ling.

Exchanging between themselves glances of contempt at the lords of
Lebanon, who were ignorant of what everybody knows, they exhibited
the arms without the slightest interest or anxiety to make the Sheikhs
comprehend them; till Tancred, mortified at their brutality, himself
interfered, and, having already no inconsiderable knowledge of the
language of the country, though, from his reserve, Fakredeen little
suspected the extent of his acquirements, explained felicitously to
his companions the process of the arms; and then taking his rifle, and
stepping out upon the terrace, he levelled his piece at a heron which
was soaring at a distance of upwards of one hundred yards, and brought
the bird down amid the applause both of Maronite and Druse.

'He is sent here, I understand,' said Butros Keramy, 'to ascertain
for the Queen of the English whether the country is in favour of the
Shehaabs. Could you believe it, but I was told yesterday at Deir el
Kamar, that the English consul has persuaded the Queen that even the
patriarch was against the Shehaabs?'

'Is it possible?' said Rafael Farah, a Maronite of the House
of Eldadah. 'It must be the Druses who circulate these enormous
falsehoods.'

'Hush!' said Young Syria, in the shape of Francis El Kazin, 'there is no
longer Maronite or Druse: we are all Syrians, we are brothers.'

'Then a good many of my brothers are sons of Eblis,' said Butros Keramy.
'I hope he is not my father.'

'Truly, I should like to see the mountain without the Maronite nation,'
said Rafael Farah. 'That would be a year without rain.'

'And mighty things your Maronite nation has done!' rejoined Francis El
Kazin. 'If there had been the Syrian nation instead of the Maronite
nation, and the Druse nation, and half a dozen other nations besides,
instead of being conquered by Egypt in 1832, we should have conquered
Egypt ourselves long ago, and have held it for our farm. We have done
mighty things truly with our Maronite nation!'

'To hear an El Kazin speak against the Maronite nation!' exclaimed
Rafael Farah, with a look of horror; 'a natipn that has two hundred
convents!'

'And a patriarch,' said Butros Keramy, 'very much respected even by the
Pope of Rome.'

'And who were disarmed like sheep,' said Francis.

'Not because we were beaten,' said Butros, who was brave enough.

'We were persuaded to that,' said Rafael.

'By our monks,' said Francis; 'the convents you are so proud of.'

'They wer