I reached Suez at last. The British agent, though roused from his
midnight sleep, received me in his home with the utmost kindness
and hospitality. Oh! by Jove, how delightful it was to lie on fair
sheets, and to dally with sleep, and to wake, and to sleep, and to
wake once more, for the sake of sleeping again!
CHAPTER XXII--SUEZ
I was hospitably entertained by the British consul, or agent, as he
is there styled. He is the employe of the East India Company, and
not of the Home Government. Napoleon during his stay of five days
at Suez had been the guest of the consul's father, and I was told
that the divan in my apartment had been the bed of the great
commander.
There are two opinions as to the point at which the Israelites
passed the Red Sea. One is, that they traversed only the very
small creek at the northern extremity of the inlet, and that they
entered the bed of the water at the spot on which Suez now stands;
the other, that they crossed the sea from a point eighteen miles
down the coast. The Oxford theologians, who, with Milman their
professor, {38} believe that Jehovah conducted His chosen people
without disturbing the order of nature, adopt the first view, and
suppose that the Israelites passed during an ebb-tide, aided by a
violent wind.
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