1 79 1. MELAI, A TALE, 69 



Melai^ a ConJ}anti?icpolitnn I'ale, concluded from 

 page 39. 



In fpite of the ardour of my attachment to Guhnarac, I vas 

 almolt, if not wholly, a Ihangcr to jealouly, that fury 

 with which love is fo frequently attended, bhe was net 

 only the miltrefs of my heart, but alio the millrefs oi her 

 own freedom, as far at leall, as the cuftoms of the country, 

 and the dignity of her e.ialted flation would allow. 1 fre- 

 quently permitted fome of my courtiers to wait upon us at 

 our little fuppers, and thus gave them an opportunity of 

 feeing my wife : Nay, fo far did I forget the pride of a fn- 

 Vereign, that I more than once luffered Kbit ivlaht?iud to fit 

 befide us, and to fl)are in our repalf. Fool that I was for 

 fo doing, did I not know how impodiljle it was to behold 

 Cu/manac and not to love her ? 



1 have never difcovered, whether Ebrt Mahmud, out of 

 fome remains of gratitude and fidelity, might not at firft 

 liave endeavoured to ftilie thofe paflions, which foon after 

 took poifeffion of his foul. But I difcovered, alas 1 too foon, 

 that a rival is formidable even to a prince. My virier,.who law 

 no hopes during my reipn of being able to pilfer the faireft 

 jewel of my crown, began therefore to meditate the ticach- 

 trous defign of raifing himfelf to the throne of Indojfav. 

 Perhaps he law fomewhat in the eyes of Gulmanac, which 

 intimated too plainly, that fae would not be a^'erie to ex- 

 change a huA)and of my years, for one who was iiill in tne 

 bloom of youth, or, perhaps, he was too well acquainted 

 with the female difpofition, not to be fenlible, that their in- 

 clinations follow, for the moil part, the favourites of fortune. 

 The whole of his abilities were now exerted to iecure to 

 himfelf the affeclions of the people \ and his attempt fuceed- 

 cd but t6o well ; for, when I told you juif now that I was 

 adoredbymy fubjects, I fpokeonlyof the greater part of them. 

 'I'he vain expedation of being univerfally beloved, which, 

 in any fituation is iuHiciently ridiculous, would be the 

 Iieight of abfurdity in that of a monarch. The party, which 

 in my cafe were the niolf difcontcnted, confiited chiefly of 



