I was now a rich man; I bought a large estate, with a marquisate attached to it. I also purchased the château of Fonseca, and made a gift of it to my dear wife. I was pleased at having the means of raising her again to that rank in society, which she had quitted for my sake. For some years we lived happily, although we had no children. After that, events happened which again sent me to sea. Such, your highness, is the history of my Fourth Voyage.
“Well,” observed the pacha, “I never heard of so large a snake before; did you, Mustapha?”
“Never, your highness; but travellers see strange things. What is to be the extent of your highness’s bounty?”
“Give him ten pieces of gold,” said the pacha, rising from the throne, and waddling behind the curtain.
Mustapha told out the sequins. “Selim, if I might advise you, it would please his highness better, if you continued more at sea, and dealt a little more in the marvellous. That wife of yours, Cerise as you call her, is rather a bore.”
“Well, I’ll get rid of her to-morrow; but I can tell you, vizier, that I deserve all my pay, for its rather fatiguing work—besides, my conscience.”
“Holy Prophet! hear him—his conscience! go, hypocrite, drown it in wine to-night, and it will be dead tomorrow; and don’t forget to kill your wife.”
“Allow me to observe, that you Turks have very little taste; nevertheless, I will get rid of her after your own fashion, for she shall go to the bottom of the sea—Bashem ustun, on my head be it.”