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

344 UNFAVOURABLE IMPRESSIONS.
iron that burnt into my flesh, and felt quite
relieved when the Pasha's dragoman came to
tell us that his Excellency was asleep, and that
after the watchful night he had passed, his
attendants would not venture to awaken him
to deliver our message. I say that I felt re-
lieved (although but a few moments before I had
been anxious beyond measure for an audience),
for the sight of those blood-stained sticks had
indisposed me against Selim Pasha, and I should
have looked upon him as upon one of those
barbarous tyrants of the middle ages (of whom,
thank Heaven !
we
now know nothing except
through the medium of novels and melo-dramas),
whose halls of judgement always communicated
with the torture-chamber, and who spilt human
blood with as much indifference as though it
had been so much dirty water. We therefore
rode back to the Dahabieh, embarked, and, to
the great joy of Reis Ali, decided upon imme-
diately departing. And now, while the minarets
of E'Siout are still in sight, I trace these lines to
you, and will terminate them by telling you why
I was so anxious to see Selim Pasha.
It is not often that romance mingles with the
dull materialism of Turkish existence, but Selim
Pasha has been (if report speaks true, and mind I