VI. separates the Plain of Esdraelon from the Valley CHAP. of Nazareth, and found that our party had pursued a different route. Presently messengers, sent by Captain Culverhouse, came to us with this intelligence. The rebel Arabs were then stationed at a village, within two miles distance, in the plain; so that we very narrowly escaped falling into their hands. It seemed almost evident that the Arab, whose false information as to the route had been the original cause of this deviation, intended to mislead, and that he would have joined the rebels as soon as his plan had succeeded. The messengers recommended, as the speediest mode of joining our party, that we should ascend the mountainous ridge which flanks all the plain towards Nazareth. In doing this, we actually encountered some of the scouts belonging to the insurgents; they passed us on horseback, armed with long lances, but offered us no molestation. As soon as we had gained the heights, we beheld our companions collected in a body, at a great distance below in the plain; easily recognizing our English friends by their umbrellas. After clambering among the rocks, we accomplished a descent towards the spot where they were assembled, and, reaching the plain, found Captain Culverhouse busied in surveying with his VI. Narrow CHAP. glass about three hundred of the rebels, stationed in a village near the mouth of the defile by which we had previously proceeded. It was at this unlucky moment, while the party Escape of the Author. were deliberating whether to advance or retreat, that the author, unable to restrain the impulse of his feelings, most imprudently and unjustifiably punished the Arab who had caused the delay, by striking him. It is impossible to describe the confusion this occasioned. The Moslems, to a man, maintained that the infidel who had lifted his hand against one of the faithful should atone for the sacrilegious insult by his blood. The Arab, recovered from the shock he had sustained, sought only to gratify his anger by the death of his assailant. Having speedily charged his tophaike, although trembling with rage to such a degree that his whole frame appeared to be agitated, he very deliberately pointed it at the object of his revenge, who escaped assassination by dodging beneath the horses, as often as the muzzle of the piece was directed towards him. Finding himself thus frustrated in his intentions, his fury became ungovernable. His features, livid and convulsed, seemed to denote madness: no longer knowing what he did, he levelled his tophaike at the captain of Djezzar's guard, and afterwards at VI. his dragoman Signor Bertocino, who, with CHAP. Captain Culverhouse, and the rest of our party, by this time had surrounded him, and endeavoured to wrest the piece from him. The fidelity of the officers of the guard, added to the firmness and intrepidity of Captain Culverhouse and of Signor Bertocino, saved the lives of every Christian then present. Most of them, destitute of arms, and encumbered by baggage, were wholly unprepared either for attack or defence; and all the Arabs of our escort were waiting to assist in a general massacre of the Christians, as soon as the affront offered to a Moslem had been atoned by the death of the offender. Captain Culverhouse, by a violent effort, succeeded in wresting the loaded weapon from the hands of the infuriate Arab; and Signor Bertocino, in the same instant, with equal intrepidity and presence of mind, galloping among the rest of them, brandished his drawn sabre over their heads, and threatened to cut down the first person who should betray the slightest symptom of mutiny. The captain of Djezzar's guard then secured the trembling culprit, and it was with the greatest difficulty we could prevent him from putting this man to death. The rest of the Arabs, now awed into submission, would gladly have consented to such a sacrifice, upon CHAP. the condition of our concealing their conduct from Djezzar, when we returned to Acre. These men afterwards confessed, that if any blood had been shed, it was their intention to desert and to have joined the rebel army. A fortunate piece of policy put an end to the whole affair. One of our party, riding off at full speed into the plain, threw his lance into the air, and thus began the game of Djerid; the rest soon following, and expressing, by loud shouts, their readiness to restore peace. Nothing, however, could conciliate the offended Arab. He continued riding aloof, and sulky, holding no communication even with his own countrymen ; until at length, having advanced to a considerable distance into the Plain of Esdraelon, we espied a large camp, which our conductors recognised as consisting of cavalry belonging to Djezzar. We therefore directed our course towards the tents. As we crossed this immense plain to the camp, we had a fine view of Mount Thabór1, (1) Reland writes this word Tabor: but the author has preferred following the orthography of Eusebius (in Onomast.) as cited by Reland, and of the other Greeks, who wrote Oaßup; because this exactly agrees with the name of the mountain as it is now pronounced The CHAP. Djezzar's standing quite insular, towards the east. Arabs were said to be in great number upon all the hills, but particularly upon or near to that mountain. We found Djezzar's troops encamped Campof about the centre of this vast plain, opposite to Cavalry. some heights where the French were strongly fortified during their last campaign in Syria. The camp contained about three hundred cavalry, having more the appearance of banditti than of any regular troops; and indeed it was from tribes of rovers that they were principally derived. Two days before our arrival, upon Sunday, July the fifth, they fell upon the Arabs who were tending their numerous herds of cattle, seized their property, and killed many of them. They justified themselves, by urging in the Holy Land. It is somewhat singular, that Reland, who cites Adamnanus (de Locis Sanctis), should have omitted to notice the following passage; because it occurs immediately after the extract he has inserted from that author, in his chapter “DE TABORE." (Vid. Palæst. Illust. lib. i. c. 51.) “Sed inter hæc et hoc est notandum, quòd illius famosi montis nomen Græcis litteris sic oporteat scribi, per 0, et w longum, eaßop: Latinis verò litterulis cum aspiratione, Thabor, productâ & litterâ. Hujus orthographia vocabuli in libris Græcitatis est inventa." (Vide Mabillon. tom iv. Actor. Sanctor. Ord. Benedicti, p. 517. L. Par. 1672.) A philologist in the seventh century, upon a rock in the Hebrides, is a curious circumstance in history: yet this is the fact; for, in this instance, it is evidently the Abbot of Iona, and not Arculfus the French bishop, who makes the observation. (2) See the Vignette to this Chapter. |