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which lay three miles to the westward. We had meant to attack More at dark, but the wish for food stopped us, and then we had swarms Chatter of visitors, for our beacon-light advertised us over half Hauran. 16. 1x. 18 Visitors were our eyes, and had to be welcomed. My business was to see every one with news, and let him talk himself out to me, afterwards arranging and combining the truth of these points into a complete picture in my mind. Complete, because it gave me certainty of judgement : but it was not conscious nor logical, for my informants were so many that they informed me to distraction, and my single mind bent under all its claims. Men came pouring down from the north on horse, on camel, and on foot, hundreds and hundreds of them in a terrible grandeur of enthusiasm, thinking this was the final occupation of the country, and that Nasir would seal his victory by taking Deraa in the night. Even the magistrates of Deraa came to open us their town. By 5. * acceding we should hold the water supply of the railway station, which must inevitably yield : yet later, if the ruin of the Turkish army came but slowly, we might be forced out again, and lose the lainsmen between Deraa and Damascus, in whose hands our final victory lay. A nice calculation, if hardly a fresh one, but on the whole the arguments were still against taking Deraa. Again we had to put off our friends with excuses within their comprehension.
