1.1
It was five o’clock on a winter’s morning in Syria. Alongside the platform at Aleppo stood the train grandly designated in railway guides as the Taurus Express. It consisted of a kitchen and dining-car, a sleeping-car and two local coaches. सिरिया-देशे शैत्यकाले प्रातः पञ्चवादनं जातम्। आलेपो-स्थानके मञ्चे लोहग-मार्गदर्शन-पुस्तकेषु व्युल्लेखितस् तौरुस्-आशुगः अतिष्ठत्। पाकशाला, भोजन-यानं, शयन-यानं पथिक-यान-द्वयं च अन्तर्गताः। By the step leading up into the sleeping-car stood a young French lieutenant, resplendent in uniform conversing, with a small man muffled up to the ears of whom nothing was visible but a pink-tipped nose and the two points of an upward-curled moustache. शयन-यानस्य सोपाने भास्वत् परिधानं धारयन् कश्चन फ्रान्सीयः युवाधिकारी स्...