The orders to march
were tardily obeyed, and many hours elapsed before our encampment was
raised. Had I submitted to my surgeon's orders, I might have been in a
state to accompany the most dilatory of the stragglers; I could have
borne, perhaps, the slow motion of a litter, on which some of the sick
were transported; but in the evening, when the surgeon came to dress my
wounds, he found me in such a situation that it was scarcely possible to
remove me.
"He desired a party of soldiers, who were left to bring up the rear, to
call for me the next morning. They did so; but they wanted to put me
upon the mule which I recollected, by a white streak on its back, to be
the cursed animal that had kicked me whilst I was looking for the ring. I
could not be prevailed upon to go upon this unlucky animal. I tried to
persuade the soldiers to carry me, and they took me a little way; but,
soon growing weary of their burden, they laid me down on the sand,
pretending that they were going to fill a skin with water at a spring
they had discovered, and bade me lie still, and wait for their return.
"I waited and waited, longing for the water to moisten my parched lips;
but no water came--no soldiers returned; and there I lay, for several
hours, expecting every moment to breathe my last. I made no effort to
move, for I was now convinced my hour was come, and that it was the will
of Mahomet that I should perish in this miserable manner, and lie
unburied like a dog: 'a death,' thought I, 'worthy of Murad the Unlucky.
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