He was a volunteer, and furious at the idea of a lady and a stranger being robbed.  It is the first time it has happened here, and the desire to beat was so strong that I went to act as counsel for the prisoner.  Everyone was peculiarly savage that it should have happened to me, a person well known to be so friendly to el Muslimeen.  When we arrived we went into a square enclosure, with a sort of cloister on one side, spread with carpets where we sat, and the wretched fellows were brought in chains.  To my horror, I found they had been beaten already.  I remonstrated, ‘What if you had beaten the wrong men?’ ’Maleysh! (Never mind!) we will beat the whole village until your purse is found.’  I said to Mustapha, ‘This won’t do; you must stop this.’  So Mustapha ordained, with the concurrence of the Maohn, that the Sheykh-el-Beled and the gefiyeh (the keeper of the ruins) should pay me the value of the purse.  As the people of Karnac are very troublesome in begging and worrying, I thought this would be a good lesson to the said Sheykh to keep better order, and I consented to receive the money, promising to return it and to give a napoleon over if the purse comes back with its contents (3.5 napoleons).  The Sheykh-el-Ababdeh harangued the people on their ill-behaviour to Hareemat, called them haramee (rascals), and was very high and mighty to the Sheykh-el-Beled.  Hereupon I went away to visit a Turkish lady in the village, leaving Mustapha to settle.  After I was gone they beat eight or ten of the boys who had mobbed me, and begged with the two men.  Mustapha, who does not like the stick, stayed to see that they were not hurt, and so far it will be a good lesson to them.  He also had the two men sent over to the prison here, for fear the Sheykh-el-Beled should beat them again, and will keep them here for a time.  So far so good, but my fear now is that innocent people will be squeezed to make up the money, if the men do not give up the purse.  I have told Sheykh Yussuf to keep watch how things go, and if the men persist in the theft and don’t return the purse, I shall give the money to those whom the Sheykh-el-Beled will assuredly squeeze, or else to the mosque of Karnac.  I cannot pocket it, though I thought it quite right to exact the fine as a warning to the Karnac mauvais sujets.  As we went home the Sheykh-el-Ababdeh (such a fine fellow he looks) came up and rode beside me, and said, ’I know you are a person of kindness; do not tell this story in this country.  If Effendina (Ismail Pasha) comes to hear, he may “take a broom and sweep away the village."’ I exclaimed in horror, and Mustapha joined at once in the request, and said, ’Do not tell anyone in Egypt.  The Sheykh-el-Ababdeh is quite true; it might cost many lives.’  The whole thing distressed me horribly.  If I had not been there they would have beaten right and left, and if I had shown any desire to have anyone punished, evidently they would