I Had Wrapped Myself
Close Up In My Cloak, With A View To Induce Perspiration, And Was Asleep
When A Party Of Moors Entered The Hut, And With Their Usual Rudeness
Pulled The Cloak From Me.
I made signs to them that I was sick, and
wished much to sleep; but I solicited in vain; my distress was matter of
sport to them, and they endeavoured to heighten it by every means in
their power.
This studied and degrading insolence, to which I was
constantly exposed, was one of the bitterest ingredients in the cup of
captivity; and often made life itself a burthen to me. In those
distressing moments I have frequently envied the situation of the slave,
who, amidst all his calamities, could still possess the enjoyment of his
own thoughts; a happiness to which I had, for some time, been a stranger.
Wearied out with such continual insults, and perhaps a little peevish
from the fever, I trembled lest my passion might unawares overleap the
bounds of prudence, and spur me to some sudden act of resentment, when
death must be the inevitable consequence. In this perplexity, I left my
hut, and walked to some shady trees at a little distance from the camp,
where I lay down. But even here persecution followed me; and solitude was
thought too great an indulgence for a distressed Christian. Ali's son,
with a number of horsemen, came galloping to the place, and ordered me to
rise and follow them. I begged they would allow me to remain where I was,
if it was only for a few hours; but they paid little attention to what I
said; and after a few threatening words, one of them pulled out a pistol
from a leather bag, that was fastened to the pummel of his saddle, and
presenting it towards me, snapped it twice. He did this with so much
indifference, that I really doubted whether the pistol was loaded; he
cocked it a third time, and was striking the flint with a piece of steel,
when I begged them to desist, and returned with them to the camp. When we
entered Ali's tent, we found him much out of humour. He called for the
Moor's pistol, and amused himself for some time with opening and shutting
the pan; at length, taking up his powder horn, he fresh primed it; and
turning round to me with a menacing look, said something in Arabic, which
I did not understand. I desired my boy, who was sitting before the tent,
to inquire what offence I had committed; when I was informed that having
gone out of the camp without Ali's permission, they suspected that I had
some design of making my escape; and that, in future, if I was seen
without the skirts of the camp, orders had been given that I should be
shot by the first person that observed me.
In the afternoon the horizon, to the eastward, was thick and hazy, and
the Moors prognosticated a sand wind; which accordingly commenced on the
morning following, and lasted, with slight intermissions, for two days.
The force of the wind was not in itself very great; it was what a seaman
would have denominated a _stiff breeze_; but the quantity of sand and
dust carried before it was such as to darken the whole atmosphere.
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