closely covered with
olive trees, and bounded by a range of hills, crowned by the peak of
Sampson's mount, rising prominent over the rest of the chain. The long
waving branches of palm trees scattered about in every direction, the
trains of loaded camels arriving and departing, and the active population
in constant movement round the town, gave Gaza the air of a flourishing
place.

But though Sidney found great pleasure in contemplating this scene, seated
on his carpet, pipe in hand, and Achmet expressed in a variety of
languages his delight at smoking the pipe of repose, after quitting the
saddle of fatigue, neither the scene nor the repose appeared to produce a
tranquillising effect on the mind of Mr Lascelles Hamilton. That
gentleman displayed the extreme of impatience at his confinement, and
spent hour after hour in vain exhortations to Sidney, to make some
endeavours to be released from imprisonment. Failing with Sidney, he had
even attempted to move Achmet. It was all useless: Sidney had not gazed on
green trees, gardens, and human beings for some days, nor had Achmet
smoked a pipe of repose since he had quitted the valley of the Nile; so
the one could do nothing but contemplate, and the other nothing but smoke.

In the evening, the incessant volubility of Lascelles Hamilton awakened in
Sidney a wish to take a stroll through the town. On proposing this walk to
the Albanian guards, they immediately agreed to accompany the travellers,
and suggested a visit to the Mosque, which had been a Christian church,
and then a sojourn in the principal coffee-house in the bazar. The church,
now converted into the principal mosque of Gaza, is said to have been
constructed in the fifth century. It is well worth visiting, though there
can be no doubt that the coffee-house has an air of much greater
antiquity, if the marks of Decay's effacing fingers be a proof of age. The
manner adopted by the quarantine of Gaza for exhibiting the enforcement of
the sanatory regulations to the whole population, was an excellent
illustration of the effects of the influence of public opinion in Turkey.

Next day was occupied in preparing for the journey to Jerusalem. Sidney
had brought a letter from Cairo to a Christian Arab, named Elias es Shami,
so called because he was a native of Sham el Keber, or the great city of
Damascus. This worthy was the consular agent of some one of the European
powers, but affected to be consul for all. His house was