and
hazard. "The
Turk
quickly
perceived
the
impression
that
his
daughter
had
made
on
the
heart
of
Felix
and
endeavoured
to
secure
him
more
entirely
in
his
interests
by
the
promise
of
her
hand
in
marriage
so
soon
as
he
should
be
conveyed
to
a
place
of
safety.
Felix
was
too
delicate
to
accept
this
offer,
yet
he
looked
forward
to
the
probability
of
the
event
as
to
the
consummation
of
his
happiness. "During
the
ensuing
days,
while
the
preparations
were
going forward
for
the
escape
of
the
merchant,
the
zeal
of
Felix
was
warmed
by
several
letters
that
he
received
from
this
lovely
girl,
who
found
means
to
express
her
thoughts
in
the
language
of
her
lover
by
the
aid
of
an
old
man, a
servant
of
her
father
who
understood French.
She
thanked
him
in
the
most
ardent
terms
for
his
intended
services
towards
her
parent,
and
at
the
same
time
she
gently
deplored
her
own
fate. "I
have
copies
of
these
letters,
for
I found means,
during
my
residence
in
the
hovel,
to
procure
the
implements
of
writing;
and
the
letters
were
often
in
the
hands
of
Felix
or
Agatha.
Before
I
depart
I
will
give
them
to
you;
they
will
prove
the
truth
of
my tale;
but
at
present,
as
the
sun
is
already
far
declined, I
shall
only
have
time
to
repeat
the
substance
of
them
to
you. "Safie related
that
her
mother
was
a
Christian
Arab,
seized
and
made
a slave
by
the
Turks;
recommended
by
her
beauty,
she
had won
the
heart
of
the
father
of
Safie,
who
married her.
The
young
girl
spoke
in
high
and
enthusiastic
terms
of
her
mother, who,
born
in
freedom,
spurned
the
bondage
to
which
she
was
now
reduced.
She
instructed
her
daughter
in
the
tenets
of
her
religion
and
taught
her
to
aspire
to
higher
powers
of
intellect
and
an
independence
of
spirit forbidden
to
the
female
followers
of
Muhammad.
This
lady
died,
but
her
lessons
were
indelibly impressed
on
the
mind
of
Safie,
who
sickened
at
the
prospect
of
again
returning
to
Asia
and
being
immured
within
the
walls
of
a harem, allowed
only
to
occupy
herself
with
infantile
amusements, ill-suited
to
the
temper
of
her
soul,
now
accustomed
to
grand
ideas
and
a
noble
emulation
for
virtue.
The
prospect
of
marrying
a
Christian
and
remaining
in
a
country
where
women
were
allowed
to
take
a rank
in
society
was
enchanting
to
her. "The
day
for
the
execution
of
the
Turk
was
fixed,
but
on
the
night
previous
to
it
he
quitted
his
prison
and
before
morning
was
distant
many
leagues
from
Paris.
Felix
had
procured
passports
in
the
name
of
his
father, sister,
and
himself.
He
had
previously
communicated
his
plan
to
the
former,
who
aided
the
deceit
by
quitting
his
house,
under
the
pretence
of
a
journey
and
concealed
himself,
with
his
daughter,
in
an
obscure
part
of
Paris. "Felix
conducted
the
fugitives
through
France
to
Lyons
and
across
Mont Cenis
to
Leghorn,
where
the
merchant
had decided
to
wait
a
favourable
opportunity
of
passing
into
some
part
of
the
Turkish
dominions. "Safie resolved
to
remain
with
her
father
until
the
moment
of
his
departure,
before
which
time
the
Turk
renewed
his
promise
that
she
should
be
united
to
his
deliverer;
and
Felix
remained
with
them
in
expectation
of
that
event;
and
in
the
meantime
he
enjoyed
the
society
of
the
Arabian,
who
exhibited
towards
him
the
simplest
and
tenderest
affection.
They
conversed
with
one
another
through
the
means
of
an
interpreter,
and
sometimes
with
the
interpretation
of
looks;
and
Safie sang
to
him
the
divine
airs
of
her
native
country. "The
Turk
allowed
this
intimacy
to
take
place
and
encouraged
the
hopes
of
the
youthful
lovers,
while
in
his
heart
he
had
formed
far
other
plans.
He
loathed
the
idea
that
his
daughter
should
be
united
to
a Christian,
but
he
feared
the
resentment
of
Felix
if
he
should
appear
lukewarm,
for
he
knew
that
he
was
still
in
the
power
of
his
deliverer
if
he
should
choose
to
betray
him
to
the
Italian
state
which
they
inhabited.
He
revolved
a
thousand
plans
by
which
he
should
be
enabled
to
prolong
the
deceit
until
it
might
be
no
longer
necessary,
and
secretly
to
take
his
daughter
with
him
when
he
departed.
His
plans
were
facilitated
by
the
news
which
arrived
from
Paris. "The
government
of
France
were
greatly
enraged
at
the
escape
of
their
victim
and
spared
no
pains
to
detect
and
punish
his
deliverer.
The
plot
of
Felix
was
quickly
discovered,
and
De
Lacey
and
Agatha
were
thrown
into
prison.
The
news
reached
Felix
and
roused
him
from
his
dream
of
pleasure.
His
blind
and
aged father
and
his
gentle
sister
lay
in
a
noisome
dungeon
while
he
enjoyed
the
free
air
and
the
society
of
her
whom
he
loved.
This
idea
was
torture
to
him.
He
quickly
arranged
with
the
Turk
that
if
the
latter
should
find a
favourable
opportunity
for
escape
before
Felix
could
return
to
Italy, Safie
should
remain
as
a boarder
at
a
convent
at
Leghorn;
and
then,
quitting
the
lovely
Arabian,
he
hastened
to
Paris
and
delivered
himself
up
to
the
vengeance
of
the
law, hoping
to
free
De
Lacey
and
Agatha
by
this
proceeding. "He
did
not
succeed.
They
remained
confined
for
five
months
before
the
trial
took
place,
the
result
of
which
deprived
them
of
their
fortune
and
condemned
them
to
a
perpetual
exile
from
their
native
country. "They found a
miserable
asylum
in
the
cottage
in
Germany,
where
I
discovered
them.
Felix
soon
learned
that
the
treacherous
Turk,
for
whom
he
and
his
family
endured
such
unheard-of oppression,
on
discovering
that
his
deliverer
was
thus
reduced
to
poverty
and
ruin, became a
traitor
to
good
feeling
and
honour
and
had
quitted
Italy
with
his
daughter, insultingly
sending
Felix
a
pittance
of
money
to
aid
him,
as
he
said,
in
some
plan
of
future
maintenance. "Such
were
the
events
that
preyed
on
the
heart
of
Felix
and
rendered him,
when
I
first
saw
him,
the
most
miserable
of
his
family.
He
could
have
endured
poverty,
and
while
this
distress
had been
the
meed
of
his
virtue,
he
gloried
in
it;
but
the
ingratitude
of
the
Turk
and
the
loss
of
his
beloved Safie
were
misfortunes
more
bitter
and
irreparable.
The
arrival
of
the
Arabian
now
infused
new
life
into
his
soul. "When
the
news
reached
Leghorn
that
Felix
was
deprived
of
his
wealth
and
rank,
the
merchant
commanded
his
daughter
to
think
no
more
of
her
lover,
but
to
prepare
to
return
to
her
native
country.
The
generous
nature
of
Safie
was
outraged
by
this
command;
she
attempted
to
expostulate
with
her
father,
but
he
left
her
angrily,
reiterating
his
tyrannical
mandate. "A
few
days
after,
the
Turk
entered
his
daughter's
apartment
and
told
her
hastily
that
he
had
reason
to
believe
that
his
residence
at
Leghorn
had been
divulged
and
that
he
should
speedily
be
delivered
up
to
the
French
government;
he
had
consequently
hired
a
vessel
to
convey
him
to
Constantinople,
for
which
city
he
should
sail
in
a
few
hours.
He
intended
to
leave
his
daughter
under
the
care
of
a
confidential
servant,
to
follow
at
her
leisure
with
the
greater
part
of
his
property,
which
had
not
yet
arrived
at
Leghorn. "When alone, Safie resolved
in
her
own
mind
the
plan
of
conduct
that
it
would
become
her
to
pursue
in
this
emergency. A
residence
in
Turkey
was
abhorrent
to
her;
her
religion
and
her
feelings
were
alike
averse
to
it.
By
some
papers
of
her
father
which
fell
into
her
hands
she
heard
of
the
exile
of
her
lover
and
learnt
the
name
of
the
spot
where
he
then
resided.
She
hesitated
some
time,
but
at
length
she
formed
her
determination.
Taking
with
her
some
jewels
that
belonged
to
her
and
a
sum
of
money,
she
quitted
Italy
with
an
attendant, a
native
of
Leghorn,
but
who
understood
the
common
language
of
Turkey,
and
departed
for
Germany. "She
arrived
in
safety
at
a
town
about
twenty
leagues
from
the
cottage
of
De
Lacey,
when
her
attendant
fell
dangerously
ill. Safie
nursed
her
with
the
most
devoted affection,
but
the
poor
girl
died,
and
the
Arabian
was
left alone, unacquainted
with
the
language
of
the
country
and
utterly
ignorant
of
the
customs
of
the
world.
She
fell, however,
into
good
hands.
The
Italian
had
mentioned
the
name
of
the
spot
for
which
they
were
bound,
and
after
her
death
the
woman
of
the
house
in
which
they
had
lived
took
care
that
Safie
should
arrive
in
safety
at
the
cottage
of
her
lover."