strove to stammer out a few words of Arabic to ask my Way,
laughed and jeered in their Impudent manner, and flung handfuls of Dust
at me. Just as I was losing all Patience, and determined to Knock at the
first door I came to, and make my state known at all hazards, there came
upon me at the corner of a street the Figure of a Woman, Muffled up, as
'tis their fashion, in her Hyke and Burnouse, so that I could only see
her Eyes, which were smeared over with the usual Black Stuff, but which
seemed to have somewhat of a Yellowish Cast. I started, as if she were a
Ghost just risen from the ground; but indeed she had only just stepped
out from a little Garden-door, that now stood Ajar. From the folds of
her White Burnouse now came out a plump Hand, very Glossy, but very
Black. She first laid her Finger on that part of her Hyke where her
Mouth might be, to command me to silence; then touched me on the Arm;
then pointed to a Latticed Window high up in the wall, to give me to
understand that some one had been Watching me from there; and then
beckoned me to Follow her. I was wofully perplexed, and, thought I, "The
Dey will have no Cymbals to his Supper to-night, that's certain." Still,
it is never to be said that J. D. ever shirked an adventure that
promised aught of Love or Peril; and had it been into the jaws of a
Lion, I must have followed the Negro Emissary. After all, I reasoned, I
was a proper-looking Fellow, although no longer in my First Youth, and
my hair beginning to whiten somewhat; but Love levels ranks, as my Lord
Grizzle has it in Tom Thumb; and I was, perhaps, not the first Frank
Slave who was favoured by a beauteous Moorish Lady. A Moorish Beauty!
Why, this might be, after all, a Princess, a Sultana, a Turkish Khanum!
It turned out, however, far differently from what I had expected.
Following the Slave, we quitted the street and passed through a Porch,
or Gateway, which the Negress carefully locked after her. We now entered
upon a Court, with Benches on either side, and paved very handsomely
with Marble, covered in the middle with a rich Turkey Mat, and sheltered
from the heat of the weather by a kind of Veil, expanded by Ropes from
one side of the Parapet-wall, or Lattice of the Flat Roof, to the other.
So into a little Cloister running round this Court, and up a little
winding stone Staircase into another Cloister or Upper Gallery. Then at
a Door all covered with rich Filigree-work in Gold and Colours did the
Negre