Risk professed astrology, and the Bey, like all other Turks, believed in it implicitly, and to this folly he sacrificed his own good understanding; and Risk, probably in pay to Constantinople, led him from one wild scheme to another, till he undid him--by the stars. The apparatus of instruments that were opened at the custom-house of Alexandria, prepossessed Risk in favour of my superior knowledge in astrology. The Jew, who was master of the custom-house, was not only ordered to refrain from touching or taking them out of their places (a great mortification to a Turkish custom-house, where every thing is handed about and shewn) but an order from the Bey also arrived that they should be sent to me without duty or fees, because they were not merchandise. I was very thankful for that favour, not for the sake of saving the dues at the custom-house, but because I was excused from having them taken out of their cases by rough and violent hands, which certainly would have broken something. Risk waited upon me the next day, and let me know from whom the favour came; on which we all thought this was a hint for a present; and accordingly, as I had other business with the Bey, I had prepared a very handsome one. But I was exceedingly astonished when desiring to know the time when it was to be offered; it was not only refused, but some few trifles were sent as a present from the secretary with this message: “That, when I had reposed, he would visit me, desire to see me make use of these instruments; and, in the mean time, that I might rest confident, that nobody durst any way molest me while in Cairo, for I was under the immediate protection of the Bey.” He added also, “That if I wanted any thing I should send my Armenian servant, Arab Keer, to him, without troubling myself to communicate my necessities to the French, or trust my concerns to their Dragomen.” Although I had lived for many years in friendship and in constant good understanding with both Turks and Moors, there was something more polite and considerate in this than I could account for. I had not seen the Bey, it was not therefore any particular address, or any prepossession in my favour, with which these people are very apt to be taken at first sight, that could account for this; I was an absolute stranger; I therefore opened myself entirely to my landlord, Mr Bertran. I told him my apprehension of too much fair weather in the beginning, which, in these climates, generally leads to a storm in the end; on which account, I suspected some design; Mr Bertran kindly promised to sound Risk for me. At the same time, he cautioned me equally against offending him, or trusting myself in his hands, as being a man capable of the blackest designs, and merciless in the execution of them.