I leave you to judge, madam, how much I was surprised and
grieved.
The rebel vizier had entertained a mortal hatred against me for a
long time upon this occasion: When,I was a stripling, I loved to
shoot with a cross-bow; and being one day upon the terrace of the
palace with my bow, a bird happened to come by; I shot, but
missed him, and the ball by misfortune hit the vizier, who was
taking the air upon the terrace of his own house, and put out one
of his eyes. As soon as I understood it, I not only sent to make
my excuse to him, but did it in person; yet he always resented
it, and, as opportunity offered, made me sensible of it. But now,
madam, that he had me in his power, he expressed his resentment
in a very barbarous manner; for he came to me like a madman as
soon as ever he saw me, and, thrusting his finger into my right
eye, pulled it out himself; and so, madam, I became blind of one
eye.
But the usurper's cruelty did not stop here; he ordered me to be
shut up in a box, and commanded the executioner to carry me into
the country to cut off my head, and leave me to be devoured by
the birds of prey. The hangman and another carried me, thus shut
up on horseback, into the country, in order to execute the
usurper's barbarous sentence; but by my prayers and tears I moved
the executioner's compassion.
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