STORY OF A DERVISE.
A Dervise, travelling through Tartary, went into the king’s palace by mistake, as thinking itto be a public inn, or caravansary. Having looked about him for some time, he entered into a long gallery, where he laid down his wallet, and spread his carpet, in order to repose himself upon it, after the manner of the eastern nations.
He had not been long in this posture before he was discovered by some of the guards, who asked him what was his business in that place? The dervise told them that he intended to take up his night’s lodging in that caravansary. The guards told him, in a very angry manner, that the house he was in was not a caravansary, but the king’s palace. It happened that the king himself passed through the gallery during this debate; and, smiling at the mistake of the dervise, asked him how he could possibly be so dull as not to distinguish a palace from a caravansary.
Sir, says the dervise, give me leave to ask your majesty a question or two. Who were the persons that lodged in this house when it was first built? The king replied, his ancestors. And who, says the dervise, was the last person that lodged here? The king replied, his father. And who is it, says the dervise, that lodges here atpresent? The king told him that it was himself. And who, says the dervise, will be here after you? The king answered, the young prince his son. “Ah, Sir,” said the dervise, “a house that changes its inhabitants so often, and receives such a perpetual succession of guests, is not a palace, but a caravansary.”