The monks are friends of mine.

It was with the object of this visit that I led our ride in this direction.' As I raised no objection, we tied up our horses in the garden of the monastery and went in.

We found the Prior in the middle of a tea-party, a number of Greek neighbours, of both sexes, being gathered in a very comfortably-furnished room.
My friend, ere entering, implored me in a whisper not to tell them that my accident was owing to his clumsy horsemanship.

Instead, he put about some story which I did not clearly overhear--something about a fight with desert Arabs, redounding to my credit, I conclude, from the solicitude which everyone expressed on my account when he had told it.

Some of the ladies present insisted on a second washing of my wounds with rose-water, and a second bandaging with finer linen than the Patriarch had used.