The shades of evening were falling fast as we rode through the town. Presently, leaving behind the dirty lanes and filthy streets, the main features of Scutari, we emerged upon the open country. The road was in a dreadful state, at least a foot of black mud was piled on the strata below. In order the better to avoid the dirt we rode along a raised path which overhung the highway, Osman and Radford each leading a baggage-horse. In about half an hour we arrived at a place where the highway ascended rapidly for a few hundred yards. The footpath rose yet more abruptly, and here and there large sections of it had fallen into the road below. We were passing by the cemetery at Scutari. Thousands of grave-stones which mark the resting-place of departed Turks lay scattered here and there. A deep silence reigned around, and the place appeared a desert, tenanted only by the dead. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me; a sound of horse's hoofs striking violently against some hard substance. I looked round. The first thing which met my gaze was the horse Obadiah, the source of all our previous difficulties, with his pack-saddle under the girth. In the hurry of re-saddling him at Scutari the yarn breastplate and crupper had not been well adjusted, nor had they been properly buckled. The saddle had turned, and Obadiah was amusing himself by a second time kicking at my cartridge-boxes, gun-case, and tins of tea and sugar. Clash went his iron hoof against one of the cases, away flew the white sugar into the black mud. A bang resounded from the gun-case, and that went spinning in another direction. Fortunately the boxes of cartridges had rolled to a little distance, and were just out of reach of the now infuriated beast's heels. Osman, in a moment of fear had released the animal's halter; dismounting from his own steed, he tried to get to Obadiah's head. This was by no means an easy task; the path was very narrow, in fact there was barely room enough for a horse to walk. To reach the pack animal it was necessary to descend to the road, which lay some feet below us, and then climb up the steep and muddy bank. Whilst this was being done I took charge of Osman's horse, the roarer, and which he had selected for his own riding, because, he said, the animal was a _rahvan_ or ambler. He had rubbed his trousers when he made this remark, and had grinned complacently: by this gesture he sought to convey to my mind, that his skin was tender, and that he did not wish to be galled during the journey. A noise in front now called my attention to that direction. The horse that Radford was leading had become alarmed, and in his struggles to release himself was half-way over the bank. "Let him go!" I cried to my servant, fearing that he would be dragged over the steep incline.