"No."
"My Lord has said he must have cannon. Has he found an artificer to his mind?"
Mahommed frowned.
"I will give my Lord a suggestion. Does it suit him to reply now to the proposal of marriage, keeping the matter of the stipend open, he may give half relief and still hold the Emperor, who stands more in need of bezants than of a consort."
"Prince," said Mahommed, quickly, "as you go out send my secretary in."
"Despatch a messenger for the ambassador of my brother of Constantinople. I will see him immediately."
This to the secretary.
And presently the ambassador had the matter for report above recited. In the report he might have said with truth—a person styling himself Prince of India has risen to be Grand Vizier in fact, leaving the title to Kalil.
These negotiations, lamentably barren of good results, were stretched through half the year. But it is necessary to leave them for the time, that we may return and see if the Emperor had better success in the management of the domestic problem referred to as an inheritance.