he Dey, and I should have my head cut off."

"Fear not on that ground. I will give you an acquittance."

It was immediately drawn up in these terms: "We, the undersigned,
certify that the Caid of Bougie wished to dissuade us from going to
Algiers by land; that he has assured us that we shall be massacred on
the road; that notwithstanding his representations, reiterated twenty
times, we have persisted in our project. We beg the Algerine
authorities, particularly our Consul, not to make him responsible for
this event if it should occur. We once more repeat, that the voyage has
been undertaken against his will.

_Signed_: ARAGO and BERTHEMIE."

Having given this declaration to the Caid, we considered ourselves quit
of this functionary; but he came up to me, undid, without saying a word,
the knot of my cravat, took it off, and put it into his pocket. All this
was done so quickly that I had not time, I will add that I had not even
the wish, to reclaim it.

At the conclusion of this audience, which had terminated in so singular
a manner, we made a bargain with a Mahomedan priest, who promised to
conduct us to Algiers for the sum of twenty "piastres fortes," and a red
mantle. The day was occupied in disguising ourselves well or ill, and we
set out the next morning, accompanied by several Moorish sailors
belonging to the crew of the ship, after having shown the Mahomedan
priest that we had nothing with us worth a sou, so that if we were
killed on the road he would inevitably lose all reward.

I went, at the last moment, to make my bow to the only lion that was
still alive, and with whom I had lived in very good harmony; I wished
also to say good-bye to the monkeys, who during nearly five months had
been equally my companions in misfortune.[4] These monkeys during our
frightful misery had rendered us a service which I scarcely dare
mention, and which will scarcely be guessed by the inhabitants of our
cities, who look upon these animals as objects of diversion; they freed
us from the vermin which infested us, and showed particularly a
remarkable cleverness in seeking out the hideous insects which lodged
themselves in our hair.

Poor animals! they seemed to me very unfortunate in being shut up in
the narrow enclosure of the vessel, when, on the neighbouring coast,
other monkeys, as if to bully them, came on to the branches of the
trees, giving innumerable proofs of their agility.

At the commencement of the day, we s