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 the potent charm of which he had just given so lively a proof.

The King was full of impatience to put his knowledge into execution upon the spot, although the Dervise appeared as if he wished to dissuade him. But he spoke the dreadful wonder-words that he had learnt, and suddenly he found his soul inspiring the dead body of the roe. The Dervise here gave him little time to consider the nature of the metamorphosis; for he treacherously took possession of the lifeless form of the monarch, and the same moment seizing the weapon of his master he would have levelled it at the roe, had not the King, aware of his design, suddenly concealed himself in an adjacent thicket.

Rejoicing in his successful villany, the Dervise proceeded in the outward semblance of Fadlallah towards the capital, and shortly he found himself seated upon the king’s throne.

No one suspected the cheat; even Fadlallah’s own mother received her supposed son with her usual tenderness, though it was a little more difficult on the part of the Dervise to counterfeit an affection he did not feel, for the expression of a pure and virtuous heart cannot by any art or hypocrisy be imitated. The false king excused the absence of the Dervise, by saying, that he had been greatly deceived in him, that he was by no means the wise