— 8o — prepared to start for the Sudan almost immediately.

I thanked His Highness and began to make preparations, buying, at a cost of £e. 1700, two dahabiahs (1) which I loaded with merchandise and rare stuffs from Cairo, that cost me £e. 40,000.

I waited for the order to start until the nineteenth of October, 1876, when His Highness summoned me to meet him, and said, "It is my wish, Zubeir Pasha, that you remain in Cairo under the shelter of my roof until I have come to some definite decision about you." I then realised the object of my having been brought (2) to Cairo, and what 1 had anticipated proved true. There was naught that I could do, so I answered "Sire, I hear and obey". I went away with sadness in my heart at this turn of affairs, and I wondered at the mysterious ways of God. Then I repented of my coming to Cairo, when repentance availed me not. When war broke out, in 1877, between Russia and the Sublime Porte, I was asked to accompany the Egyptian troops, and for a period of six months I fought with the cavalry in the Black Mountains, and in the land of the Serbs and the Bulgars.

(1) Native sailing boat.

(2) It is worthy of note that Zubeir had previously given a different explanation of the cause that induced him to gp to Cairo. See Page 78.