208 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
I could shout no longer, but there was no answer. At last, 
after tumbling, sliding, and jumping down precipices, till it 
seemed as if I had reached the sloping-off place of the world, 
I heard the voices of my friends below. It was evident we 
must spend the night here, for Baalbek was still six hours 
distant. The guides and muleteers were nowhere to be seen, 
and we consoled ourselves with the notion that they had run 
off with our baggage. After wandering about in the dark 
for some time we came to the ruins of a village, without a 
living soul about it. In the hollow a little below the ruins 
we encamped for the night, our missing Arabs having at 
length made their appearance. There is a cave here, said 
to have been not more than a few years since the abode of a 
large band of those mountain robbers who infest the country. 
Of late, however, they have not found their business profit¬ 
able, and they only commit occasional depredations. Our 
dragoman said he could put to flight any gang of robbers in 
Syria single-handed, such was the terror in which he was 
held. He certainly carried pistols and knives enough about 
his person to kill a good many ; but it was not at all dan¬ 
gerous to be shot at by Yusef, for I saw him shoot a good 
many times and never knew him to hit any thing. The cave 
was a very nice place for robbers, pleasantly situated, with 
large trees in front, and a fine spring of water within a hun¬ 
dred yards. At present it is a place of resort for goats and 
benighted travelers. We lit a fire near the entrance, erected 
our tent under some fine old chestnut trees, and slept soundly 
all night in spite of the cold, which was very keen. Next 
morning there was snow visible on the tops of the mountains. 
Yusef having threatened to whip all the Arabs again (for 
he had already whipped them two or three times), got them 
to work at an early hour, and, by the force of much talk and 
desperate flourishing of the stick, they were all ready with 
their mules as soon as we had finished breakfast. Pushing 
on rapidly for Baalbek, we were soon made sensible of the 
deceptive nature of distances from a very high point of view. 
On the preceding evening, from the summit of Mount Leb¬ 
anon, the plain of Bukaa, reaching to the ruins of Baalbek, 
