d the hideous white linen
yakmash covering the whole face below the eyes, and falling to the
breast, moved through the crowd, others of higher rank, seated on
donkeys and attended by eunuchs, made their way back from the baths, or
from visits to their friends. Stout Turkish merchants or functionaries
rode along perched on high saddles, looking as if they would bear to the
ground the little donkeys, that nevertheless went lightly along with
their burden. French soldiers abounded, gazing into the shops, and
occasionally making small purchases, chattering and laughing, the
fatigues and sufferings of the march being now forgotten.

There were comparatively few of the richer class in the streets, many of
these having left the city at the approach of the French, while on the
night before the latter entered there had been serious tumults in the
city, and the houses of many of the beys had been broken into and
sacked. Through all this crowd Edgar and Sidi wandered unnoticed.

"It does not look as if there were any strong feeling against the
Franks," Sidi remarked, as they issued into a large square which was
comparatively deserted, and seated themselves on a bench in the shade of
the trees near a fountain.

"No; but it is not here that one would expect to find any signs of
disaffection. No doubt the traders are doing a good business, for every
officer and soldier will be sure to spend all his pay in presents for
those at home, or in mementoes of his stay here, and I am sure the
things are pretty enough to tempt anyone. It is in the poorer quarters
that trouble will be brewing."

Presently a group of French officers came along and seated themselves at
a short distance from the two young Arabs. Having not the slightest idea
that these could understand what they said, they talked loudly and
unrestrainedly.

"The thing is serious, gentlemen," one of them, who was clearly of
superior rank to the rest, said. "Since the news of this most
unfortunate affair arrived, there has been a great change in the
situation. For the last two days there has not been a single horse
brought into the horse-market, and the number of bullocks has fallen off
so greatly that the commissariat had difficulty this morning in buying
sufficient for the day's rations for the army, but the worst of it is,
that assassinations are becoming terribly common, and in the last three
days fifty-two men have been killed. There will be a general order out
to-morrow