Hassan began by a very long speech, which it was needless for Sidney to
translate, as it gave them no idea of what he intended to communicate.
Aali followed in one quite as long, in what appeared, from the words of
which it was composed, to be Italian; but the interminable length of the
sentences, and the flowery nature of the diction, rendered it as
unintelligible to every one present, as if it had really been in the
Farsee of the Ottoman chancery, of which it was a copy. Sidney then
stated shortly in English, that the consent of the travellers was wanted
to aid in the escape of Aali and his bride from the power of Mohammed
Ali, and that it was proposed that they should have horses ready waiting
for them and ride all together to Gaza. He treated it as the simplest
thing in the world, just as if their pursuit, capture, and murder, in
the midst of the desert, by some party of wild Bedoweens despatched from
Cairo was not an event to excite a moment’s hesitation.
Mr Ringlady began now to perceive that he was not on the route he had
bargained to take, and of which he had, with the assistance of his
faithful dragoman Mohammed, compiled a very minute itinerary and
description before leaving Cairo. Instead of being at El Gran, he was in
the centre of the Isthmus of Suez. He called the faithful Mohammed into
the tent, and inquired with desperate calmness the name of the place
where they were.
Mohammed replied with the same calm--“El Gran.”
“Is it El Gran?” repeated Mr Ringlady.
Aali, who thought the inquiry was dictated by the eagerness Mr Ringlady
usually displayed in the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties,
innocently said the place was called Saba Biar.
Ringlady sprang from his chair in a paroxysm of rage, and shouted to
Mohammed--“How dare you tell a lie, sir? How dare you tell a lie, sir?
to me who can dismiss you without a certificate. You have been in my
service, sir, and without my certificate no Englishman of rank or
fortune would ever employ you.” To all this, the faithful Mohammed
listened with perfect nonchalance: his expression seemed to say--My dear
sir, when a demand for certificates manifests itself, there are numerous
manufactories from which I can obtain an ample supply of the quality
required. Mr Ringlady’s rage was very much augmented by the seeming
indifference of his dragoman, who evidently considered a master only as
a convenience for filling the pockets of his servant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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