124 GENTLENESS IS POWER. 
and the true wisdom to think for others as well as himself when as- 
sailed by it. 
The Princess Caranza was, in some respects, the totally reverse 
character of her father. She inherited all his stubbornness of will, 
and determination of purpose, with his generosity of disposition ; but 
she went far beyond him in the one, seeing that she could yield, and 
with the sweetest grace, when no worthy triumph was to be effected 
by holding out, otherwise she would have been torn in pieces by 
wild horses first : and in generosity she had learned that what would 
be that virtue in a poor or humble subject, in one holding her sta- 
tion was scarcely to be called a merit. She had learned that for a 
princess or other wealthy person to dispense large sums of money, or 
rich presents, was little more than giving herself pleasure, and no 
inconvenience ; and that, to be truly generous, she must submit to 
this in small things as well as where great good was to be obtained. 
It was upon this point that Caranza was unlike her father: her 
happiness arose from making all around her happy, but not in mak- 
ing them happy in order that she herself might be so—she would 
then have been selfish. She was gentle and kind by nature, and 
she was wise by education. The queen, her mother, who had been 
the only watcher and guardian of her conduct, was the daughter of a 
poor shepherd. Her uncommon beauty had caught the eye of Azum 
Beg as he one day rode out to hunt, when, with the wilfulness of 
one who had never known controul, he ordered that she should be 
brought to his palace the next morning. The second view of her 
fair and lovely features, together with her simple and honest speech, 
so wrought upon his mind, that in a few days be made her the part- 
ner of his bed and throne. The king, without being aware of it, 
had espoused a maiden whose mind was as pure as her face was 
beautiful. Sufeika (for that was the name of the queen) had been 
born, nursed, and brought up, in the school of adversity and toil.— 
She had known many privations, and had learned to value the bless- 
ing of cheerful and active exertion. Her mind had never been de- 
based by indigent misery ; and now that this sudden prosperity had 
come upon her, it was so far from disordering her well-balanced 
judgment, that she did not forget the class she had left, but con- 
stantly directed a]! her influence to benefit and exalt the members of 
it ; and, indeed, many of the edicts and royal ordinances intended 
to advance the interests and comforts of the common people, and for 
which Azum Beg gained all the credit and popularity, had been the 
result of the queen’s suggestion and entreaty. This noble-minded 
