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 improved. I am enabled to look back with pleasure, and forward with hope; and I shall now rejoice still to be the shagowshadow [sic] of thy power at Tauris, and to keep those honours which I so lately wished to resign."—The King who had listened to Mirze with a mixture of surprize and curiosity, immediately gave the letter to Coseou, and commanded that it should be read. The eyes of the court were at once turned on the hoary sage, whose countenance was suffused with an honest blush; and it was not without some hesitation that he read these words.

"To Mirza, whom the wisdom of Abbas, our mighty lord has honoured with dominion, be everlasting health! When I heard thy purpose to withdraw the blissings of thy government from the thousands of Touris, my heart was wounded with the arrow of affliction, and my eyes became dim with sorrow. But who shall speak before the king, when he is troubled? And who shall boast of knowledge, when he is distressed by doubt? To thee I will relate the events of my youth, which thou hast renewed before me; and those truths which they