VII. 
ALEXANDRIA. 307 
same time made application for permission to chap. 
copy the Inscriptions upon the Rosetta Tablet, v. 
which was still carefully concealed. One of the 
Aid-de-Camps conducted him into a small tent, 
pitched in a spacious area, or square, near the 
niner gates of Alexandria, where the parade of 
the garrison was daily held. This tent, small 
as it was, had been separated into two parts by 
a curtain, behind which Menou had his Charem ; 
giving audience in the outer part, near to the 
entrance, where there was hardly room enough 
to stand upright. Having waited some time, 
during which women's voices were heard in 
conversation behind the partition, the curtain 
was suddenly raised, and Jaques Abd'allah made 
his appearance. A more grotesque figure can 
hardly be conceived. He wore a flowered em- 
broidered waistcoat, with flaps almost to his 
knees, and a coat covered with broad lace. 
Elevating his whiskered face and double chin, 
in order to give all imaginable pomp and dignity 
to his squat corpulent figure, which, covered with 
finery, much resembled that of a mountebank, he 
demanded, in an imperious tone of voice, '^ Que 
souhaiie-t-il. Monsieur Clarke?'" Having explained 
the cause of the visit, as far as it related to the 
passport, and being directed to apply for this to 
