The King's Talisman — page 89: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

80 | THE KINGS TALISMAN. CHAPTER XI. A MESSENGER FROM THE KING. All that the art of man could do for the comfort and happiness of any individual, had been done for Al-Bassa, the king’s minister and privy counselor; upon his dwelling had been lavished all that the most sumptuous taste could de- mand, his tabie was loaded with the richest dainties of the Kast, and a score of ready servants stood obedient to his will; but Al-Bassa had most bitterly learned that all his wealth, that all his pomp and pride of state, could afford no happiness. His gold, for which thousands would have even shed a brother’s blood, was but as dross in his eyes; and his jewels, for which monarchs might have envied him, were like so many worthless pebbles in his coffers. The old man had tasted deeply of sorrow, nor was there a single gleam of sunlight to relieve the darkness of his soul. It was late at night—on the same night that Abdah Nazor visited the cell of Ossifrage—that Al-Bassa stepped © forth from his porch and entered the rose-lined walks of his garden. His hands were clasped in agony, and _ his eyes were raised toward the star-lit heavens, the twinkling beams from which played in the tear-drops that stood trembling upon his eyelids. _ Oh,” he murmured, as he placed his hands to his throb- bing brow, ‘“‘why has this blow come upon me? Why have my gray hairs thus been brought down in sorrow, and the brightness of my home changed into darkness of utter desolation? The sun has gone from my path, the gentle moon refuses her light, and the stars of heaven each send a stream of living fire to my soul. My child! my child! my EGomicbooks (eo