faith and the flourish of a sabre.'

'You would have the Great Powers interfering,' said Baroni.

'What should I care for the Great Powers, if the Lord of Hosts were on
my side!'

'Why, to be sure they could not do much at Bagdad or Ispahan.'

'Work out a great religious truth on the Persian and Mesopotamian
plains, the most exuberant soils in the world with the scantiest
population,--it would revivify Asia. It must spread. The peninsula of
Arabia, when in action, must always command the peninsula of the Lesser
Asia. Asia revivified would act upon Europe. The European comfort, which
they call civilisation, is, after all, confined to a very small space:
the island of Great Britain, France, and the course of a single river,
the Rhine. The greater part of Europe is as dead as Asia, without the
consolation of climate and the influence of immortal traditions.'

'I just found time, my lord, when I was at Jerusalem, to call in at the
Consulate, and see the Colonel,' said Baroni; 'I thought it as well to
explain the affair a little to him. I found that even the rumour of our
mischance had not reached him; so I said enough to prevent any alarm
when it arrived; he will believe that we furnished him with the priority
of intelligence, and he expects your daily return.'

'You did well to call; we know not what may happen. I doubt, however,
whether I shall return to Jerusalem. If affairs are pleasantly arranged
here, I think of visiting the Emir, at his castle of Canobia. A change
of air must be the best thing for me, and Lebanon, by his account, is
delicious at this season. Indeed, I want air, and I must go out now,
Baroni; I cannot stay in this close tent any longer; the sun has set,
and there is no longer any fear of those fatal heats of which you are in
such dread for me.'

It was the first night of the new moon, and the white beams of the
young crescent were just beginning to steal over the lately flushed
and empurpled scene. The air was still glowing, and the evening breeze,
which sometimes wandered through the ravines from the gulf of Akabah,
had not yet arrived. Tancred, shrouded in his Bedouin cloak, and
accompanied by Baroni, visited the circle of black tents, which they
found almost empty, the whole band, with the exception of the scouts,
who are always on duty in an Arab encampment, being assembled in the
ruins of the amphitheatre, in whose arena, opposite to the pavilion of
the great Sheikh, a celebrated poet was