us comfortable enough. Medea
is built in a very elevated situation, among the mountains, and must
be a very cold place.

On the next day, Saturday, it was still snowing hard. A---- had to
provide himself with a horse, and we were afterwards both engaged,
with Angelo, my Maltese servant, looking for mules to carry our
baggage to Teniet. At the hotel, there was a very celebrated picture
by Horace Vernet, for which one of the Dutchmen offered a thousand
francs, but the offer was declined by Madame Gerard. In my opinion,
the picture was far from being a masterpiece.

Rising early on Sunday, I was immediately pounced upon by a set of
Arabs, who had engaged to take our luggage, and to whom we had paid a
deposit in advance. They now refused to take our luggage at five
francs per day, the sum agreed upon, unless we retained their valuable
services all the time we remained at Teniet, which, of course, we
never contemplated doing. I demanded back the deposit, but they would
not give it up. On going to the Bureau Arabe, we found it closed, and
the Commandant de Ville, to whom some officers recommended us to
apply, was gone to Blidah, so there was nothing for it but to invoke
the aid of Joseph, a French horse-dealer, who engaged to take our
effects on two mules to Teniet at seven and a half francs per mule per
day, we paying the return journey. After all, we could not manage to
get off until one o'clock in the day. Joseph accompanied us as far as
Lodi, to indicate the route to the caravanserai of Arbah, where we
were to stay for the night. The good horse-dealer insisted on our
taking two or three _petits verres_ on the road. A terrible fellow he
was for "nips," that Joseph.

The road to Arbah lay across a very barren, desert, mountainous
country, with splendid views over the whole Atlas range, as far as
Mostaganem, now covered with snow. We passed one or two Arab villages,
and had great difficulty in finding our way, on account of the number
of roads that branched off right and left. On the journey we passed a
very fine house belonging to a rich Arab chief. We were sorely tempted
to turn in here, but refrained, and arriving at the caravanserai at
about seven o'clock, found a party of French officers just sitting
down to dinner. They very politely invited us to join them.

The caravanserai is a Government establishment. In form it resembles a
large farm yard, entirely walled in and crenellated. It has stalls for
horses, and goo