160 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
point of his dagger, “ Yakoob Lais.” He then 
withdrew, and returned to his head-quarters with 
all possible speed. Having arrived there on the 
evening of the sixth day, he held an audience of his 
whole band, and informed them of the singular cir- 
cumstance by which the object of his excursion had 
been defeated ; taking the opportunity of urging 
upon them, as was his constant practice, his favourite 
maxim, — that among soldiers a nice sense of honour 
was more estimable than success, and an irreproach- 
able conscience more precious than heaps of treasure. 
Having explained to them all which had occurred 
since his departure, he next informed them that, 
upon his journey homeward, he had planned a 
manoeuvre, which he intended to put in execution the 
following morning, and by which he yet hoped to 
impress upon the mind of Dherm-ben-N assuk such 
a notion of their strength and power, as would effec- 
tually preserve them from all future molestation. 
Soon after the dawn of the seventh day from that 
on which the soldiers of Dherm-ben-N assuk had 
been imprisoned, they were again addressed by 
Yakoob Lais, from the aperture in their prisons roof. 
Having inquired in friendly terms for their welfare, 
and expressed a hope that they and their horses had 
been provided with all that they could want, the 
generous bandit then told them openly the whole 
history of his excursion to their masters palace, and 
assured them that, in accordance with his promise, 
