proceeded to a delightful bower, put on costly attire, and the youth regaled the rescued lady with delicious fruits, and sang sonnets on her personal beauty.  Sophronia awoke, sad and disappointed, to find that her late bliss was only a dream.  In a day or two afterwards, the Turkish army appeared, and a vigorous siege commenced; nevertheless, the Christians stoutly defended the place, and would, ultimately, have obliged the enemy to retire, had no intervention taken place.  It happened, unfortunately for the garrison, that a gallant Turkish captain, in the prime of youth, called Abdurachman approached so near to the castle gates, as to be plainly observed by the fair Sophronia, from a small turret window, out of which she had viewed the besiegers.  The lady imagined this captain to be the person to whom she was so much obliged in her dream, and rejoiced at the supposed discovery; she hoped that the assailants would be successful in taking her father’s castle that she might have an opportunity of falling into the hands of the gallant captain she so greatly admired.  The siege still raged with much fury, but was continually repulsed by the brave Christians, insomuch that the Turkish general became disconcerted, and in the evening of the third day after the commencement of the siege, retired to his camp, about a league distant from the scene of action.  Sophronia, meanwhile, was agitated at the ill success of the Turks, though she did not despair of seeing the captain again.

She made a confidante of her maid Annis, who undertook, daring as the attempt was, to steal from the castle to the enemy’s camp, in order to convey a letter from her mistress to Abdurachman.  The intrepid Annis commenced her task in the night:  she avoided passing the sentinels and wardens of the castle, but found her way to a postern gate, scarcely known to any but herself.  She arrived at Abdurachman’s tent; the captain was conversing with his friends about what the general intended to do on the morrow.  Annis desired to speak with him in private, to which he consented.  She then delivered the letter, which was bound with a lock of the fair writer’s hair, and the astonished Abdurachman perused the following:—­

“Adored Youth,

“I am passionately in love with you, and am sorry that you have been frustrated in your endeavours to take the castle.  As I adore you beyond measure, and shall certainly take poison if you do not succeed; I engage to deliver Abydos with all its riches into your hands, provided you follow my instructions.  I advise, that in the morning by sunrise, you raise the siege and withdraw your whole army from the castle, and return not again till you hear from me.  My father will be so rejoiced at your departure, that he will be off his guard, and then I can easily conduct you with secrecy into the castle.”