This time Estelle was to be kept for the night among the sheyk’s women, who, though too unsophisticated to veil their faces, had a part of the hut closed off with a screen of reeds, but quite as bare as the outside.  Hebert, who could not endure to think of her sleeping on the ground, and saw a large heap of grass or straw provided for a little brown cow, endeavoured to take an armful for her.  Unluckily it belonged to Lanty’s master, Eyoub, who instantly flew at him in a fury, dragged him to a log of wood, caught up an axe, and had not Estelle’s screams brought up the sheyk, with Hassan and one or two other men, the poor Maitre d’Hotel’s head would have been off.  There was a sharp altercation between the sheyk and Eyoub, while Estelle held the faithful servant’s hand, saying, ’You did it for me!  Oh, Hebert, do not make them angry again.  It would be beautiful to die for one’s faith, but not for a handful of hay.’

’Ah! my dear demoiselle, what would my poor ladies say to see you sleeping on the bare ground in a filthy hut?’

‘I slept well last night,’ returned Estelle; ’indeed, I do not mind!  It is only the more like the dungeon at Lyon, you know!  And I pray you, Hebert, do not get yourself killed for nothing too soon, or else we shall not all stand out and confess together, like St. Blandina and St. Ponticus and St Epagathius.’

’Alas, the dear child!  The long names run off her tongue as glibly as ever,’ sighed Hebert, who, though determined not to forsake his faith, by no means partook her enthusiasm for martyrdom.  Hassan, however, having explained what the purpose had been, Hebert was pardoned, though the sheyk scornfully observed that what was good enough for the daughters of a Hadji was good enough for the unclean child of the Frankish infidels.

The hay might perhaps have spared a little stiffness, but it would not have ameliorated the chief annoyances—­the closeness, the dirt, and the vermin.  It was well that it was winter, or the first of these would have been far worse, and, fortunately for Estelle, she was one of those whom suffocating air rather lulls than rouses.

Eyoub’s hovel did not rejoice in the refinement of a partition, but his family, together with their animals, lay on the rocky floor as best they might; and Victorine’s fever came on again, so that she lay in great misery, greeted by a growl from a great white dog whenever she tried to relieve her restless aching limbs by the slightest movement, or to reach one of the gourds of water laid near the sleepers, like Saul’s cruse at his pillow.

Towards morning, however, Lanty, who had been sitting with his back against the wall, awoke from the sleep well earned by acting as a beast of burthen.  The dog growled a little, but Lanty—­though his leg still showed its teeth-marks—­had made friends with it, and his hand on its head quieted it directly, so that he was able cautiously to hand a gourd to Victorine.  The Arabs were heavy sleepers, and the two were able to talk under their breath; as, in reply to a kind word from Lanty, poor Victorine moaned her envy of the fate of Rosette and Babette; and he, with something of their little mistress’s spirit, declared that he had no doubt but that ’one way or the other they should be out of it:  either get safe home, or be blessed martyrs, without even a taste of purgatory.’