GENTLENESS IS POWER. 129 
ness of heavenly candour and beauty. One thing, however, the 
demon could not annihilate in his victim. Outwardly horrible, even 
appalling, he had made him, and mentally deformed and wicked ; 
but he could not quench in him that spark divine, the consciousness 
of good. He had brought him to hate goodness ; but with the hate 
had fortunately come the awe, and even the fear, of moral truth, 
and the holy beauty of loving kindness and long suffering. His per- 
ception, too, of personal accomplishment, had not been suffered to 
expire, yet was it converted into a fierce and animal passion. Every 
thing was to yield before the storm of his will; and his love, like 
his warfare, dictated submission or devastation. This was the king 
who, unfortunately for Azum, had become his foe. 
The rare beauty and accomplishments of the Princess Caranza 
had not been the talk of surrounding kingdoms and provinces, with- 
out their fame having also reached the ears of Aborzuf. He imme- 
diately fired with the desire of obtaining possession of one that was 
an object of envy to all his brother potentates; and as, in a former 
contest with zum, he had so weakened the power of that prince as 
to reduce him to the condition of becoming a tributary for the te- 
nure of his crown, he felt assured that the simple signification of his 
will must produce an acquiescence with it on the part of that mo- 
narch. In terms, therefore, which wore rather the air of command 
than of a courtly treaty, he proposed himself as the consort of Ca- 
ranza. Azum Beg was ill prepared for such an appeal, and still 
less inclined to such an alliance; but he knew his own weakness, 
and he more bitterly knew his neighbour’s power, as well as his 
mental and bodily ugliness. Under any circumstances he could not 
have acted magnanimously in his present situation. He resorted to 
meanness and insincerity. An embassy was returned to the court of 
Aborzuf, stating that a treaty of marriage for the Princess Caranza 
was already in progress. Had the statement been true, Aborzuf 
would not have foregone his claim ; but, by his emissaries, he knew 
it to be adeception. In the torrent, therefore, of his rage, he swore 
that in one month from that day he would be before the walls of 
Azum Beg’s palace, and claim the hand of his daughter. ‘ And 
tell your master,” said he, “that if he then, in the minutest point, 
obstruct my purpose, I will tear his whole city to the ground, and 
bring the silence of the grave into his provinces. He knows me, and 
that, in my threats at all events, I keep my oath.” 
The result of this embassy stunned the whole court of Azum 
Beg, who, with an imbecile selfishness, wandered about his palace, 
weeping and wringing his hands. The news also quickly spread 
VOL. IX., NO. XXV. V7 
