Excerpt from The Quest of the Four-Leaved Clover: A Story of Arabia, Adapted From the French of Laboulaye's "Abdallah" In the wealthy city of Jedda, on the shore of the Red Sea, once dwelt an Egyptian merchant, hajji-mansur by name. During the Egyptian wars both armies counted upon him for provisions, arms, and camels and after a battle he always complained that he had ruined himself for the sake of the side that had won. It is true no one was a more zealous ally than he, nor could any one obtain so cheaply the spoils of the conquest. In this honest vocation the obliging Mansur had gained great wealth, though not without some embarrassments. The envious had denounced him as a spy; fanatics had abused him as a traitor; twice he would have been hanged had it not been for the kindness of a pasha who was will ing, for a million piasters, to proclaim his innocence. Mansur had too brave a spirit to be frightened by these political dangers. When peace was declared, he retired to Jedda only because lawful commerce was thenceforth the road which led to fortune. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.