ituation in regard to my wedding, to which he listened with a degree of
interest so great, as to make him my friend for life.

'He said, "But why should it not take place now? There is nothing to
hinder it: we are here to protect you, and whatever we can give or lend,
I promise that I will procure. The Persians do not show the least sign
of moving, and our army must wait for reinforcements from Teflis before
it can advance farther; therefore you will have all the necessary time
to perform your ceremonies in quiet and happiness, and perhaps with more
splendour than if we had not been here."

'He, moreover, promised to make a present to the bride of some Georgian
gold lace, and to lend me his horse, a fine Karadaghi, which I might
mount on the occasion. He said so much, that he at length persuaded mine
and my bride's relations not to defer the ceremony, and a day was
fixed. Had any other man pressed the business so much, and appeared so
personally interested in it, I should probably have been suspicious of
the purity of his intentions, and certain feelings of jealousy might
have arisen; but the captain was so ugly, so hideously ugly, so
opposite to what passes for beauty amongst us, that I could have no fear
concerning Mariam on his account; for if she could notice him, she could
with the same facility become enamoured of an ape. His face was composed
of a white leprous skin, with a head covered by hair, or rather quills,
thrown about in a variety of stiff lines, of the colour of straw; his
eyes were round holes scooped deep in their sockets, and situated behind
small hillocks of cheekbones; his nose was marked by a little bit of
flesh, under which were pierced two holes as if with an awl, and his
chin, as lucid as glass, did not show the smallest appearance of hair.
A little down grew upon his upper lip, which for length and prominence
quite outdid its fellow; and this indication of a man was as carefully
kept greased and blacked as a pair of immense boots in which his legs
were always cased.

'"No," said I, to myself, "Mariam would sooner love her Persian giant
than this creature; and when she comes to compare him to her intended
(looking over myself at the same time with some complacency), I flatter
myself that I may lay my jealous fears aside."

'And thus it was settled that I should wed. The evening before the
wedding-day, the clothes and other articles, placed in trays borne upon
men's heads, and preceded by sing