country in complete security. There is also the Anaya, which is only required in cases of pressing danger, and he who possesses this protection, though the knife were at his throat, would be perfectly safe. It is a great thing, this Anaya, a strong bond of brotherhood, and, to people engaged in commerce, who are obliged to be everywhere about the country, it is particularly valuable; without it indeed they could not carry on their traffic, and with it are almost sure to prosper. The right which it confers, too, is held sacred, and its violation would bring down the vengeance of a whole tribe. I had proof of this with my own eyes on the day when I witnessed the death of the Bey, which, to the day of my death, I shall never forget."

"Was it then so very terrible?"

"My mustachios are grey; many a time they have been blackened by powder, and yet I never saw danger but once when the recollection of it comes back to my mind. All the other combats in which I have been engaged seem child's play in the comparison."

"The forces then probably of the Bey were insufficient, or perhaps he was abandoned by his followers?"

"Take care, Lieutenant, if you please," said Caddour, just at this moment, passing his legs over my shoulders to light a lamp of three sockets, the wicks of which were floating about in the oil.

The day had fallen suddenly, and as the night came on, the noise of the streets ceased. At the bottom of the café an Arab musician was twanging a guitar, and recording in his war-song, in rude abrupt rhymes of all sorts of metre, the high deeds of arms of some chieftain of the South. The smoking wicks of the lamps suspended from the ceiling, flaring to the right or to the left, according to the current of air, threw a ruddy light on the features of Ali, then threw them in the shade, then flickered ruddily on them again, making him a fit study for Rembrandt. The old soldier was plunged in thought; he was reading over the past, and on his face, generally so impassive, there was graven an impression so profound, that by an involuntary movement, in my impatience to hear his story, I drew closer to him.

Then, shaking his head, as if looking back into the past, "He was a powerful man, that Osman Bey," said he; "he was a master of the arm. On a day of battle a musket ball smashed out his right eye, but his mind lit up the other, and all

heads bowed to him. He was the worthy son of Mohamed the Great, who drove the Spaniards from the West and from Oran. He had been governor of the West, but was disgraced by the Pacha and sent to Oran, where he ruled strongly and justly. At that time there was a storm-cloud gathering in the mountain. Among the Beniouel-Ban, not far from the sea, there had lately come a man named Bou-Daili; he came from Egypt, and belonged to a sect which the chief hated. He was one of those called Derkaoua,* whether from the rags they wear, or from the guttural pronunciation they affect, I know not. This man incited the mountaineers to attack the Turks, promising them success; and, when the city of Constantine should be taken, a division of property and dominion over the whole country. His words found so easy an entrance into their hearts, that whilst Bey Osman was on an expedition in the south to chastise the Ouled-Deradj, Bou Daili led twelve thousand mountaineers against the city; but the hour for the fall of the Turks had not yet come; our cannon shattered the attacks of the Kabyles, and the Bey, returning in haste, found the plain swept clear of these ravens.

*A sect of fanatic Mussulmen.

"As soon as this ill news reached Algiers, the Divan met to confer together thereupon, and the Pacha wrote as follows to Osman:-'You are Bey of this province, Osman; the cheriff has appeared in the district under your command; it is your duty to march against him in person, to take vengeance for the aggression, to come up with him, wherever he may be, and to kill him or drive him out of the country.' The Bey, having read this letter, called a council of all the great and the powerful. All were of opinion that it was best to be patient, and to obtain by stratagem what it would be dangerous to demand by force. "The wild beast,' said they, 'is not to be attacked in his den, but on the plain. We must wait till they descend.' But the heart of the Bey was too high to feel fear, so he said, 'My father was called Mohamed the Great, and I am called Osman. The Pacha has spoken. I will go. Hold yourselves in readiness to start.'

"It was immediately made known to all the troops that the Bey was about to burn powder in the mountain. It was a fine sight, I can assure you, to witness the departure of so many brave soldiers. At their head marched the Bey. Το the right and to the left, a little in front, fifteen

VOL. II.

S

chaous kept off the crowd, who were pressing forward to kiss his golden stirrup. In spite, however, of blows dealt indiscriminately on all sides, it was so dense that the pointed breast-plate of the Bey's great black horse, seemed to cut through it as a knife would through a fleshy substance. Behind floated seven banners. Then came bands of music, playing martial airs, and followed by the officers of the household, on brilliantly caparisoned steeds, and a numerous cavalry. The Turkish companies, called the iron-hearted, on whom the Bey placed most reliance, closed the march.

"On the first day of our entrance into the mountain, very few shots were exchanged. The Kabyles meditated treason, and were waiting for the opportune hour and moment. After we had arrived at Oued-Zour, the ravines became frightful; more than one mule rolled down their declivities. At the bottom of one of them, we got sight of the enemy. They were nearly all of them hidden in thick woods, which surround a valley where the soil is so soft and yielding as hardly to bear the pressure of a man's foot. From this place they sent envoys to the Bey. Why,' said they, 'should we shoot one another any