“In the beginning of the season of change the French were angry.  ’All men shall pay an equal tax throughout my land,’ said the King of the Age, and the Bashador of the French said, ’Our protected subjects shall not yield even a handful of green corn to the gatherer.’  Now when the people saw that the tax-gatherers did not travel as they were wont to travel, armed and ready to kill, they hardened their hearts and said, ’We will pay no taxes at all, for these men cannot overcome us.’  So the tribute was not yielded, and the French Bashador said to the Sultan, ’Thou seest that these people will not pay, but we out of our abundant wealth will give all the money that is needed.  Only sign these writings that set forth our right to the money that is brought by Nazarenes to the seaports, and everything will be well.’

“So the Sultan set his seal upon all that was brought before him, and the French sent gold to his treasury and more French traders came to his Court, and my Lord gave them the money that had come to him from their country, for more of the foolish and wicked things they brought.  Then he left Marrakesh and went to Fez; and the Rogui, Bu Hamara,[38] rose up and waged war against him.”

The Hadj sighed deeply, and paused while fresh tea was brought by a coal-black woman slave, whose colour was accentuated by the scarlet rida upon her head, and the broad silver anklets about her feet.  When she had retired and we were left alone once more, my host continued:—­

“You know what happened after.  My Lord Abd-el-Aziz made no headway against the Rogui, who is surely assisted by devils of the air and by the devils of France.  North and south, east and west, the Moors flocked to him, for they said, ‘The Sultan has become a Christian.’  And to-day my Lord has no more money, and no strength to fight the Infidel, and the French come forward, and the land is troubled everywhere.  But this is clearly the decree of Allah the All Wise, and if it is written that the days of the Filali Shareefs are numbered, even my Lord will not avoid his fate.”

I said nothing, for I had seen the latter part of Morocco’s history working itself out, and knew that the improved relations between Great Britain and France had their foundation in the change of front that kept our Foreign Office from doing for Morocco what it has done for other states divided against themselves, and what it had promised Morocco, without words, very clearly.  Then, again, it was obvious to me, though I could not hope to explain it to my host, that the Moor, having served his time, had to go under before the wave of Western civilisation.  Morocco has held out longer than any other kingdom of Africa, not by reason of its own strength, but because the rulers of Europe could not afford to see the Mediterranean balance of power seriously disturbed.  Just as Mulai Ismail praised Allah publicly two centuries ago for giving him strength to drive out the Infidel, when the British voluntarily relinquished their hold upon Tangier, so successive Moorish Sultans have thought that they have held Morocco for the Moors by their own power.  And yet, in very sober truth, Morocco has been no more than one of the pawns in the diplomatic game these many years past.