fourth year of his rebellion, commissioned his lieutenant Mohammed-Beg Aboo-Dahab to invade and subdue Syria, with an army that anticipated the exploits of Ibraheem Pasha and his soldiers in the nineteenth century; meeting with like success at first, followed by similar but even more crushing ruin, both to the troops and to him who sent them, at the close. However, in 1771, 'Alee Beg was at the height of his good-fortune; and his young favourite and brother-in-law Hermann, then known as Aḥmed Beg en-Nimsawee, or the German, might well be proud of the flag under which he sailed. And then it was, on board of an Egyptian vessel, that he related what follows to his intimate friend and associate the Arab Tantawee Beg, so called after his native village of Tanţah, in Lower Egypt, one of the chief leaders in the Syrian expedition, the right arm of 'Alee Beg in life, and the faithful companion of his downfall and death, in 1773, in the forty fifth year of his age. I should here add, that Hermann's younger sister Mary, entitled by Egyptian chroniclers "the beautiful," had been, like her brother, kidnapped from Rosenau while yet a child; and, after many vicissitudes, was at this epoch the favourite wife of 'Alee Beg himself, and mother of his only daughter, the dearly beloved Khadeejah. It was in the Mosque called after Mohammed Aboo-Dahab, the lieutenant, murderer, and successor of 'Alee Beg, in the north-east quarter of Cairo, that, under the guidance of a learned Sheykh of the town, I found and studied the manuscript records of the great Egyptian revolt, and of those concerned in it. And thence I extracted the main facts, among which the present tale forms an episode. The rest was drawn by me from other sources, for the authenticity of which I can vouch, but need not here specify more particularly. The attempt to transfer an Eastern picture to a Western canvas, has necessitated the adoption of a certain liberty of phrase and expression, unusual perhaps, among Orientalists; but due to the impossibility of giving to a literal translation of Arab word and thought, the vividness required for the reproduction of the imaged sense in European minds. By so doing, I have in a measure sacrificed philology to truth; perhaps, an advantageous sacrifice. Nor does this in reality detract from the exactness of the rendering. Youth, energy, and love, have a language of their own more ancient than Babel; a tongue still common and unconfused by tribe or clime. HERMANN AGHA. PART I. Late or early, dusk or clear, Summer seasons may be fair, "AND now," said Tantawee Beg to his friend, as they sat together near the stern bulwarks of the ship, somewhat apart from the others on board, "let me hear what next happened to you after your capture." Hermann complied, and thus continued his story. "After about a fortnight of stupefaction, rather than of positive suffering, passed in VOL. I. B the village,-I forget its name,-where the marauders stopped to take stock of, and to portion out their booty, my wounds, which were not dangerous, had healed sufficiently to permit of my accompanying my captors on their seemingly interminable round of march and halt, across what I afterwards learned to be the province of Roumelia. Afterwards, I say; for at the time itself I paid little attention either to the country we traversed, or to any other circumstance of the journey, except my own miserable condition my ruined past, my unhappy present, and my worse than uncertain future. At last, when God willed, we reached Constantinople. "As we approached it, the actual view of that vast capital, known to me in my native town only by vague and fabulous description, its far-reaching crown of walls and towers, its domes and minarets, its cypress groves |