FAKI PLOT. NAHROW ESCAPE. 229 him that he must save us from a great peril, and tliat, as he knew the road, Ave must return with him to Sennaar ah>ng the Abyssinian frontier. Our servant became now attentive, and winked to me to mark the Faki ; however, we drank on stoutly, would not allow any danger was near us, and at last out came his secret. On our arrival hereabouts, the Pascha had sent his stores of powder to this village, not so mucli because, from the great want of caution in the soldiery, it and the camp wei-e in great peril when it was there, but as he held it im})robabk' the enemy would risk the blowins so many holy men and their village into the air by firing it. This, however, we now, to our great surprise, learned was about to be done, and the holy men were, within three days, secretly to remove their possessions by night out of the village, and hide them in the great cave of the Kassela, and when all was ready, the house in which the all-important i)owder was stored would be fired. If this plot were carried out, the whole army, <ind we with it, Avould be lost to a certainty, as the Hallenga, excited by their priests, would have then set on us, and we could have offered no resistance. As by this time the Faki could no longer either get upon his legs, or stand when placed on them, our servant raised the burma out of the ground, and placed it on his beast before him, to bear it ofi" to the camp, where we might finish its contents. Burdened with this important secret, but otherwise very merry, we rode back to the camp. ly brother made his report to the Pascha as to the illness of the Faki, and the former could not conceal his annoyance, that, by declining the medicine, a want of confidence had been shown him, — a confidence that he on so many occasions had most horriblv abused, as had been acknowledged by his former trusty surgeon, Soliman Effendi.

Before now, I had, at the instigation of his higher officers, more than once begged of the Pascha to remove the stores of powder into the camp, and place a cordon of sentinels round it, as the priesthood, most especially, were unworthy of trust. I now repeated the request ; he gazed on me with sparkling eyes, and said, " I knoAV all ! " At once he gave orders to closely surround the village with troops, to allow no one to pass in or out, and to stronaly reinforce the guard over the powder-magazine. Next