Abdul Aziz, says Lord Staleybridge, was not impervious to the shaft of wit. Once, in his younger days, as he was hunting in the valley, he met one morning as the day dawned an uncommonly ugly man, at the sight of whom his horse started. Being nearly dismounted, and deeming it a bad omen, he called out in a rage to have his head struck off. The poor peasant, whom they had seized and were on the point of executing, prayed that he might be informed of his crime.
"Your crime," said the Sultan, "is your unlucky countenance, which is the first object I saw this morning, and which had nearly caused me to fall from my horse."
"Alas!" said the man, "by this reckoning what term must I apply to your majesty's countenance, which is the first object my eyes met this morning, and which is to be the cause of my death?"
The Sultan smiled at the wit of the reply, ordered the man to be released, and gave him a present instead of taking off his head.
coming next - Romantic Fiction from the 1870's - a longer story this time so will take me a little while to upload. Bear with me. :-)
Regroup!
5 years ago
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