into
the interior. Besides English, which he spoke very well, he could talk
Arabic quite fluently, and I found him very useful.

CHAPTER IV.

"UP THE COUNTRY."

Departure from Algiers.--Blidah.--The Zouave Officers and their
Companions.--Government Establishment of Horses.--Joseph, the
Horse-dealer.--To Arbah.--The Caravanserai.--Journey towards
Oued-el-Massin.

On Thursday, March 8th, after seeing A---- start, by diligence, with
innumerable bags of cheviotine (deer-shot), I and Angelo left Algiers
with my newly-purchased horses, and, passing through some very pretty
country, stopped at the first village, where De Warn, a French
officer, came up on horseback, with his groom. He admired my horses
very much, and announced his destination to be the Maison Carree,
where he was going to shoot quails, a friend of his having bagged
forty there in one afternoon. It came on to rain very hard as we
passed through the plain of the Medidja, and arrived at Bouffaseh,
where there is a column raised to the memory of twenty-three men
killed there during the war. We galloped in to Blidah, the rain
pouring down on us. At dinner, I met A---- in a _cafe_, with Count
L'Esparre and three or four officers of the 1st Regiment of Zouaves.
They were a very pleasant set of fellows, but did not appear to admire
their remote quarters at Blidah by any means. The heat, during the
height of summer, they informed me, was terrific, and the private
soldiers are not allowed to quit their quarters between 10 A.M. and 5
P.M. during the four hottest months of the year. We drank unlimited
punch to the "Alliance," and, on returning to the hotel, after a
mutual exchange of good wishes, we found familiar faces--belonging to
the Dutchmen who had travelled with us from Marseilles to Algiers.

I went with Count L'Esparre to see the Government establishment of
horses. There were some very fine creatures of Arab breed; also some
Persian horses which had been presented by the Shah of Persia. We then
started on horseback for Medea, and on my way passed the "Grotto of
Monkeys," but none of the animals from which the grotto takes its name
met my inquiring gaze. The Rocher Pourri, which I also passed on my
way, had just acquired an additional but a lugubrious celebrity, an
Arab having killed a Frenchman there the day before. We rode on to
Medea through a rattling snow-storm, and arrived properly powdered at
the Hotel du Gastronome, where they made