he would kill them all. The
Mamelukes, finding they were entrapped, consented to the conditions of
the Bey, and half their number were soon weltering in their blood on the
floor of the hall. When the conquerors claimed the promised reward, the
Defterdar, who had now far superior numbers on his side, again commanded
them to divide and fight against each other. Again they fought in
despair, preferring death by their own swords to the tortures which they
knew the merciless Defterdar would inflict upon them now that he had got
them completely in his power. At length only one Mameluke remained, whom
the Bey, with kind and encouraging words, ordered to approach,
commending his valour and holding out to him the promised bag of gold as
his reward. As he approached, stepping over the bodies of his
companions, who all lay dead or dying on the floor, and held out his
hands for the money, the Defterdar, with a grim smile, made a sign to
one of his kawasses, and the head of the young man rolled at the
tyrant's feet "Thus," said he, "shall perish all who dare to offend
Mohammed Bey."

The Defterdar was fond of justice, after a fashion, and his mode of
administering it was characteristic. A poor woman came before him and
complained that one of his kawasses had seized a cup of milk and drunk
it, refusing to pay her its value, which she estimated at five paras (a
para is the fortieth part of a piastre, which is worth about
twopence-halfpenny). The sensitive justice of the Defterdar was roused
by this complaint. He asked the woman if she should know the person who
had stolen her milk were she to see him again? The woman said she
should, upon which the whole household was drawn out before her, and
looking round she fixed upon a man as the thief. "Very well," said the
Defterdar, "I hope you are sure of your man, and that you have not made
a false accusation before me. He shall be ripped open, and if the milk
is found in his stomach, you shall receive your five paras; but if there
is no milk found, you shall be ripped up in turn for accusing one of my
household unjustly." The unfortunate kawass was cut open on the spot;
some milk was found in him, and the woman received her five paras.

Another of his judicial sentences was rather an original conception. A
man in Upper Egypt stole a cow from a widow, and having killed it, he
cut it into twenty pieces, which he sold for a piastre each in the
bazaar. The widow complained to the Defterdar, w