think of adding so vast a country as Russia to his dominions: that
would have been fatal indeed; the balance of the North would then
have been lost; but the Sultan and I would never have allowed it."--
"Sir!" said Harley, with no small surprise on his countenance.--
"Why, yes," answered the other, "the Sultan and I; do you know me?
I am the Chan of Tartary."

Harley was a good deal struck by this discovery; he had prudence
enough, however, to conceal his amazement, and bowing as low to the
monarch as his dignity required, left him immediately, and joined
his companions.

He found them in a quarter of the house set apart for the insane of
the other sex, several of whom had gathered about the female
visitors, and were examining, with rather more accuracy than might
have been expected, the particulars of their dress.

Separate from the rest stood one whose appearance had something of
superior dignity. Her face, though pale and wasted, was less
squalid than those of the others, and showed a dejection of that
decent kind, which moves our pity unmixed with horror: upon her,
therefore, the eyes of all were immediately turned. The keeper who
accompanied them observed it: "This," said he, "is a young lady who
was born to ride in her coach and six. She was beloved, if the
story I have heard is true, by a young gentleman, her equal in
birth, though by no means her match in fortune: but love, they say,
is blind, and so she fancied him as much as he did her. Her father,
it seems, would not hear of their marriage, and threatened to turn
her out of doors if ever she saw him again. Upon this the young
gentleman took a voyage to the West Indies, in hopes of bettering