Not Long After Passing The Village A Horseman Met Us.
It appeared
that some of the cavalry of Ibrahim Pasha had crossed the river for
the sake of the rich pastures on the eastern bank, and that this
man was one of the troopers.
He stopped and saluted; he was
obviously surprised at meeting an unarmed, or half-armed,
cavalcade, and at last fairly told us that we were on the wrong
side of the river, and that if we proceeded we must lay our account
with falling amongst robbers. All this while, and throughout the
day, my Nazarene kept well ahead of the party, and was constantly
up in his stirrups, straining forward and searching the distance
for some objects which still remained unseen.
For the rest of the day we saw no human being; we pushed on eagerly
in the hope of coming up with the Bedouins before nightfall. Night
came, and we still went on in our way till about ten o'clock. Then
the thorough darkness of the night, and the weariness of our beasts
(which had already done two good days' journey in one), forced us
to determine upon coming to a standstill. Upon the heights to the
eastward we saw lights; these shone from caves on the mountain-
side, inhabited, as the Nazarene told us, by rascals of a low sort-
-not real Bedouins, men whom we might frighten into harmlessness,
but from whom there was no willing hospitality to be expected.
We heard at a little distance the brawling of a rivulet, and on the
banks of this it was determined to establish our bivouac.
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