as fast as post-horses
could climb or gallop over mountains and plains, he reached Mosul in
twelve days.

Here at last he was fitted for his task, supplied for the accomplishment
of his passion. The Arabs say: "I had a horse, but no desert; I had a
desert, but no horse; now I have a desert and a horse, and shall I not
ride?" His boyhood, with the artists of Italy, and learning the
languages of the continent, had fitted him for his task; then his study
of all the books of Eastern travel, then half a year wandering with a
trained companion through Asia Minor and Syria, scarcely leaving untrod
one spot hallowed by tradition, or unvisited one ruin consecrated by
history, with no protection but his arms, living with the people and
learning their prejudices and customs. Then an irresistible desire had
brought him to the regions beyond the Euphrates, and the mystery of
Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea had fascinated him, so that he had
visited the land of Nimrod, seen the site of their old buried capitals,
had been the guest in the tents of Shammar and Aneyzah Arabs, and even
passed on to see the famous forty columns of Chilminar, old Persian
Persepolis, and to penetrate the mountain fastnesses where the
Bakhtiyari maintained a perilous freedom. Never was man better trained
by enthusiasm and experience for his task, and the late discoveries of
M. Botta had inflamed his desire to surpass what his French friend
had done.

His plan was not to begin excavations at Nineveh, opposite Mosul, but
twenty miles south, at the great mound of Nimroud, which bore the name
of the mighty hunter Nimrod. Xenophon and his Ten Thousand had seen and
wondered at its pyramid. There he would be free from the army of
mischievous spectators that would swarm from Mosul, had he selected the
site of Nineveh, and from the constant interference of the Turkish
governor. The Pasha at Mosul was a cruel scoundrel, who was robbing and
killing the people as his whim or greed prompted, and had reduced the
tribes of the neighborhood to a state of terror. Accordingly, Mr.
Layard, who was armed with protecting letters from the British
Ambassador and the Porte, thought it wise to conceal his purpose, let it
be reported that he was going on a hunting expedition; and with a few
tools and a supply of guns and spears, on the 8th of November, 1845,
accompanied only by his cawass, the soldier attendant detailed for the
protection of travellers, a servant, and one laborer,