xandria informed the travellers,
that Mr Lascelles Hamilton had been the secretary of an English gentleman
of fortune, and during his patron's absence from home, he had thought fit
to decamp with numerous papers and a large sum of money. With this
provision, he had been travelling over the Continent under a variety of
names, and presenting himself at different places as a relation of various
distinguished families, proving his identity by the letters and papers in
his possession. He had escaped many times when even more closely pursued
than at Gaza. A courier arriving for the Alexandrian, informed him at
last, that Mohammed the pearl of dragomans had been seen on the road to
Egypt, beyond El Arish. As it now appeared that the quarry had doubled
back, in order probably to escape by sea from Alexandria as the spot where
his presence would be least suspected, the consular agent set off after
his victim. It was something like a lap-dog pursuing a fox. Rumours of the
Palmerstonian wars were now beginning to alarm the East, so that our
travellers found themselves in a situation of considerable embarrassment.

The sudden departure of their baggage was more frequently deplored by the
travellers than the loss of their companion's society. Part of their cash
had been lodged in their trunks--a fact not unknown to the observant
Mohammed--and their funds were now very low. Mr Ringlady had, however, a
letter for Elias, of Sham, whom he considered to be the English consul;
and though Sidney informed him of the reception he had met with on
presenting a similar letter, he trusted to his elegant appearance and
mellifluous voice for complete success in obtaining as much cash as he
might require to continue his journey to Beyrout.

Ringlady and Campbell, in new paletots and black hats, proceeded to wait
on the consul, banker, and general trader of Sham. That worthy, however,
had already arrived at the conviction that a war between Turkey and Egypt,
and between England and France, was inevitable, and that victory would as
inevitably accompany the arms of Egypt and Gaul. His interest confirmed
this conviction. As sometimes happens in the lax mercantile morality of
the consular system in the Levant, he was the agent of two rival banking
establishments, one supported by English, and the other by French funds.
The English capitalists being far away, and unable to exercise any direct
control over their funds, the Shamite considered it an excellen