your messenger, and
perform my stipulation with nice punctuality.«
    »You will easily believe that I was pleased with his courtesy; and finding
that his predominant passion was desire of money, I began now to think my danger
less, for I knew that no sum would be thought too great for the release of
Pekuah. I told him that he should have no reason to charge me with ingratitude,
if I was used with kindness, and that any ransome, which could be expected for a
maid of common rank, would be paid, but that he must not persist to rate me as a
princess. He said, he would consider what he should demand, and then, smiling,
bowed and retired.
    Soon after the women came about me, each contending to be more officious
than the other, and my maids themselves were served with reverence. We travelled
onward by short journeys. On the fourth day the chief told me, that my ransome
must be two hundred ounces of gold, which I not only promised him, but told him,
that I would add fifty more, if I and my maids were honourably treated.
    I never knew the power of gold before. From that time I was the leader of
the troop. The march of every day was longer or shorter as I commanded, and the
tents were pitched where I chose to rest. We now had camels and other
conveniencies for travel, my own women were always at my side, and I amused
myself with observing the manners of the vagrant nations, and with viewing
remains of ancient edifices with which these deserted countries appear to have
been, in some distant age, lavishly embellished.
    The chief of the band was a man far from illiterate: he was able to travel
by the stars or the compass, and had marked in his erratick expeditions such
places as are most worthy the notice of a passenger. He observed to me, that
buildings are always best preserved in places little frequented, and difficult
of access: for, when once a country declines from its primitive splendour, the
more inhabitants are left, the quicker ruin will be made. Walls supply stones
more easily than quarries, and palaces and temples will be demolished to make
stables of granate, and cottages of porphyry.«
 

                                 Chapter XXXIX

                       The adventures of Pekuah continued

»We wandered about in this manner for some weeks, whether, as our chief
pretended, for my gratification, or, as I rather suspected, for some convenience
of his own. I endeavoured to appear contented where sullenness and resentment
would have been of no use, and that endeavour conduced much to