Money I had
none, but my ability to read the stars I knew well would earn me a
livelihood wherever I might wander.
"With my adventures during the next two years this story has no concern.
It is enough to say that, after many vicissitudes of fortune, I found
myself installed as astrologer in the court of a Moslem prince,
sovereign over an extensive region in Kashmir.
"My lord was a man of noble heart and of high mental gifts. He ruled
over his people not by fear of the sword, but by absolute justice, which
he himself personally administered, every day holding audience so that
grievances, even those of the most poor, might be heard and wrongs
redressed. And his royal duties were shared by his wife, who, although
she might sit behind the screen of the women's quarters, none the less
shared in the counsels of state, and contributed words of wisdom in the
direction of affairs.
"Never in my experience have I encountered such mutual love, trust, and
devotion as subsisted between this pair. For no other woman in the world
had Mirza Shah thought or regard or desire--I call him Mirza Shah, but
that was not his real name. For reasons that will presently appear, I
refrain from disclosing the identity of places and persons connected
with my story.
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