THREE
The Marshal had seen enough of the Arab district, so he suggested you should lead him directly to the Jews’ Alley, but then he remembered that he wished to visit the American Consulate. The American Consulate had been built only about a hundred years earlier, so it wasn’t situated in the same district as the other consulates, but was instead located near Bab Al Jaded. It had no historical or archaeological value and had only been used for a few years, during which nothing of particular significance had happened, nor was it linked to any important incidents or events.
Balbo had read the memoirs of Mrs Porter, the wife of the first American Consul in Tripoli, where she mentioned the city landmarks she could see from the roof of the consulate. Her account had piqued the Marshal’s curi
