38 FATE OF HIGH OE'FICIALS. 



CH. 11. 



subjected to fresh impositions and extortions, the people 

 are apt to side with the old governor, and sometimes, in 

 a country where the central power is so feeble, a man, by 

 a judicious combination of force and bribery, may long 

 keep the government at bay, and escape the miserable 

 fate that usually awaits him. Our prisoner, apparently, 

 was too formidable a man to be safely kept at Fez or 

 Marocco, and was therefore sent to Tetuan, the extreme 

 limit of the territory, there to undergo such torture as 

 might be necessary to extort confession of the hiding place 

 of his treasure, unless, through ill-judged obstinacy, he 

 should die in torments before disgorging as much as might 

 be expected. No better illustration of the system can be 

 found than the fact that strangers are informed, as of 

 something extraordinary and unexampled, that one old 

 man now lives at Tetuan who long held a high and confi- 

 dential post in the government, and yet was allowed to 

 retire without being ' squeezed ! ' The truth is, that he 

 had gained the good-will and confidence of the repre- 

 sentatives of the European Powers, and that it was urged 

 upon the late Sultan that the credit of his government 

 would suffer, if, after a long course of faithful service, 

 the minister were to undergo the common fate of his 

 colleagues. 



Some twenty years before, when one of our party visited 

 Tetuan, the whole province was thrown into confusion by 

 one of these customary acts of the then reigning Sultan. 

 Hash Hash, a man of unusual capacity and energy, had 

 governed the province of Tetuan for many years with ex- 

 traordinary success. He kept the turbulent Eiff moun- 

 taineers in order, and, so it was said, Jew and Christian, 

 under bis rule, enjoyed the same security as the Moor. At 

 length he received messengers from the Court with the gift 

 of a white horse richly caparisoned, and an autograph letter 

 from his sovereign full of commendation and winding up 

 with an invitation to the capital, then fixed at Fez. He 

 started on the fatal journey, but arrived only to be flung 



