PRIDE AND A FALL There was to be a grand fantasia at the castle of the greatest of Druze sheykhs in honour of a visit from the English Consul-General in Syria; and as an Englishman I was invited to be there.

It was a journey of a day and a half.

Upon the second morning Rashid and I had not gone far ere we fell in with other horsemen wending in the same direction as ourselves, well mounted and in holiday attire.

All greeted us politely, but we kept apart, because they nearly all rode mares while we rode stallions--a fruitful source of trouble and a cause of war.
At length a young man mounted on a stallion overtook us with most cordial greetings.

I had met him often.