‘Lord Palmerston understood the Eastern question to a certain degree,’ said Mr. Consul-General Laurella; ‘but, had I been in the service of the Queen of England, I could have told him some things;’ and he mysteriously paused. ‘I cannot endure this eternal chatter about Palmerston,’ said the Emir, rather pettishly. ‘Are there no other statesmen in the world besides Palmerston? And what should he know about the Eastern question, who never was in the East?’ ‘Ah, noble Emir, these are questions of the high diplomacy. They cannot be treated unless by the cabinets which have traditions.’ ‘I could settle the Eastern question in a month, if I were disposed,’ said Fakredeen. Mr. Consul-General Laurella smiled superciliously, and then said, ‘But the question is, what is the Eastern question?’ ‘For my part,’ said Hillel Besso, in a most epigrammatic manner, ‘I do not see the use of settling anything.’ ‘The Eastern question is, who shall govern the Mediterranean?’ said the Emir. ‘There are only two powers who can do it: Egypt and Syria. As for the English, the Russians, the Franks, your friends the Austrians, they are strangers. They come, and they will go; but Syria and Egypt will always remain.’ ‘Egypt has tried, and failed.’ ‘Then let Syria try, and succeed.’ ‘Do you visit Egypt before you return from the East, noble sir?’ asked Besso, of Tancred. ‘I have not thought of my return; but I should not be sorry to visit Egypt. It is a country that rather perplexes us in Europe. It has undergone great changes.’ Besso shook his head, and slightly smiled. ‘Egypt,’ said he, ‘never changes. ‘Tis the same land as in the days of the Pharaohs: governed on their principles of political economy, with a Hebrew for prime minister.’ ‘A Hebrew for prime minister!’ ‘Even so: Artim Bey, the present prime minister of Egypt, formerly the Pasha’s envoy at Paris, and by far the best political head in the Levant, is not only the successor but the descendant of Joseph.’ ‘He must be added then to your friend M. de Sidonia’s list of living Hebrew statesmen,’ said Tancred. ‘We have our share of the government of the world,’ said Besso. ‘It seems to me that you govern every land except your own.’ ‘That might have been done in ‘39,’ said Besso musingly; ‘but why speak of a subject which can little interest you?’ ‘Can little interest me!’ exclaimed Tancred. ‘What other subject should interest me? More than six centuries ago, the government of that land interested my ancestor, and he came here to achieve it.’