After a great deal of fruitless planning the Governor directed that the prisoners should be brought in.  I was shocked when they entered, for I was not prepared to see them come carried into the room upon the shoulders of others.  It had not occurred to me that their battered feet would be too sore to bear the contact of the floor.  They persisted in asserting their innocence.  The Governor wanted to recur to the torture, but that I prevented, and the men were carried back to their dungeon.

A scheme was now suggested by one of the attendants which seemed to me childishly absurd, but it was nevertheless tried.  The plan was to send a man to the prisoners, who was to make them believe that he had obtained entrance into their dungeon upon some other pretence, but that he had in reality come to treat with them for the purchase of the stolen goods.  This shallow expedient of course failed.

The Governor himself had not nominally the power of life and death over the people in his district, but he could if he chose send them to Cairo, and have them hanged there.  I proposed, therefore, that the prisoners should be threatened with this fate.  The answer of the Governor made me feel rather ashamed of my effeminate suggestion.  He said that if I wished it he would willingly threaten them with death, but he also said that if he threatened, he should execute the Threat.

Thinking at last that nothing was to be gained by keeping the prisoners any longer in confinement, I requested that they might be set free.  To this the Governor acceded, though only, as he said, out of favour to me, for he had a strong impression that the men were guilty.  I went down to see the prisoners let out with my own eyes.  They were very grateful, and fell down to the earth, kissing my boots.  I gave them a present to console them for their wounds, and they seemed to be highly delighted.

Although the matter terminated in a manner so satisfactory to the principal sufferers, there were symptoms of some angry excitement in the place:  it was said that public opinion was much shocked at the fact that Mahometans had been beaten on account of a loss sustained by a Christian.  My journey was to recommence the next day, and it was hinted that if I preservered in my intention of proceeding, the people would have an easy and profitable opportunity of wreaking their vengeance on me.  If ever they formed any scheme of the kind, they at all events refrained from any attempt to carry it into effect.

One of the evenings during my stay at Suez was enlivened by a triple wedding.  There was a long and slow procession.  Some carried torches, and others were thumping drums and firing pistols.  The bridegrooms came last, all walking abreast.  My only reason for mentioning the ceremony (which was otherwise uninteresting) is, that I scarcely ever in all my life saw any phenomena so ridiculous as the meekness and gravity of those three young men whilst being “led to the altar.”