The soldiers fled; and after that experience the Government agreed to compromise.

I remember well a long day's ride with Emile and Samuel Baldensperger, round by Askelon and Ekron, and the luncheon which a village headman had prepared for us, consisting of a whole sheep, roast and stuffed with nuts and vegetables; and a day with Henri Baldensperger in the Hebron region.

The friendships of those days were made for life.
Hanauer, the Baldenspergers, Suleyman, and other natives of the country--those of them who are alive--remain my friends to-day.
In short, I ran completely wild for months, in a manner unbecoming to an Englishman; and when at length, upon a pressing invitation, I turned up in Jerusalem and used my introductions, it was in semi-native garb and with a love for Arabs which, I was made to understand, was hardly decent.

My native friends were objects of suspicion.

I was told that they were undesirable, and, when I stood up for them, was soon put down by the retort that I was very young.