“One day I said to him, you have received a good deal [of money] from the treasury, but your appearance is as wretched as ever; what is the cause of it? have you spent the money, or do you amass it?” When the boy heard these encouraging words, and found that I enquired into his condition, he said with tears in his eyes, ’Whatever you have bestowed on this slave, my preceptor has taken from me; he did not give me one paisa [172] for myself; with what shall I make up other clothes, and appear better dressed before you? it is not my fault, and I cannot help it.’  At this humble statement of his, I felt pity for him; I instantly ordered the eunuch to take charge of the boy from that day, to educate him under his own eye, and give him good clothes, and not to allow him to play and skip about with other boys; moreover, that my wish was, he should be taught a respectful mode of behaviour, to fit him for my own princely service, and to wait on me.  The eunuch obeyed my orders, and perceiving how my inclinations leaned, he took the utmost care of him.  In a little time, from ease and good living, his colour and sleekness changed greatly, like a snake’s throwing off its slough; I restrained my inclinations as much as I could, but the [handsome] form of that rogue [173] was so engraven on my heart, that I fondly wished to keep him clasped to my bosom, and never take my eyes off him for a moment.

“At last, I made him enter into my companionship, and dressing him in a variety of rich clothes and all kinds of jewels, I used to gaze at him.  In short, by being always with me, my longing eyes were satisfied and my heart comforted; I every moment complied with his wants and wishes; at last, my condition was such, that if on any urgent occasion he was absent for a moment from my sight, I became quite uneasy.  In a few years he became a youth, and the down appeared on his cheeks; his body and limbs were well formed! then there began to be a talk about him out of doors among the courtiers.  The guards of all descriptions began to forbid him from coming and going within the palace.  At length, his entrance into it was quite stopped, and without him I had no rest; a moment [of absence on his part,] was an age [of pain on mine].  When I heard these tidings of despair, I was as distracted as if the day of judgment had burst over me; and such was my condition that I could not speak a word [to express my wishes]:  nor yet could I live separated from him.  I had no means of relief; O God, what could I do; a strange kind of uneasiness came over me, and in consequence of my distraction I addressed myself to the same eunuch [who was in all my secrets], and said to him, ’I wish to take care of this youth.  In fact, the best plan is for you to give him a thousand gold pieces, to set him up in a jeweller’s shop in the chauk, that he may from the profit of his trade live comfortably; and to build him a handsome house near my residence; to buy him slaves, and hire