“You will easily believe, that I was pleased with his courtesy:  and, finding, that his predominant passion was desire of money, I began now to think my danger less, for I knew that no sum would be thought too great for the release of Pekuah.  I told him, that he should have no reason to charge me with ingratitude, if I was used with kindness, and that any ransome, which could be expected for a maid of common rank, would be paid; but that he must not persist to rate me as a princess.  He said he would consider what he should demand, and then, smiling, bowed and retired.

“Soon after the women came about me, each contending to be more officious than the other, and my maids, themselves, were served with reverence.  We travelled onwards by short journeys.  On the fourth day the chief told me, that my ransome must be two hundred ounces of gold; which I not only promised him, but told him, that I would add fifty more, if I and my maids were honourably treated.

“I never knew the power of gold before.  From that time, I was the leader of the troop.  The march of every day was longer, or shorter, as I commanded, and the tents were pitched where I chose to rest.  We now had camels, and other conveniencies for travel; my own women were always at my side, and I amused myself with observing the manners of the vagrant nations, and with viewing remains of ancient edifices, with which these deserted countries appear to have been, in some distant age, lavishly embellished.

“The chief of the band was a man far from illiterate:  he was able to travel by the stars, or the compass, and had marked, in his erratick expeditions, such places as are most worthy the notice of a passenger.  He observed to me, that buildings are always best preserved in places little frequented, and difficult of access:  for, when once a country declines from its primitive splendour, the more inhabitants are left, the quicker ruin will be made.  Walls supply stones more easily than quarries, and palaces and temples will be demolished, to make stables of granite, and cottages of porphyry.

CHAP.  XXXIX.

THE ADVENTURES OF PEKUAH CONTINUED.

“We wandered about, in this manner, for some weeks, whether, as our chief pretended, for my gratification, or, as I rather suspected, for some convenience of his own.  I endeavoured to appear contented, where sullenness and resentment would have been of no use, and that endeavour conduced much to the calmness of my mind; but my heart was always with Nekayah, and the troubles of the night much overbalanced the amusements of the day.  My women, who threw all their cares upon their mistress, set their minds at ease, from the time when they saw me treated with respect, and gave themselves up to the incidental alleviations of our fatigue, without solicitude or sorrow.  I was pleased with their pleasure, and animated with their confidence.  My condition had lost much of its terrour, since I found that the Arab ranged the country merely to get riches.  Avarice is an uniform and tractable vice:  other intellectual distempers are different in different constitutions of mind; that which sooths the pride of one, will offend the pride of another; but to the favour of the covetous, there is a ready way:  bring money, and nothing is denied.