The sheik made his hostess clearly understand that, if she persisted in going to Palmyra under the protection of the troops, he would consider her as an enemy, and that she would learn, at her risks and perils, who was sultan of the desert. So much the more that all the Bedouins, from the greatest to the smallest, had their imagination excited and their covetousness attracted by the arrival of the English princess, riding, with spurs of gold, a mare worth forty purses, bringing a book to discover hidden treasures (the engravings of Wood and Dawkins!), and a little packet of herbs to transform stones into precious metals!... Nasr, with much astuteness, added that a person so distinguished ought to trust herself to the honour of the Bedouins, for the Turkish soldiers, ignorant of the tracks, the spots where water was to be found, the places infested by rebels, would throw her into a thousand difficulties, and would be the first to march off when danger threatened with a touching unanimity. The result of the visit of this adroit diplomatist was that Lady Hester, without the knowledge of anyone, arranged an interview with the Emir Mahannah-el-Fadel. She arrived at Nebk like a whirlwind, carried off Lascaris and his wife, on her way, to serve as interpreters, and at the hamlet of Tell Bise, beyond Homs, she plunged suddenly into the desert. Mahannah had sent her a Bedouin as guide. Alone, she advanced across the boundless plains of sands, entrusting herself, with a rashness without example, to the hordes of marauders whose profession is to despoil unsuspecting travellers. At last, the camp appeared, and she went straight to the chief's tent. Mahannah was fifty or sixty years old; his piercing eye compensated for a difficulty in hearing, his beard was bushy and also his eyebrows. Dirt and filth begrimed in an extraordinary way his face, stranger to the use of water. He wore a jacket of Damascus satin which had once been red, of which some ransomed merchants had been despoiled. Lady Hester did not waste time in useless salaams: "I know that thou art a robber," said she to him, "and I am now in thy power. I have left behind me all those who were protecting me, my soldiers, my friends, to show thee that it is thee and thy tribe whom I have chosen as my defenders." Fascinated, Mahannah treated her with the greatest respect. For three days Lady Hester travelled with the camp.