66 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



After a great many turnings and windings, he told 

 me (liat a beautiful slave of a ^</r^;/z carried within 

 her too evident tokens of a clandestine and impru- 

 dent amour. The master, a man in power, who 

 had been lor a long time at Cairo, had announced 

 his return. Apprehension and disquiet reigned 

 through the whole house ; every one dreaded the 

 inevitable fury of the owner of it, and the most 

 dreadful calamities must of necessity be the fatal 

 consequences of a very natural accident, but which 

 is never pardoned in these countries. He con- 

 cluded by proposing to me, that I should make the 

 approaching cause of these great misfortunes to 

 disappear, and by promising me a considerable 

 recompense. " My profession," said I to him, " is 

 " to preserve life, and not to take it away ; go carry 

 *' elsewhere, if thou darest, thy proposals and thy 

 " recompenses." Notwithstanding the decided tone 

 of voice in which I gave my reply to the interpreter 

 to transmit to him, this man persisted, and he 

 thought to persuade me by an argument which he 

 deemed invincible. " Is it not true," said he, 

 ^' that it is better to deprive a being of life who does 

 " not know what it is, than to expose several who 

 '•' enjoy it to a certain death? for the return of the 

 '• master will not fail to be the epocha of the mas- 

 *'' sacre of eight or ten persons, among whom will 

 '' be the unfortunate slave." Quite surprised that 

 ?5ich an argument as this did not engage me to be- 

 come 



