noticed until the gangs began work in the morning, when an alarm would
be given. The sentries at the gates on the previous evening would
be questioned, and when it was found that no one answering to his
description had passed out before these were closed, there would be
a rigid search throughout the city and port. The vessels would all
be examined, and the boatmen questioned as to whether any craft was
missing. Not until the search proved absolutely fruitless would it be
seriously suspected that he had, either by passing through the gates in
disguise, or by scaling the walls, made for the interior. None knew that
he could speak Arabic, and it would be so hopeless an undertaking for
any one unacquainted with the language to traverse the country without
being detected, that the Moors would be slow to believe that he had
embarked upon such adventure. However, when all search for him in the
town and in the vessels in the port proved fruitless, doubtless mounted
men would be despatched in all directions; some would take the coast
roads, while others would ride into the interior to warn the head men of
the villages to be on the lookout for an escaped slave.

After a sleep of five hours, Gervaise pursued his journey. He had walked
for eight hours, and calculated that he must be fully thirty miles from
Tripoli, and that not until evening would searchers overtake him. After
walking four miles he came to a large village. There he purchased a bag
of dates, sat down on a stone bench by the roadside to eat them, and
entered into conversation with two or three Moors who sauntered up. To
these he represented that he belonged to a party of his tribe who had
encamped for the day at a short distance from the village in order
to rest their horses before riding into Tripoli, whither they were
proceeding to exchange skins of animals taken in the chase, and some
young horses, for cotton clothes, knives, and other articles of barter
with the tribes beyond them.

After quenching his thirst at a well in front of the mosque, he retraced
his steps until beyond the village, then struck out into the country,
made a detour, came down into the road again, and continued his journey
eastward. He walked until nightfall, and then again lay down.

He was now fully fifty miles from Tripoli, and hoped that he was beyond
the point to which horsemen from that town would think of pursuing their
search. It was likely that they would not have gone beyond the