beautiful a cause,
the independence of a small state, eminent for its intellectual power,
against the barbarian grandeur of a military empire. All the great
things have been done by the little nations. It is the Jordan and the
Ilyssus that have civilised the modern races. An Arabian tribe, a clan
of the AEgean, have been the promulgators of all our knowledge; and
we should never have heard of the Pharaohs, of Babylon the great and
Nineveh the superb, of Cyrus and of Xerxes, had not it been for Athens
and Jerusalem.

Tancred rose with the sun from his encampment at Hebron, to traverse,
probably, the same route pursued by the spies when they entered the
Land of Promise. The transition from Canaan to the stony Arabia is
not abrupt. A range of hills separates Palestine from a high but level
country similar to the Syrian desert, sandy in some places, but covered
in all with grass and shrubs; a vast expanse of downs. Gradually the
herbage disappears, and the shrubs are only found tufting the ridgy tops
of low undulating sandhills. Soon the sand becomes stony, and no trace
of vegetation is ever visible excepting occasionally some thorny plant.
Then comes a land which alternates between plains of sand and dull
ranges of monotonous hills covered with loose flints; sometimes the
pilgrim winds his way through their dull ravines, sometimes he mounts
the heights and beholds a prospect of interminable desolation.

For three nights had Tancred encamped in this wilderness, halting at
some spot where they could find some desert shrubs that might serve as
food for the camels and fuel for themselves. His tent was soon pitched,
the night fires soon crackling, and himself seated at one with the
Sheikh and Baroni, he beheld with interest and amusement the picturesque
and flashing groups around him. Their fare was scant and simple: bread
baked upon the spot, the dried tongue of a gazelle, the coffee of the
neighbouring Mocha, and the pipe that ever consoles, if indeed the
traveller, whatever his hardships, could need any sustenance but his own
high thoughts in such a scene, canopied, too, by the most beautiful sky
and the most delicious climate in the world.

They were in the vicinity of Mount Seir; on the morrow they were to
commence the passage of the lofty range which stretches on to Sinai. The
Sheikh, who had a feud with a neighbouring tribe, and had been anxious
and vigilant while they crossed the open country, riding on with
an advan