Whenever I could get any of them to listen to me for half an hour, I found means to appease them, but the town’s people did not even condescend to speak to me, and I evidently saw that their plan was to make religion a pretext, for practising an avanie upon me. My property fortunately was mixed with that of the Consul; a spare shirt and a carpet constituted my whole baggage; besides a pocket purse, containing the money necessary for my daily expenses, I had about twenty sequins hidden upon me. The Aga of Antakia sent his Dragoman to get something out of me. This was a wretched Frank, who pretended to be a Frenchman, but whom I should rather suppose to be a Piemontese. I pretended complete ignorance of the French language, he therefore asked me in Italian minutely about my affairs, and how I could attempt to travel home without any money or goods, to defray the expenses of the journey. I answered that I hoped the Consul, in remuneration of my having carefully watched his effects, would pay the expense of a camel from Aleppo to Bagdad, and that at the latter place I was sure of finding friends to facilitate my farther journey. When the man saw that nothing in my manners betrayed my Frank origin, he made a last trial, and pulling my beard a little with his hand, asked me familiarly “Why I had let such a thing grow?” I answered him with a blow upon his face, to convince the by-standing Turks, how deeply I resented the received insult; and the laugh now turned against the poor Dragoman, who did not trouble me any farther. I am at a loss to state how far I succeeded in sustaining my assumed character; I thought that the major part of the caravan people were gained over to my side, but the town’s people were constant in their imprecations against me. I had been flattered with an immediate departure for Aleppo, but the caravan was detained four days in the Khan. During the whole time of our stay, I spent the day time in the cell of the goods, amusing myself with cooking our victuals; the town’s people, though often assembled before the door of the room, never entered it; in the evening the gates of the Khan were shut, and I then went to sleep with the muleteers upon the terrace.