A CHRISTIAN renegado, who had dwelt many years at Constantinople, after acquiring there immense wealth, obtained permission to quit the Turkish dominions. He repaired immediately to England, with his daughter, who was fair as one of the Houris of the Mussulman's Paradise, but whose figure was rather too petite to please the descendants of the prophet, / who are generally fond of majestic beauties; she, too, was permitted to depart in peace with her father. From a Circassian slave he had learned the art of distilling sweets of a most exquisite odour; and, on the death of the slave, the renegado was in possession of the inestimable secret of those compositions, and drew from thence the sources of his wealth.

The face of Elmira was very pretty, and her figure, though small, was elegant; nor was she less admired for the want of majestic height in England, where such a variety of tastes prevail. Crowds of lovers followed the young lady; and at length a worthy knight, disdaining the narrow idea of making objections to her birth, did her the honour of taking her as his wife.

This happy husband, Sir Bernard Fortescue, was a man of a very grave and / sedentary turn of mind, of great abilities, and as deeply learned as most men of those unpolished times. He loved Elmira; but he loved her without much passion, and yet as ardently as the coldness of his natural affection would allow: but he was to her an excellent husband, and a father the most tender to children, of whom there was every reason to doubt whether or no they were his own.

Elmira had received from a Circassian mother a true Turkish education, which taught her to look upon the attentions, and what is styled the love of men, as the summum bonum of human felicity.