and their own interests, with my co-operation Syria might be
theirs.'

'The English!' said Tancred, 'why should the English take Syria?'

'France will take it if they do not.'

'I hope not,' said Tancred.

'But something must be done,' said the Emir. 'The Porte never could
govern it. Do you think anybody in Lebanon really cares for the Pasha
of Damascus? If the Egyptians had not disarmed the mountain, the Turks
would be driven out of Syria in a week.'

'A Syrian and a Christian prince!' said Tancred, musingly. 'There
are elements in that position stronger than the Porte, stronger than
England, stronger than united Europe. Syria was a great country when
France and England were forests. The tricolour has crossed the Alps and
the Rhine, and the flag of England has beaten even the tricolour; but
if I were a Syrian prince, I would raise the cross of Christ and ask for
the aid of no foreign banner.'

'If I could only raise a loan,' said the Emir, 'I could do without
France and England.'

'A loan!' exclaimed Tancred; 'I see the poison of modern liberalism has
penetrated even the desert. Believe me, national redemption is not an
affair of usury.'

At this moment there was some little disturbance without the tent, which
it seems was occasioned by the arrival of Tancred's servants, Freeman
and True-man. These excellent young men persisted in addressing the
Arabs in their native English, and, though we cannot for a moment
believe that they fancied themselves understood, still, from a mixture
of pride and perverseness peculiarly British, they continued their
valuable discourse as if every word told, or, if not apprehended, was a
striking proof of the sheer stupidity of their new companions. The noise
became louder and louder, and at length Freeman and Trueman entered.

'Well,' said Tancred, 'and how have you been getting on?'

'Well, my lord, I don't know,' said Freeman, with a sort of jolly sneer;
'we have been dining with the savages.'

'They are not savages, Freeman.'

'Well, my lord, they have not much more clothes, anyhow; and as for
knives and forks, there is not such a thing known.'

'As for that, there was not such a thing known as a fork in England
little more than two hundred years ago, and we were not savages then;
for the best part of Montacute Castle was built long before that time.'

'I wish we were there, my lord!'

'I dare say you do: however, we must make the best of present
circumstances. I want