Page:The German Novelists (Volume 2).djvu/212

 he pronounced in a very deep and earnest tone. At the same time he fell down dead, and the next moment the roe sprang up, as lively and well again as ever. It bounded towards the king, played a thousand pretty tricks, displaying its attachment to him in every way it could, and then fell lifeless upon the grass, while the Dervise on his side got up again.

Fadlallah was lost in delighted astonishment as he beheld this strange transaction, and then he entreated the Dervise, by every thing that was sacred, to impart to him the nature of the secret. At first the latter made many objections, assuring the King that there was nothing he would not willingly encounter to promote the pleasure of his noble patron, holding his own life light in the balance; yet he could hardly venture to break the sacred vow he had made the old bramin, and he trusted his majesty would excuse him. This only induced the monarch to make fresh and more urgent entreaties, so as at length, to convince his favorite that there was nothing which he ought to refuse to so great a prince, and particularly a secret that some time or other, he would himself most probably communicate to a third person.

The monarch, however, must consent to take a binding oath to preserve a strict silence in regard to the affair, upon receiving which the Dervise taught him two cabalistical words which were not to be pronounced above the breath, for fear of destroying