112 DESCRIPTION OF RABAT.

deceived even these antiquaries. There are several mosques in this town, but that which attracts particularly the notice of travellers, is the sma Hassan u e, the tower of Hassan, situated about a mile from Sheila, on the south banks of the river Buregreg, so called from its being in the province of Beny Hassan, it is an old tower built in a superior manner by an architect of Grenada, the same that built the tower at Marocco, called Jamaa LifenaVy one at Timbuctoo, and that at Seville ; it is about 200 feet high, perfectly square, and a person may ride up to the top on horseback, having a gradual ascent, and seven chambers one above the other : the cement with which it is made is so hardened that no pickaxe can destroy it. It was represented to the sultan Muhamed that the apartments in this tower were the liaunts of vice and immorality, and the sultan ordered the floor or terras, by which visitors ascend, to be broken ; it was found, however, impossible to destroy it, wherefore the workmen were ordered to desist, and the entrance was blocked up with loose stones.

This tower I ascended with my friend the Comte de Fourban, nephew to the duke de Crillon, who conducted tlie famous siege of Gibraltar, and whose machinations were so admirably defeated by the immortal governor of that garrison, General Elliott, Lord Heathfield. The Comte had ruined his constitution by being immolated in a dungeon in France, during the reign of Robespierre, where he remained during