Tancred was attracted to the young stranger: his prepossessing appearance, his soft manners, the contrast which they afforded to all around, and to the scenes and circumstances which Tancred had recently experienced, were winning. Tancred, therefore, gladly accompanied him to his pavilion, which was pitched outside the amphitheatre, and stood apart. Notwithstanding the modest description of his tent by the young Sheikh, it was by no means inconsiderable in size, for it possessed several compartments, and was of a different colour and fashion from those of the rest of the tribe. Several steeds were picketed in Arab fashion near its entrance, and a group of attendants, smoking and conversing with great animation, were sitting in a circle close at hand. They pressed their hands to their hearts as Tancred and his host passed them, but did not rise. Within the pavilion, Tancred found a luxurious medley of cushions and soft carpets, forming a delightful divan; pipes and arms, and, to his great surprise, several numbers of a French newspaper published at Smyrna. ‘Ah!’ exclaimed Tancred, throwing himself on the divan, ‘after all I have gone through to-day, this is indeed a great and an unexpected relief.’ ‘’Tis your own divan,’ said the young Arab, clapping his hands; ‘and when I have given some orders for your comfort, I shall only be your guest, though not a distant one.’ He spoke some words in Arabic to an attendant who entered, and who returned very shortly with a silver lamp fed with palm oil, which he placed on the ground. ‘I have two poor Englishmen here,’ said Tancred, ‘my servants; they must be in sad straits; unable to speak a word----’ ‘I will give orders that they shall attend you. In the meantime you must refresh yourself, however lightly, before you repose.’ At this moment there entered the tent several attendants with a variety of dishes, which Tancred would have declined, but the young Sheikh, selecting one of them, said, ‘This, at least, I must urge you to taste, for it is a favourite refreshment with us after great fatigue, and has some properties of great virtue.’ So saying, he handed to Tancred a dish of bread, dates, and prepared cream, which Tancred, notwithstanding his previous want of relish, cheerfully admitted to be excellent. After this, as Tancred would partake of no other dish, pipes were brought to the two young men, who, reclining on the divan, smoked and conversed. ‘Of all the strange things that have happened to me to-day,’ said Tancred, ‘not the least surprising, and certainly the most agreeable, has been making your acquaintance. Your courtesy has much compensated me for the rude treatment of your tribe; but, I confess, such refinement is what, under any circumstances, I should not have expected to find among the tents of the desert, any more than this French journal.’ ‘I am not an Arab,’ said the young man, speaking slowly and with an air of some embarrassment. ‘Ah!’ exclaimed Tancred.