running parallel to the river, where a few fine houses still stood in the
midst of their gardens. When men and beasts were making their way along
a better pavement the merchant observed: "I knew the father of the man
you were speaking of, very well. He was wealthy and virtuous; of his son
too I hear nothing but good. But is he still allowed to bear the title
of governor, or, what did you call him?--Mukaukas?"

"Certainly, Master," said the guide. "There is no older family than his
in all Egypt, and if old Menas was rich the Mukaukas is richer, both by
inheritance and by his wife's dower. Nor could we wish for a more
sensible or a juster governor! He keeps his eye on his underlings too;
still, business is not done now as briskly as formerly, for though he is
not much older than I am--and I am not yet sixty--he is always ailing and
has not been seen out of the house for months. Even when your chief
wants to see him he comes over to this side of the river. It is a pity
with such a man as he; and who was it that broke down his stalwart
strength? Why, those Melchite dogs; you may ask all along the Nile, long
as it is, who was at the bottom of any misfortune, and you will always
get the same answer: Wherever the Melchite or the Greek sets foot the
grass refuses to grow."

"But the Mukaukas, the emperor's representative.... the Arab began. The
Egyptian broke in however:

"He, you think, must be safe from them? They did not certainly injure
his person; but they did worse, for when the Melchites rose up against
our party--it was at Alexandria, and the late Greek patriarch Cyrus had a
finger in that pie--they killed his two sons, two fine, splendid men--
killed them like dogs; and it crushed him completely."