I would then return to the Holy
City, and remaining only long enough to refresh my horse and wipe
the dust from my hands and feet, I would start again for Jaffa, and
there catch a certain Austrian steamer which would take me to Egypt.
Such was my programme, and I confess that I was but ill contented
with it, seeing that I was to be alone during the time.
I had already made all my arrangements, and though I had no reason
for any doubt as to my personal security during the trip, I did not
feel altogether satisfied with them. I intended to take a French
guide, or dragoman, who had been with me for some days, and to put
myself under the peculiar guardianship of two Bedouin Arabs, who
were to accompany me as long as I should remain east of Jerusalem.
This travelling through the desert under the protection of Bedouins
was, in idea, pleasant enough; and I must here declare that I did
not at all begrudge the forty shillings which I was told by our
British consul that I must pay them for their trouble, in accordance
with the established tariff. But I did begrudge the fact of the
tariff. I would rather have fallen in with my friendly Arabs, as it
were by chance, and have rewarded their fidelity at the end of our
joint journeyings by a donation of piastres to be settled by myself,
and which, under such circumstances, would certainly have been as
agreeable to them as the stipulated sum.
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