signs of his existence; Hafiz Bey
received no communications from Damascus; insurrections and disturbances
were heard of in every direction, and the names of Sheikh Salem and his
ally the Sheikh of Hebron were mingled with reports of a general rebellion
in Palestine.

In the mean time Sidney found the gains of Oriental commerce in its
regular channel through the bazaar of Gaza very small indeed; and though
he emulated the frugality of an Arab, he was unable to save the little sum
required to attempt to escape. He was by the flight of Ibrahim suddenly
burdened with the maintenance of his host's harem, and had discovered, to
his utter consternation, that he was bound to maintain two wives and four
children he had never seen. Every evening his matrimonial duties were
brought to his recollection before he closed his shop by the accursed
slave who presented him with the letter and the keys which had robbed him
of his liberty. That slave came and demanded five piastres, or one
shilling, for the maintenance of the harem next day; a few extra demands
were made at stated periods; and Sidney was himself astonished to perceive
that a household, consisting of eight or nine individuals, could live with
apparent satisfaction on the trifling sum of one shilling per diem. The
sum, however, moderate as it was, absorbed all the profits of the retail
trade, and the more extended commercial transactions of the Persian were
now interrupted by the disturbed state of the country.

In vain Sidney toiled to accumulate a sum large enough to pay his expenses
to Beyrout; his savings were always swept away by some unavoidable
payment. He at last began to despair, and fancy himself spell-bound on the
verge of the Desert; and the sad alternative of being compelled to pass
twelve years of his life as a tobacconist at Gaza--one of his relatives
having passed that period in the south of France a _detenu_ of Napoleon's
tyranny--continually presented itself to his imagination, and ended by
plunging him into a dangerous state of melancholy.

Determined at last to make a decisive effort to break his bonds, Sidney
resolved to despatch Achmet to Damascus with a petition to Ibrahim Pasha;
for he saw that without an order from that pasha there was very little
chance of his getting away from Gaza. Accordingly he made an application
to Hafiz Bey, at his public divan, to allow Achmet to accompany the first
courier he might despatch to Damascus; and at the same t