eel indebted to him for having given me such gallant and
faithful guards."

The poor fellows were evidently sorry to leave me: one of them, the most
active and gay of the whole party, seemed more than half inclined to
cry; so, cordially shaking hands with them before the door of the
schoolmaster of Mezzovo, we parted, with expressions of mutual goodwill.

"Thank goodness they are gone!" said the little schoolmaster; "those
palicari are all over the country now; some belong to one chief, some to
another; some are for Mahmoud Pasha, and some against him; but I don't
know which party is the worst; they are all rogues, every one of them,
when they have an opportunity--scamps! sad scamps! These are hard times
for quiet, peaceably-disposed people. So now, Sir, we will come in, and
lock the door, and make up the fire, for the nights are getting cold."

The schoolmaster had a snug fireplace, with a good divan on each side of
it, of blue cloth or baize. These divans came close up to the hearth,
which, like the divans, was raised two feet above the floor. The good
man brought out his little stores of preserves and marmalade. He was an
old bachelor, and we soon made ourselves very comfortable, one on each
side of the fire. We had a famous pilau, made by my "_artist_," and the
schoolmaster gave us raisins to put in it--not that they are a necessary
part of that excellent condiment, but he had not much else to give; so
we flavoured the pilau with raisins, as if it had been a lamb, which, by
the by, is the prince of Oriental dishes, and, when stuffed with
almonds, raisins, pistachio nuts, rice, bread-crumbs, pepper and salt,
and well roasted, is a dish to set before a king.

The schoolmaster, judging of me by the company I kept, never suspected
my literary pursuits, and was surprised when I asked him if he knew of
anything in that line, and assured him that I had no objection to do a
little business in the manuscript way. He said he knew of an old
merchant who had a great many books, and that to-morrow we would go and
see them. Accordingly, the next day we went to see the merchant's house;
but his collection was good for nothing; and after returning for an hour
or two to the schoolmaster's hospitable mansion, we got into marching
order, and defiled off the village green of Mezzovo.

After fording the river thirty-nine times, as we had done before, our
jaded steeds at last stood panting under the windows of the doctor at
Yanina, w