ed.'

'I will tell you how that is,' said Fakredeen. 'It is very true that we
have not done much, and that, when we descended into the plain, as we
did in '63, under the Emir Yousef, we were beat, beaten back even by the
Mutualis; it is that we have no cavalry. They have always contrived
to enlist the great tribes of the Syrian desert against us, as for
instance, under Daher, of whom you must have heard: it was that which
has prevented our development; but we have always maintained ourselves.
Lebanon is the key of Syria, and the country was never unlocked unless
we pleased. But this difficulty is now removed. Through Amalek we shall
have the desert on our side; he is omnipotent in the Syrian wilderness;
and if he sends messengers through Petraea to Derayeh, the Nejid, and
through the Hedjaz, to Yemen and Oman, we could easily get a cavalry as
efficient and not less numerous than our foot.'

'The instruments will be found,' said Tancred, 'for it is decreed that
the deed should be done. But the favour of Providence does not exempt
man from the exercise of human prudence. On the contrary, it is an agent
on whose co-operation they are bound to count. I should like to see
something of the great Syrian cities. I should like also to see Bagdad.
It appears to me, at the first glance, that the whole country to the
Euphrates might be conquered in a campaign; but then I want to know how
far artillery is necessary, whether it be indispensable. Then again,
the Lesser Asia; we should never lose sight of the Lesser Asia as the
principal scene of our movements; the richest regions in the world,
almost depopulated, and a position from which we might magnetise Europe.
But suppose the Turks, through Lesser Asia, conquer Lebanon, while we
are overrunning the Babylonian and Assyrian monarchies? That will never
do. I see your strength here with your own people and the Druses, and
I do not underrate their qualities: but who is to garrison the north of
Syria? Who is to keep the passes of the North? What population have you
to depend on between Tripoli and Antioch, or between Aleppo and Adanah?
Of all this I know nothing.'

Fakredeen had entirely imbibed the views of Tancred; he was sincere in
his professions, fervent in his faith. A great feudal proprietor, he was
prepared to forsake his beautiful castle, his farms and villages, his
vineyards, and mulberry orchards, and forests of oaks, to assist in
establishing, by his voice and his sabre,