text:  The following introduces us to another member of the foray whose character seems to have been such a combination of the gallant soldier and light-hearted troubadour that we read of his after fate in dying of the plague at Damascus with great regret:-- "My troop had not yet cleared a difficult pass close to the khan running between an abrupt face of the hill and the river when the advanced guard came back at full speed with the announcement that a body of the enemy's infantry was near at hand