MADAME VIGOUREUX. 73 greed of money falls on them. Once, however, we did feel pity for the lady, as she told us this history. She was already in the family-way when she and her husband reached Cairo. Though advised by all to leave his wife there for her confinement, he was barbarian enough to drag her, well veiled and with black gloves on, to make the camel drivers believe she was a black woman, across the desert ; and during the journey she one afternoon, under a glowing sun, on a camel's back, gave birth to a- male child, that instantly expired. No halt could be thought of in the desert, and the half-dead woman went on to Chartum, where she first obtained medical aid. Often has she begged of me to prevail on the Pascha at once to give her husband his discharge, as she was still so young, and longed so much again to behold la belle France ; but Vigoureux would neither ask nor hear of discharge, so I did not interfere, as I might have incurred the blame of being an intriguer. On my return from the "White Nile, and when in Chartum, I received a letter from her from Kordofan, in which, in language of despair, she described to me her situation, told me her husband was now always laid up, and praying me to recover some part of the arrears due to him. I, therefore, on asking the Pascha for these arrears, did not hesitate to tell him, that to keep such a man in his pay any longer was merely throwing away money, as he could no longer serve him. The Pascha's reply was, " I know that, but he can die !" i. e. then all arrears will be paid, too. I told him of the lady's sad state ; he only quietly smiled. On my journey back to Egypt, I found the two at Dongola ; he was free—was really discharged. They had been more than a month resting there, and indulging in an immoderate consumption of grapes, which regimen had had such an excellent effect on botli, that I hardly again recognised Madame Vigoureux in the amiable and affectionate wife of her already in secret despaired of old corporal.