166 AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

money they found in the late Bey's possession, and took from it their arrears of pay, but no more. Afterwards, wearied by the long campaign in Hedjas, they compelled the new chosen leader to conduct them back to Cairo ; and he knew so well how to perform the duties of his office, that he prevailed on them to spare the town of Djedda, which they meditated plundering. The regiment arrived at Cairo, and the old fox Mehemet Ali sent messengers to meet it, and to order it to encamp outside the town ; made no fuss about the matter, but gave all the soldiers leave to return for half a year to their homes, so that they might recover after their exertions and battles. He knew right well that such a regiment in his camp might do immense mischief. After the leave was expired, or sliortly after, he called all the men into service again ; but parcelled them out into many different regiments, and their lot since has certainly been none of the best. The unfortunate new Bey was, however, beheaded at Cairo, some time afterwards ; not, for leading back the regiment, but because he had, without Mehemet Ali's permission, assumed a rank that he alone could grant, and because he had also defrauded the state by allowing the soldiery to pay him as Bey. The old Pascha thus vented on him the rage he dared not vent on the soldiers, though, without doubt, it was a piece of most striking injustice. After the murder of the former Bey, the captain, the favourite of the whole regiment on account of his bravery and humanity, had been, by unanimous voice, selected as leader ; he had been by force led into the tent of the Bey, and there put in possession of it, along with his slaves and horses ; but at the same time made aware, that if he did not at once lead them back to Cairo, where they could get some rest, they would take him with them, and in a body go over to the enemy. Had this last occurred, not only had all been lost for Egypt in Hedjas, but Mehemet Ali would have found another much-to-be-feared foe there. The captain, though thus under their hands, still managed by prayers and cunning, often at the risk of his own life while restraining their excesses, to lead the regiment back in safety to Cairo, and there got his reward. Our Achmet Pascha depends on and values his black soldiers more than his Arab and Syrian troops. The first regiment, now nearly twenty years in Bellad-Sudan, is almost all blacks ; as