The Arab's Pledge

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XV. THE PLEDGE REDEEMED. IS soon as they arrived at the cultivated districts, which they did by rapid inarches, the Arabs spread themselves over the country, plundering in all directions. For this purpose they dispersed by tribes, the whole body uniting for the night at a rendezvous previously fixed upon. The peasants fled everywhere on their approach, securing what property they had time to remove, into the towns and walled villages. These, the Arabs being all horsemen, left unmolested. They carried off all the grain that could be discovered, and even reaped what was on the ground, compelling the peasants to assist in threshing it out; they also gathered the dates from the trees. Their plunder was loaded on camels and mules, seized on their route. Wherever they bivouacked, their horses were picketed in the standing corn, and very soon changed their appearance from the bony, game-looking animals that they were at starting, to rounded, sleek chargers. The cultivated tracts they passed over were left as if a swarm of locusts had swept over the land. After issuing the necessary orders to the Sheiks left in command, and directing their course on the province of Rahamna, Sheik Hamed selected five hundred of his best horsemen, and started by forced marches for Marocco, having received an urgent message from Ali that no time was to be lost if he wished to be assured of redeeming his word. About fifty miles south of the city, the Chief knew that he would find a tribe of Arabs, who, although settled in the province, kept up a friendly intercourse with the original desert stock. From the douar of this tribe, he could march by a straight course much faster than any messenger who might be on his way to give notice of their approach; and by...