text:  People from all the ends of the earth who were lounging away their existence some three or four months before without any anticipation of treading in the footsteps of the crusaders--some smoking strong tobacco in the coffeehouses of Berlin or leaning gracefully (like the Chinese Admiral Kwang) against the pillars of the Junior United Service Club in London--or driving a heavy curricle in the Prado at Vienna--or reading powerfully for honours at the Great Go at Oxford--or climbing Albanian hills--or reclining in the silken recesses of a harem at Constantinople--all were thrown together in such unexpected groups and found themselves so curiously banded together that the tame realities of an ordinary campaign were thrown completely into the shade