I Did Not Receive These Orders With More
Satisfaction Than I Had Done The Former; But I Had No Means Of Escape And
Must Necessarily Obey.
Wherefore, having taken our leaves, we prepared
for our departure, and were unexpectedly commanded to remain till next
day.
In the mean time, he conveyed a great part of his infantry during
the night to the other side of a mountain. Next morning early, the
_Ruiscasson_, or conductor of ambassadors, carried us to the top of the
hill, as meaning to confer with us on some important subject, and on the
appearance of the Persian infantry under march, he pointed them out to us
as if he had been surprised at seeing so many additional troops coming to
the royal camp. The better to favour this deception, some of his slaves
exclaimed as astonished, that there were a great many soldiers, and that
at least 10,000 were coming to reinforce the army. But we easily saw
through the contrivance, and were certain that these pretended new troops
were merely the ordinary royal escort, which had only changed their
position to impose upon us. After this little comedy, the _Ruiscasson_
gave us the royal letters for our masters, and we returned to our tents.
From the information of M. Josaphat and others, the military force of
this king cannot exceed 20,000 cavalry, some of whom have wooden bucklers
about eighteen inches long. Others have a kind of cuirasses made of very
thin plates of steel, which they wear over their ordinary habits.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 219 of 812
Words from 59832 to 60090
of 224388
