"Have you known him long?" he asked.

"Why, not _very_ long," replied my Albanian; "but my master has the
greatest respect for him, and so has he for my master."

"He says you are to take some of our men with you wherever you like,"
said our host.

"Yes, I know," said the Albanian; "we settled that at Mezzovo, with my
master's friend, his Excellency Mr. What's-his-name."

"Well, how many will you take?"

"Oh! five or six will do; that will be as many as we want. We are going
to Meteora and then we shall return over the mountains back to Mezzovo,
where I hope we shall have the pleasure of meeting your general again."

Whilst we were talking and drinking coffee by the fire, a prodigious
bustling and chattering was going on among the rest of the party, and
before long five slim, active, dirty-looking young rogues, in white
dresses, with long black hair hanging down their backs, and each with a
long thin gun, announced that they were ready to accompany us whenever
we were ready to start. As we had nothing to keep us in the dark, smoky
hovel, we were soon ready to go; and glad indeed was I to be out again
in the open air among the high trees, without the immediate prospect of
being hanged upon one of them. My party jumped with great alacrity and
glee upon their miserable mules and horses; all our belongings,
including the half of the cold fowl, were _in statu quo_; and off we
set--our new friends accompanied us on foot. And so delighted was our
Caliban of a muleteer at what we all considered a fortunate escape, that
he lifted up his voice and gave vent to his feelings in a song. The
grand gentleman in red velvet to whom I had presented the Pasha's letter
at Mezzovo, was, it seems, himself the captain of the thieves--the very
man against whom the Pasha wished to afford us his protection; and he,
feeling amused probably at the manner in which we had fallen unawares
into his clutches, and being a good-natured fellow (and he certainly
looked such), gave us a note to the officer next in command, ordering
him to protect us as his friends, and to provide us with an escort. When
I say that he of the red velvet was captain of the thieves, it is to be
understood, that although his followers did not excel in honesty, as
they proceeded to plunder us the moment they had entrapped us in the
valley of the box-trees, yet he should more properly be called a
guerilla chief in rebellion for the time being against the authorities
of the T