Hilarion; where by this time we should have been eating
luncheon with a charming party. Pit-pat came the heavy drops; and still
drinking in the magnificent view, we descended the stony and steep path
towards Kyrenia. When we arrived near the base, after a descent of about
a mile and three-quarters, a perfectly straight road of a good width led
direct to Kyrenia, through a forest of the shady and ever green
caroub-trees. By this time the shower had cleared away, and only a few
light clouds hovered over the high point of St. Hilarion, and having had
nothing to eat, we began to wish for balloons to make a direct ascent to
the well-provided party on the heights above us, who were enjoying the
hospitality of Colonel Greaves. We comforted ourselves with the idea
that we had at all events been wise in foregoing pleasure when upon the
march, as the camels had been ordered to start from Lefkosia, and it
would be advisable that the camp should be arranged without delay. We
accordingly dismounted about half a mile from Kyrenia, and having tied
the animals beneath a wide-spreading caroub, we selected another tree,
beneath which we sat to await the arrival of the camels and servants; in
the meantime I sent the muleteer into the town to buy us something to
eat. After about an hour he returned, with a bottle of Commandoria wine,
a bunch of raw onions, a small goat's-milk cheese, a loaf of brown
native bread, and a few cigarettes, which the good, thoughtful fellow
had made himself for my own private enjoyment.
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