petitions as though they would, each of them, individually be injured
if treated with less liberality than that first comer. They took hold
of her donkey, her bridle, her saddle, her legs, and at last her arms
and hands, screaming for backsheish in voices that were neither sweet
nor mild.

In her dismay she did give away sundry small coins--all, probably, that
she had about her; but this only made the matter worse. Money was
going, and each man, by sufficient energy, might hope to get some of
it. They were very energetic, and so frightened the poor lady that she
would certainly have fallen, had she not been kept on her seat by the
pressure around her.

"Oh, dear! oh, dear! get away," she cried. "I haven't got any more;
indeed I haven't. Go away, I tell you! Mr. Damer! oh, Mr. Damer!" and
then, in the excess of her agony, she uttered one loud, long, and
continuous shriek.

Up came Mr. Damer; up came Abdallah; up came M. Delabordeau; up came
Mr. Ingram, and at last she was rescued. "You shouldn't go away and
leave me to the mercy of these nasty people. As to that Abdallah, he
is of no use to anybody."

"Why you bodder de good lady, you dem blackguard?" said Abdallah,
raising his stick, as though he were going to lay them all low with a
blow. "Now you get noting, you tief!"

The Arabs for a moment retired to a little distance, like flies driven
from a sugar-bowl; but it was easy to see that, like the flies, they
would return at the first vacant moment.