Fer. Their darkness is to me as emptiness.

Sa. By heaven, I would not now unseal my lips,

But I know him I speak to, and my speech

Shall win thee. Hark, I have been for twenty years

Familiar with the king, one of his house;

I have known the princess Almeh from her cradle:

Her father’s only child, she hath been to me

My single joy no less: from the first words

She lisped upon my knee, unto this day,

Her sayings and doings have been still the events