Zaire's love increases with the indulgent tenderness of her lover. She casts herself in tears at his feet and beseeches him to defer the marriage till the morrow. She calculates that her brother will then be gone—that she will have received baptism—that she will have acquired the strength to resist; she even flatters herself that the Christian religion will permit her to love a man so generous, so virtuous, to whom nothing is wanting but to be a Christian. Struck with these ideas she speaks to Orosman with a tenderness so natural, a grief so genuine, that he yields again, and agrees to live this one day without her. He was sure of being loved, was happy in the thought, and shut his eyes to all else.
He had, however, in the first movements of jealousy, ordered the seraglio to be closed to all Christians. Nerestan, finding it shut, and not suspecting the cause, wrote a pressing letter to Zaire desiring her to open the secret door leading to the mosque, and recommending her to be faithful to her word. The letter fell into the hands of a guard, who carried it to Orosman. The Soldan could scarcely believe his eyes; he no longer doubted his own misfortune and the criminality of Zaire. To have loaded a stranger, a captive, with benefits; to have given his heart, his crown, to a slave-girl; to live only for her, and to be betrayed by her; to be deceived by the semblance of the tenderest affection; to experience at once the most violent love, the blackest ingratitude, and the vilest perfidy,—was, without doubt, a horrible condition; but Orosman wished to find her innocent. He sent the letter to her by an unknown slave. He flattered himself that she would not listen to Nerestan, who alone seemed to him guilty. He ordered that he should be arrested and bound, and went himself at the hour appointed to the place of rendezvous to await the effect of the letter.
The letter is delivered to Zaire: she reads it trembling, and after long hesitating, tells the slave that she will expect Nerestan, and orders that he shall be admitted. Of all this the slave informs Orosman.
The unhappy Soldan goes wild with grief. Weeping,
