"Excellent," cried the oukil, rubbing his hands.
"Silence," thundered the commandant. "Speak French, and that only when you are spoken to. Abdullah, have you anything which you wish to say to me?"
Abdullah bent and whispered in the ear of the girl who sat trembling; then he stepped forward.
"Monsieur le Commandant," he said, "will you have the kindness to read this?" and he held out a paper. It was yellow with age and of quarto size and twice folded. The commandant took it, unfolded it, and read aloud, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
"Why, this is the last page of a Bible," he said.
"I do not know," said Abdullah. "He tore it from a book upon his table.
It was the only paper that he had. Upon the other side is writing."
The commandant reversed the paper and again read:
THIS is to Certify that on the nineteenth day of February, 187-, in the Oasis of Zama, in the Great Sahara, having first baptized them, I did unite in marriage Philip (formerly Abdullah) and Marie (formerly Nicha), in accordance with the rites of our holy Church.
JOSEPH,
Who Keeps Goats.
Witness,
his
Ali, the son of Ali X
mark