402 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
he declared by the holy beard of the Prophet that he saw you 
at it himself; that with his own eyes he beheld you gather 
them up and put them in a bag.” “ Good heavens, Yusef!” 
“ Yea, he called upon his wife to save him from my just 
wrath; and what do you think she said, 0 General ? Can 
you guess what she said ?” “ NTo, indeed, Yusef; I am per¬ 
fectly confounded.” “ She said she missed some of them 
about a week ago, and had no doubt now that you were the 
same fellow that stole them, as nobody else knew where they 
were. Likewise she said, 0 General, that if I molested her 
husband she would proceed at once to tear the eyes out of my 
head, and then enter a complaint against me before the Turk¬ 
ish authorities at Acre, and, at the same time, have your ex¬ 
cellency bastinadoed for theft.” 
It was enough ; I got down from the top of the cupboard; 
mildly reproved my companions for making a laughing mat¬ 
ter of so serious a charge ; requested Yusef to light my chibouck 
and say no more ; calmly seated myself on a spare mat, 
and gave free indulgence to melancholy reflection. Oh des¬ 
tiny ! had it come to this ?—to this at last! That I, who 
had spent four precious years of my life in the Treasury De¬ 
partment of the United States; whose chief study was the 
study of the banking system ; whose most earnest hope was, 
never, by any visitation of Providence, to be Secretary of the 
Treasury, president of a bank, or signer of a circulating note ; 
that I, whose only ambition was to be thought an honest 
man as well as to be one in reality; that I, who had chased 
the mighty leviathan of the deep, slept in the veritable castle 
of the renowned Crusoe, dug the glittering ore out of the gold 
mines of California, explored the remotest corners of the earth 
for the benefit of mankind, ; that I, who had smiled at the 
Q,ueen of Greece, and frowned at Otho, King of Greece ; who 
had entered upon the grandest Crusade against the Mists of 
Fancy that ever was conceived by the soul of Chivalry, 
should at last be accused of stealing onions! Enough ! 
enough ! I turned over, put my pipe away, and went fast 
asleep ; for I was callous to fleas now; they might bite me 
by millions; rats and mice might gnaw 7 at my vitals, but 
