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THE PERPLEXITIES OF THE ROAD 245 English February. In time we began to move again; but at a foot's pace only, the boy with the lamp preceding us. This lasted for something like twenty minutes. Then all of a sudden the snow ended like a carpet. The ground on each side was dark again ; the road was a dim glimmer, and the horses resumed their trot. On we went, and as I looked out occasion-ally I could see no reason why we should not go on for ever. We did not as a matter of fact go on for even half an hour. We abruptly stopped again, Again the road was invisible, and this time because the country was under water. The wretched boy, who was unembarrassed with boots, got down with the lamp again and paddled in front of us like a marsh sprite. We crawled after him and at length regained dry ground. The driver's patience now seemed exhausted, for he whipped his horses up and we started careering wildly over what seemed to me to be trackless open fields. Could we possibly, I asked myself, be on the highroad to Famagusta ? In reply to this mental question the carriage soon ceased to jolt, and began to wade and labour through something that seemed like sand. It was an hour past the time when I ought to have been at the end of my journey; and I should now have been in positive despair if at this precise moment there had not come to my ears the clear notes of a bugle. I looked out on the side from which the sound came, and saw in the darkness some huge shapeless building, which I knew must be part of the fortifi-

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