"Know, King-Magnanimous, that your glorious person is to form part of the Dowry of the Princess. Yes! even so. Without asking your pleasure in this affair, they have made a gift of you to a stranger Prince, who may not have for your Majesty the respect due you.
"And I—poor Mahout—what am I without the noble elephant whom I attend? And what is your Majesty without me?
"Therefore they have also made a gift of me, and I am now a fragment of the royal dowry. We are bound to each other till death—we are but one! You go where I conduct you, and I must go where you go. Oh! King-Magnanimous, ought we to weep or rejoice?"
Really, I could not say. And I was greatly disturbed at what had been told me.
To leave this life, so sweet and tranquil, but which sometimes wearied me by its monotony and inaction.... Abandon this beautiful home so abundantly provided with good things!... Surely this was cause for weeping! But then, to see new countries, new cities, meet with new adventures—that was perhaps something to rejoice at! ...
Like my Mahout, I concluded the best way was to wait—and for the present to be resigned.
