rfectly
satisfactory, though Sidney told very frankly that Sheikh Salem and his
son were of the party, truly declaring at the same time, that as they had
crossed the desert disguised in female apparel, and surrounded by their
own attendants, he had no knowledge of their presence until the party was
joined by the Sheikh of Hebron that day. An Osmanlee secretary of the
governor of Gaza, one of those Mamaluke custom-house officers, or revenue
collectors of Mohammed Ali, to whom the statesmen of France looked for the
foundation of an Arabic empire in Egypt and Syria, now made his
appearance, to decide on the fate of the English spies, for such they were
evidently considered.

After a second examination, it was decided that the party must undergo a
quarantine of observation until their companions should arrive. It was in
vain to oppose this decision; so Sidney, Lascelles Hamilton, and Achmet
were marched through the middle of the town of Gaza, and lodged in a tower
near the centre of the barracks, in order to preserve the place from the
danger of contagion. Two Albanian soldiers were appointed to act as
guardians or sentinels to the prisoners, who were also allowed to hire a
cook. The guards kept up, a constant communication with their friends, and
the cook walked himself to the market to make his purchases, so that the
quarantine was very evidently rather a police than a sanatory measure.

The tower in which the travellers were lodged was within the circuit of
the remains of a noble building, constructed by the templars, or the
knights of St John, who long defended this bulwark of the kingdom of
Jerusalem against the infidel soldans of Egypt. The first morning of
quarantine was spent walking and smoking on the terraced roof of a large
arched hall, once a dormitory, or a hospital of the Christian soldiery,
now tenanted by a small body of irregular cavalry. As Mohammed Ali was,
according to the established system of his Arabic empire, cheating them
out of their pay, they were eager to hire their horses to our travellers
for the journey to Jerusalem. There captain, aspiring to the profits of a
muleteer, contrasted with the fierce templar of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe as
the trading monarch, Mohammed Ali, forms an antithesis to the generous
Saladin. The terrace overlooked a delightful country, and Sidney felt
positively pleased that the restraint of quarantine compelled him to be
idle. Before him was spread a rich cultivated plain,