pluck to stand still until they are within an inch of your nose, and ask
what they want, they drop their lances; for they respect courage, but
there is no mercy if you show the white feather. We meant to say to
them, "We are the English and Russian Consuls travelling on business.
If you touch us, there will be consequences; if you want a present you
shall have it; but you are not to shame us by taking our horses and arms,
and if you insist we well fight." There was a driving wind that night,
and I feared the exposure and hardship if the tents were blown down and
the fire blown out, as it threatened. We could scarcely keep a lamp or
candle alight. No Ghazis came.

We rose next morning in the cold, dark, misty, and freezing dawn. We had
some difficulty in starting our camp; the horses were shivering, and the
muleteers and camel-men objected. We had a long and lonely ride through
the same desolate valley plain as yesterday, banked on either side in the
distance by naked, barren mountains, and we were very thankful when the
sun came out. We breakfasted at a ruined khan, and changed our horses.
Then we rode on and on, seemingly for an age, with no change; not a bird
nor a tree nor a sound save the clattering of our horses' hoofs. At
length, when within an hour of Karyatayn, we got a little excitement.
On slightly rising ground about five miles off we espied, by the aid
of field-glasses, something which we discovered to be a large party of
mounted Bedawin. We sounded our whistles, and our stragglers came in
till we all were collected. I ought to mention here that from the time
of our leaving Damascus, stragglers had joined us continually from every
village. Naturally the number of our camp-followers became great, until
we assumed a most formidable appearance, numbering nearly eighty in all.
As soon as our stragglers reached us we formed a line, and the opposite
party did the same. They then galloped to meet us, and we did likewise.
When within a quarter mile of each other we pulled up, and they pulled