sent to the
interpreter struck His Excellency as a most generous act on the part
of the Sultan.

Quite a number of state banquets had been given, in which the members
of the Embassy had obtained an insight into stylish native cooking,
writing home that half the dishes were prepared with pomatum and the
other half with rancid oil and butter. The _litterateur_ of the party
had nearly completed his work on Morocco, and was seriously thinking
of a second volume. The young _attaches_ could swear right roundly in
Arabic, and were becoming perfect connoisseurs of native beauty. In
the palatial residence of Drees, as well as in a private residence
which that worthy had placed at their disposal, they had enjoyed a
selection of native female society, and had such good times under the
wing of that "rare old cock," as they dubbed him, that one or two
began to feel as though they had lighted among the lotus eaters, and
had little desire to return.

But to Kyrios Mavrogordato and Glymenopoulos his secretary, the delay
at Court began to grow irksome, and they heartily wished themselves
back in Tangier. Notwithstanding the useful "tips" which he had given
to the Foreign Minister regarding the base designs of his various
colleagues accredited to that Court, his own affairs seemed to hang
fire. He had shown how France was determined to make war upon Morocco
sooner or later, with a view to adding its fair plains to those it
was acquiring in Algeria, and had warned him that if the Sultan lent
assistance to the Ameer Abd el Kader he would certainly bring this
trouble upon himself. He had also shown how England pretended
friendship because at any cost she must maintain at least the
neutrality of that part of his country bordering on the Straits of
Gibraltar, and that with all her professions of esteem, she really
cared not a straw for the Moors. He had shown too that puny Spain held
it as an article of faith that Morocco should one day become hers in
return for the rule of the Moors upon her own soil. He had, in fact,
shown that Greece alone cared for the real interests of the Sultan.

IV. DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND

Yet things did not move. The treaty of commerce remained unsigned, and
slaves were still bought and sold. The numerous claims which he had
to enforce had only been passed in part, and the Moorish authorities
seemed inclined to dispute the others stoutly. At last, at a private
conference with the Wazeer el Kiddab, the Ambassado