e form they had clothed, and he had left, as a
substitute for the giver of life, the venomous reptile of death.

"The strength of my system enabled me to survive the effect of the
poison; but during the torpor that numbed me, my Arabs, alarmed, gave no
chase to my quarry. At last, though enfeebled and languid, I was again
on my horse. Again the pursuit, again the track! I learned--but this
time by a knowledge surer than man's--that the Dervish had taken his
refuge in a hamlet that had sprung up over the site of a city once famed
through Assyria. The same voice that in formed me of his whereabouts
warned me not to pursue. I rejected the warning. In my eager impatience
I sprang on to the chase; in my fearless resolve I felt sure of the
prey. I arrived at the hamlet wearied out, for my forces were no longer
the same since the bite of the asp. The Dervish eluded me still; he had
left the floor, on which I sank exhausted, but a few minutes before my
horse stopped at the door. The carpet, on which he had rested, still
lay on the ground. I dismissed the youngest and keenest of my troop in
search of the fugitive. Sure that this time he would not escape, my eyes
closed in sleep.

"How long I slept I know not,--a long dream of solitude, fever, and
anguish. Was it the curse of the Dervish's car pet? Was it a taint in
the walls of the house, or of the air, which broods sickly and rank over
places where cities lie buried? I know not; but the Pest of the East
had seized me in slumber. When my senses recovered I found myself alone,
plundered of my arms, despoiled of such gold as I had carried about
me. All had deserted and left me, as the living leave the dead whom the
Plague has claimed for its own. As soon as I could stand I crawled from
the threshold. The moment my voice was heard, my face seen, the whole
squalid populace rose as on a wild beast,--a mad dog. I was driven from
the place with imprecations and stones, as a miscreant whom the Plague
had overtaken while plotting the death of a holy man. Bruised and
bleeding, but still defying, I turned in wrath on that dastardly rabble;
they slunk away from my path. I knew the land for miles around. I had
been in that land years, long years ago. I came at last to the road
which the caravans take on their way to Damascus. There I was found,
speechless and seemingly lifeless, by some European travellers. Conveyed
to Damascus, I languished for weeks between life and death. But for the
vir