, acting as
Hebe on the occasion; and the ladies, at first timid as
gazelles of the desert, soon, like those pretty
creatures when reclaimed from the wilderness, became
quite domesticated, acquired confidence, and freely
joined in the conversation, which was with volubility
carried on through the medium of Giorgio and Assaade;
and ere an hour had elapsed, we were all on the friendly
and easy footing of old acquaintances; when, taking
leave for the time, we hastened to make the necessary
arrangements for the conveyance of our goods and
chattels to the capital billets we had had the good
fortune to stumble on."

The colonel made good use of his opportunity, and, by a diligent
perusal of Miss Sarah's eyes, and an attentive study of Miss Nasarah's
dimple, managed to acquire a smattering of Arabic in a far shorter
time than would have been required in the most assiduous turning over
of dictionaries and grammars. But our school-boy days can't last for
ever--and, ere a fortnight elapsed, an order arrived from England for
the hopeful scholar to be placed on the returns of the Syrian army,
and to draw his field allowance, rations, and forage, as assistant
adjutant-general of the British force. Dictionaries and eyes, grammars
and dimples, were now exchanged for less pleasing pursuits. Fifteen
thousand troops were by this time assembled at Beyrout, and rumour
kept perpetually blowing the charge against Ibrahim Pasha, who was
still encamped at Zachli, with an army much superior to that of the
allies. Booted and spurred--with a long sword, saddle, bridle, and all
the other paraphernalia so captivating to an ancient fair, as recorded
in one of the lays of Old England by some forgotten Macaulay of former
times--the colonel is intent on some doughty deed, and already in
imagination sees captive Egyptians following his triumphal car. When
all of a sudden, the sad news gets spread abroad that the old
commodore has concluded a convention with Mehemet Ali, and that all
the pomp and circumstance of glorious war is at an end. One only
chance remained, and that was, that as all the big-wigs protested with
all their might against the convention; and the fleet, in the midst of
protestation and repudiations of all sorts and kinds, was forced by a
severe gale to up anchor and run for Marmorice Bay, Ibrahim Pasha
might perhaps be tempted to protest also in a still more unpleasant
manner, and pay a