Has. "The Christian Doctrine." [Haswell bows here with the utmost reverence.] There you will find all I have done was but my duty.
Sul. [To the Guards.] Retire, and leave me alone with the stranger. [All retire except Haswell and the Sultan. They come forward.]
Sul. Your words recall reflections that distract me; nor can I bear the pressure on my mind without confessing—I am a Christian.
Has. A Christian!—What makes you thus assume the apostate?
Sul. Misery, and despair.
Has. What made you a Christian?
Sul. My Arabella,—a lovely European, sent hither in her youth, by her mercenary parents, to sell herself to the prince of all these territories. But 'twas my happy lot, in humble life, to win her love, snatch her from his expecting arms, and bear her far away—where, in peaceful solitude we lived, till, in the heat of the rebellion against the late Sultan, I was forced from my happy home to bear a part.—I chose the imputed rebels side, and fought for the young aspirer.—An arrow, in the midst of the engagement, pierced his heart; and his officers, alarmed at the terror this stroke of fate might cause amongst their troops, urged me (as I bore his likeness) to counterfeit it farther, and shew myself to the soldiers as their king recovered. I yielded to their suit, because it gave me ample power to avenge the loss of my Arabella, who had been taken from her home by the merciless foe, and barbarously murdered.
Has. Murdered!
Sul. I learnt so—and my fruitless search to find her since has confirmed the intelligence.—Frantic for her loss, I joyfully embraced a scheme which promised vengeance on the enemy—it prospered,—and I revenged my wrongs and her's, with such unsparing justice on the foe, that even the men who made me what I was, trembled to reveal their imposition; and they find it still their interest to continue it.
Has. Amazement!