17
The loneliness of the dark place Seemed
frightful to him. Where are you, my brave
lads, cried he, old companions of my watch-
ings, inroads, and labour? What can I do
without you? Did I collect you to lose you
by so base a fate, and so unworthy your
courage? Had you died with your sabres
in your hands, like brave men, my regret
had been less! When shall I get so gal-
lant a troop again? And if I could, can I
undertake it without exposing so much
gold and treasure to him, who hath already
enriched himself out of it? I cannot, I
ought not to think of it, before I have taken
away his life. I will undertake that my-
self, which I could not accomplish with so
powerful assistance: and when I have taken
care to secure this treasure from being pil-
laged, I will provide for it new masters and
successors after me, who shall preserve and
augment it to all posterity. This resolution
being taken, he was not at a loss how to
execute it; but, easy in his mind, and
full of hopes, he slept all that night very
quietly.
When he waked early next morning as
he had proposed, he dressed himself, agree-
ably to the project he had in his head, and
went to the town, and took a lodging in a
khan. And as he expected what had hap-
pened at Ali Baba's might make a great
