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themselves, intermarrying and dying on the same spot; they were hardly aware that they were without a country.

It was a great result of the Norman government in England that it associated our insular and retired dominion, with that nobler theatre of human affairs, the Continent of Europe. In Normandy we trace the first footings of our national power; the English Sovereign, now a prince of France, ere long on the French soil vied in magnitude of territory with his paramount Lord, the Monarch of France. Such a permanent connexion could not fail to produce a conformity in manners; what was passing among our closest neighbours, rivals or associates, was reflected in the old Saxon land which had lost its nationality (1).

() From the «AMENITIES OF LITERATURE,» a new work by D'ISRAELI, to whose learned and elegant pen the history of our literature owes so large a debt of gratitude. As the chapter which we here present to our readers forms a detached essay upon an interesting epoch in our Literary Annals, and as it contains the demonstration of the important distinction to be drawn between the Norman and Anglo-Norman writings, we have substituted it for a sketch of the same period which we had prepared for the English Review; but which, from the impossibility of consulting, in this country, the necessary MSS. and other documents, would have been found less complete than Mr. D'Israeli's sound and beautifully-expressed logic.—Note of the Editor.

STORY OF AZBEAZ,

THE SHOEMAKER KING.

( CONTINUED FROM PAGE 338.)

When he had dismissed the women, he then inquired whether the youth who was kind to him in his distress had been discovered, and soon after, to the King's great joy, he appeared and stood before him.

Come forward, exclaimed Azbe az.

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The youth took off his shoes, made a low bow, and advanced some steps.

"Come up hither, again he exclaimed.

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The youth again advanced some steps, and entered the very room in which the King was seated

Come and sit here," said the King, pointing to the very musnud upon which he sat.

The youth, with the greatest humility of mien and attitude, did as he was ordered, and when Azbeaz observed the astonishment expressed by those of his attendants who were near, he said:

"It is thus that I treat the man who dared to show compassion when every one else expressed contempt; who, unmind-ful of his own safety, only thought of my suffering, and who by so doing had nothing to gain but all to lose. Such a man is above all value. Whatever honour he may receive can in

no wise add to his worth; the only recompense he really can receive is from Allah. »

Upon this he ordered a robe of great value to be thrown over his shoulders, and a diamond-headed dagger to be brought from the royal treasury and placed in his girdle. The youth, abashed and ashamed at such unheard-of distinction, could scarcely give utterance to his feelings of gratitude: at length, falling on his knee before the King, he said:

Why will your Highness sink the heart of his slave into the lowest depths of humility? He is and ever was the less than the least; and since it has been his happiness to meet with the approval of the centre of the universe, it is plain that his good fortune proceeds more from the decrees of fate than from any merit of his. »

"

Speak no more,» said Azbeaz; « we know what we do know, and do that which we approve. Now, as merit is rare, and as there is none without truth, and as I know you have the one, and, therefore, conclude you possess the other, sit down, and without delay relate to me your history, for my name is not 'little and white,' if I do not make you feel what friendship means. »

STORY OF KHODADAD.

The youth then, overcoming his bashfulness, spoke as follows:

"

May it please your majesty, your slave was born under an evil destiny. He is ignorant who is his father, and, what is still more surprising, he cannot say who was his motherhe is the meanest of God's creatures-he does not know to whom he belongs-by no ingenuity has he been able to discover whence he came no one claims him, and he has lived by the pure and sole protection of that Providence, who watches over the life and being of those creatures whom he has called into existence. The only relatives I can claim are a family of puppies, with whom I was found lying in one confused heap, and I am told it was difficult to distinguish my infant cries from their earliest yelping. In truth, one

summer morning, I was discovered by a negress, lying upon a dunghill situated close to the walls of the palace, and almost equi-distant between the door of a mollah's house and that of a well-known money-changer. This event was soon known in the mahal, or district, and as all good Mussulmans were unanimous in the opinion that I ought to be taken care of, such being the injunction in the blessed Koran, it was determined that I should live: but then came the question, who was to possess me? The general opinion was, that I belonged to the house to which I was the nearest when found; therefore, it remained to be decided whether I belonged to the mollah or the money-changer. Neither of these worthies, when called upon to exercise the virtues of charity and benevolence, seemed at all pleased at the preference shown them, and they contended that my interest being the interest of the whole community, seeing I was the child of destiny, it was not fair that either of them should be entrusted with the duty of bringing me up. Others opposed to this, that it was a great benefit to possess a human creature so circumstanced; it evidently was a gift from heaven, and, therefore, ought to be highly prized; besides, a man-child was worth a good price in the market at all times, and the expense of rearing would be well repaid by a future sale. After much discussion, it was at length determined that I should belong to him' to whose threshold I was the nearest when found, and, in order to determine this, it was necessary to come to actual measurement. From the dunghill to the mollah's threshold was fifty-three gez, and to the threshold of the money changer fifty-two gez; thus, in my misfortune, I belonged to the money-changer by one gez. In the mean while, as long as this question was pending, I was running a fair chance of dying from want of sustenance, Wrapt up in the shirt of the negress, a kind-hearted slave who belonged to the moneychanger, I was crying my young heart out from sheer hunger, and it was only after the difficulty of who was my master was settled, that any demonstrations were made of supplying me with food.

The next question was how was to be named? The mollah,

"

grown generous from his good luck, said that I ought to be called Khodadad, or « given by God," but the money changer; smarting under the burthen imposed upon him, insisted upon my being called Nejes Cooli, the slave of uncleanness, and thus I was issued into the world. This ill-omened name, which marked the feelings of my master towards me, became an excuse for all the future miseries which I was destined to endure. I had fallen into the hands of one of the worst specimens of our nature in the shape of man. There never was installed, I verily believe, so mean a mind in so ill-favoured a body. Avarice was his ruling vice. The love of gold had entirely choked up every avenue of good feeling in his heart; and having now, so he flattered himself, expiated every sin by taking me in, and adopting me as a child of charity, he felt that he was at liberty to beat me as he chose. He bore on his person all the outward marks of his penurious habits. Long and bony by nature, he became emaciated from scanty food. His haggard face was lighted up by a suspicious eye, that was ever on the watch; and his long skinny hands seemed to be reserved for no other purpose than to handle gold. He never threw away a thing—he even kept the pariugs of his nails and the combings of his beard. His room was the deposit of old shoes and tattered clothes, for he never treated himself to a new caba as long as the old one could hang together.

His household consisted of a wife, a daughter, and the negress slave above mentioned. The daughter was an infant when I entered the family, and we grew up together. It is extraordinary that I grew at all, considering the small quantity of food that was allowed for my use; but the negress was a kind-hearted creature, and she often stinted herself for me: the daughter too, as she increased in stature, proved the very reverse of her father in disposition, for her whole pleasure consisted in giving, and she would rather have starved herself than see me want. As soon as my mind began to expand, the mollah, who felt himself in duty bound to contribute to my well-being, offered to educate me, and I was daily sent to his little school in the mosque, where I learnt my Alif

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