This worthy fellow came of a good family of Marseilles: marquises and marchioness or something of that kind, but which had for a very long time been established in Syria. One of his uncles, having business with the Government, brought him when quite a child to France. One day, while he was walking at Versailles, chance brought him across the path of Louis XVI. The King and _Monsieur_, struck by his Oriental costume, and perhaps also by his agitated manner, spoke to him of the countries of the Levant. All the vanity and the boastfulness of the South, which a long succession of ancestors had dimly implanted in him, mounted to his head, and he derived enormous advantage from this interview. He brought back to Syria a stock of magnificent histories, of which he was naturally the hero, and notions of French and of cookery in which the provincial, after all, predominated. When Bonaparte came to lay siege to St. Jean d'Acre, he rendered some services as interpreter and accompanied the French into Egypt, where he remained until their departure. He obtained a pension, which the Government forgot to pay him. It was then that God bestowed upon him the gift of prophecies. Melancholy gift, which no one desires. He returned to Deir-el-Kammar believing firmly in the resurrection of his unhappy country. Not understood by his friends, scoffed at by his neighbours, despised by his relatives, he lived pitifully until the news of the arrival of an English princess ran through the Lebanon like a train of gunpowder. Then he realised that his destiny was there; he took his wallet and his staff, and deserted his wife (who was no doubt ugly), to follow the unknown. In the evening, by the camp fires, he achieved extraordinary success with the account of his adventures. He used to begin invariably: "When General Bonaparte formed a corps of Mamelukes, I enrolled in it with a great number of Syrians, my friends. As soon as we had been trained in the handling of arms, we were sent into Upper Egypt to join General Desaix's division. One day, after vainly pursuing the enemy who fled from us, we arrived very tired on the border of the desert and encamped. I was on the main guard of the camp, and, towards the middle of the night, when all the fires were extinguished, I heard a hyena howl in a strange manner, and at some distance from there the young camels raised distressing moans. The sky was entirely covered. Suddenly, I distinguished a sound, which seemed to be advancing towards me. It was at first only a murmur. I listened, and I heard distinctly the words: "'Pierre, Pierre, the Arabs will have a King and a Queen!' "This prodigy filled me with fright; and while I sought to recover my senses, the same words struck my ear and carried trouble into my soul. The dreams of the night recounted to me magnificent triumphs and royal fêtes.. "On the morrow I related to my companions what I had heard; but no one was inclined to attach any faith to my words.