64 
RENCONTRE WITH BANDITTI. 
dinate hills, we found ourselves in the track of the free-booters, 
and accordingly kept a few of our musqueteers in advance. 
When near the gorge of one of these gullies, connected by many 
a wild intricacy with the remoter heights, I was roused from 
meditation on their singular forms, by the report of several 
musquets, and immediately saw the dark figures of our corps of 
observation disappear amongst the rocks on our left. We, natu¬ 
rally, were putting our horses to the speed to come up with our 
guards, who might be attacked by odds, when the remainder of 
the escort requested us rather to go gently forward; alleging, 
that their comrades would not have turned into the ravine in 
that sudden way, but on an advantage; and therefore we had 
best proceed in our journey, leaving the finishing of the affair to 
them, while keeping ourselves prepared for any new sally. Ac¬ 
cordingly we went quietly on, and passed the entrance of the 
hollow whence the flashes had gleamed, but all was now still, 
not even the sound of a distant foot being to be heard. We 
continued our route ; and full an hour elapsed, before we were 
rejoined by the party we had seen disappear. They came up just 
at the dawn of morning, and told so long a story of so desperate 
a pursuit, that I began to doubt the whole to have been any thing 
more than a trick of their own, to raise my respect for their zeal, 
and the amount of the reward I might bestow at our parting. 
Pursuing our march, we passed a large town on our left, called 
Hametabad, part of which covered the side of an immense arti¬ 
ficial mound, and the rest stretched to a considerable distance 
over the low ground at its base. Nearer to the western moun¬ 
tains, lay several villages, the names of which I could not learn ; 
but we halted at the ruinous remains of one, called Dour, 
where a couple of wretched caravansaries, both in the most de- 
