GENERAL DAENDELS. 129
Retracing our steps, we passed through large courts, ornamented with devices of serpents, flowers, &c., on the walls, and large vases with orange-trees on each side of the foot-path, showing that Taman- sarie must once have been the abode of wealth and luxur}'. It is said that the Sultan who erected this chateau did so with the idea that no Euro- ])ean could penetrate into the interior without the guard being well aware in time to warn those within to close the passage. This precaution was taken chiefly against General Daendels, whose cha- racter for temerity, almost approaching to rashness, was quite a proverb among the natives. Accord- ingly, when that general came, to make him the Sultan sign a treaty Avhich he had often pro- mised to ratify, and as frequently deferred, with trifling excuses, the native prince, ]x;rfectly safe as he imagined, and surrounded by faithful soldiers, felt himself quite aljle to play his own part with his ojtponent.
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