motives, supposed in good earnest that Abbas was chary of his guest's ease; and, to crown the absurdity, swallowed another monstrous fiction invented by the courtiers, who, as Hajji Baba would say, were all the while laughing at his beard,—namely, that the monarch was so overjoyed at his arrival, that, had he not been annoyed by the number of soldiers who followed him against his will, he would next morning have ridden to Ferhabad to bid him welcome!
However, when he actually arrived in that city, he did not, as our worthy pilgrim expected, immediately admit him to an audience. In the mean while an agent from the Cossacks inhabiting the north-eastern shores of the Black Sea arrived, and Della Valle, who neglected no occasion of forwarding his own views, in the shaping of which he exhibited remarkable skill, at once connected himself with this stranger, whom he engaged to aid and assist by every means in his power, receiving from the barbarian the same assurances in return. The Cossack had come to tender the shah his nation's services against the Turks; notwithstanding which, the business of his presentation had been negligently or purposely delayed, probably that he might understand, when his proposal should be afterward received, that, although the aid he promised was acceptable, it was by no means necessary, nor so considered.
At length the long-anticipated audience arrived, and Della Valle, when presented, was well received by the shah; who, not being accustomed, however, to the crusading spirit or the romance of chivalry, could not very readily believe that the real motives which urged him to join the Persian armies were precisely those which he professed. Nevertheless, his offers of service were accepted, and the provisions which he had already received rendered permanent. He was, moreover, sumptuously enter-
