Letter CLIII
Usbek to Solim, at the Seraglio at Ispahan.
I place the sword in your hand. I entrust you with what is now to me the dearest thing in the’world, my vengeance, to wit. In entering upon this new employment, banish all feeling, all pity. I have written to my wives to obey you implicitly; in their guilty confusion,
they will sink down at your glance. I must owe to you my happiness and my peace of mind. Give me back my seraglio as I left it. Begin by purifying 1 it; exterminate the guilty, and make those quake with fear who are inclined to become so. What may you not expect from your master for such signal services ? It only remains with yourself to obtain a position far above your present one, and above anything you have ever hoped for.
Paris, the 4th of the moon of Chahban, 1719.