‘With submission,’ said Baroni, ‘I cannot agree with any of your lordship’s propositions. You take an extreme view of our case. Extreme views are never just; something always turns up which disturbs the calculations formed upon their decided data. This something is circumstance. Circumstance has decided every crisis which I have experienced, and not the primitive facts on which we have consulted. Rest assured that circumstance will clear us now.’
‘I see no room, in our situation, for the accidents on which you rely,’ said Tancred. ‘Circumstance, as you call it, is the creature of cities, where the action of a multitude, influenced by different motives, produces innumerable and ever-changing combinations; but we are in the desert. The great Sheikh will never change his mind any more than his habits of life, which are the same as his ancestors pursued thousands of years ago; and, for an identical reason, he is isolated and superior to all influences.’
‘Something always turns up,’ said Baroni.
‘It seems to me that we are in a cul-de-sac,’ said Tancred.
‘There is always an outlet; one can escape from a cul-de-sac by a window.’
‘Do you think it would be advisable to consult the master of this tent?’ said Tancred, in a lower tone. ‘He is very friendly.’
‘The Emir Fakredeen,’ said Baroni.
‘Is that his name?’
‘So I learnt last night. He is a prince of the house of Shehaab; a great house, but fallen.’
‘He is a Christian,’ said Tancred, earnestly.