Excerpt from The Prince of India: Or Why Constantinople Fell Four men composed the group. One was lying upon a pallet, asleep yet restless. A black velvet cap had Slipped from his head, giving freedom to thick black hair tinged with white. Starting from the temples, a beard with scarce a suggestion of gray swept in dark waves upon the neck and throat, and ever: invaded the pillow. Between the hair and beard there was a narrow margin of sallow flesh for features somewhat crowded by knots of wrinkle. His body was wrapped in a loose woolen gown of brownish-black. A hand apparently all bone, rested upon the breast, clutching a fold Of the gown. The feet twitched nervously in the loosened thongs of old-fashioned san dals. Glancing at the others of the group, it was plain this Sleeper was master and they his slaves. Two of them were stretched on the bare boards at the lower end of the pallet, and they were White. The third was a son Of Ethiopia of unmixed blood and gigantic frame. He Sat at the left of the couch, cross-legged, and, like the rest, was in a doze; now and then, however, he raised his head and, without fully opening his eyes, shook a fan of peacock feathers from head to foot over the recumbent figure. The two whites were clad in gowns of coarse linen belted to their waists; While, saving a cincture around his loins, the negro was naked. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.