On February 17, the Emir Mahannah arrived at Hama. Muly Ishmael, full of amiability for Lady Hester, had warned her to mistrust the Bedouin cupidity. The discussions took place in his presence. It was arranged that the emir, as the price of his escort, should be paid 3000 piastres, of which 1000 were to be given him at once, and the rest on the return from Palmyra. Excellent precaution to avoid the accidents of the journey! On that 20th of March, Hama was in a ferment of excitement. For some hours the town was buzzing like a hive, and the eternal norias supported in chorus the increasing noises. Women almost unveiled, squalling children, grave men, hurried excitedly to the gates. Jews, caught between their curiosity and their cupidity, took the risk of an incursion into the street to regain their shops at full gallop. Patrols of Dellatis--their tall hats pointing towards the sky--rode about, jostling the famished and howling dogs. It was to-day that the Syt, the English princess, was going into the desert with her escort. So far as a league from the town, the route was many-coloured with spectators. Children posted as an advance-guard arrived at the end of the train clamouring the news: "There she is! There she is!" Lady Hester, her long burnous floating in the wind, mounted on a horse with a flowing mane, passed, surrounded by her general staff of sheiks. Their lances decorated with ostrich feathers, their curly hair meandering down their cheeks, their bony mares, their savage demeanour, made a bad impression on the crowd. A long murmur of pity and commiseration rose towards the Syt. The janissaries who were keeping it back were overwhelmed; all the inhabitants of Hama wishing to take a last look at her who was going to her death, to be plundered at the least. Sixty-six Bedouins galloped on the flanks of the caravan, their keffiyes and abayes floating in the breeze. Mrs. Fry, always so ill at ease in her masculine garb, Bruce and the doctor, who had allowed their beards to grow to keep themselves in countenance, Beaudin, Pierre, the syces, the men-servants followed in good order. A file of twenty-five horsemen. And to wind up the procession, some forty camels, with the haughty and disillusioned airs of old politicians undeceived about many things, defiled solemnly, showing their varied burdens: tents, light and heavy baggage, firewood, sacks of rice and flour, tobacco, coffee, sugar, soap, kitchen utensils, leathern bottles of drinking water, oats for the horses. Lady Hester undertook the journey as a true Englishwoman whose formula is simple and in good taste: to have the maximum of comfort and the minimum of boredom. Little does it matter after mobilising a province, after unsettling a part of the earth, to render oneself odious to the inhabitants. It is always necessary to set one's house in order to travel with the English.