AND LOWER EGYPT. I99 



commencement was so inauspicious. A misadven- 

 ture of another kind overtook us at some distance 

 from the city. The ass, loaded with the provisions 

 for the belly, enraged at bearing a burden of so 

 much importance, shook off her panniers: bottles, 

 plates, pies, &c. all was reduced to shivers. Half 

 an hour almost was spent in collecting the wreck 

 of this halt, and a horse, less headstrong, was load- 

 ed with the fragments. We were speedily over- 

 taken by the night; it was impossible to have been 

 darker, and besides the irksomeness of marching 

 a long time without seeing any thing, in regions 

 utterly unknown, it was to me just as if I had not 

 quitted Alexandria. I had, as my particular suite, 

 an old servant well versed in the art of travelling, 

 a young draughtsman, and a naval gunner. We 

 proceeded in a close platoon, and, together with a 

 janisary, composed the advanced guard. After 

 having got half way on our route, we halted to 

 take a little rest. When it became expedient to 

 put the body again in motion, every one had to run 

 in quest of his own beast which he had let loose, 

 and which the darkness prevented him from find- 

 ing or distinguishing : all was outcry, wrangling; 

 the muleteers were beating each other, thejanisa- 

 ries beating every body. In the midst of this 

 hurly-burly, my little cohort was mounted, from 

 the moment that the signal for decamping was 

 made, and we enjoyed at our ease, the comic 



o 4 scenes 



