308 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



of loose stones. You had observed that there was a 

 spot where you could jump with your horse over the 

 parapet, and this was the route you chose. You 

 ought by good right to have broken your neck, but 

 in the East a rash act often answers as well as a wise 

 one. Your hardihood excited universal admiration, 

 and that same day the charter was signed. Said from 

 that hour regarded the piercing of the Isthmus as his 

 own special work, and he brought to bear upon it the 

 tenacity of an enthusiast and the vanity of a barbarian. 

 "Within a month from that time you started upon 

 your first exploring of the desert over which you 

 were in fifteen years to win so decisive a victory. 



" These fifteen years were like a dream, worthy to 

 be included in the c Arabian Nights ' or Massoudi's 

 1 Golden Prairies.' Your ascendancy over that world 

 so strangely endowed with rough-and-ready energy was 

 something incredible. You astonished M. Barth&emy 

 St. Hilaire, who could follow you at last no longer. 

 You were, in short, a king, and you enjoyed the advan- 

 tages of sovereignty, and learnt the great lesson which 

 it teaches, that of indulgence, pity, pardon, and dis- 

 dain. I have seen myself your kingdom in the desert. 

 When crossing the Ouadi from Zagazig to Ismailia, 

 you gave me as guide one of your subjects. He was, 

 I believe, an ex-brigand whom you had for a time at- 

 tached to the cause of order. While explaining to me the 

 way to handle an old sixteenth-century musket, which 

 formed part of his armament, he unbosomed himself 



