WE

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than dignity to the divan on each side of him, as signs for us 1836.
to be seated. The colonel tcok hie place to the right, and A 82.
the rest of the party sat down upon the divan in the order in
which they were standing. It chanced that I was placed
immediately to his left, and thus I found myself quite close,
or at least as near as I desire ever to be, to Mehemet Ali!
It happened that ab the moment of our arrival the dragoman
or interpreter was not in attendance, and therefore as soon
as we were seated a slight embarrassment ensued. The
Pacha did not appear in the least ruffled by the neglect of
his officer; he looked towards the door, called for somebody,
 but not impatiently; then turned to the colonel,
uttered a few words, but immediately laughed as if at the
recollection of his not being understood. Again he turned
his eye towards the door, called in a louder but still not
angry tome for some person, but nobody appearing, he
then turned to Colonel C. and to us, smiled, fidgetted on
his seat, rubbed his knee, and twisted the fingers of a
remarkably white and handsome little hand in the handle of
his sword. All this was but the affair of a minute or two,
when an attendant of apparent rank entered, and walked
quickly up to the Pacha, who appeared to explain goodhumouredly
 the nature of our predicament, and he instantly
began the duty of interpreting. The Pacha commenced the
conversation by offering us a welcome; upon this the colonel
made an observation about the weather, which however
excusable it might have been ina country where Englishmen
have adopted it as the habit of introducing themselves, is
little suited to this latitude, where uninterrupted sunshine
prevails for seven years together. Let me leave the speakers
to settle the preliminaries of their interview, whilst in the
meantime I describe a little more minutely the principal
character before me.
 Mohemet Ali is, I am told, about five feet six or mevem