THROUGH WILD EUROPE 115 



intending to sleep at the house of a Bey who had 



often pressed B to visit him. The village where 



he lived was on our way, so that it just suited our 

 purpose. 



The first part of our journey lay along the shore, 

 where the going was good enough on the firm 

 sand, but after we left that we had the usual 

 experiences of deep mud and extremely bad roads. 



In front of some cliffs, about fifty feet in height, 

 were numbers of Kestrels, and a pair of Peregrines, 

 apparently nesting. Presently, after two or three 

 hours' riding, we approached a long, straggling- 

 village, with a villainous road through it paved with 

 irregular stones of all shapes and sizes. Turning off 

 at the end of this we reached our friend's house, and 

 rode through the open gateway into a large court- 

 yard, where we were hospitably welcomed and 

 conducted to the guest-chamber over the gateway. 



The Bey is an Albanian, descended from a once 

 powerful and noble family, whose possessions have 

 been much reduced. His grandfather, I was told, 

 used to ride abroad with a 'tail' of 100 mounted 

 and armed retainers ; but either in consequence of 

 having got too big for his boots, or for some act of 

 rebellion, his estates, or the greater part of them, 

 were confiscated, and the present Bey is in conse- 

 quence much less powerful than his ancestors. 



He is not by any means a warlike individual in 



