Two Or Three Horses Picketed Under
The Trees With Their Grooms, Cowering Over Fires Made Upon The Ground,
Looked Very
Like unearthly chargers, just emerged with their grim
attendants from some subterranean kingdom; while the red glare from
the cooking
Tents, and the dusky figures moving about, could scarcely
be recognised as belonging to human and every-day life - the whole
scene having a supernatural air.
The interior of the tents was extremely picturesque, fitted up with
odds and ends of foreign products, and looking very like the temporary
haunt of some pirate; tiger skins, rich soft thick rugs of Persian
manufacture, interspersed with Indian mats, covered the floors; the
tents were lined with flags, favouring the notion that the corsair's
bark lay anchored in some creek below; while daggers, and pistols, and
weapons of all kinds, helped out a fanciful imagination to a tale of
wild adventure. The butler of our host had enacted more wonders than
a man; under such circumstances, a repast of fish and curry might
have been considered a great achievement, but we had the three regular
courses, and those, too, of a most recherche kind, with a dessert to
match, all sent up to the point of perfection.
After coffee, I went out to look upon the sea, which lay like a mirror
below the perpendicular height on which I stood; and as my eyes
became accustomed to the darkness of a moonless night, I saw under
new aspects the sombre outlines of those soft hills, whose purple
loveliness I had admired so much during the day.
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