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48 said not a word. The new viceroy lost his promotion.

Lal-koor, when yet a common dancer, had been so intimately connected with Zahra, a woman who sold greens about the streets, that she had adopted her as her dogana. This woman now shared a portion of the sweets of her friend's elevation. This intimacy brought her so near the throne that she became the channel of favour, by which she was enabled to appear in the streets with a retinue equal to that of the first noble of the land. She rode upon an elephant magnificently caparisoned; and whenever she went to see her old friend Lal-koor, she rode through the citadel quite up to the apartment of the royal ladies, a privilege enjoyed only by wives of princes, or princesses of the blood. Her people too, in imitation of their mistress, became insolent and overbearing; so that whenever she went to the palace, they used to insult old women and other inoffensive people they met in the streets. There was then in the capital a son of the celebrated noble Ghazi-ed-din-khan, whose original name was Chin-khalich-khan. He had been commander-in-chief under Aurengzib, and had enjoyed the highest confidence of that discerning monarch. This general, after his