nd
then kneel down beside the dying man he was with before, and go on with
his prayers. _Ventrebleu!_ that's what I call discipline."

"Where was that, Comrade?"

"At Elkankah."

"At Quoreyn, rather, my friend, two leagues to the southward," whispered
a low voice.

"_Tonnerre de ciel!_" cried the two soldiers in a breath, "it is
himself;" for the words were spoken by the priest, who was no other than
the Pere Arsene they spoke of.

The effort of speech and memory was, however, a mere passing one; for
to all their questions he was now deaf, and lay apparently unconscious
between them. On me, therefore, they turned their inquiries, but with
little more of success; and thus we descended the mountain, eager to
reach some place of succor for the good father.

As we approached the village, I was soon made aware of the objects of
the party who occupied it. The little street was crowded with cattle,
bullocks, and sheep, fast wedged up amid huge wagons of forage and carts
of corn; mounted dragoons urging on the jaded animals, regardless of
the angry menaces or the impatient appeals incessantly making by the
peasantry, who in great numbers had followed their stock from their
farms.

[Illustration: BrowneForagingParty121]

The soldiers, who were detachments of different corps, were also
quarrelling among themselves for their share of the spoil; and these
altercations, in which more than once I saw a sabre flash, added to
the discord. It was, indeed, a scene of tumult and confusion almost
inconceivable. Here were a party of cuirassiers, carbine in hand,
protecting a drove of sheep; around which the country people were
standing, seemingly irresolute whether they should essay an attack,--a
movement often prompted by the other soldiers, who hoped in the _melee_
to seize a part of the prey. Many of the oxen were bestrode by hussars
or lancers, whose gay trappings formed a strange contrast with the
beasts they rode on; while more than one stately horseman held a sheep
before him on the saddle, for whose protection a cocked pistol seemed no
ineffectual guarantee.

The task of penetrating this dense and turbulent mob seemed to me almost
impossible, and I expressed my fears to the soldiers. But they replied
that there were too many _braves_ of Egypt there not to remember the
Pere Arsene; saying which, one of the soldiers, whispering a word to
his companion, laid the priest gently upon the ground, and then mounting
rapidly on a