easants returning from their
toil, and citizens refreshing themselves with an evening walk. But here
seemed to be no fields to cultivate. All looked as if it were common
land; and one could but feel what a first-rate exercising ground Oglu
Pascha had for his cavalry. As for the citizens, walking does not come
within their idea of enjoyment; to which exertion is so essentially
opposed, that probably half of them would forego their very pipes, if
smoking were attainable only on condition of filling and lighting for
one's self.

Now, let me say, that a wayfarer's trouble is not always over when he
has arrived at the city of his destination. I should like to put any one
who thinks it is, outside of one or two places that I know, and tell him
to find his way in. _Le grand capitain_ thanked the garrison of Malta
for having had the kindness not only to capitulate, but to open the
gates for him, as otherwise he did not see how he should ever have got
in. And so, I opine, there be places where a capitulation would be
incomplete without the attendance of one of the indigenous to act as
pilot. I am afraid that I might have taken this journey in vain, and
sighed in exclusion, had I been left to my own devices for the effecting
of an entry. The river surrounds, in great part, the walls; and one
might make pretty well the entire circuit before hitting the right point
of ingress. But one of us was gifted with topographical instinct in
high degree, and at once nosed the course that was to lead us to the
bridge. Our poor brutes seemed to sympathise in the refreshment of our
spirits; and even my unfortunate Rosinante consented to his burden, and
put his best foot foremost. One of his feet, alas! was what maritime
gentlemen would call a regular _worser_--the foot which lacked a shoe,
and which, defenceless, had to sustain such rude battering. The hoof of
this foot was cracked, and I was in much tribulation, both on the poor
horse's account and on my own. But I made the best of the circumstances;
encouraging the animal with all that I could remember and imitate of the
dialect in which man converses with the horse; and comforting myself
with thinking how soon the poor fellow would be stabled and shod.

The bridge, over which we passed, was very pretty and not very shaky,
nor by any means so broken-backed as are the greater number of Turkish
specimens. At the moment of our passing, it was lined with venerable old
fellows, who had turned out