LEMPRIERE. 
^45 
addressed, with a haughty air, a series of ques- 
tions, which evidently shewed the suspicious hght 
in which he viewed our traveller. He inquired, 
by what authority he had come into the country 
— where he had learned his profession — whether 
the English or French surgeons were best, ob- 
serving, that a French surgeon had killed a num- 
ber of people — why he had forbid Muley Absulem 
the use of tea — and, if tea was unwholesome, why 
the English drank so much of it ? Satisfactory 
answers being made to these interrogatories, his 
majesty softened, and began to converse pretty 
familiarly. He pointed to the snow^ on the Atlas, 
observing, that any one who should go to the top 
would die of cold, and that beyond was a fine and 
fertile country, named Tafilet. In the course of 
conversation it transpired, that he had caused 
Lempriere's medicines to be privately examined 
by his Moorish physician, who had found nothing 
improper. He concluded, by saying, that he 
would send him home to his entire satisfaction. 
Lempriere now conceived, that his prospects had 
at length cleared up ; and the attention which he 
met with from the principal persons connected 
with the court, tended to confirm this belief. 
But the emperor, whose faculties began to be im- 
paired, seemed again to lose sight of him ; and 
Muley Absulem, who happened to come to court, 
treated him with neglect and ingratitude. He 
