being a new people, have nothing indeed which they can
remember.'

Tancred bowed.

'And how is the most gracious lady, Queen of queens?' inquired
Fakredeen.

'The most gracious lady, Queen of queens,' replied Keferinis, very
mysteriously, 'has at this time many thoughts.'

'If she require any aid,' said Fakredeen, 'there is not a musket in
Lebanon that is not at her service.'

Keferinis bent his head, and said, 'It is not in any way to be
disputed that there are subjects which require for their management
the application of a certain degree of force, and the noble Emir of
the Lebanon has expressed himself in that sense with the most
exact propriety; there are also subjects which are regulated by the
application of a certain number of words, provided they were well
chosen, and distinguished by an inestimable exactitude. It does not by
any means follow that from what has occurred there will be sanguinary
encounters between the people of the gracious lady, Queen of queens, and
those that dwell in plains and cities; nor can it be denied that war is
a means by which many things are brought to a final conjuncture. At the
same time courtesy has many charms, even for the Turks, though it is not
to be denied, or in any way concealed, that a Turk, especially if he be
a pasha, is, of all obscene and utter children of the devil, the most
entirely contemptible and thoroughly to be execrated.'

'If I were the Queen, I would not give up the harem,' said Fakredeen;
'and I would bring affairs to a crisis. The garrison at Aleppo is not
strong; they have been obliged to march six regiments to Deir el Kamar,
and, though affairs are comparatively tranquil in Lebanon for the
moment, let me send a pigeon to my cousin Francis El Kazin, and young
Syria will get up such a stir that old Wageah Pasha will not spare a
single man. I will have fifty bonfires on the mountain near Beiroot in
one night, and Colonel Rose will send off a steamer to Sir Canning to
tell him there is a revolt in the Lebanon, with a double despatch for
Aberdeen, full of smoking villages and slaughtered women!' and the young
Emir inhaled his nargileh with additional zest as he recollected the
triumphs of his past mystifications.

At sunset it was announced to the travellers that the Queen would
receive them. Astarte appeared much gratified by their return, was very
gracious, although in a different way, to both of them, inquired much
as to what they had seen and what