Page:Eothen, or, Traces of travel brought home from the East by Kinglake, Alexander William.djvu/248

232 actually dealt towards a Russian General Officer and an English Gentleman as if they had been wretched Israelites! Never, never, will we submit to such an indignity. His Imperial Majesty knows how to protect his nobles from insult, and would never endure that a General of his army should be treated in matter of quarantine; as though he were a mere Eastern Jew!"

This argument told with great effect; the Pasha fairly admitted that he felt its weight, and he now only struggled to obtain a compromise, which might seem to save his dignity; he wanted us to perform a quarantine of one day for form's sake, and in order to show his people that he was not utterly defied, but finding that we were inexorable, he not only abandoned his attempt, but promised to supply us with horses.

When the discussion had arrived at this happy conclusion, tchibouques and coffee were brought, and we passed, I think, nearly an hour in friendly conversation. The Pasha, it now appeared, had once been a prisoner of war in Russia, and the conviction of the Emperor's power, which he must have acquired during his captivity, probably rendered him more alive than an untravelled Turk would have been to the force of my comrade's eloquence.

The Pasha now gave us a generous feast; our promised horses were brought without much delay; I gained my loved saddle once more, and when the moon got up and touched the heights of Taurus, we were joyfully winding our way through one of his rugged defiles.