'
'And carry the war into the enemy's quarters, if necessary?' said
Fakredeen.
'If they would let us alone, I am content to leave them,' said Hamood.
'Hem!' said the Emir Fakredeen. 'Do you see that gazelle, noble Sheikh?
How she bounds along! What if we follow her, and the pursuit should lead
us into the lands of the Ansarey?'
'It would be a long ride,' said Sheikh Hamood. 'Nor should I care much
to trust my head in a country governed by a woman.'
'A woman!' exclaimed Tancred and Fakredeen.
'They say as much,' said Sheikh Hamood; 'perhaps it is only a
coffee-house tale.'
'I never heard it before,' said Fakredeen. 'In the time of my uncle,
Elderidis was Sheikh. I have heard indeed that the Ansarey worship a
woman.'
'Then they would be Christians,' said Sheikh Hamood, 'and I never heard
that.'
CHAPTER XLVI.
_The Laurellas_
IT WAS destined that Napoleon should never enter Rome, and Mahomet never
enter Damascus. What was the reason of this? They were not uninterested
in those cities that interest all. The Emperor selected from the capital
of the Caesars the title of his son; the Prophet, when he beheld the
crown of Syria, exclaimed that it was too delightful, and that he must
reserve his paradise for another world.
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