DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0117
POETIC LICENSE.
101
supreme coward, and admitted it himself.* I knew
that everything depended upon him ; but they had
come upon us in such a hurry, and so few words
had passed between us, that I had no idea how he
stood affected. His first words reassured me; and
really, if he had passed all his life in taming Be-
douins, he could not have conducted himself more
gallantly or sensibly. Ho shook hands with one,
took a pipe from the mouth of another, kicked the
dromedary of a third, and patted his owner on the
back, smoking, laughing, and talking all the time,
ringing the changes upon the Sheik El Alouin, Ha-
beeb Effendi, and Abdel Hasis. I knew that he was
lying from his remarkable amplitude of words, and
from his constantly mixing up Abdel Hasis (my-
self) with the Habeeb Efiendi, the prime minister
of the pacha ; but he was going on so smoothly that
I had not the heart to stop him ; and besides, I
thought he was playing for himself as well as for
me, and I had no right to put him in danger by in-
terfering. At length, all talking together, and
Paul's voice rising above the re~t, in force as well
as frequency, we returned to the track, and pro-
ceeded forward in a body to find the sheik.
* Paul's explanation of his cowardice was somewhat remarka-
ble, and perhaps veracious. He said that he was by nature brave
enough, but that, when travelling in Syria, about three years before,
with Mr. Wellesley—a natural son of the Duke of Wellington—their
party was stopped by Arabs, and their two kervashes, without any
parley, raised their muskets and shot two of the poor savages dead
before his face ; which had such an effect upon his nerves that he
had never since been able to summon up any spark of courage ia
time of danger.
101
supreme coward, and admitted it himself.* I knew
that everything depended upon him ; but they had
come upon us in such a hurry, and so few words
had passed between us, that I had no idea how he
stood affected. His first words reassured me; and
really, if he had passed all his life in taming Be-
douins, he could not have conducted himself more
gallantly or sensibly. Ho shook hands with one,
took a pipe from the mouth of another, kicked the
dromedary of a third, and patted his owner on the
back, smoking, laughing, and talking all the time,
ringing the changes upon the Sheik El Alouin, Ha-
beeb Effendi, and Abdel Hasis. I knew that he was
lying from his remarkable amplitude of words, and
from his constantly mixing up Abdel Hasis (my-
self) with the Habeeb Efiendi, the prime minister
of the pacha ; but he was going on so smoothly that
I had not the heart to stop him ; and besides, I
thought he was playing for himself as well as for
me, and I had no right to put him in danger by in-
terfering. At length, all talking together, and
Paul's voice rising above the re~t, in force as well
as frequency, we returned to the track, and pro-
ceeded forward in a body to find the sheik.
* Paul's explanation of his cowardice was somewhat remarka-
ble, and perhaps veracious. He said that he was by nature brave
enough, but that, when travelling in Syria, about three years before,
with Mr. Wellesley—a natural son of the Duke of Wellington—their
party was stopped by Arabs, and their two kervashes, without any
parley, raised their muskets and shot two of the poor savages dead
before his face ; which had such an effect upon his nerves that he
had never since been able to summon up any spark of courage ia
time of danger.