not for her to be a source of danger to her friends, but rather to
her enemies, so she resolved to turn away from the people, and
trust for help to none save only her haughty self. The Sheiks
affected to dissuade her from so rash a course, and fairly told her
that although they (having been freed from her presence) would be
able to make good terms for themselves, yet that there were no
means of allaying the hostility felt towards her, and that the
whole face of the desert would be swept by the horsemen of her
enemies so carefully, as to make her escape into other districts
almost impossible. The brave woman was not to be moved by terrors
of this kind, and bidding farewell to the tribe which had honoured
and protected her, she turned her horse's head and rode straight
away from them, without friend or follower. Hours had elapsed, and
for some time she had been alone in the centre of the round
horizon, when her quick eye perceived some horsemen in the
distance. The party came nearer and nearer; soon it was plain that
they were making towards her, and presently some hundreds of
Bedouins, fully armed, galloped up to her, ferociously shouting,
and apparently intending to take her life at the instant with their
pointed spears. Her face at the time was covered with the yashmak,
according to Eastern usage, but at the moment when the foremost of
the horsemen had all but reached her with their spears, she stood
up in her stirrups, withdrew the yashmak that veiled the terrors of
her countenance, waved her arm slowly and disdainfully, and cried
out with a loud voice "Avaunt!" {18} The horsemen recoiled from
her glance, but not in terror. The threatening yells of the
assailants were suddenly changed for loud shouts of joy and
admiration at the bravery of the stately Englishwoman, and festive
gunshots were fired on all sides around her honoured head. The
truth was, that the party belonged to the tribe with which she had