AND LOWER EGYPT. 2 tf 



gave me to understand, that her husband, who 

 was an old Turkey merchant, intended to go a 

 long journey in a short time, and she engaged me 

 to cultivate a closer intimacy, by passing over to 

 her house. She pointed out to me a little door 

 that opened toward the canal, and which was 

 never employed as an entrance but for the purpose 

 of fetching water from it. The black slave was 

 to wait for me when the night shut in, and intro- 

 duce me in perfect safety. She informed me, that, 

 in order to reach this door, I had only to cross the 

 breadth of the canal, at that time perfectly dry ; 

 and she swore by her head (a French woman would 

 have said by her heart), that I did not run the 

 slightest risk. I became difficult in my turn. 

 The fearful consequences with which such a step 

 might be followed were, in my eyes, a barrier, 

 which the most amiable and ingenuous advances, 

 which assurances the most affectionate, could not 

 determine me to surmount. Several evenings 

 passed away in this species of conflict, between 

 the eloquent, though not uttered, invitations of 

 a tender desire, and the resistance of prudence fre- 

 quently but feebly opposed. But we had been 

 detected; our interviews by means of signals, had 

 excited the indignation of certain Mahometans, 

 and the discharge of a musket from one of the 

 adjacent terraces, and the ball of which whizzed 

 close by my ear, gave me notice that it was high 

 vol. i. s time 



