bbi is the only one
of the Sultan's Ministers who is likely to help him to reform the
Government of Morocco. A clever, crafty brain, the whole Court under his
thumb, it yet needed but an absence of eight weeks to generate in that
hotbed of Eastern intrigue such a tissue of false evidence and lies as
nearly cost Menebbi his position, if not his life. His enemies possessed
the Sultan's ear; every Menebbi had been removed from the army; he had
probably not a single friend left in Morocco. With the fickleness of
their race, his name was cursed at every street corner; and when spoken
of, the people said, "There _is_ no Menebbi." Hurrying back from England,
the tidings of his fall reached Menebbi when he landed at Mazagan: he was
to be arrested. But the man they had to deal with was one of those few
who make a full use of every opportunity life ever offers. From Mazagan
to Morocco City, where the Court was, a distance of a hundred and forty
miles, he had a relay of mules and horses posted, and he rode without
stopping. There were dead and sorry beasts left on the road that day.
Menebbi rode up to the cannon's mouth, so to speak: he need never have
gone to Morocco City, but that would have meant his sinking into private
life and his banishment from Court; he preferred to "play to the
uttermost," and he staked life and fortune on the card he held. Things in
Morocco City hung on an eyelash: the great man galloped in from Mazagan,
went straight to the palace, never paused a moment, straight to the
Sultan's private door, straight into the presence itself. And who shall
say what Menebbi said to the Sultan through that night which he passed
with him--what false accusations he refuted, what diplomacy he used? Next
day Menebbi was not at prayers; he was "sick": in other words, he had
tidings of a plot to kill him on his way to the mosque. However, in time
he righted himself: now his enemies are under his heel, and Menebbi
breathes again.

The Hadj spoke of the great wish the Sultan has to visit England--an
impossibility, for in the eyes of his fanatical subjects he would be
countenancing the unbelievers, and his throne would be handed over to a
successor: the throne to which he succeeded, for the first time in the
history of Morocco, without having to fight his way to it--a fact owed to
the Wazeer's sagacity. Keeping the death of the old Sultan secret for a
few days, the Wazeer meantime bribed and forced the Ministers to accept
the yo