A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

122 A BREEZE.
dispassionately to the two accounts, we perceived
that the Frenchman was manifestly in the wrong.
Some point of etiquette, as to which of them was
to discharge the duties of the breakfast-table,
had led, not only to violent expressions, but to
threatening gestures, w^hich so irritated the Turk
that he declared he w^ould leave the boat;—
need not tell you that he might as well have
sunk it for all the chance that would have re-
mained to us of continuing our voyage !
I
How-
ever, our timely intervention set matters right,
and honour on both sides w-as satisfied ; but how
long the peace will last, I know not. While
listening to the voluble accusations of the French
servant, (which by the bye reminded me of Cur-
rants description of a Frenchman in a passion,
that " it was like kicking a dictionary down
stairs!") and the choking asseverations of the
Turk, I could scarcely forbear laughing at the
practical misfortune which the latter declared
would ensue to his authority from the humilia-
tion that he had undergone before the sailors •
" For," said he, "how can, I attempt to beat these
men as you saw I did last night, if they perceive
that I would suffer any one to beat me ? "
The Frenchman's subsequent declarations that
if Mohammed were to leave us, he could prove a