;
his soldiers had zagayes or lances, and little sabres in the Turkish
fashion. The King has always at his side, his favourite negro, who wears a
necklace of red pearls, and is called Billai. Zaide received the two whites
kindly, ordered that they should be well-treated, and that Mr. Rogery
should not be molested, he being continually tormented by the children. Mr.
Kummer was much more lively, and did not mind his misfortunes; he wrote
Arabic, and had passed himself off for the son of a Mahometan woman; all
this greatly pleased the Moors, who treated him well; while Mr. Rogery,
deeply affected by his misfortunes, and having just lost his last
resources, did not much rely on the good faith of the Moors.
In the course of the day, the King ordered Mr. Kummer to relate to him the
events of the last French revolution; he was already acquainted with those
of the first. Mr. Kummer did not exactly comprehend what the king wanted of
him. Zaide ordered his chief minister, to draw upon the sand, the map of
Europe, the Mediteranean, and the coast of Africa, along that sea: he
pointed out to him the Isle of Elba, and ordered him to relate the
circumstances which had taken place in the invasion of 1815, from the
moment that Buonaparte left it. Mr. Kummer took advantage of this favorable
moment, to ask for his watch; and the King ordered his son to return it to
the _Toubabe_, who then commenced his narrative; and as in the course of it
he called the Ex-Emperor, sometimes Buonaparte, and sometimes Napoleon, a
Marabou, at the name of Buonaparte, interrupted him, and asked if he was
the general whose armies he had seen in Upper Egypt, when he was going on
his pilgrimage to Mecca, to which Mr. Kummer answering in the affirmative,
the king and his suite were quite delighted; they could not conceive how a
mere general of army had been able to raise himself to the rank of Emperor:
it seems that these people had, till then, believed that Napoleon and
Buonaparte were two different persons. Mr. Kummer was also asked if his
father belonged to the army of Egypt; he said no, but that he was a
peaceable merchant, who had never borne arms. Mr. Kummer continued his
narrative, and astonished more and more, the King of the Trasas, and all
his court. The next day, Zaide desired to see the two whites again, from
whom he always learnt something new. He sent away the Moors, his subjects,
who had brought Mr. Rogery, and ordered his son, Prince Muhammed,
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