Behram had furnished Assad with pen, ink, and paper, as a token of his office, that the queen might take him for what he designed she should.
The prince stepped a little aside, and wrote as follows, suitable to his wretched circumstances:
"The blind man avoids the ditch into which the clearsighted falls. Fools advance themselves to honours, by discourses which signify nothing, while men of sense and eloquence live in poverty and contempt. The Mussulmaun with all his riches is miserable. The infidel triumphs. We cannot hope things will be otherwise. The Almighty has decreed it shall be so."