e that is to come.
Now the flowers that had been so carefully tended ran wild, the boar
rooted among them, and the porcupine made a home in their shade. As
evening closed in, the wreck of the great house became vague and shadowy,
a thing without outline, the wraith of the home that had been. Grey owls
and spectral bats sailed or fluttered from the walls. They might have been
past owners or servitors who had suffered metamorphosis. The sight set me
thinking of the mutual suspicions of the Bedouins and the Susi traders,
the raiding of Sidi el Muktar, the other signs of tribal fighting that had
been apparent on the road, the persecution of the Moor by his protected
fellow-subjects,--in short, the whole failure of the administration to
which the ruin that stood before me seemed to give fitting expression.
This house had not stood, and, after all, I thought Morocco was but a
house divided against itself.

[Illustration: MOONLIGHT]

In the face of all the difficulties and dangers that beset the state, the
Sultan's subjects are concerned only with their own private animosities.
Berber cannot unite with Moor, village still wars against village, each
province is as a separate kingdom, so far as the adjacent province is
concerned. As of old, the kaids are concerned only with filling their
pockets; the villagers, when not fighting, are equally engrossed in saving
some small portion of their earnings and taking advantage of the inability
of the central Government to collect taxes. They all know that the land is
in confusion, that the Europeans at the Court are intriguing against its
independence. In camp and market-place men spread the news of the French
advance from the East. Yet if the forces of the country could be
organised,--if every official would but respond to the needs of the
Government and the people unite under their masters,--Morocco might still
hold Europe at bay, to the extent at least of making its subjection too
costly and difficult a task for any European Government to undertake.
If Morocco could but find its Abd el Kadr, the day of its partition
might even yet be postponed indefinitely. But next year, or the next--who
shall say?

My journey was well nigh over. I had leisure now to recall all seen and
heard in the past few weeks and contrast it with the mental notes I had
made on the occasion of previous visits. And the truth was forced upon me
that Morocco was nearer the brink of dissolution than it had ever
be