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ANASTASIUS, 
 
 OR 
 
 MEMOIRS OF A GREEK; 
 
 WRITTEN AT THE CLOSE OF 
 
 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BY THOMAS HOPE, ESQ. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PARIS, 
 BAUDRY'S FOREIGN LIBRARY, 
 
 RUE DU coq-saint-honor:'. 
 
 SOLD ALSO BY THEOPHILE BABROIS, JUN., RUE RICHELIEU ; TRUCHY, BOULEV AKD 
 
 DES ITALIENS : AMYOT, RUE DE LA PAIX ; AND LIBRAIRIE DES ETRANGERS, 
 
 RUE NEUVE - SMNT - AUGUSTIN. 
 
 1831. 
 
^{ 
 
 v./ 
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS HOPE. 
 
 THOMAS HOPE, Esq. was one of the family of the Hopes 
 of Amsterdam, proverbial for wealth, for liberality, for the 
 ^ splendour of their mansion, and for theiy extensive and va- 
 "' luable collections of works of art. Mr. Hope, possessing an 
 ample fortune, had travelled over various parts of Europe, 
 Asia, and Africa ; having, with a refined taste, acquired a fa- 
 cility of drawing, he brought home a large collection of 
 sketches, principally of the architecture and sculpture of the 
 different scenes. 
 
 - Soon after his return to, and settlement in London, he 
 ; published ''A Letter, addressed to F. Annesley^ Esq., on a se- 
 r ries of Designs for Downing College, Cambridge ;" in which, 
 
 founding his pretensions of what he had seen and examined 
 
 in the course of his travels, especially with reference to ar- 
 
 , chitecture, he criticised with considerable severity the se- 
 
 - ries of plans, elevations, etc., which had been produced by 
 Mr. Wyatt. In consequence, as it has been said, of these 
 
 {3 »• ^' 
 
ii MEMOIRS OF THE 
 
 criticisms, Mr. Wyatt's designs were rejected ; and Mr. Wil- 
 kins was afterwards employed to commence the college. 
 
 Mr. Hope married the Hon. Louisa Hope, the fifteenth child 
 and youngest daughter of the late Lord Decies, Archbishop of 
 Tuam, and brother to the late Marquis of Waterford. By 
 this lady * he had three sons, who survive their father. 
 
 Mr. Hope devoted much time and study in finishing and 
 fitting up the interior of his house, partly from his own draw- 
 ings, and partly in imitation of the best specimens of ancient 
 and modern buildings in Italy. He made designs for the 
 whole, and also for the furniture. The house (of which a 
 brief account, with two plates, is given in the first volume of 
 Britton's " Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London") 
 consists of a picture-gallery;, a statue-gallery, drawing-rooms, 
 dining-rooms, cabinets for vases and other antique curiosi- 
 ties, which Mr. Hope had collected in the course of his travels. 
 
 Alluding to the style of this mansion, and that of his coun- 
 try residence, at Deepden, near Dorking, Mr. Hope thus ex- 
 presses himself: — ^' In forming my collection, and in fitting 
 up my houses, my object has neither been an idle parade of 
 virtii, nor an ostentatious display of finery. I have observed, 
 with regret, that most persons employed in our manufac- 
 tures, or in furnishing our habitations, are rarely initiated 
 «ven in the simplest rudiments of design ; whence it has hap- 
 pened, that immense expense has been employed in pro- 
 ducing furniture without character, beauty, or appropriate 
 meaning." 
 
 * Of Mrs. Hope, eminent for beauty, grace, and accomplishments, a .finely- 
 engraved portrait, from Sir Thomas Lawrence's celebrated painting, was pub- 
 lished last year in " La Delle Asseffiblee." 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS HOPE. iii 
 
 In 1805, Mr. Hope published the drawings which he had 
 made for his furniture, etc., in a folio volume, entitled, 
 '* Household Furniture and internal Decorations. " 
 
 Notwithstanding the sneers of the Edinburgh Review, 
 Mr. Hope's work speedily effected a complete revolution in 
 the upholstery and all the interior decoration of houses. 
 
 Mr. Hope was, in all respects, a munificent patron of art 
 and of artists^ and even of the humbler mechanic ; for he has 
 been known to traverse obscure alleys, lanes, and courts, to 
 find out and employ men of skill and talent in their respective 
 pursuits. Thorwaldsen, the celebrated Danish sculptor, was 
 chiefly indebted to him for the early support and patronage 
 which he experienced. Flaxman was extensively employed 
 by him; and he enjoyed the satisfaction of having excited the 
 genius and fostered the talents of Chantrey. 
 
 These are only a few among the numerous instances in 
 which his liberality was nobly and advantageously employed. 
 In one case, however, the patronage of Mr. Hope was re- 
 turned by an act of the basest ingratitude. Some disputes 
 having arisen between Mr. Hope and a man named Dubost, 
 respecting the price and execution of a painting, the artist 
 vented his spleen by the exhibition of an infamous caricature 
 — a picture which he entitled Beauty and the Beast. It is in 
 the recollection of many that, in this pictorial libel, Mrs. Hope 
 was drawn as the Beauty, and her husband as the Beast, 
 laying his treasures at her feet, and addressing her in the 
 language of the French tale. 
 
 The picture was publicly exhibited, and drew such crowds 
 of loungers and scandal-lovers to view it, that from 20/. to 
 30/. a day was sometimes taken at the doors. It was at 
 
iv MEMOIRS OF THE 
 
 length cut to pieces in the room, with a very proper spirit, 
 by Mr. Beresford, the brother of Mrs. Hope. For this, Da- 
 bost brought an action against him, laying his damages at 
 1000/. The jury, however, gave him a verdict for 5/., as 
 the worth of the canvass and colours ; and even that would 
 not have been awarded had Mr. Beresford put in a plea that 
 he destroyed the picture as a nuisance, instead of putting in 
 a general plea of ''not guilty." 
 
 In 1809, Mr. Hope published ''The Costumes of the An- 
 cients," in two volumes, royal 8vo ; and that it might be the 
 more easily purchased, and thus more extensively circulated, 
 he generously caused it to be sold at a price by which he is 
 said to have made a sacrifice to the amount of 1000/. Three 
 years afterwards, he published his "Designs of Modern Cos* 
 tumes," in folio. 
 
 These works evinced a profound research into the works 
 of antiquity, and a familiarity with all that is graceful and 
 elegant. In the improvement of female costume in this 
 country, he may be said to have wrought wonders. 
 
 Even in this prolific age of authorship, a work of more 
 varied, lively, and intense interest than Mr. Hope's " Anas- 
 tasius, or Memoirs of a modern Greek," has scarcely been 
 known. It is one of the few novels of the time, with the ex- 
 ception of those of Sir Walter Scott, which will survive for 
 long years to come. 
 
 At the time of Mr. Hope's decease (which occurred at his 
 house in Duchess-street, on the od of February), he was en- 
 gaged in passing through the press a publication, "On 
 the Origin and Prospects of Man;" since published in four 
 volumes, Svo. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS HOPE. r 
 
 He has left an extensive collection of drawings and en- 
 gravings, illustrative of buildings and scenery in Greece^ 
 Turkey, Italy, France, and Germany ; and several plates of 
 his antique sculpture, vases, etc. 
 
 Anastasius fust appeared without a name. When the real 
 author was known, every body exclaimed with the Edin- 
 burgh Review : '^Is this Mr. Thomas Hope? is this the man 
 of chairs and tables — the gentleman of sphinxes — the OEdi- 
 pus of coal-boxes — he who meditated on muffineers and 
 planned pokers ? — Where has he hidden all this eloquence 
 and poetry up to this hour? — how is it that he has, all of a 
 sudden, burst out into descriptions which would not dis- 
 grace the pen of Tacitus — and displayed a depth of feeling, 
 and a vigour of imagination, which Lord Byron could not 
 excel!" 
 
 A critic in Blackwood's Magazine contrived to extort from 
 Mr. Hope the open avowal of his authorship as a romance- 
 writer, by attributing Anastasius to Lord Byron. 
 
 According to him, Mr. Hope had been beguiled to stand 
 godfather to the abandoned progeny of the noble poet. None 
 but a "man who was conscious of previously possessing some 
 influence on public opinion, would have dared to send out 
 such a book. 
 
 The same critic called the attention of the readers to a few 
 circvimslances that, he conceived, were constituting strong 
 proofs that Anastasius was the production of Byron, who 
 chuckled at the success of the device. 
 
 "In the first place, one of the great features of the work is 
 an intimate knowledge of the localities of many of the scenes, 
 and an easy applicable familiarity with the vernacular terms 
 for all Greek and Ottoman things, grades, and offices. Wh'^ 
 
vl MEMOIRS OF THE 
 
 ever heard of Hope possessing any such knowledge? The 
 localities, it is true, might be described from books of travels 
 — some of them are — but those which are so borrowed can 
 be easily discriminated from the allusions to places which 
 the author actually visited. With respect to the vernacular 
 terms, they too might be obtained from dictionaries; but 
 where are such dictionaries to be found? They have no 
 existence in any Pagan, Christian, or Mahomedan language. 
 Is it not, then, probable that this minute kind of knowledge 
 was acquired by the author himself? and it is known that 
 Lord Byron, during his residence in Turkey, made consi-^ 
 derable progress in the languages of the country. Besides, 
 it is quite in his lordship's way to employ the original names 
 of things in the scenes where he places his actions. No other 
 author has adopted this fashion so much on principle; in- 
 deed few, from their own knowledge, were able to do it with 
 true effect. Is it probable that such a man as Hope could so 
 well assume one of the most decided peculiarities of so pecu- 
 liar an author as Byron ? He is not qualified — he has neither 
 the minute knowledge, nor is it in his power, or that of any 
 other man, through so long a story as A.nastasius, to take 
 upon himself such an undeniable criterion of identity. Short 
 essays, characteristic of the blemishes and originalities of 
 writers, have been often well executed; but such sports of 
 fancy have ever been easily discovered from genuine pro- 
 ductions- — caricature is always obvious. But that any other 
 than the original author should be able to treat at so much 
 length, and with such circumstantiality, of such a variety of 
 things, considering them as Byron alone would argue a re- 
 semblance in mind without parallel ; or rather an assumption 
 of character, more extraordinary than that transfusion of 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS HOPE. Ivii 
 
 »ature, habits, and propensities, which is supposed to ac- 
 company a transfusion of the blood of one animal into the 
 veins of another. — I will as soon believe, that by the ope- 
 ration of transfusion, a frog can be made to sing like Cata- 
 iani, as that any nick-knacky gentleman, like Hope, could 
 so inhale from Byron's works, the spirit of his bold, satirical, 
 and; libertine genius, as to be able to write a book, so like a 
 book of his as the work in question. 
 
 " The conception of the story, and the general style of the 
 narrative, is decidedly like Byron's conceptions and exe- 
 cution. The character, too, of Anastasius, is exactly of a 
 piece with Lord Byron's ; that is, with the one which per- 
 vades all his works, and so charitably considered as his own. 
 The spirit of Anastasius is that of Don Juan. Would Lord 
 Byron have made so obvious a copy from the work of any 
 other artist ? The whole story seemsi the chalk sketch of 
 the poem; and Anastasius himself, in his riper years, is but 
 another version of all the varieties of his Lordship's poeti- 
 cal progeny, from Childe Harold to Beppo. Is it likely that 
 any other but the original author would imagine such a cha- 
 racter? or rather, have so melted all Byron's characters into 
 one? for Anastasius is a compilation of all those which, under 
 different names, have been spoken of as different individuals, 
 but which are, in reality, but different aspects of the same 
 liberal, licentious, learned, brave, impassioned, and misan- 
 thropic being." 
 
 Such arguments ad hominem did not miss the aim. Mr. Tho- 
 mas Hope could not help sending the following answer to the 
 Editor of Blackwood's Magazine. 
 
MEMOIRS OF THE 
 
 '' Sir, 
 
 "As an article in the last number of your Magazine, en- 
 titled, 'On Anastasius— by Lord Byron,' contains some as- 
 sertions which, though probably only meant by the writer 
 as facetiousness;, might be mistaken by some simple reader 
 for fact, I beg to state, that, in the course of long and various 
 travels, I resided nearly a twelvemonth at Constantinople; 
 visited the arsenal and bagnio frequently ; witnessed the 
 festival of St. George; saw Rhodes; was in Egypt, in Syria, 
 and in every other place which I have attempted to describe 
 minutely ; collected my Eastern Vocabulary (notwithstand- 
 ing the gentleman at Gordon's Hotel may be ignorant of the 
 circumstance) on the spot, and whilst writing my work, 
 had at one time an Albanian in my service, as well as the 
 celebrated poet for whom, by a high literary compliment, I 
 have been mistaken ; adopted a fictitious hero, in order to 
 embody my observations on the East in a form less trite than 
 that of a journal; avoided all antiquarian descriptions stu- 
 diously, as inconsistent with the character assumed; for the 
 same reason, omitted my own . name in the title-page ; had 
 finished my novel (or whatever else you may be pleased to 
 call it), as to the matter, long before Lord Byron's admirable 
 productions appeared; and need scarcely add, though I do 
 explicitly, that I am the sole author of Anastasius, — 
 "And your very humble servant, 
 
 " Thomas Hope. 
 
 '- Duchess street, Oct. 9, 1821. 
 
 *' To the Editor of Blackwood's Magazine ." 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS HOPE. ix 
 
 In this letter Mr. Hope asserted his right to be ranked 
 among well-informed travellers as much as among novel- 
 writers ; for it seems the object of the author of Anastasius 
 had been to unite the entertainment of a novel with the in- 
 formation of a book of travels, and instead of giving a di- 
 dactic description of the customs and characters of the dif- 
 ferent countries in which the scene is laid, to leave his readers 
 to collect this knowledge for themselves, while he rivets their 
 attention by the deep interest which many of the adventures 
 of his profligate hero cannot fail to excite. 
 
 The plan of the work may perhaps have been suggested 
 by the Travels of Anacharsis, which set before the reader 
 very happily the state of ancient Greece at its most interest- 
 ing period; but the Abb^ Barthelemy makes his traveller, 
 like the showman of a spectacle, the mere instrument of 
 exhibiting his pictures, while the narrator himself is kept al- 
 together in the back-ground. The hero of Mr. Hope, on the 
 contrary, is a prominent Figaro on the canvass, and the mo- 
 del may therefore be rather supposed to have been taken 
 from Le Sage or from Smollet. Altogether, it is a work of 
 ability, but the inequalities in matter and manner are so re- 
 markable that, until the name of Mr. Hope was prefixed;, 
 every body was led to conclude that it was not the production 
 of a single mind but a compilation from a variety of sources ; 
 and indeed, to support the idea, it must be confessed that 
 there are many parts which seem to have more than the 
 semblance of translation. Still, whatever be the history of 
 its origin, it is an extraordinary performance; displaying not 
 only an intimate acquaintance with every thing peculiar 
 to the East; but a knowledge of mankind in general. 
 
 But what a revolution must have been made in the habits 
 
X MEMOIRS OF THE 
 
 of his pen, before it could have achieved the sparkling man- 
 ner in which the history of the adventurer Anastasius is told ! 
 It is not enough to say that he makes his first appearance as 
 a novelist without the constraint and awkwardness of a be- 
 ginner, for nothing can surpass the unembarrassed address 
 with which he writes : he has a facile command over the 
 resources of his language, an easy condensation, an epigram- 
 matic and most searching wit, and a ready mastery ia ac- 
 complishing his intentions, which altogether, we apprehend, 
 are possessed by no other living writer. 
 
 The best description we could give of his genius would be 
 to say that it has something in it of Lc Sage, of Byron, of 
 Voltaire, and of Godwin. Of Le Sage in the conduct and 
 character of his novel, in his sly latent humour, and sharp 
 penetration into the motives of people in ordinary life ; of 
 Byron in his laughing recklessness, and the might with which 
 he describes resentment and the dark turmoil of the passions; 
 of Voltaire in his biting and honest sneers at the impositions 
 and dogmas of exclusive creeds, and the laughable exposures 
 of those who trade in them ; of Godwin in his tendency to- 
 wards mental anatomy, abstract speculations, and the force 
 of some of his gloomy pictures. But, excepting Byron, he 
 has more genuine pathos than all of them put together; and 
 his vein, like Byron's, being of the mixed kind, is more 
 agreeable than that of the others singly. 
 
 Our author's region is the wide one of human nature and 
 its concerns. He has little or no imagination of the merely 
 poetical or abstract kind. His sympathy with external nature 
 is imperfect and reflected; he goes to work, in his descrip- 
 tions of natural scenery, after some approved model ; his 
 spirit does not prostrate itself with involuntary adoration be- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS HOPE. ii 
 
 fore the majesty and loveliness of the world. He would pass 
 through the heavy shadows of a forest into the sudden splen- 
 dour of the heavens, and afterwards career over the great 
 sea, occupied all the time, not in devout admiration of these 
 glories of the universe, but in untwisting some metaphysical 
 knot, or in elaborating a caustic piece of satire. One of the 
 remarkable parts of Mr. Hope's genius is his entire freedom 
 from cant; a virtue of most precious estimation in this cant- 
 ing age. It would be worth while to read Anastasius imme- 
 diately after the Excursion of Mr. Wordsworth. Mr. Hope is 
 no face-maker; no professional melancholy Andrew. He 
 knows that the " web of our life is of a mingled yarn ;" that 
 the emotions of our nature are fugitive, and succeed each 
 other in a motley procession ; that a sanctified face is an ar- 
 tifice to conceal something hollow and worthless; and, there- 
 fore, in the undisguised spirit of nature, he will pass at 
 once from his laughing satire to reflections melancholy and 
 profound. 
 
 x\s a novel, Anastasius is too long. It is next to impos- 
 sible, even with the talent of Mr. Hope, to preserve a single 
 chain of interesting narrative through three corpulent vo- 
 lumes : our author, therefore, has been obliged to eke out 
 his second volume with a series of state papers^ or something 
 very like them, detailing the political intrigues and warfare 
 of the beys; which are, all and several, downright inflictions 
 on the reader. 
 
 Yet it would seem, after all, that these portions of the 
 work are considered by Mr. Hope to be more valuable than 
 the rest; for we are told in the advertisement to the second 
 edition of Anastasius, that ^'the only excuse that the author 
 could plead for sending so unpruncd a performance into the 
 
xii MEMOIRS OF THE 
 
 world, was the desire of adding his mite to the information 
 so eagerly sought at this moment respecting the ever-inte- 
 resting regions once adorned by the Greeks, and now de- 
 faced by the Turks. He therefore observes, that the histo- 
 rical and statistical parts are (as far as his knowledge extends) 
 strictly correct." It would seem by this, that the narrative 
 is to be considered as an altogether subordinate matter : but, 
 Attic as we are, and much as we go hand and heart with 
 Mr. Hope in his sympathy with the Greek cause, we do not 
 scruple to confess that, in our novel-reading propensities, 
 we are pretty much of the same taste as those respectable 
 old ladies of yore, who used to be so addicted to all matters 
 connected with love and murder; the gallantries and the 
 deaths are, accordingly, our favourite things in Anastasius, 
 and there luckily is a plentiful supply of these articles 
 throughout the book. In the first volume, for instance, we 
 meet with one or two very sufficing specimens in the love- 
 line, particularly the affair with Esm^; and the death of 
 Anagnosti is in the author's best manner — powerful without 
 effort. 
 
 Constantinople is well described in all its details. The 
 scene of the bostandjee-bashee, the Turkish censor, putting 
 to flight the trainbearers and attendants of his mistress, a 
 scene to which Anastasius, owes his disgrace and dismissal^ 
 is divertingly pourtrayed. 
 
 The revolution of the wheel of fortune which removes 
 Anastasius from the service of thedrogueman, to plunge him 
 into the lowest depth of misery, affords Mr Hope an oppor- 
 tunity of introducing us to the prisons and the hospitals. 
 Anastasius's first attempt to better his condition after his fall 
 is as the assistant of an itinerant apothecary, and the course 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS HOPE. xiii 
 
 of their practice conducts them at last, owing to the enmity 
 of Hhe regular practitioners of the killing college,* to a dun- 
 geon in the bagnio — or great prison of the city. 
 
 The horrors of the prison are increased by the breaking 
 out of the plague, which is described in the same vivid style, 
 at once picturesque and poetical, which distinguishes many 
 parts of the work- 
 
 The author looks at nature with the eye of a painter and a 
 poet ; and his scenes, particularly his sea-pieces, are as per- 
 fect as any verbal description can be. The effect of such 
 descriptions, however, must always be faint and indistinct ; 
 for light and shade, hill and dale, wood and water, are sub- 
 jects better suited to the pencil than the pen ; — but it is other- 
 wise with his living scenes. The phrenzy of passion, the 
 bloody business of war, the pining misery of captivity, the 
 hopes and fears of love, the agonies of remorse, and the lust 
 of vengeance, are placed before our eyes with a terrible re- 
 ality, surpassing what the pencil of the painter could hope to 
 achieve. Though there is throughout the book ^ a learned 
 spirit in human dealing,' and a deep insight into character, 
 yet it is the bold and the bad, the savage and the sanguinary 
 traits of our nature which Anastasius seems to take most 
 pleasure in pourtraying; and this is often done in that bitter 
 and deriding tone of ridicule and sarcasm, in which the self- 
 ish and unprincipled libertine delights to indulge, who, con- 
 scious of no virtuous sentiment in his own breast, enjoys a 
 malignant satisfaction in endeavouring to demonstrate that 
 no such quality exists in any other hosom, and that all man- 
 kind may be summarily divided into two classes—knaves 
 and fools. 
 
xiv MEMOIRS OF THE 
 
 A great mistake, we conceive, has been made by some 
 critics, who have called Mr. Hope's book a heartless one, 
 like Don Juan. The impressions it has left on us, in spite of 
 its smart epigrams, have been melancholy; misadventure 
 and trouble of mind perpetually haunt its hero; and the ca- 
 tastrophe, which is, in point of fact, the death of Alexis, is as 
 deep in sentiment, as full of all the sacred affections and 
 yearnings of the heart, and as oppressive in its sadness, as 
 any thing with which we are acquainted in the whole cont- 
 pass of fiction. Then, what can be more heart-rending than 
 that striking scene where the violated Euphrosine, sinking 
 under her wrongs, is described staggering along the streets, 
 and followed by a troop of hooting boys, as she comes to the 
 lodgings of Anastasius (who, like another Tarquin, had abused 
 her sleep), not indeed to upbraid his villany, but to throw 
 herself and her forlorn weight of misery at his feet, and sup- 
 plicate his compassion of the state to which his own lawless 
 violence had brought her. It is such passages as these which 
 place our author by Le Sage; and, indeed, his book alto- 
 gether recall to memory the French Gil Bias, from which the 
 plan of it has been in great measure derived. His rivalising 
 his model is the more extraordinary, in as much as Spanish 
 customs and scenery are, by early association, more interest- 
 ing, certainly less perplexing, than those of Turkey and mo- 
 dern Greece. Every thing in the latter places seems mixed 
 and confused; and it requires an expenditure of time, equal 
 to the reading of half a dozen romances, to master the strange 
 terms and unwonted allusions in the narrative. This, how- 
 ever, it must be confessed, increases the curiosity of Anasta- 
 sius. Our imagination, filled by accounts of the scenery and 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS HOPE. xv 
 
 manners of the Greek Islands, and the glittering porap of 
 Turkey, returns with a feeling of delicious repose and con- 
 trast to native recollections. 
 
 The sarcastic vein of our author's jokes is nicely linked, 
 one piece of wit seldom failing to generate another; so that 
 the reader becomes at length dazzled by the unrelieved con- 
 tinuity of the brilliancy, and longs, though in vain, for a few 
 plain, artless pages; for when 31r. Hope is neither satirical 
 nor epigrammatic, he becomes rhetorical : he appears not to 
 understand simplicity. A capital specimen of his caustic 
 humour may be found in his account of the fasting Turk; 
 and the incident of the dying Hungarian furnishes a proof of 
 his almost unconquerable tendency which indeed obtains, 
 more or less, throughout the book. But when Anastasius 
 comes to watch over the death of his child, he seems at 
 last in earnest. "Where are his quips now?" Alas! the 
 buoyancy of his intellect, the flashes of his gaiety, which 
 never before deserted him, are gone, utterly gone ! He 
 wails and murmurs over his boy, like a heart-broken man. 
 His aflfections are ruined; and even his readers become in- 
 voluntary companions in his tears. 
 
 V. R. 
 
To YOU, MY Louisa ; to you, the sole partner of all 
 my joys and sorrows ; to you whose fair form but en- 
 shrines a mind far fairer, I inscribe not these pages. 
 Composed of materials collected ere Iknew you, ere I 
 was inspired by your virtues or could pourtray your per- 
 fections, they are not worthy of bearing your name : — 
 they were not even intended to divulge that of the writer, 
 had his secret been preserved as inviolate as he wished. 
 Should they, thus avowed, continue to meet with an 
 indulgent reception, I may then feel encouraged at some 
 future period to publish, with the sanction of your be- 
 loved name, that which, suggested by the contemplation 
 of your excellence, and written under the guidance of 
 your unerring taste, is in truth your own work. 
 
 To the public at large I can only plead, for sending 
 forth into the world this unpruned performance, the de- 
 sire of imparting a few perhaps unimportant notices — 
 but the result of personal observation — with respect to 
 the ever-interesting regions, once adorned by the Greeks, 
 and now defaced by the Turks. I shall therefore ob- 
 
serve, that the historical and statistical parts are (as far as 
 my knowledge extends) strictly correct, and that the ficti- 
 tious superstructure is as conformable as I could make 
 it to the manners of the nations whom it was my aim to 
 describe ; and as the form of biographical memoirs was 
 adopted solely with the view of affording greater facility 
 for the introduction of minute and characteristic details, 
 I trust that I shall not be considered as identifying 
 myself with all the opinions which the peculiar nature of 
 the work has obliged me to bestow upon my hero. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 My family came originally from Epirus: my father set- 
 tled at Chios. His parentage was neither exalted nor yet 
 low. In his own opinion he could hoast of purer blood 
 than any of the Palseologi, the Cantacuselies, or the Com- 
 neniofthe present day. '* These mongrel descendants," 
 he used to observe, '* of Greeks, Venetians, and Genoese, 
 had only picked up the fine names of former ages when 
 the real owners dropped off: he wore his own ;" and Signer 
 Sotiri saw no reason why he should not, when he went forth 
 into public, toss his head, swing his jubbee' like a pendulum 
 from side to side, and shuffle along in his papooshes, with 
 all the airs of quality. 
 
 This worthy man combined in his single person the va- 
 rious characters of diplomatist, husbandman, merchant, 
 manufacturer, and master of a privateer. To be more 
 explicit — he was drogueman"* to the French consul at 
 Chios; in town he kept a silk-loom at work; in the country 
 he had a plantation o^ agrumi;^ he exported his stuffs and 
 fruits to the principal seaports in the Archipelago, and, in 
 the first Russian war, he employed all his spare money in 
 fitting out a small vessel to cruise against the enemy — for 
 
 1 "^ 
 
4 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 SO he chose to consider the Russians, in spite of all their 
 amicable professions towards the Greeks. As a loyal subject 
 of the Porte, and an old servant of the French government, 
 he felt no sort of wish to be delivered from the yoke of the 
 Turks; and he looked upon those barbarians of the north, 
 who cared no more for the patriarch of Constantinople 
 than for the pope of Rome, as little better than rank he- 
 retics, not worthy of being treated even like his silk-wo ms.. 
 which he got every year carefully exorcised before their 
 spinning time. I however remember, when a child, some 
 buzz in the family about my father's partner in the privateer 
 — an Ispariote reis^ — having one day made a mistake, in 
 capturing under the rocks of Jura a rich Turkish vessel, 
 which he went and sold to the Russians themselves, then 
 stationed at Pares. Signer Sotiri shook his head at this 
 intelligence as if he did not approve of the transaction, 
 and observed, "the less that was said about it, the better." 
 — I suppose therefore it was out of sheer humanity that 
 he preferred receiving his share of the prize money, to 
 the sterile and barbarous satisfaction of hanging his asso- 
 ciate. 
 
 Much improved in his circumstances by this untoward 
 accident, my father would now willingly have given up his 
 interpretership. Besides rendering him more or less de- 
 pendent, it was uncomfortable in as far as, being very 
 deaf, he never heard what it was his business to repeat. 
 But my mother liked the title of droguemaness. She had 
 never heard of the necessity of a drogueman reporting 
 speeches as he received them ; and she reminded her hus- 
 band how essential ihe protection of the French mission 
 might be to some of his Greek speculations. 
 
 My mother was a native of Naxos, and esteemed a great 
 heiress in her country. She possessed an estate of three 
 hundred piastres a year clear, managed by a relation of her 
 own, Marco Politi — very wealthy himself, primate of all the 
 Greek villages of the island, and a very great rogue. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 5 
 
 My brothers and sisters, — and there came, one by one, ' 
 just three of each, — all contrived to lake precedence of me 
 at their birth, and consequently throughout the whole of 
 their subsequent Hves, The punctilio of the thing I should 
 not have minded; but, among my countrymen, a foolish 
 family pride exhausts people's fortunes in their lifetime in 
 portioning their daughters : the elder sons ran away with 
 what remained, and poor Anastasius brought up the rear 
 with but an indifferent prospect. My kind parents, how- 
 ever, determined to make up for leaving me destitute at 
 their death, by spoiling me as much as possible during 
 their lives. 
 
 My eldest sister (I begin, as is proper, with the ladies) 
 married a physician of the country, graduated at Padua. 
 Robust as a hamal,^ and never till her marriage having known 
 a moment's illness, Epiphania seemed to bid defiance to 
 her husband's utmost skill in medicine. But she was 
 not proof against her own imaginations. Signor Sozimo 
 expressed such constant anxiety about his '*dear wife's" pre- 
 cious health, and gave her so much viper broth to keep up 
 her strength, that she soon began to fancy herself in a bad 
 way, and died at last of the mere apprehension of not 
 living. 
 
 My sister Roxana, who would have been a beauty, but 
 for a scar which she chose to call a dimple, at an early age 
 fell desperately in love with a Turk; and, spite of all the 
 remonstrances of her friends, bestowed her hand upon this 
 unbeliever. Nor was it until the very last of her offended 
 relations had been prevailed upon to grant her an unlimited 
 pardon, that she became conscious of the heinousness af 
 her crime, and began to feel an unconquerable desire to re- 
 enter the pale of our holy communion. This she at length 
 effected, by never ceasing to bewail her apostacy, till her 
 husband, in disgust, allowed her a divorce. Immediately 
 she flew back at once into the arms of the church and into 
 those of a young Greek, who, an effective instrument in her 
 
6 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 reformation, obliterated every trace of her first unhallowed 
 wedlock by a more canonical union. He truly laboured 
 for the church; for he was by trade an agio-graphis, or 
 painter of Saints ; and connoisseurs esteemed him the 
 Apelles of our district, in that line. His spouse sat for 
 all his Virgins, and, accordingly as she behaved well or 
 ill, he used to paint them handsome or ugly : a practice 
 which kept her very much upon her good behaviour. She 
 was conceited about her looks, and wasted as much paint 
 upon her cheeks as her husband did upon his canvas;. a 
 circumstance, however, which produced a striking resem- 
 blance between the copies and the original. 
 
 As to my youngest sister, she deemed a two years obe- 
 dience, well or ill performed, to a single lord and master, 
 quite trial enough for a woman in this nether world. Her 
 husband dying, she took the habit of a caloyera,^ in a 
 nunnery near the delightful district of the Lentiscs. There, 
 the interest of her portion, together with the produce of her 
 handiwork, enabled her to set up, according to the practice 
 of our religious communities, an independent establishment, 
 and to entertain her friends of both sexes in a manner at 
 once comfortable and decorous. 
 
 What shall I say of my brothers ? The eldest was a loose 
 and dissipated youth. To cure him of his extravagance, 
 my father had him nailed to the desk of the strictest mer- 
 chant in Smyrna. The consequence was that, instead of 
 the clerk staying at home, desk, contents, and all, followed 
 him out of doors, till, in a notorious tavern, the well-tem- 
 pered Brescia blade of a Zantiote captain put an end to 
 his prowess, and saved him the mortification of being re- 
 turned on our hands as a hopeless profligate. Of all the 
 family I felt the most grieved for his loss. He had a dark 
 complexion and a fine commanding figure. I looked upon 
 Theodore with a certain veneration, as the prop of the 
 house; and had proposed some day to take him for my 
 model. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 7 
 
 The dove is not more distinguished from the game-cock, 
 than differed from the noisy blustering Theodore the sly 
 demure Eustathius, destined to succeed my father in his 
 place of drogueman. A sleek, smooth-spoken, sanctified 
 jad, with a round face and a red and white complexion, 
 Eustathius, beside that little treasure his own dear self, 
 which he always kept with the utmost care, valued but one 
 other thing in this world — namely, money. Of this article 
 his good fortune, or rather his unabating perseverance, 
 enabled him at last to wed a prodigious heap ; encumbered, 
 however, with a wary widow its mistress, who, after four 
 distinct refusals, finally condescended to accept my brother 
 as her slave, under the name of her husband. But the 
 chains worn by this admirer of solid worth were of gold; 
 and all he wanted was the pleasure of contemplating their 
 refulgence. 
 
 Constantine, my third brother, managed the farm. This 
 hopeful youth, only a few years older than myself, used to 
 hate me with singular asperity. I never could understand 
 the cause of this aversion. He was crooked indeed, and I 
 unfortunately walked straight. If this however could be 
 called an offence, so many others shared it with me, that 
 he must have hated nearly the whole human race : — per- 
 haps he did. It is true I much aggravated my crime by 
 one day observing, on his talking slightingly of the advantages 
 of a handsome person, that '*they were what no one af- 
 fected to despise, who could make good his claim to them ;" 
 — I thought he would have stabbed me. 
 
 After all the rest of the brood had taken wing, I re- 
 mained alone at home to solace my parents. Too fond of 
 their favourite to damp my youthful spirits by fitting me 
 for a profession, they kindly put off from day to day every 
 species of instruction — probably, till I should beg for it; 
 which my discretion forbade. Unfortunately nature chose 
 not, in the meantime, to be equally dilatory with my pa- 
 rents; and from an angel of an infant, I became by dc- 
 
8 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 grees a great lubberly boy, without any other accomplish- 
 ment but that of flogging my top with the left hand, while 
 with the right I despatched my sign of the cross — for in 
 some things I understood the value of time. My parents, 
 as may be supposed, were great sticklers for punctuality 
 in every sort of devout practice; mass-going, confession, 
 lent observance, etc. Of moral duties — less tangible in 
 their nature — they had, poor souls ! but a vague and con- 
 fused notion; and the criminality of actions, in reference 
 to one's neighbour, they taught me chiefly to estimate ac- 
 cording to the greater or smaller risk connected with them 
 of incurring the bastinado from the Turks. As to manual 
 correction at the hands of my own father, it seemed so de- 
 sirable a circumstance, from the ample amends my mother 
 never failed to make her **poor, dear, ill-used boy," that 
 my only regret on the subject arose from being able to ob- 
 tain it so seldom. 
 
 These good people having contented themselves for a 
 reasonable number of years with wistfully contemplating 
 — the drogueman my active make and well-set limbs, and 
 the droguemaness my dark eyes, ruddy cheeks, and raven 
 locks — they at last began to ponder how they might turn 
 these gifts to the best advantage. Both agreed that some- 
 thing should be done, but neither knew exactly what; and 
 the one never proposed a profession, which the other did 
 not immediately object to, — till an old relation stepped in 
 between, and recommended the church, as a never-failing 
 resource to those who can think of no other. My cousin 
 had set the example by making his own son a little caloyer 
 at twelve. Prohibited by the Turks from the trade of a sol- 
 dier, and by my parents from that of a sailor, I myself saw 
 nothing better, and agreed to the proposal. It now became 
 necessary to give me a smattering of learning, and I was 
 put under the tuition of a teacher of the Hellenic language, 
 who assumed the title of logiotatos, and only averred him- 
 self inferior to Demosthenes, out of sheer modesty. My 
 
ANASTASIUS. 9 
 
 idleness got the better of my preceptor's learning and di- 
 ligence. All the gold that flowed from the lips of his 
 favourite St. Chrysostom could not, to my taste, gild the 
 bitter pill of his own tiresome comments ; and even Homer, 
 much as I liked fighting out of doors, found but an indif- 
 ferent welcome in the study. The truth is, I had a dislike 
 to reading in the abstract: — but when away from my 
 books, I affected a great admiration for Achilles; called 
 him in reference to Epirus the land of my ancestors, **my 
 countryman," and regretted that I was not born two thou- 
 sand years ago, for no other purpose but to be his Pa- 
 troclus. In my fits of heroism I swore to treat the Turks 
 as he had done the Trojans, and for a time dreamt of no- 
 thing but putting to the sword the whole Seraglio— dwarfs, 
 eunuchs, and all. These dreams my parents highly ad- 
 mired, but advised me not to disclose in common. ** Just 
 rancour," they said, *' gathers strength by being re- 
 pressed." — Upon this principle they cringed to the ground 
 to every Moslemin ' they met. 
 
 The inclinations of the little future papas ^ for the church 
 militant began meantime to appear more prominently. I 
 had collected a troop of ragamuffins of my own age, of 
 whom I got myself dubbed captain; and, having pur- 
 loined from my uncle, the painter, one of his most smirk- 
 ing Madonnas for a banner, took the field under the aus- 
 pices of the Panagia,9 and set about robbing orchards, 
 and laying under contribution the villagers, with all the 
 devotion imaginable. So great was the terror which our 
 crusades inspired, that the sufferers durst not even com- 
 plain, except in a body. Whenever as chief of the band 
 1 became the marked object of animadversion, I kept out 
 of the way till my father had paid the damage, and had 
 moreover sued my pardon for his backwardness in doing 
 so. Once indeed when, tired of my pranks, he swore 1 
 would be his ruin, I suggested to him an eftectual mode of 
 quieting his fears, by granting me an unlimilcd leave of 
 
10 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 absence ; and pledged myself not to return till doomsday. 
 This was too much for a doting parent. Sooner than part 
 wilh his Anastasius, Dimitri Sotiri would have bribed the 
 peasants beforehand to suffer all my future depredations. 
 
 Thus early disposed and trained to the business of tith- 
 ing, my father felt a little surprised when, on the eve of 
 taking orders, I begged to be excused. For the first time 
 in his life Signor Sotiri insisted on impHcit obedience ; but 
 that first time came too late. I made it the last, by swear- 
 ing that if he forced me to take the mitre, '° I would hide- 
 it under a turban. He yielded, and contented himself with 
 quietly asking what I finally meant to do. ** Nothing,' 
 was the answer of my heart : but the profession of doing 
 nothing requires ample means. I therefore pretended a 
 wish to learn a trade. My father assented, and forthwith 
 wrote to a Smyrna merchant of his acquaintance to receive 
 me into his counting-house. 
 
 Meantime I found an employment for my leisure hours 
 which put an end to all childish pastimes. Signor Sotiri, 
 though, as before-mentioned, a little hard of hearing, 
 wanted not fluency of speech. His oratory had chiefly 
 been exerted to render his patron dumb. He constantly 
 represented to him how absolutely the dignity of his sta- 
 tion forbade his having the least conversation with the na- 
 tives ; and how incumbent upon him it was, though born 
 and bred in the Levant, to appear not to understand a 
 single word of its idioms. By this device he kept all the 
 speechifying to himself; and in truth, with the Turks in 
 office, at all times more prone than strict politeness permits 
 to compliment the representatives of Christian powers with 
 the titles of *' infidel, yaoor," and Christian dog;" and at 
 this particular juncture more than usually out of humour 
 in consequence of the Russian war," this was often the 
 only way to save the consular pride from some little rubs, 
 otherwise unavoidable in the necessary intercourse with 
 the local government. Hence Mr. de M not only never 
 
ANASTASIUS. 11 
 
 stirred from home without his interpreter by his side, but 
 had him constantly at his elbow within doors, and made 
 him the sole channel of his official transactions : a circum- 
 stance which my father perfectly knew how to turn to the 
 best advantage. 
 
 I too, in my capacity as the Drogueman's chief assistant 
 and messenger, was in daily attendance at the consular 
 mansion; which proved useful to me in one respect, as it 
 gave me an opportunity of learning the French language, — 
 and that with the greater fluency, from the circumstance of 
 no one oflering expressly to teach me. The old consul had, 
 between his dignity with the Greeks and his punctilio with 
 the Turks, but little society, and I therefore soon became 
 by the sprightllness of my repartees a very great favourite. 
 
 Mr. de M not only encouraged me to take a part in 
 
 conversation, but would even condescend to laugh most 
 heartily both at my witticisms and my practical jokes, 
 whenever neither himself, nor his servants, nor his rela- 
 tions, nor his friends, nor his proteges, were made to smart 
 from their keenness, or involved In their consequences. 
 
 Mr. de M had an only daughter, the blue-eyed He- 
 lena, the child of his old age. Deprived of the watchful 
 care of a mother, this lovely girl was allowed in her fa- 
 ther's house an unrestrained latitude, and availed herself 
 of her privilege with all the freedom of unsuspecting inno- 
 cence. The consul, without being fond of music, loved the 
 sound of an instrument. Helena had been taught the 
 harpsichord, but, full of life and spirits, she hated the me- 
 chanical drudgery of running over the cold clumsy keys 
 of a huge cumbrous fixture, to which the performer, she 
 thought, looked like a mere appendage. Our light portable 
 lyre, which the arms encircle so gracefully, and the fingers 
 seem scarcely to touch, she would learn to play upon most 
 readily — could she but find a proper master ! *' Who 
 more so," thought I, "than the son of the father's In- 
 terpreter ?"— and forthwith oilbred my services. Though 
 
12 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 but a moderale performer, I had the advantage of always 
 being at hand, and without being positively either accepted 
 or refused, was soon employed. 
 
 Parents ! who do not particularly wish your daughters 
 to fall in love with their teachers, be cautious of admitting 
 under your roof any music masters, except such as are po- 
 sitive antidotes to that passion. Where harmony alone is 
 to rule the sense, can souls remain unattuned to each 
 other ? The boy's hand, in guiding the taper fingers of his 
 pupil, will sometimes make them stray from her chords to. 
 his heart, and mistake for the vibrations of the one the 
 pulsations of the other. The very lips of the fair one, ac- 
 customed to re-echo the sounds of her teacher's voice, will 
 by degrees respond to his feelings; and he who has so many 
 means of disclosing his passion, and of insinuating a reci- 
 procal warmth, without any imputation of forwardness or 
 violation of respect, will be more anxious to interpret the 
 sounds he utters, than to disavow their sense. 
 
 For my part, I almost immediately felt my heart on fire, 
 and soon Helena too caught the consuming flame. No- 
 thing could tear us away from each other. The duets, 
 begun in the heat of the day within doors, were repeated in 
 the cool of the evening on the stone seat before the house. 
 Sighs interrupted the songs; and when the advancing night 
 forced Helena to retire, her blue eyes looked like drooping 
 violets steeped in dew. 
 
 The consul had destined his little favourite, as soon as 
 arrived at a suitable age, to a rich young Smyrniote, ne- 
 phew to his correspondent. He dreamt not of the possi- 
 bility of her falling in love with a Greek boy, habited in the 
 dress of the country, and the son of his interpreter. It 
 was rather a gratification to him, on seeing us so much 
 together, to think that in her solitude his darling child 
 should have found the harmless pastime of our concerts. 
 
 My father saw deeper into the business. Had he con- 
 ceived it likely to end in a marriage, and that marriage 
 
ANASTASIUS. 13 
 
 likely to bring his family any accession of weight or of for- 
 tune, he would, I make no doubt, have become as blind 
 as he was deaf; but this he by no means thought pro- 
 bable. The old consul was a good deal distressed ; his 
 salary must cease with his life, and he had nothing to leave 
 his daughter at his death but his consular pride; — *' and 
 with that portion," observed my father, **she might in- 
 deed become a gem of the first water in the hands of a 
 rich Smyrna merchant, who would set her in gold; but 
 round our bare necks she could only prove a millstone." 
 He therefore warned me against carrying the intimacy too 
 far. 
 
 His caution came too late. The less experience my pu- 
 pil at first brought to her lessons, the more rapid was the 
 progress she made under my tuition. Love's fullest har- 
 mony was struck, almost ere she suspected it whispered in 
 our sighs. Indeed, so much was she still in the first spring 
 of her innocence, that she scarce seemed aware that in 
 due time blossoms turned to fruits, till taught by expe- 
 rience. On this discovery the timid girl at first sobbed 
 incessantly; but, by degrees, persuading herself that our 
 attachment, when divulged, must end in our permanent 
 union, she recovered a kind of composure, and resolved to 
 let the disclosure take its course — neither hastening nor 
 yet trying to avert it ; and rather rejoicing than dismayed 
 that the slim Perote'^ dress, which belonged to her father's 
 dignity, must betray the secret of his villa sooner than the 
 ample involutions of silk and cotton, of which our own 
 more wary females so well know the advantages. 
 
 I by no means sympathised in this calmness or agreed 
 in these wishes. What the too confiding Helena looked 
 tipon as the harbour in which her inquietudes must end, 
 my father had taught me to consider as the quicksand on 
 which all my hopes must perish. I therefore tried to im- 
 press Helena with my utter inability to support her as my 
 wife, and with the expedience of such a timely confession. 
 
14 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 on her part, as should enahle the consul to save her honour 
 without my inadequate assistance. 
 
 To the fair one flushed with love the least proffer of pru- 
 dential considerations is an insult. Exasperated at my dis- 
 creet suggestions, Helena treated me with haughtiness — 
 with contempt. — ** When she could bring herself to stoop 
 to my lowness, did I fear any sacrifice that raised me to 
 her level ?" 
 
 Feelings so proud as mine could ill brook this taunting 
 speech. To be told that I was to consider as an honour 
 beyond my deserts, the pennyless hand of one whose heart 
 had attested too warmly my merits, — was this to be en- 
 dured ? All the blood of Achilles rose within me ; I ran to 
 the quay, and there let it rage in unison with the foaming 
 breakers. 
 
 As long as the Smyrna scheme had remained in suspense, 
 I saw an opening through which to escape; but my father 
 had just received an unqualified refusal in that quarter. 
 The merchant to whom he applied in my behalf, being ac- 
 quainted with my brother's adventures , felt little anxious 
 for another scion of the same hopeful stock. 
 
 This disappointment had soured my father's temper, and 
 disposed him to visit on me the sins of my brother. Having 
 begun my education at the wrong end, by permitting me 
 every species of latitude when he might easily have curbed 
 my licentious disposition, he now gave it the finishing touch 
 with equal sagacity, by trying, after my unbridled habits 
 had become confirmed, to restrain me even in what I con- 
 sidered as reasonable freedom. I now was thwarted in every 
 wish, deprived of every indulgence, — and all this, appa- 
 rently, for no other fault, except that from a chubby prat- 
 tling child, to be hushed with toys and sweetmeats, I had 
 not prevented myself from growing into a slouching, 
 thoughtful youth, who too often demanded a supply of so- 
 lid cash. 
 
 My mother, too, was to me an altered woman. The 
 
ANASTASIUS. 15 
 
 moment I no longer submitted to be fondled like a baby, 
 she transferred her affections — against all rale and pre- 
 cedent — from the former darling of her heart to the one 
 among us who had neither the claims of the youngest nor 
 of the eldest — to Constantine. His hump had evidently 
 operated the revolution in his favour; but whether by 
 making my mother wish to console him for this defect, or 
 by causing her to consider him as endowed with an addi- 
 tional perfection, I never could determine. Certain it is, 
 that she used to gaze on his back as- she before had done 
 on my face, until her admiration sometimes put his own 
 modesty to the blush. 
 
 Not habituated early enough to filial submission, I no 
 sooner felt the weight of parental authority than I began to 
 question its justice, and, able to deduce its rights only from 
 the voluntary concession of the child, while its feebleness 
 forces it to barter obedience for food, I considered its con- 
 tinuance beyond that period as an usurpation. Long, 
 therefore, had I been meditating to seize some opportunity 
 of eluding the parental yoke, even before J got entangled 
 in the snares of love. The wound which my mistress in- 
 flicted on my pride added new incentives to my desire of 
 liberty, and, after her mortifying speech, the only wish of 
 my mind was to abandon father, mother, mistress, friends, 
 relations, and home for ever. Indeed, no way in which I 
 might sever myself from Helena seemed to me unfair, when 
 I considered the stamp of humiliating selfishness which she 
 had chosen to imprint upon my constancy. 
 
 My brain thus in a ferment, I entered the first tavern I 
 found open, and, though by no means addicted to intem- 
 perance, drank off draught after draught of our strongest 
 wine, till the houses in the street seemed familiarly to nod 
 to the ships in the harbour. 
 
 Among these latter was a Venetian brig, ready for its 
 departure. While I sat pondering over my grievances, the 
 evening breeze sprung up, and the song of the sailors on 
 
U ANASTASIUS. 
 
 board marked the heaving of the anchor. I accepted it 
 as the summons for putting my design into execution. 
 Running out of the house, I was soon rowed to the vessel, 
 and reached it just as the sails were unfurling. I offered 
 my services to the captain. He had lost half his crew in 
 his last Egyptian caravan,'^ but still would only receive 
 me as a simple cabin-boy. The office seemed little suited 
 to the son of a drogueman, whose garment alone, I thought, 
 should sweep the deck ; but it was not a time to bargain, 
 and I submitted. I crept into the hold among the ballast, 
 until we should be out of reach of pursuit, and, when in- 
 formed of my safety, jumped aloft, and ran to the stern to 
 see what way we had made. 
 
 The moon was just rising in all her splendour, and a bar 
 of silvery light shot along the spangled waves. The gra- 
 dually increasing breeze carried us rapidly out of the straits 
 of Chios. The different objects on the shore — mountains, 
 valleys, villages, and steeples— seemed in swift succession 
 first advancing to meet us, then halting an instant along- 
 side onr vessel as if to greet us on our passage, and lastly 
 again gliding off with equal speed — till, launched into the 
 open main, we saw the whole line of coast gradually dis- 
 solve in distant darkness. 
 
 Various and opposite were the feeHngs which, as I stood 
 contemplating the luminous track we left in the rippling 
 wave, agitated my bosom : but, whatever direction I tried 
 to give to my thoughts, they always reverted to Helena. 
 In vain I sought to banish from my guilt-struck fancy her 
 upbraiding image. As if in mockery of my endeavours, 
 it seemed to assume a tangible shape. I persuaded myself 
 that I actually saw the pale form of my mistress, half rising 
 from the boisterous billows, follow, with piteous moans, 
 the fleeting vessel, and call back her Anastaslus to her 
 outstretched arms. I wished I could have stayed the 
 mighty mass, — could have converted the swiftly moving 
 keel, which hurried away my person and my fate, into a 
 
ANASTASIUS. 17 
 
 solid motionless rock — in order to enable the dear phantom 
 to join me, or, at least, in order to have a few instants 
 more to reflect on my conduct, and to retract my errors, 
 ere the opportunity should pass by for ever. In vain ! I 
 felt as if an uncontrollable force kept impelling me on, — 
 and at last, **It is useless," I exclaimed, **to contend! I 
 must yield to my destiny : I must perform the things set 
 down for me — be they good, or be they evil !" 
 
 As the dawn began to dispel the dark visions of the night; 
 as the sun rose in all his glory to pervade the blue expanse 
 of the heavens, and the returning day showed Chios like a 
 faint cloud, floating on the utmost verge of the waters, my 
 thoughts assumed a brighter hue, my heart felt the weight 
 which hung upon it Ughtened, and the idea that I now was 
 going to explore those distant realms after which I had 
 yearned so long filled me with expectation and delight. 
 
 Yet even this new joy was mixed with a terror of its own. 
 At no period of my life had I yet outstepped the narrow 
 pale of my native island, or obtained so much as a peep at 
 the nearest objects beyond the straits by which it was 
 bounded. A passage to the neighbouring islets seemed to 
 me a long voyage. Smyrna had been, in my imagination, the 
 utmost limit of the habitable globe; and as to Europe, I 
 deemed it to lie somewhere not far from the antipodes. 
 The unbounded prospect of the whole wide world bursting 
 all at once upon me struck my young heart with awe ; and 
 the sight of nothing around me but strangers, utterly un- 
 known, and indifferent to my fate, was sad and appalling. 
 
 Soon, however, I was recalled from these vague and in- 
 distinct reflections, by feelings more definite and more 
 immediately connected with my present situation. I had 
 scarce closed my eyes, when the captain, unwilling that 
 I should have unpleasant dreams, or any dreams at all, re- 
 minded me, with a familiar tap on the shoulder, that it was 
 time to begin earning my passage; and handed me over to 
 his crew to instruct me in my task. Mine were no longer 
 
IS ANASTASIUS. ^ 
 
 indulgent teachers, and, from being the little tyrant of my 
 father's domestics, I now found myself the slave of every 
 common sailor. While my companions — my masters, I 
 should say — sat down to their meals, I had to fast, and 
 when they slept, I must watch. Their scanty leavings were 
 my food, and it was only now and then that I could snatch 
 from my constant toil a few moments of hurried and broken 
 rest. Whatever awkwardness I showed was followed by 
 immediate blows; nay, it became a standing joke of the 
 unfeeUng wretches to call me to different places at once, 
 that I might in some incur the punishment of unavoidable 
 delay. My appeals to the mercy or the justice of my 
 comrades were treated with equal derision. 
 
 As I found it useless to complain, I stifled my feelings, 
 and only kept watching an opportunity for escape or re- 
 venge. This made me particularly observant of all the 
 manoeuvres of the captain; some of which seemed snfli- 
 ciently strange. At times, for instance, when not a cloud 
 was to be seen in the sky, he would pretend to expect foul 
 weather, and run for shelter under some lonely cliff, where 
 he seemed more intent upon looking out for something on 
 the water than in the air ; and though he affected vast dis- 
 pleasure at the unceasing drunkenness of his crew, one 
 could almost have sworn that he put flasks of brandy pur- 
 posely in their way. 
 
 One evening, in a profound calm, and while all the 
 sailors, drunk as fishes, were capering round a tall pole 
 crowned with myrtle, a boat full of Maynote'^ pirates, con- 
 cealed behind the frowning rocks of Antiparos, stole un- 
 perceived under our stern, and climbed up by the poop into 
 the cabin. The master, who just before had gone below on 
 some errand, and had been seized in the midst of his busi- 
 ness with a most unaccountable fit of sleeping, was soon 
 laid hold of and gagged. All the stand of arms, neatly 
 arranged round the room, were next secured; and the pi- 
 rates, DOW rushing up stiiirs, easily mastered the few among 
 
ANASTASIUS. 19 
 
 the sailors who were still able to stand upon their legs, — 
 after which they had nothing to do but to bind, hands and 
 feet, the remainder, lying about the deck in a state of per- 
 fect insensibility. 
 
 Amid the general intoxication, I had been kept sober by 
 my grief, and happened to stand near the cabin door, just 
 when, at the window opposite, appeared the ugly features 
 of the foremost of the Maynotes, ready to slip in. My figure 
 caught his vigilant eye as he advanced his head, when, 
 drawing it back, he put his finger on his mouth, and 
 frowned most formidable threats, should I disobey the sign. 
 To this I felt not in the least inclined. I might indeed, by 
 giving the alarm immediately, have saved the crew from 
 the captain's treachery; but all had used me ill alike. I 
 therefore answered the command by a gesture of ready 
 compliance, and let things take their course. 
 
 In the beginning of the fray the pirates affected to treat 
 the captain very outrageously; but this appearance of en- 
 mity soon subsided, and by degrees they sat down ami- 
 cably together, like old friends who understand each other's 
 ways. Having so handsomely performed my neutral part 
 in the business, I now was thinking to approach and put 
 in my claim, if not for poundage, at least for hush-money, 
 — when a new incident most provokingly blew up the well- 
 concerted scheme. 
 
 It happened that just at this juncture the famous Hassan 
 cupitan-pasha^^ was in the act of delivering the Morea from 
 its Arnaoot'^ oppressors. One of his caravellas,^^ stationed 
 before Nauplia, by chance espied our doings, and immedi- 
 ately gave us chase. She soon obliged us to bring to ; but, 
 instead of liberating the vessel, treated her as a lawful prize. 
 It is true that while the Turks tied the pirates back to back, 
 they only had the real owners of the ship pinioned singly. 
 The captain shared the fate of his crew. Thus was poetical 
 justice dealt out to all, except myself; and thus was I, hap- 
 less Greek, compelled, in the space of four days, to bear 
 
20 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 the yoke of four different nations — French, Venetians, 
 Maynotes, and Turks. Whether I gained by the last change, 
 or only fell from Charybdis upon Scylla, must remain un- 
 told till I have premised a short account of the celebrated 
 expedition which I was so unexpectedly made to witness. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 In the first war between the Russians and the Turks, the 
 most natural proceeding for Russia would have been to at- 
 tack Turkey from its southern frontier, where the two coun- 
 tries joined : — the most surprising was to send an armament 
 from its northern extremity, whence the whole circum- 
 ference of Europe must be sailed round ere Turks and Mus- 
 covites could meet. This latter, therefore, was the measure 
 preferred; and the Russian fleet had passed, in its progress, 
 a whole winter at Leghorn, ere its commanders were 
 determined in what part of Turkey to strike the first blow. 
 The Greeks themselves decided the question for the 
 avengers they expected. A few turbulent codgea-bashees * 
 of the Morea, fearing the lash of their Turkish governor, sent 
 to the Russian commanders a forged plan of insurrection, 
 as one already organised, and on the return of the de- 
 putation, employed the promise of Russian assistance thus 
 fraudulently obtained, to produce the commotion which 
 they had described as already on the point of breaking 
 out. Their labour was assisted by the Turks themselves. 
 Suspecting a plot against their tyranny, these pusillanimous 
 oppressors acted like men who, from the very fear of a pre- 
 cipice, plunge headlong down the steep. In their panic 
 they massacred a whole troop of Zaccuniote peasants, 
 peaceably returning from a fair at Palras, whom they 
 
ANASTASIUS. 21 
 
 mistook for an army of rebels marching to attack them. 
 The cry of revenge now resounded from all quarters ; and 
 when therefore, in the spring of 1770, the Russian fleet 
 cast anchor in the bay of Vitulo, its commanders were re- 
 ceived with open arms by the bishops of Lacedemon* and 
 of ChristianopoHs, followed by Greeks of all descriptions, 
 eager to enlist under the Russian banners. Fair as seemed 
 this beginning, the understanding between the two nations 
 was short-lived. The Greeks expected the Russians alone 
 to accomplish the whole task of their deliverance. The 
 Russians had laid ther account with a powerful co-ope- 
 ration on the part of the Greeks. Each alike disappointed, 
 threw on the other the whole blame of every failure. Their 
 squabbles gave large troops of Arnaoots time to pour from 
 every neighbouring point of Roumili into the peninsula; 
 and the Russian commanders, seeing all chance of success 
 vanish in that unpromising quarter, sailed higher up the 
 Archipelago , — leaving the Moreotes to their fate, and carrying 
 away no other fruits of the momentary contact of Greeks 
 and Russians, but an increase of rancour between the two 
 nations;,— too nearly aUied in faith not to feel to each other 
 the most cordial aversion. 
 
 The ferocious mountaineers of Albania, who, under the 
 name of Arnaoots, form a chief part of the forces of the 
 Othoman empire, and of the body-guard of its various 
 pashas, present in their rugged and yet colourless coun- 
 tenances the greatest possible contrast to the regular fea- 
 tures and rich complexions of the Greeks. In the faith of 
 the two nations the difference is less marked. Wavering 
 for the most part between Christ and Mohammed, the 
 worship of the Arnaoots is generally determined by the master 
 whom they serve; and many a buskined hero^ who came 
 on the spur of pay and plunder to assist the Moreote Mosle- 
 raen against the Christians, himself professed the Christian 
 faith. The total number of these savages was computed 
 at about twenty thousand; and when their work was 
 
22 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 achieved, they demanded their wages. The money was 
 wanting, or at least the pay was withheld. This furnished 
 them with a plausible pretence for disbanding on the spot, 
 and paying themselves by pillaging the country. Some, 
 after laying waste the villages, drove the inhabitants before 
 them like herds of cattle through the derwens or defdes 
 that guard the entrance of their peninsula, and thus re- 
 gained, with their new slaves, their native mountains. 
 Others remained stationary in the Morea : by installing 
 themselves in the houses and lands of the Greek pea- 
 santry, deprived the soil of its husbandmen, and the Turks 
 of their subjects; and at last, finding no more rayahs^ to 
 oppress, turned their violence against the Moslemen them- 
 selves, and treated like the vanquished foe those whom 
 they had come to defend. 
 
 Nine following years had seen eleven different governors 
 arrive, one after the other, with the most peremptory in- 
 structions to exterminate the banditti, and again depart 
 without succeeding; somefor want of sufficient force to re- 
 press their outrages ; others, it is said, for want of sufficient 
 resolution to resist their bribes. At last the Porte sent 
 Hassan. 
 
 By birth a Persian, by the fate of war a Turkish slave, 
 by choice received among the recruits yearly raised at 
 Smyrna for the Barbary powers, and by his own merit 
 advanced to the rank of port-admiral of Algiers, Hassan-bey 
 became in a short time at variance with the Dey. Justice 
 was so entirely on his side, that prudence urged his imme- 
 diate flight. After many wanderings, he found a patron at 
 Constantinople in the famous Raghib, grand visier^ under 
 two successive sultans, and who yet has been permitted to 
 die in his bed. In the memorable battle which the Rus- 
 sians, after abandoning the Morea, gave the Turks in the 
 straits of Chios, he commanded the admiral-ship of the 
 Turks, which was attacked by that of the Russians, while 
 the commanders of both the fleets, Rhassim and Orlow, 
 
ANASTASIUS. 23 
 
 kept with equal prudence aloof from the %ht. Prevented 
 by his instructions from unmooring, Hassan towed his ship 
 on its anchors, boarded the Russian vessel, and, only when 
 both hulks, blown up together, mingled their wrecks in the 
 sky, sought his safety in the sea, and swam ashore. The 
 sultan, seeing his navy annihilated and his person threat- 
 ened in his seraglio by a fleet from the Baltic, now 
 named Hassan his capitan-pasha, — and was saved. 
 
 At the peace, this commander exerted himself to form 
 a new navy, and to introduce among the Turks as much 
 of European tactics as their prejudices could bear. He had 
 not very soon an opportunity to try the eff'ect of his im- 
 provements against a foreign enemy; but, in an empire so 
 extensive as that founded by Othman, when age has en- 
 feebled its head, some distant extremity will always refuse 
 obedience, and call for compulsory measures. Hassan 
 constantly found in some quarter disturbances to quell. 
 In 1776, he made the Arab Daher — usurper of the sove- 
 reignty of Acre — atone with his life for the league he had 
 formed with the Egyptian rebel Aly. The year following 
 he punished Daher's sons for continuing the rebellion of 
 their father; and finally, in 1779, he received the Sultan's 
 orders to expel from the Morea the refractory Arnaoots. 
 Already was his army encamped in the plains of Argos, 
 when one of the caravellas of his fleet, stationed before 
 Nauplia, conveyed our mixed party to that port, where, with 
 my companions, I was — unceremoniously enough — stowed 
 away for the night under a strong guard in a crazy barn; 
 wondering what was to be our fate the next morning. 
 
 The place of our confinement had long been the un- 
 disturbed domain of swarms of musquitoes, who, ignorant 
 of our unwillingness to trespass on their premises, seemed 
 determined to resist the encroachment to the utmost. 
 The constant buzzing and stings of these troublesome 
 insects would alone have sufficed to deprive us of all chance 
 of repose, even had we not been so closely paired, through 
 
24 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 means of good stout ropes, each with a companion by no 
 means of his choice; whence the blows which each intended 
 for his winged enemies in general only fell upon his pinioned 
 associate. Excuses indeed followed the undesigned oiTence, 
 but were of little use in composing us to sleep. My other, 
 but not my better half, in this forced union, seemed to be 
 the person most endowed with philosophic resignation of 
 our whole party. On my throwing out a few hints re- 
 specting the inconvenience of our bedchamber, he assured 
 me that I was fastidious: — he had often seen worse apart- 
 ments, and without the comfort of so much good company. 
 This excited my curiosity; and, observing that it was im- 
 possible to think of sleeping, I entreated my patient friend 
 to favour me with the description of some of those habita- 
 tions, compared with which our present abode was such 
 a fairy palace. 
 
 ** And so you wish," he cried, '*to know my adventures? 
 — Well ! and why not? You are young, and seem of a 
 promising disposition. My example and my precepts can- 
 not fail to benefit your inexperience, and I will therefore 
 this once do violence to my natural modesty, in order to 
 gratify your wish for instruction. What in fact is the use 
 of great achievements but to tell them? Only let me entreat 
 that your feeling heart may not be too deeply touched by 
 the distressing tale of my ill-rewarded virtues. 
 
 *' My early years," continued the person with whom I 
 was any thing but in tete-a-tete, ** offer nothing remarkable. 
 They were spent in the inglorious occupation of cultivating 
 my paternal soil. I thought it rather hard upon me that, 
 whether I sowed my field or let it lie fallow, and whether 
 it was I that reaped its produce or the locusts, the way- 
 wode^ should equally exact the same enormous yearly lithe, 
 should look upon the destruction of my crops by hail and 
 tempests as the mere effects of my own malice, and should 
 seize upon my instruments of husbandry, in order to 
 make me more industrious. I thought it harder still 
 
ANASTASIUS. 25 
 
 that, on heariog how the conflagration of my hovel had 
 consumed all my haratsh tickets' for ten years back, he 
 should demand the whole sum, already paid, over again; 
 and I thought it hard beyond all bearing, uhen, having 
 gone abroad to scrape together the money exacted by my 
 tyrant^ I found, on coming home again, my little patrimony 
 confiscated to his profit, as a punishment for fibandoning 
 that to which I returned. In my rage I flung myself on 
 the ground, with my teeth gnawed the earth, that I might 
 at least carry away some morsel of my paternal inhe- 
 ritance, and swore to make every Mohammedan I could 
 lay hands on, however innocent, pay for the murderous 
 waywode. 
 
 **This oath brought me good fortune. I succeeded in 
 sacrificing several victims to my just resentment; and, 
 as I chose by preference such as, being in good circum- 
 stances, had most to lose, I always made a point of retain- 
 ing what I found about them, lest other Mussulmen should 
 profit by my performance. 
 
 ''Steadfast attention to this particular gave my task a 
 double interest. The only individual whom I admitted to 
 share with me was the magistrate of the district; except, of 
 course, where he himself happened to be the person stopped. 
 Justice was much the gainer by this proceeding. Instead 
 of the usual process of hanging a single wretch, the cadee^ 
 generally fined the whole community, for not being able 
 to produce the olTender. 
 
 "Ihada distant cousin at Zante, — the flower of the fa- 
 mily, and so much admired by all ranks for his bravery, that 
 people used to contend for his assistance in settling their 
 affairs of honour. The nobleness of his sentiments equalled 
 his courage. He only killed, as it were, to oblige his 
 friends ; and so nice were his feelings, where his character 
 was concerned, that on being paid one day beforehand by 
 a certain nobleman, to chastise another sprig of nobility, 
 and, on mature deliberation, thinking the reward loo 
 
26 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ample for the service, he despatched his man outright, and 
 so quieted his scruples — to the great dehght and surprise 
 of his employer. But these loo disinterested sentiments 
 at last obliging him to quit Zante, where merit excites envy, 
 he came and joined me at Patras. From that period we 
 only went out in search of adventures together, like The- 
 seus and Pzrithous, Orestes and Pylades, and all the other 
 worthies of old, whom my cousin had at his fingers' ends; 
 — and astonishing was the number of monsters of which 
 we rid the world, not only above ground but under : for one 
 night, in a cellar, we killed half a dozen Arnaoots, lying 
 dead drunk on the spoils of our country ; and that without 
 any body the next day being the wiser, or thinking but that 
 the scoundrels had done the deed themselves, in a frolic. 
 Never did we take a fellow's booty whom we did not also 
 rid of a life thus become worthless to him. To do otherwise 
 would have been tempting Providence, and was against my 
 joath. My conscience being thus kept clear of premeditated 
 sin, and my mind regularly unburthened, by confession, 
 of unintentional offences, I continued to prosper, until 
 justice, entirely disregarding gratitude, chose maliciously 
 to turn against me. In disgust I joined some Dulcignotes, 
 who, with the help of Algerine colours, avoided some awk- 
 wardness in taking Christian vessels. I myself had now 
 begun to consider religious prejudices as unworthy of a 
 liberal mind, and to view all men as equal before God. 
 What right had I to indulge in partialities founded upon 
 my own fallible judgment? — On this principle I no longer 
 made a difference between Turks and Christians, and most 
 conscientiously treated both alike. Still, such is the force 
 of habit, that 1 own I always felt a particular zest in strip- 
 ping an heretic. To this moment my mouth waters at the 
 thoughts of the broad-bottomed Hollander, full of the 
 richest spice and dainties, which I once helped to unload. 
 Its crew had not — the reprobate wretches ! — a single image 
 of a sai«t on board; and accordingly they only went, with 
 
1 
 
 ANASTASIUS. 27 
 
 ihe wind right nstern, at the rate of two knots an hour; but 
 the idols of their heart seemed to be their short black to- 
 bacco-pipes. Even when chucked into the sea, they slill 
 kept puffing on, as long as their blubber-cheeks remained 
 above water. Their cargo set me up for a while, until fresh 
 misfortunes led back the way to my old trade. The greatest 
 piece of ill luck I reckon to have been my partnership with 
 our present captain. Had I foreseen the bungler he would 
 prove, I should have carried my wits to a better market. 
 But no matter ! — The most laudable intentions are some- 
 times defeated; and a Httle rub disconcerts not Panayoti.'* 
 
 Highly edified with the incidents of this worthy man's 
 history, and still more with his candid and unassuming 
 manner of relating them, I almost regretted that the dawn 
 should so soon, through the chinks of the wall, break in upon 
 his artless and unvarnished tale, to announce a speedy 
 change of scene. In fact, a few moments after, the doors 
 of our saloon were thrown open, and our party called 
 out to be formed into marching order. The separate 
 pairs, all strung together on a good thick mediate rope, 
 into a single body of small width but handsome length, 
 were thus made to add to the beauty of distinctness of 
 parts that of unity of whole; and, all set in motion by the 
 simple mechanism of a kick, bestowed in the rear of the 
 foremost pair, immediately advanced, guided by a few 
 spahees before, while others followed behind. Argos was 
 the place of our destination, and in less than four hours 
 our column reached Hassan's camp. Not only all the 
 troops of the province had flocked round the commander's 
 standard, but several Greeks even had obtained permission 
 to join the Turks against those very Arnaoots whom, some 
 years before, the Turks had called in to save them from the 
 Greeks. 
 
 I had never seen an encampment, and the novel and strik- 
 ing sight absorbed all my faculties in astonishment and 
 awe. There seemed to me to be forces suflicient to 
 
28 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 subdue the whole world; and I knew not which most 
 to admire, the endless clusters of tents, the enormous piles 
 of armour, and the rows of threatening cannon, which I 
 met at every step, or the troops of well-mounted spahees,^ 
 who, like dazzling meteors, darted by us on every side, 
 amid clouds of stifling dust. The very dirt with which the 
 nearer horsemen bespattered our humble troop was, as I 
 thought, imposing; and every thing upon which I cast my 
 eyes gave me a feeling of nothingness, which made me 
 shrink within myself like a snail in its cell. I envied not only 
 those who were destined to share in all the glory and success 
 of the expedition, but even the meanest follower of the 
 camp, as a being of a superior order to myself; and, when 
 suddenly there arose a loud flourish of trumpets, which, 
 ending in a concert of cymbals and other warlike instruments, 
 re-echoed in long peals from all the surrounding mountains, 
 the clang shook every nerve in my body, thrilled me to the 
 very soul, and infused in all my veins a species of martial 
 ardour so resistless, that It made me struggle with my fet- 
 ters, and try to tear them asunder. Proud as- 1 was by 
 nature, I would have knelt to whoever had offered to liberate 
 my limbs, and to arm my hands with a sword or a battle- 
 axe. 
 
 The tumult of my senses had not yet subsided, when, 
 leaving the camp on our right, we were ushered into the 
 open court of a small habitation, in the town of Argos, 
 there to undergo an interrogatory from Hassan's drogue- 
 man. Fixtures as were we under the azure canopy of the 
 heavens, the sun-dials on our faces had time to shift their 
 shadows from right to left before the gentleman came. At 
 last he arrived. 
 
 How widely things often differ in reality, that bear the 
 same names ! In the drogueman of the capitan-pasha I had 
 figured to myself a personage nearly of the same stamp 
 with the consular interpreter at Chios, who had the honour 
 of being my father. I might as well have compared a 
 
ANASTASIUS. 29 
 
 wren to an eagle. The individual of the Tergiumanic genus 
 before whom I now stood came with the state of a little 
 prince, and seemed surrounded by a miniature court of 
 his own. When he spoke, his attendants only answered in 
 a whisper; at his slightest commands, they flew as if the 
 fate of the empire were at stake ; and when he smiled at a 
 joke of his own, they all shook with laughter. As his 
 movements were abrupt and rather eccentric, it was amus- 
 ing to see them scamper after him, trying to keep close to 
 his heels, and not to be thrown out of their ranks by his 
 sudden vagaries. 
 
 From what cause it so happened I know not, but the 
 moment this great man addressed our captain, who stood 
 first and foremost of our troop, his eye fell upon me, though 
 one of the very last In the many-jointed column; and from 
 that time forward he never more changed the object of his 
 attention. For the space of half a second or so, indeed, 
 he might glance at the intervening individuals whom he 
 successively interrogated ; but, uniformly, after addressing 
 two or three words to them, his eyes again began to wander, 
 to seek something further off, and, when they had found 
 me, they fixed themselves with their former steadfastness 
 upon my humble person. My business was to have looked 
 respectfully away from so exalted a personage, or to have 
 modestly dropped my eye-lids, as If I durst not encounter 
 his subhme aspect. But this I attempted In vain. As if 
 under a fascination, I scarce could keep myself from gazing 
 on him with the same steadiness with which he perse- 
 veringly eyed me. I felt as if my future fate was to de- 
 pend upon his nod. 
 
 At last came my turn to speak. Questioned respecting 
 my birth, parentage, country, cause of absence from home, 
 and other topics, I told my little tale with tolerable ease as 
 well as veracity; and my candour particularly shone in 
 my strictures on the captain, who had not perhaps yet had 
 so impartial and so observant a biographer. My recital 
 
so ANASTASIUS. 
 
 amused its noble auditor, and when finished : ** You little 
 Greek rascal," exclaimed the drogueman, "you will cor- 
 rupt all these worthy Roman catholics, if I leave you 
 among them; so I'll keep you here, and let them go home, 
 to swing on St. Mark's after their own fashion." With this 
 compliment my companions were dismissed. They slunk 
 away, muttering some curses, which under the drogue- 
 m£ui's mighty wing I could afford to disregard. 
 
 Mavroyeni belonged to the most distinguished family in 
 the island of Paros. He had from a child felt a spirit too 
 expansive tamely to brook the restraint of his confined 
 birth-place. The restlessness of his temper was increased 
 by the predictions of a priest of Saint-Irene, — one who fore- 
 told so much, that it was impossible but something now 
 and then must fall out as he predicted. Fixing his eyes on 
 the little taooshan:'° "Young man," cried he, as if in- 
 spired, "brilliant will be thy career; but may thy end be 
 happy !" The first part of this twofold oracle gave an ad- 
 ditional stimulus to the youth's ambition, the latter a new 
 motive to his parents for checking its sallies : but, like 
 other predictions, the one in question at last worked its 
 own accomplishment. When Hassan capitan-pasha made 
 the harbour of Drio the summer station of his squadron, 
 in its yearly cruise through the Archipelago ^ young Ma- 
 vroyeni threw himself so frequently in his way, so anxiously 
 implored his accepting an entertainment from his father, 
 and so successfully paid his court during the feast, as to 
 obtain from the pasha the promise of his protection at 
 Constantinople. Upon this he immediately went forth, 
 plunged headlong into all the intrigues of the Fanar," and, 
 through his own dexterity, and the patronage of the high- 
 admiral, in less than three years supplanted Argiropoli, the 
 old and long-respected drogueman of the navy. He soon 
 contrived to give his new situation an importance which it 
 never yet had known. Former droguemen were nothing 
 more than interpreters and spokesmen, even to the most 
 
ANASTASIUS. 31 
 
 imbecile and stupid of commanders. To the most ener- 
 getic and quicksighted of pashas whom the Turkish navy 
 had yet obeyed, Mavroyeni became an adviser and a friend. 
 The Hon at whose roar Moslemen trembled, showed with 
 the subtle Greek the meekness of a lamb ; and even when, 
 informed of his interpreter's unlawful transactions, Hassan 
 for a moment felt his anger rise, and swore he would cut 
 off the head that thus mocked his commands, Mavroyeni's 
 appearance was sufficient to turn his master's wrath into 
 complacency, and to draw down new favours on that head 
 just devoted to irrevocable destruction. Every outrage of 
 Mavroyeni on the laws and the habits of the Turks only 
 seemed to increase his influence with his patron ; and the 
 Greeks, still as prone as of old to ascribe each strange ef- 
 fect to some supernatural cause, ceased wondering at the 
 drogueman's sway, only to wonder at the drugs of which 
 he composed his philtre. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Received among the suite of the important tergiuman 
 aforesaid,^ I was soon made to exchange my miserable tarred 
 jacket of the sailor for an ample beueesh'' of finest broad- 
 cloth, the first mark of my promotion; but I could not 
 help regretting the loss of my *' raven" locks, indifferently 
 replaced, in the owner's opinion, by the short black lamb's 
 wool of a clumsy calpack.^ I swore I would some day, cost 
 what might, doff my uncouth head-dress for one of those 
 smart turbans of gilt brocade, worn with such a saucy air 
 over one ear by the pasha's tshawooshes,^ — gentlemen 
 who were seen every where, lounging about as if they 
 had nothing to do but to display their handsome legs. 
 
32 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 their vests stiff with gold lace, and their impudent hully- 
 ing facesa 
 
 I had confidently expected that my first apprenticeship in 
 my new service would have heen to the use of the carbine 
 and the sabre. Great, therefore, was my mortification, 
 when, instead of learning to shoot an enemy, or to cut down 
 a rebel, I had to practise carrying a coffee-pot, or pre- 
 senting a tobacco-pipe : and once, when a young fellow 
 attendant displayed his wit in jokes on my awkwardness, 
 my wrath waxed so high, that I thrust the lighted pipe head 
 foremost into his grinning mouth, and made his pert tongue 
 smart for his petulance. An oldish mild-looking man, a pri- 
 vileged domestic, who, having served his time out, now 
 earned his salary as a sort of pedagogue to the new comers, 
 witnessed the act, and took me aside. 
 
 ** Listen, young man," said he, '* whether you like it 
 or not. For my own part, I have always had too much 
 indolence not to make it my study throughout life rather 
 to secure ease than to labour for distinction. It has there- 
 fore been my rule to avoid cherishing in my patron any 
 outrageous admiration of my capacity, which would have 
 increased my dependence while it lasted, and exposed me 
 to persecution on wearing out : — but you, I see, are of a 
 different mettle: I therefore may point out to you the 
 surest way to that more perilous height, short of which 
 your ambition I doubt will not rest satisfied. When you 
 have compassed it, you may remember old Demo, if you 
 please. 
 
 "Know first that all masters, even the least lovable, like 
 to be loved. All wish to be served from affection rather 
 than duty. It flatters their pride, and it gratifies their self- 
 ishness. They expect from this personal motive a greater 
 devotion to their interest, and a more unlimited obedience 
 to their commands. A master looks upon mere fidefity in 
 his servant as his due, — as a thing scarce worth his thanks : 
 but attachment he considers as a compliment to his merit. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 3« 
 
 and, if at all generous, he will reward it with liberality. 
 Mavroyeni is more open than any body to this species of 
 flattery. Spare it not, therefore. If he speak to you kindly, 
 let your face brighten up. If he talk to you of his own af- 
 fairs, though it should only be to dispel the tedium of 
 conveying all day long other men's thoughts, listen with 
 the greatest eagerness. A single yawn, and you are un- 
 done ! Yet let not curiosity appear your motive, but the 
 delight only of being honoured with his confidence. The 
 more you appear grateful for the least kindness, the oftener 
 you will receive important favours. Our ostentatious 
 drogueman will feel a pleasure in raising your astonish- 
 ment. His vanity knows no bounds. Give it scope, there- 
 fore. When he comes home choking with its sup- 
 pressed ebullitions, be their ready and patient receptacle : 
 — do more; discreetly help him on in venting his conceit; 
 provide him with a cue; hint what you heard certain peo- 
 ple, not knowing you to be so near, say of his capacity, his 
 merit, and his influence. He wishes to persuade the world 
 that he completely rules the pasha. Tell him not flatly 
 he does, but assume it as a thing of general notoriety. Be 
 neither too candid iu your remarks nor too fulsome in your 
 flattery. Too palpable deviations from fact might appear 
 a satire on your master's understanding. Should some 
 disappointment evidently rufile his temper, appear not to 
 conceive the possibility of his vanity having received a 
 mortification. Preserve the exact medium between too 
 cold a respect and too presumptuous a forwardness. How- 
 ever much Mavroyeni may caress you in private, never 
 seem quite at ease with him in public. A master still 
 likes to remain master, or at least to appear so to others. 
 Should you get into some scrape, wait not to confess your 
 imprudence until concealment becomes impossible; nor 
 try to excuse the ofience. Rather than that you should, 
 by so doing, appear to make light of your guilt, exaggerate 
 your self-upbraidings , and throw yourself entirely upon 
 
34 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 the drogueman's mercy. On all occasions take care how 
 you appear cleverer than your lord, even in the splitting of 
 a pen: or if you cannot avoid excelling him in some trifle, 
 o-ive his own tuition all the credit of your proficiency. 
 Many things he will dislike, only hecause they come not 
 from himself. Vindicate not your innocence when unjustly 
 rebuked: rather submit for the moment; and trust that, 
 thouo-h Mavroyeni never will expressly acknowledge his er- 
 ror, he will in due time pay you for your forbearance." 
 
 As it was not **a single' yawn ^vith which I answered 
 this long speech, good old Demo vouchsafed to spare me 
 its sequel ; but, though I thanked not my adviser, I took 
 care in due time to profit by his advice. 
 
 Mavroyeni's situation subjected him to a species of per- 
 secution which almost balanced the pleasure — great as it 
 was — of beholding the proudest agas of the country daily 
 cringe at his levee, perhaps more lowly than at that of the 
 pasha himself. It was the annoyance of being visited by 
 all his own relations and kindred, from every island of the 
 Archipelago, far or near, large or small. He had not, in 
 the remotest corner of the Levant, a cousin in the fiftieth 
 degree, known or unknown, whom the fame of his favour 
 drew not out of his den to Argos, for the purpose of sharing 
 in the good things which it was supposed the drogueman 
 had nothing to do but to give for the asking; and rela- 
 tionships, before dormant, or wholly obliterated, were now 
 brought to light, and supported by oral and written proof, 
 so as sometimes absolutely to confound even his not easily 
 shaken sturdiness. — Nor could these anxious kinsfolks and 
 friends be made to comprehend why the particular time 
 when Mavroyeni went forth into public, or was surrounded 
 by his whole court, should not be the very best for bustling 
 up to their cousin, and roaring out their claims, or re- 
 minding him of their former intimacies. All day long they 
 beset the drogueman's door when he was at home, or lay 
 in ambush for him when he went out; and so great became 
 
ANASTASIUS. 35 
 
 at last the persecution, that at every new disembarking of 
 passengers at Nauplia he used to be seized with a fit of the 
 ague. 
 
 There is a danger in doing things too well. What was 
 at first volunteered as an extraordinary feat, is soon assigned 
 as an every day task. I once happened to dismiss one of 
 these troublesome visitors too dexterously, and from that 
 time it became my regular office. The appointment, it is 
 true, could not have been in better hands. Without trou- 
 bling the drogueman for particular instructions, or an- 
 noying him with awkward messages, painful to the deficacy 
 of a man who would rather have been thought only allied 
 to Jove, I knew at once when a new face presented itself 
 at the door, by its cut and dimensions, whether it could 
 conveniently be suffered to pass the threshold or not ; and 
 on finding it either too long or too wide, or too red or too 
 shining, or otherwise inadmissible or questionable, I reso- 
 lutely defended the pass committed to my care, was as for- 
 midably repulsive as Cerberus himself, and minded not 
 even a little scuffle in the cause : sure of never being taxed 
 by my master for disrespect to his blood. Hence it hap- 
 pened that, once or twice, on the drogueman's expressing a 
 fear that certain of these visitors might call, I had the plea- 
 sure to inform him that they had called, and would call no 
 more; after which, whenever a stranger was announced, 
 the answer, ** let Anastasius go to him," was quite suffi- 
 cient to explain the reception he was to meet with, and the 
 way in which his importunities were to be treated. 
 
 By thus anticipating my master's sentiments, I rose to 
 such a degree of favour, that often, after having in public 
 caused Turks of the highest rank to stare at his haughti- 
 ness, he would in private put his humble cafedjee^ in no 
 fear but from his excess of familiarity; for frequently it left 
 me almost unable to bear in mind the old preceptor's cau- 
 tion, and to refrain from oversteppii5g my station. One 
 evening, after other conversation, ** Anastasius," said the 
 
 3 * 
 
36 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 drogueman, **I told the pasha to-day what a graceless 
 stripling I had picked up. He will see you to-morrow." 
 
 A person so terrible as this pasha, and who so filled the 
 world with the mere sound of his name, must, I thought, 
 equal Homer's heroes in size. I estimated his stature at 
 the least at eight feet; and accordingly, when ushered into 
 his presence, kept looking up at the ceiling till I nearly fell 
 over a little man squatted on the floor, whom I only re- 
 cognised by the commotion which my heedlessness excited 
 as the formidable Hassan. I know not whether the pash^ 
 felt nettled at the abruptness of my approach, or had been 
 discomposed before; but when, ready to sink into the 
 ground with dismay, I stepped back to repair my blunder 
 and kiss the hem of his garment, he no more heeded me 
 than the dust of his feet, which I respectfully brought to 
 my forehead. Mavroyeni soon perceived that the moment 
 was inauspicious, and made me a sign to withdraw. I im- 
 mediately slunk away. 
 
 There is a something in my nature which revolts at every 
 act of humiliation performed towards a fellow-creature. 
 Nothing but the extreme kindness of Mavroyeni could re- 
 concile me to my servile situation ; and his indulgence had 
 made me expect equal caresses from Hassan himself : *'l 
 only stoop," thought I, when appearing before him, **to 
 rise the higher." But when I found myself left iu the dust 
 in which I had been cringing, without gaining any thing 
 by my submission but a contemptuous look, how deep in 
 my heart sunk the mortification ! Scarce could I contain 
 myself while hurrying out of the room. On the very 
 threshold I burst into a flood of tears. 
 
 Fresh constraint, however, soon again became neces- 
 sary. My fellow-attendants, to whom I had been boasting 
 of my summons, were all waiting in a row, to know the 
 result of my visit. Lest its luckless termination should 
 make them too hapff^y, I had to convert my sobs into 
 smiles, at the inexpressible gracioiisness of my reception. 
 
ANASTASIUS. Hr 
 
 The principal tribe of the rebellious Arnaoots, the Becki- 
 arees, established to the number of about ten thousand 
 in the very capital of the Morea, kept its governor, Me- 
 hemet Pasha, as some supposed, a willing prisoner. Has- 
 san, ere he engaged in actual hoslilities, once more offered 
 them, on condition of immediately quitting the country, an 
 unqualified pardon; but the hardened banditti, whether 
 confiding in their numbers, or in other less apparent means 
 of averting the blow, rejected all compromise, intrenched 
 themselves under the walls of the city, and bade defiance 
 to the pasha's forces. 
 
 Probably they expected to awe him by this show of re- 
 solution. They were deceived. On the tenth of June, 
 about noon, Hassan set out with four thousand picked men 
 for Tripolizza, and continued on the march the whole 
 night. Mavroyeni followed the pasha, and I followed Ma- 
 vroyeni. In my capacity of Greek, and still more of cafed- 
 jee, I had not the least hope of personally contending with 
 the foe, and all my solace was the chance of a sly thrust 
 at some runaway. But my master, desirous to let me 
 have my share of all the good things that offered, after 
 whispering something in the pasha's ear, suddenly turned 
 round to me : ** Anastasius," he cried, *'I have obtained 
 his highness's permission for you to shoulder a musket, and 
 to join in the fight, like an Osmanlee."^ 
 
 The favour, no doubt, was inestimable; but its sudden- 
 ness somewhat confounded me. I felt, however, that I must 
 seemed delighted, and though with something of a flutter 
 about my heart, endeavoured to look all joy in the face. 
 In order to confirm my assurance of unutterable satisfaction, 
 I kept singing all the way — though now and then, perhaps, 
 a liltle out of tune. But let it be recollected what I was: 
 — a Greek, in whose unlicensed hands a musket had been 
 deemed, until that moment, a sacrilege, and who had only 
 learnt by stealth to take aim at a sparrow. 
 
 I shall therefore not attempt to deny that when the early 
 
88 ANASTASIUS 
 
 dawn showed in front of our column, between ourselves 
 and Tripolizza, at the distance of only a few hundred 
 yards, the whole Albanese encampment, my stout heart 
 began to beat ; and that when, the next moment, I heard 
 Hassan give orders for the charge, breath seemed for a 
 moment to forsake my frame. Shame, however, supplied 
 the place of bravery. The danger which I could not avoid 
 I determined not to think of; and, following the example 
 of the more experienced warriors around me, I swallowed 
 in a hurried manner several copious draughts of a certain 
 nameless liquor, which, on particular occasions, the high- 
 admiral wisely allowed himself to distribute among his fol- 
 lowers; whereupon, whether it be that the inspiring pota- 
 tion did its duty, or that courage is infectious like coward- 
 ice, my heart, the very moment before almost sunk to my 
 heels, rebounded with such energy, that in its ebullitions 
 of bravery, I could scarce refrain from breaking from the 
 ranks, and engaging some hero of the adverse party in sin- 
 gle combat, even before the line was formed; — and when 
 the trumpet sounded the charge, when the onset began, 
 and the whole body of cavalry at once rushed forward, 
 causing the earth to shake under the horses' hoofs, such 
 grew my delirium, that I scarce saw, heard, or felt; much 
 less had senses to think. 
 
 Mavroyeni had taken care to confide his cafedjee, ex- 
 cellently mounted, to a trusty spahee, whose side he en- 
 joined me not to quit. But at that moment not heaven 
 itself could have prevented my giving the reins to my warlike 
 spirit. The cloud of smoke which arose soon baffling the 
 vigilance of my guardian, I gave him the slip, and spurring 
 my steed with all my might, at once plunged into the 
 thickest of the fray. There, finding the loading of my 
 pistols too tedious a process, I began hacking and hewing 
 with my yatagan;' — consoling myself for any mistake I 
 might make in the objects of my ire with the thought that 
 my blows never could fall amiss, where all alike were ene~ 
 
ANASTASIUS. 39 
 
 mies to Christianity, and oppressors of the Greeks. If 
 upon this principle I hit one or two of our own men, too 
 much engaged to heed whence came the compliment, I 
 made amends by cutting down as grim an Arnaoot as ever 
 wore red whiskers, in the very act of measuring one of our 
 spahees for a back-handed blow; and by this feat, so hap- 
 pily timed, and more happily observed, gained prodigious 
 credit, it elated me to such a degree, that, thinking my- 
 self quite invulnerable, I was going next to rush headlong 
 amidst the only little knot of Lalleotes which still main- 
 tained its ground, — when my guardian, again catching a 
 glimpse of my person, stopped my mad career, grasped me 
 by the arm, and, spite of my despair at not seeing the end 
 of an affair in which I had taken such an active part, began 
 dragging me away : but the rout of the Arnaoots becoming 
 decisive just at that very moment, he listened to the en- 
 treaties of those who had witnessed my behaviour, and 
 again let me go. I darted forward like an arrow from the 
 bow, and gave chase to the now dispersing foe. 
 
 Foremost in the attack, I was soon foremost in the pur- 
 suit. Among the Albanians flying before us like chaff before 
 the wind, two particularly caught my eye, while apart from 
 the rest they sought concealment behind a small patch 
 of furzes. Steadfastly watching their progress, and tracing 
 their route by the motion of the bushes, I left the rest of the 
 troop, to follow this promising scent. Fortunately my 
 fugitives, instead of turning short upon me to punish my 
 imprudence, in their panic only pushed forward, until the 
 hindmost getting entangled among the briars, presented 
 his side to the contents of my carbine, and bit the dust; 
 while the other only ran the faster for his comrade's 
 groans. 
 
 My great ambition had been to take a prisoner, — to pos- 
 sess a slave. I therefore left the disabled man, as secure, 
 to his own meditations, and with my biggest voice called to 
 his companion to surrender. Luckily he did not even look 
 
40 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 round at the stripling who addressed him,* but presently, 
 leaping down a little eminence, disappeared in a thicket, 
 where I thought it prudent to give up the hazardous chase. 
 I now returned to the fellow whom I had left writhing 
 on the ground, apparently at the last gasp ; and when suffi- 
 ciently near, lest there should still lurk about him some 
 latent spark of life, which might only wait to spend itself 
 in a last home-thrust, swiftly sprung forward, and, for fear 
 of foul play, put an extinguisher upon it, ere I ventured to 
 take any other liberties with his person. This done, I de- 
 liberately proceeded to the work of spoliation. With a 
 hand all trembling with joy, I first took the silver-mounted 
 pistols, and glittering poniard, and costly yatagan; I next 
 collected the massy knobs of the jacket, and clasps of the 
 buskins, and still more valuable sequins laying perdue 
 in the folds of the sash; and lastly, feeling my appetite 
 for plunder increase in proportion as it was gratified, 
 thought it such a pity to leave any part of so showy an 
 attire a prey to corruption, that I undressed the dead 
 man completely. 
 
 When, however, the business which engaged all my at- 
 tention was entirely achieved, and that human body, of 
 which, in the eagerness for its spoil, I had only thus 
 far noticed the separate limbs one by one, as I stripped 
 them, all at once struck my sight in its full dimensions, 
 as it lay naked before me — when I contemplated that fine 
 athletic frame, but a moment before full of life and vigour 
 unto its fingers' ends, now rendered an insensible corpse 
 by the random shot of a raw youth Avhom in close combat 
 its little finger might have crushed — I could not help feel- 
 ing, mixed with my exultation, a sort of shame, as if for a 
 cowardly advantage obtained over a superior being; and 
 in order to make a kind of atonement to the shade of an Epi- 
 rote — of a kinsman — I exclaimed with outstretched hands, 
 '* Cursed be the paltry dust which turns the warrior's 
 arm into a mere engine, and striking from afar an invisible 
 
ANASTASIUS. 41 
 
 blow, carries death no one knows whence to no one knows 
 whom; levels the strong with the weak, the brave with the 
 dastardly; and, enabling the feeblest hand to wield its fatal 
 lightning, makes the conqueror slay without anger, and 
 the conquered die without glory!" 
 
 On the very point of departing after this sort of expiatory 
 effusion, with my heavy but valuable trophy huddled on 
 my back, the thought struck me that I might incur a suspi- 
 cion of sporting plumes not my own, unless I brought my 
 vouchers. With that view I began detaching from my 
 Arnaoot's shaggy skull both the ears, as pledges for the 
 remainder of the head, when I should be at leisure to fetch 
 it; but considering how many gleaners stalked the harvest 
 field, and that if I lost my own head, none other might 
 be found to make me amends, I determined to take at once 
 all I meant to keep. The work was a tough one, and the 
 operator at best still a bungler, but I succeeded at last; 
 — and now, in an ecstasy of delight, though almost afraid 
 to look at my bundle, I returned to our party — for ever 
 cured, by an almost instantaneous transition to temerity, 
 of every sentiment of fear. Indeed, such remained for 
 some time the ferment of my spirits, that, while I carried 
 my load on one arm, I kept brandishing my sword with 
 the other, still eager to lay about me, and to cut down 
 Avhomsoever I met. 
 
 My master — already informed of my prowess, and on the 
 look-out for my return — seeing me arrive thus fierce and 
 turbulent, immediately cried out : ** Bravo, Anastasius ! At 
 your first outset you are become a complete hero. — But," 
 added he, laughing, *' since the fight is over, and the enemy 
 routed, suppose you put up your sword, and wash your 
 face !" 
 
 The advice was seasonable. I had In the heat of the 
 engagement received, I know not how, a cut across the 
 jaw, of which the scar remains to this day, and shows a 
 shining white ridge across my strong black beard. 
 
-12 ANASTASIUS 
 
 The head^ which, in imitalion of my companions, I laid 
 before the pasha, he only treated as a football; an usage 
 which made me feel vexed for its dignity and my own: 
 but when the whole harvest was got in, he ordered the 
 produce to be built into the base of a handsome pyra- 
 mid. The remaining Arnaoots of the peninsula, cut 
 off at the dervens, afterwards supplied its top, and thus 
 afforded the inhabitants of Tripolizza a most agreeable 
 vista, which they enjoy to this day. One of our men, in- 
 deed, attempted to keep back from the common store a 
 skull of his own collecting, meaning to turn it into a drink- 
 ing cup for private use; but the pasha severely censured 
 an idea **so disgraceful," he observed, *'to a civilised na- 
 tion like the Turks;" and was near making its author, in 
 punishment of his offence, contribute to the building mate- 
 rials from his own stock. As for myself, when I came to 
 offer my mite, I found that same Hassan, before so su- 
 percilious, all condescension. Bravery was with him the 
 first of virtues : some said the only one! — Mine he paid 
 in ready money, with a handful of sequins; adding: *'You 
 area lad of spirit; and if you will but become a true be- 
 liever, you may rely upon me for promotion." 
 
 At this flattering offer my heart rose to my lips. At once 
 I would have answered : ** Moslemin, or heathen, or what- 
 ever your highness pleases!"— but a look from my master 
 stopped my complying speech. I read in it a positive pro- 
 hibition, and durst not disobey. Prostrating myself on the 
 ground, I begged the pasha would command his servant 
 any thing but to renounce his precious faith. This be- 
 haviour had the good luck not to displease the visier, and 
 much to gratify the interpreter. It entirely gained me the 
 heart of a nephew of Mavroyeni, his uncle's agent, named 
 Stephan; — a man who was said to keep his accounts be- 
 tween this world and the next much more even than his 
 older relation. Indeed, so little had the drogueman the 
 reputation of being tenacious on the score of religion. 
 
ANASTASIUS. U 
 
 that I could not refrain from asking him, the first instant 
 we were alone together, *' why he should thus have stood 
 in the way of his servant's fortune?" 
 
 **You fool," was his answer, **I only stood in the way 
 of your ruin. Had you accepted the high-admiral's pro- 
 posal, you would immediately have received some inferior 
 appointment, and in that you would have heen left to 
 waste the remainder of your life. Your first promotion 
 would have heen your last. Despised hy the Turks and 
 shunned hy the Greeks, you would have found support no- 
 where; and must henceforth have lived not only degraded, 
 hut, what is worse, forgotten. Has it never struck you," 
 added he in a whisper, and as if afraid of being overheard, 
 **that if much were to be gained by a Christian turning 
 Moslemin, there are others besides yourself sufficiently 
 reasonable not to stick at the difference between Kyrie 
 eleison, and Allah, Illah, Allah ?"» 
 
 This observation set all reply at defiance. I laid by my 
 sword, and resumed my coffee-tray. 
 
 The interior of the Morea being liberated from the Al- 
 banians, Hassan determined to spend the remainder of the 
 season in clearing its seas of the Maynotes. A strong de- 
 tachment was sent with instructions to force I he passes of 
 mount Taygetus, the abode of those miscreants; and our 
 encampment was in the meantime removed from the plain 
 of Argos to that of Nauplia. Precisely the small slip of this 
 otherwise delightful valley which is closest to the city, and 
 extends under the tremendous rock of the Palamida, had, 
 by the sea water constantly oozing in, been rendered a 
 swamp, vying, for noxious exhalations, with the opposite 
 morass of Lerna. Hassan, while waiting the issue of the 
 expedition to Mayuo, resolved, withont knowing much of 
 the garden of the Hesperides, to make this pestilential nook 
 its fac-simile, — and, by way of restoring to their pristine 
 innocence and purity the somewhat deteriorated minds of 
 his Arnaoot prisoners, had them conveyed on shore every 
 
44 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 morning, chained two and two, to forward this rural design. 
 Hands that never yet had wielded any thing hut weapons 
 of war and destruction were now reluctantly seen to grasp 
 instruments of peace and husbandry, and to exchange the 
 sword and the carbine for the rake and the spade; and men 
 only accustomed to cut and clip human Hmbs gnashed their 
 teeth with rage, at being compelled to prune orange-trees, 
 and to tie up carnations. 
 
 Like other distinguished personages, Hassan had his 
 enemies in the capital. They represented his attempt 
 on the impregnable fastnesses of Mayno as a mad scheme; 
 they ceased not to inveigh against his extortions : but the 
 crime they dwelt upon with peculiar eloquence and pathos 
 was his atrocity in employing Mohammedan captives to 
 lay out his vile shrubberies ; and one morning that Has- 
 san, in the midst of his works, was inhaling in copious 
 streams the incense of his courtiers vying in compliments 
 on his taste, came a fulminating haltisherif from the Porte, 
 to enjoin the immediate liberation of all his prisoners, and 
 the return of his squadron t© Constantinople. 
 
 Vain would be the attempt to paint the pasha's rage. 
 Striking his forehead with the imperial mandate, he swore 
 he would obey its commands — would deliver his prisoners 
 from their bondage : but only in death ! and ordered them 
 to be marshalled for immediate execution. The signal was 
 given; and at each waving of his hand fell a head. Every 
 beholder looked aghast, but none durst breathe even a syl- 
 lable of intercession for the victims. Fifteen heads al- 
 ready lay gasping amidst the parterres which their wearers 
 had planted, and seemed only a prelude to the fall of as 
 many hundreds; when Mavroyeni at last stepped forward, 
 and, throwing himself at his master's feet, begged he would 
 have mercy, not on the culprits, who deserved their fate, 
 but on his own innocent lilies and jessamines, which had 
 done nothing to deserve being deluged in blood, instead of 
 moistened only by the dews from heaven. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 45 
 
 Perhaps the pasha himself had already beguQ to reflect, 
 not on the cruelty of his conduct, but on its consequences ; 
 — perhaps he was not sorry for an excuse to desist from his 
 rash vow. His jocularity, between each new act of the dis- 
 gusting spectacle, might only in reahty be intended to 
 slacken the progress of the slaughter. The flowers were 
 pitied, the massacre stopped, the garden abandimed, and 
 the not yet pollarded Arnaoots conveyed to the passes out 
 of the Morea, there to be turned loose upon the remain- 
 der of the Turkish empire. 
 
 By the sacrifice of a few of the purses which he had col- 
 lected, Hassan still obtained leave only to resign the com- 
 mand of the Morea to Hadgee Ibrahim, his own kehaya:'° 
 a man who, in turns pilgrim at Mecca, chief of banditti in 
 Roumili," slave-merchant on the Black Sea, and soldier 
 at the Dardanelles, was by no means the pasha's unapt 
 representative ; but who nevertheless was only allowed to 
 succeed him with the subordinate rank of moohassil,^^ — 
 the exhausted state of the peninsula disabling it from sup- 
 porting, in a governor, the burthensome weight of the three 
 tails. 
 
 The news of the entire failure of the Maynote expedi- 
 tion became the signal for our departure. In my impatience 
 to behold the capital, I had been counting the days and 
 hours till we should sail, and had been frightened by many 
 a report of our wintering atNauplia. Inexpressible therefore 
 was my joy when, on the fifteenth of November, 1779, I 
 actually saw the anchors heaving, and the sails unfurled. 
 
 Behold me now at sea a second time, not like the first 
 on board a paltry trading vessel, only surrounded by tarred 
 sailors, and myself toiling like a galley-slave, but in a su- 
 perb three-decker — a positive moving city on the waves; 
 basking in the sunshine of a visier of the first class ; view- 
 ing, whichever way I turned my eyes, glittering officers 
 and guards ; and having nothing myself to do but to wonder 
 at all I saw. This I did abundantly. Not a hole or 
 
46 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 corner of the vessel was left unexplored ; and though ex- 
 ceedingly wroth on board the Venetian at being obliged to 
 bear a part in working the ship, which I then thought an 
 intolerable drudgery, I here, on the contrary, from being 
 very much discouraged by the sailors in my attempts to 
 assist them, found no pleasure so great; and was constantly 
 lending a hand in setting the sails, bracing the yards, and 
 imitating like a monkey all I saw others do. Frequently, 
 when my master sent for me to my birth below, I was up 
 in the main-top ; and I seldom came down from this fa- 
 vourite station, except to listen open-mouthed on the car- 
 riage of a gun to the glowing descriptions of the wonders 
 and delights of the capital — the city, by pre-eminence — 
 which some one or other of my companions was constantly 
 praising. It seemed to me, though the wind continued un- 
 abatingly fair, that we never were to reach this earthly 
 paradise. 
 
 On one occasion, indeed, the current of my thoughts, 
 thus far uninterruptedly directed toward Stambool/^ expe- 
 rienced a sudden stop, a total reflux. The intellectual tide, 
 till then only flowing in one direction, at once ebbed, and 
 set the contrary way. It was when we came in sight of my 
 native land, of my beloved Chios. While rapidly sailing 
 before the wind along its verdant shores, a pang shot to my 
 heart — an indescribable yearning seized upon my soul. 
 At the back of that ridge of purple crags which I could 
 almost touch with my hand, Hved my aged parents; lived, 
 sighed — perhaps, sighed no longer— my injured Helena, 
 the first loved of my heart ! Were not the rocky screen 
 betwixt, I might actually at that instant behold their now 
 melancholy homes, and in less than an hour I might restore 
 the mourning tenants to their wonted serenity. I might re- 
 ceive and bestow the embraces of love and of duty; I 
 might again possess the united blessings of those whom I 
 had so cruelly abandoned; I might tell them, ** Anastasius 
 has fought, Anastasius has vanquished, Anastasius returns 
 
ANASTASIUS. 47 
 
 to you. He returns to deposit at your adored feet, and to 
 sacrifice to your love and your pardon, the laurels he has 
 gathered, and the praise and promises he has gained." 
 *' Now is," thought I — **but soon irretrievably to vanish 
 — the moment in which to recover kindred, country, 
 peace of mind, and connubial happiness. If again cast 
 away, they must be lost for ever !" 
 
 Frantic at this thought, I hastily left the deck, and hur~ 
 ried to the drogueman, to entreat that I might be put 
 ashore, and allowed to return among my fiiends. 
 
 On what trifling circumstances depends the fate of our 
 lives ! Had I felt less anxious, I should have succeeded : I 
 should have reached my master's presence, have preferred 
 my petition, have obtained my suit, have been reinstated 
 in my filial privileges, and probably at this time have been 
 the happy father of a numerous progeny, with the soothing 
 prospect of a tranquil and respected old age. 
 
 A nail-head made the difference! — A nail-head causes 
 me, by remote consequences, at the distance of many 
 years, to die in a strange land a premature and painful 
 death, unowned by a friend, unwept by a child ! This un- 
 fortunate iron (on which may He all my sins) not being 
 sufficiently clenched, protruded most unwarrantably from 
 the steps of the cabin. Several times already it had caught 
 my flowing dress ; and each time condemned to decapita- 
 tion, it had only been reprieved from sheer thoughtless- 
 ness. In the eagerness of the moment, I hooked it with 
 my shaksheer,'^ as I ran down stairs, and losing my 
 balance, fell, and struck my skull against the floor of the 
 cabin. 
 
 Senseless from the shock, I only recovered to find my- 
 self lying on the deck, with my head in the lap of one of 
 the pasha's tshawooshes. The first thing upon which my 
 eyes opened was the officer's vest, — one of those gorgeous 
 specimens of embroidery, which I had so greedily coveted, 
 and had so fully determined some day to obtain : the first 
 
4S ANASTASIUS. 
 
 thing I heard was a condescending message of inquiry from 
 the pasha himself! So much glare dazzled my senses; so 
 great an honour overpowered my weak hrain. For some 
 time, indeed, I scarce could remember what had occupied 
 my thoughts prior to my accident. All in my mind was 
 confusion and darkness; and when I again hegan with some 
 clearness to retrace my ideas, the contact was too imme- 
 diate with one species of object near my heart, not to feel 
 the attraction of other more distant treasures weak in com- 
 parison. It now. seemed to me a womanly act to cast away 
 all the fruit of the perils 1 had past, of the reputation I had 
 gained, and of the favour I had earned; — to exchange the 
 fame and greatness that awaited me, for obscurity and 
 obHvion; to prefer to the destinies of the eagle, soaring 
 from region to region, those of the worm, content to die 
 in the same clod of clay in which he was born, and perhaps 
 crushed to death before his time by the more bold and 
 aspiring. I knew I should be laughed at by all on board 
 only for hinting such a whim; and on further reflection, I 
 even felt it a filial duty to seek at Constantinople that rank, 
 which might be so powerful a protection to my parents on 
 their little island. 
 
 Still, however, some inward doubt remained. As soon as 
 I was able to move, I rose, and ran to the side of the ship, 
 to see what way she had been making since my accident, 
 and whether there still was time to execute my design. 
 Chios had already dwindled away into a scarce visible 
 speck. The magnet ceased to act ; my lately excited feel- 
 ings subsided, and my no longer distracted mind gradually 
 resumed its former hopes, its vanities, and its ambition. 
 Its current again, as before, only flowed whither our prow 
 was tending. Stambool again became, as before, its polar 
 star; — and if some natural regrets still arose in my mind 
 at intervals, the new and bustling scene which ensued, 
 during the few days we lay at anchor before Milylene and 
 Tenedos, completely dispelled them. These days appeared 
 
ANASTASIUS. 49 
 
 to me so many ages, only from their delaying our arrival 
 in the capital. 
 
 At last we entered the boghaz!'^ Stunned by the in-^ 
 cessant thundering of the almost uninterrupted succession 
 of batteries, which line the whole of its shore, I felt not 
 the less as if sharing all the honours of their salutes, and 
 could scarce repress my joy and exultation. In a few 
 hours I was to behold that celebrated cily, whose origin 
 lay hid in the obscurity of ages, whose ancient greatness 
 had often been the theme of my infant wonder, and whose 
 humiliation under the Othoman yoke I had, in concert 
 with my didaskalos'^ of Chios, frequently lamented with 
 tears; but which — even in its present degraded state, and 
 groaning under the despotism of the Turks — had from a 
 child been the final object of all my views and wishes. 
 
 A most favourable wind continued to swell our sails. 
 Our mighty keel shot rapidly through the waves of the 
 Propontis, foaming before our prow. Every instant the 
 vessel seemed to advance with accelerated speed ; as if — 
 become animated — it felt the near approach to its place of 
 rest; and at last Constantinople rose, in all its grandeur, 
 before us. 
 
 With eyes riveted on the expanding splendours, I 
 watched, as they rose out of the bosom of the surrounding 
 waters, the pointed minarets, the sweUing cupolas, and the 
 innumerable habitations, either stretching along the jagged 
 shore, and reflecting their image in the mirror of the deep, 
 or creeping up the crested mountain, and tracing their 
 outline on the expanse of the sky. At first agglomerated 
 in a single confused mass, the lesser parts of this immense 
 whole seemed, as we advanced, by degrees to unfold, to 
 disengage themselves from each other, and to grow into 
 various groups, divided by wide chasms and deep inden- 
 tures, — until at last the clusters, thus far still distantly 
 connected, became transformed, as if by magic, into three 
 distinct cities,'' each individually of prodigious extent, and 
 
50 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 each separated from the other two by a wide arm of that 
 sea whose silver tide encompassed their base, and made its 
 vast circuit rest half on Europe, and half on Asia. En- 
 tranced by the magnificent spectacle, I felt as if all the fa- 
 culties of my soul were insufficient fully to embrace its 
 glories : I hardly retained power to breathe ; and almost 
 apprehended that in doing so I might dispel the gorgeous 
 vision, and find its whole vast fabric only a delusive dream! 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 It was with difficulty that I could collect my scattered 
 senses when the time came to step down into the nut-shell, 
 all azure and gold, which waited to convey the drogue- 
 man's suite to the Fanar, where, with the other principal 
 Greeks, Mavroyeni had his residence. Each stroke of the 
 oar, after we had pushed off from the ship, made our fight 
 caick' gfide by some new palace, more splendid than those 
 which preceded it; and every fresh edifice I beheld, grander 
 in its appearance than the former, was immediately set 
 down in my mind as my master's habitation. I began to 
 feel uneasy when I perceived that we had passed the hand- 
 somest district, and were advancing towards a less showy 
 quarter. My pangs increased as we were made to step 
 ashore on a mean-looking quay, and to turn into a narrow 
 dirty lane; and 1 attained the acme of my dismay, when, 
 arrived opposite a house of a dark and dingy hue, ap- 
 parently crumbling to pieces with age and neglect,^ I was 
 told that there lived the Lord Mavroyeni. At first I tried 
 to persuade myself that my companions were joking; but 
 loo soon assured they only spoke the truth, I entered with 
 a fainting heart. A new surprise awaited me within. That 
 
ANASTASIUS. 51 
 
 mean fir-wood case, of such forbidding exterior, contained 
 rooms furnished in all the splendour of eastern magni- 
 ficence. Persian carpets covered the floors, Genoa velvets 
 clothed the walls, and gilt trellis -work overcast the lofty 
 ceilings. Clouds of rich perfumes rose on all sides from 
 silver censers ,* and soon I found that this dismal outside 
 appearance was an homage paid by the cunning of the 
 Greek gentry to the fanaticism of the Turkish mob, im- 
 patient of whatever may in Christians savour of luxury and 
 ostentation. The persons of the Fanariote grandees were 
 of a piece with their habitations. AVithin doors, sinking 
 under the weight of rich furs, costly shawls, jewels, and 
 trinkets, they went forth into the streets wrapped in coarse, 
 and dingy, and often threadbare clothing. 
 
 My arrival in the capital was almost immediately fol- 
 lowed by an advancement from my private situation to a 
 more public office. Whether the drogueman of the capi- 
 tan-pasha thought it unbecoming a sprig of his own body 
 — a drogueman's son — to appear in the capacity of a do- 
 mestic, or whether he conceived that a taooshan like him- 
 self, unconnected with his rivals in office, and entirely 
 dependent on his nod, was in point of trust-worthiness 
 the next thing to a mameluke;^ or whether, finally, he 
 considered my acquirements and my capabilities as above 
 being confined within the compass of a coffee-tray or the 
 extent of a Persian pipe, he had scarce had time to look 
 about him ere he conferred upon me the employment — or 
 rather the dignity — of relieving him in some of the lesser 
 details of his business. These chiefly consisted in attend- 
 ing every day at the arsenal, there to introduce to the 
 high-admiral the persons and to interpret the petitions of 
 Greeks and of foreigners; for, in the style of the Turkish 
 diplomacy, a Christian ambassador demanding an audience 
 was introduced as a supplicant preferring a suit. 
 
 While, to perform the duties of his office, Mavroyeni 
 himself held his usual station in the capitan-pasha's own 
 
 4 ^ 
 
 v3NWtRS\rr OF \^^ 
 
52 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 apartment, I was installed in a small adjoining room, where 
 I had to hear, to understand if I could, or, whether I un- 
 derstood or not, to set" down and to condense into the 
 shortest possible written abstract, the long stories of peti- 
 tioners, and the endless dialogues of disputants ; a duty 
 which I always performed the better in proportion as I un- 
 derstood the business brought before me the less. It was 
 here I learnt that art of generalising my ideas, so esteemed, 
 as I am told, among Frank'^ philosophers. 
 
 Undoubtedly, had the choice been laid before me, 1 
 should have preferred the truncheon to the pen. But the 
 droo-ueman had not the former in his gift; and the tedium 
 of the latter was materially relieved by certain circum- 
 stances attached to its exercise. For it soon became no- 
 torious that nothing assisted me so much in giving weight 
 to a case as a few sequins slipped from sheer absence of 
 mind between the pages of the report ; and in this respect, 
 the difference between my master and myself only con- 
 sisted in his receiving purses^ where I received single 
 pieces. 
 
 Still, to one who loved money only as the means of 
 pleasure, my confinement could not but be irksome; and 
 the moment Mavroyeni disappeared, I too used to break up 
 my levees, and to saunter about. Whenever my master 
 was employed by the pasha in some long-winded expedi- 
 tion, I proceeded either to spend the money already earned 
 in the Tchartchees and Bezesteens,^ or to procure new 
 customers for my own shop, by boasting in the coffee- 
 houses and taverns of my influence in higher quarters. 
 Was Mavroyeni, on the contrary, only expected to make 
 a short absence, I contented myself with taking a turn 
 round the precincts of the arsenal. 
 
 In one of these rambles I remember being shown two 
 highly esteemed productions of the pictorial art, presented 
 by the drogueman to the pasha. They were representa- 
 tions of two of Hassan's most memorable achievements; 
 
ANASTASIUS. 53 
 
 the surprisal of the Russians at Lemnos, and the bombard- 
 ment of Daher at Acre. In these chef-d'ceuvres all was 
 depicted with the utmost faithfulness — the vessels, the bat- 
 teries, the guns, the very balls whizzing through the air, 
 and the shells falling on the buildings. One feature alone 
 was omitted in compliment to Turkish prejudices; a mere 
 trifle, no doubt, in the eyes of the painter — the com- 
 batants themselves ! — but this very circumstance — as I told 
 the Turkish officer my cicerone — so far from lessening its 
 value, was, in my opinion, the most judicious thing I had 
 ever beheld. The great point in works of art, my lan- 
 guage-master at Chios had assured me, was only to bring 
 forward the leading objects, the essential supporters of the 
 action; and to discard all insignificant and superfluous ac- 
 cessories. Now, what was it that in engagements by land 
 or by water did all the execution ? The men? — By no 
 means ! They only stood aloof. It was the shells, the 
 bullets, the grapeshot. These therefore fdled the whole 
 fore-ground more properly. 
 
 So much did the acuteness of this remark delight the 
 officer, that in his rapture he clapped his broad whiskers 
 on my face, and swore I was the only sensible Greek he 
 ever had met with. It was evident that he knew not a 
 countryman of mine, whom I found one morning in exces- 
 sive wrath with a Perote artist — a Frank — for having painted 
 him a Madonna with such force of light and shade as ab- 
 solutely to stand out from the canvas. He swore it was 
 a scandalous production — almost as bad as an image ! and 
 the poor artist could not even obtain praise for his talent, 
 much less payment for his labour. 
 
 I had been several weeks at Constantinople without yet 
 seeing my patron's lady. Not that, like Turkish wives, 
 she was kept secluded in a harem,' but, on the contrary, 
 because, in order to enjoy greater freedom, she preferred 
 spending her autumn at a villa on the Bosphorus. One 
 afternoon Mavroyeni took me to Therapiah ^ in his caick* 
 
54 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 and I was there presented to the doinlna. She happened 
 to be sunning her plump charms on the quay. Nothing 
 could exceed the statehness of her appearance; and bad 
 she not been somewhat broader than she was long, her car- 
 riage would have been very dignified. Half a dozen sur- 
 rounding attendants had no other employment but to sup- 
 port her august person, much too important to support 
 itself on ordinary occasions. One walked on before with 
 a peacock-tail fan, to keep the flies from her glossy face;- 
 and another behind, to shake the dust off her still more 
 lustrous gown. 
 
 An untoward accident was fated to happen, just as every 
 thing seemed disposed to strike a new comer with all pos- 
 sible awe and admiration. At the furthest outlet of the 
 channel, in the very middle of its silvery expanse, and on 
 the verge of the horizon, was descried a dark speck that 
 looked endowed with motion. Rapidly the opaque body 
 advanced, skimming the fleecy surface of the waters; and 
 as it approached it increased in size and consequence. Its 
 wide extending fins dipped into the waves like the pinions 
 of the swallow, while its sharp and prominent beak cut its 
 way through the billows like the shark or the sword-fish. 
 All eyes were riveted upon the threatening monster, and 
 presently no one but myself any longer remained in igno- 
 rance of its nature. It stood confessed — horror! — not 
 exactly a dragon come to devour our princess on the sea- 
 shore, like another Andromeda, in order to give me an 
 opportunity of signaHsing my gallantry as her Perseus; but 
 something full as savage, and much more inglorious : the 
 bostandjee-bashee9 in his police-boat, coming to nibble at 
 the trains of the Greek princesses, which exceeded the 
 standard of the Turkish sumptuary laws. At this terrific 
 sight, the arms of the six suivantes all dropped with one 
 accord by their sides, and with them dropped to the ground 
 their mistress's train. The snow-white ermine swept the 
 dust of the road; while its wearer— who just before had 
 
ANASTASIUS. 55 
 
 appeared scarce able to move without assistance — suddenly 
 recovered the entire use of her short legs, and waddled 
 away by herself as nimbly as any duck pursued by a kite, 
 until the friendly screen of a wall enabled her to stop, to 
 face about, and to take breath after the immense exertion. 
 
 As soon as the terrified party had safely reached the 
 house, the fault of the precipitate retreat was laid on an 
 impending shower. I had the imprudence — fool that I 
 was — to run and search for a cloud. The only one I could 
 find was that gathering on the lady's own brow; and my 
 officiousness got me a look in that quarter, which boded 
 more storms than ever lashed the Bosphorus in March. 
 
 What could the company do, in the uncertain state of 
 the sky, but collect round the tandoor?'" — that safe refuge 
 against the winter's rigours, that eastern nondescript, 
 which in the angle of the mitred sofa holds a middle cha- 
 racter between the table and the bed, and underneath 
 whose gaudy coverlet all the legs of th6 snug party coverge 
 round a pot of lighted charcoal, there to stew for the 
 evening. Like the rest, I crept under the bed-clothes. 
 
 This was my first admission to a gossiping party of 
 quality; and I must in justice to its members confess that 
 it yielded not to those of inferior rank. In the course of 
 an hour or two I heard a very reasonable quantity of scan- 
 dal. There was no recent occurrence in church or state, 
 army or navy, boards or bed-chambers, the bab-huma- 
 yoon," or the back stairs, but was properly collected, com- 
 bined, compared, dissected, analysed, and circulated. I 
 now for the first time learnt, to my infinite satisfaction, 
 both the precise offence of the last vizier beheaded, and 
 the precise length of the last feridjee ^"^ curtailed. I was 
 informed in the same breath, how the great Morosi ma- 
 naged his principality, and how the little Manolacki con- 
 ducted his courtship; how the patriarch had quarrelled 
 with the archons,'^ and how the spatar"* had beaten his 
 wife ; how the mortgages of the church were redeeming. 
 
56 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 and how the slipper-money'^ of the suUanas was engaged; 
 and I so confidently heard it asserted by a gentleman on 
 my right, that the conference between a certain embas- 
 sador and the reis-effendee'^ would produce a new war; 
 and by a lady on my left, that the meeting between a cer- 
 tain archimandrite and his ghostly daughter would produce 
 a new christening, that I no longer doubted that the fumes 
 of the brazier over which we sat must have all the oracular 
 virtues which issued from the cave of Delphi. On going 
 to bed I expected from them very surprising effects, but to 
 my disappointment I experienced none other than a dream, 
 in which I beheld the sultan pounding the grand mufti in 
 a mortar,'7 and the pope of Rome standing by, crying 
 bravo !— ** bravo," echoed I with all my might,— when my 
 own voice waking me just in good time, I got up to return 
 with my master to the capital. 
 
 "Well, Anastasius," said the drogueman to me, as we 
 were cleaving the waves of the Bosphorus, **how do you 
 like our Constantinople life?" 
 
 ** Very much;" was the answer evidently expected, but 
 which I did not give, — feeling little edified with my visit 
 to Therapiah, where I had had my share of the second- 
 hand insolence which the Fanariotes take very quietly 
 from the Turks, only to put it off less quietly among the 
 taooshans. " Not at all," was therefore the short reply I 
 made. 
 
 The drogueman stared. I felt I had been too laconic. 
 ** Were the rest of the Greeks I see here," added I, *' at all 
 like your highness, the place would indeed be a paradise ; 
 but this capital seems to change the nature of whatever 
 it harbours; and my countrymen, so gay, so light-hearted 
 at Chios, seem at the Fanar at once dull and important. 
 Besides, the difference made between Christians and Mo- 
 hammedans here is too great, too mortifying. The few 
 Moslemen of Chios mingle with its rayahs on a footing of 
 equality. They almost reckon it a favour to be admitted 
 
ANASTASIUS. 57 
 
 lo their junketings. But here, the very noblest of the 
 Greeks — your highness alone excepted — are daily exposed 
 to the insults of the meanest Turk. Were it not for my 
 principles, I would rather be a Turkish porter than a 
 Greek prince." 
 
 Mavroyeni looked thoughtful. After a little pause, 
 ** You mistake, Anastasius," replied he, **in thinking the 
 Greek of Constantinople different from the Greek of Chios. 
 Our nation is every where the same. The same at Peters- 
 burg as at Cairo; the same now that it was twenty cen- 
 turies ago." 
 
 I stared in my turn. 
 
 *' What I say," continued my master, ** is perfectly true. 
 The complexion of the modern Greek may receive a dif- 
 ferent cast from different surrounding objects : the core still 
 is the same as in the days of Pericles. Credulity, versa- 
 tility, and thirst of distinctions from the earliest periods, 
 formed, still form, and ever will continue to form, the basis 
 of the Greek character; and the dissimilarity in the external 
 appearance of the nation arises, not from any radical 
 change in its temper and disposition, but only from the 
 incidental variation in the means through which the same 
 propensities are to be gratified. The ancient Greeks 
 worshipped an hundred gods, the modern Greeks adore 
 as many saints. The ancient Greeks believed in oracles and 
 prodigies, in incantations and spells; the modern Greeks 
 have faith in relics and miracles, in amulets and divinations. 
 The ancient Greeks brought rich offerings and gifts to the 
 shrines of their deities, for the purpose of obtaining suc- 
 cess in war and pre-eminence in peace; the modern Greeks 
 hang up dirty rags round the sanctuaries of their saints, 
 to shake off an ague or to propitiate a mistress. The for- 
 mer were stanch patriots at home, and subtle courtiers in 
 Persia; the latter defy the Turks in Mayno, and fawn upon 
 them at the Fanar. Besides, was not every commonwealth 
 of ancient Greece as much a prey to cabals and factions 
 
58 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 as every communily of modern Greece? Does not every 
 modern Greek preserve the same desire for supremacy > 
 the same readiness to undermine by every means ^ 
 fair or foul, his competitors, which vviis displayed by his 
 ancestors ? Do not the Turks of the present day resemble 
 the Romans of past ages in their respect for the ingenuity, 
 and, at the same time, in their contempt for the character 
 of their Greek subjects ? And does the Greek of the Fanar 
 show the least inferiority to the Greek of the Piraeus in 
 quickness of perception, in fluency of tongue, and in fond- 
 ness for quibbles, for disputation, and for sophistry? — Be- 
 lieve me, the very difference between the Greeks of time 
 past and of the present day arises only from their thorough 
 resemblance; from that equal pliability of temper and 
 of faculties in both, which has ever made them receive with 
 equal readiness the impression of every mould and the 
 impulse of every agent. When patriotism, public spirit, 
 and pre-eminence in arts, science, literature, and warfare, 
 were the road to distinction, the Greeks shone the first of 
 patriots, of heroes, of painters, of poets, and of philo- 
 sophers. Now that craft and subtlety, adulation and in- 
 trigue, are the only paths to greatness, these same Greeks 
 are — what you see them !" 
 
 To me it mattered little whether the modern Greeks 
 resembled the ancient or not, as long as I was not reckoned 
 on a footing with my neighbours the Fanariotes. I there- 
 fore paid Mavroyeni a compliment on his oratory, and let 
 the subject drop; still muttering to myself, ** Stambool was 
 a detestable place !" 
 
 It remained not always so. The Fanariotes — whose de- 
 fect is not want of quicksighledness — soon perceived that 
 I was a great favourite with the favourite of the fa- 
 vourite par excellence : and as no ramifications of this 
 genus, however minute, were to be neglected, I began to 
 enjoy my due share of adulation and of consequence. 
 Those who before were deaf when I spoke to them, now 
 
ANASTASIUS. 59 
 
 addressed me the first, and the identical joke which for 
 merly left the muscles of every face unmoved, now had 
 the power to set a whole table in a roar. With my si- 
 tuation my manners underwent a total change. The rude 
 exterior of the islander had been exchanged among the 
 caleondjees'^ of the capitan-pasha for a swaggering brag- 
 gadocio air. The martial strut was now laid aside for the 
 smooth simpering smile of the courtier. Instead of splut- 
 tering out my unpolished sentences by half dozens in a 
 breath, as if I had more words crammed in my throat than 
 could issue one by one from my mouth, I now practised 
 with a nonchalant air to drop only now and then a sig- 
 nificant monosyllable, so profound in its meaning that no- 
 body could get at it; — and as to the mother tongue, the 
 Romaic'9 idiom, It was no longer to be used except in- 
 terlarded with such scraps of French, Italian, and Turkish, 
 as to render it almost unintelligible to the vulgar auditor. 
 Athwart my borrowed languor and effeminacy, however, 
 the native vigour and raciness of the soil would break forth 
 occasionally with such energetic bursts as both astonished 
 and delighted the Fanariote fair. To them my rough-cast 
 homage presented an acceptable contrast to the mawkish 
 tenderness of their every-day admirers. My freedom passed 
 for naivete, my neglect of forms evinced a flattering de- 
 voledness, and my rustic exterior promised affections 
 more robust and lasting than could be expected from 
 the sickly natives of a large capital. Flattered by the men 
 and smiled upon by the women, I now said to myself — 
 ** Stambool is a charming place !" 
 
 So greatly indeed did I become the fashion, that had 
 my fastidiousness been less, I might have adapted my court- 
 ships, as our great men suit their pelisses, to the different 
 seasons of the year : for while autumn still continued to 
 pour forth her golden treasures, a grocer's fair spouse 
 — herself the image of ripeness and of plenty — offered to 
 feed my good- will with figs and raisins, to pay in comfits 
 
60 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 for the sweets of my converse, and to support the ardour 
 of my affections Avith rosoglio and spice : when winter be- 
 gan to chill the blood, the sleek helpmate of a furrier would 
 fain have dispelled my freezing coldness, even at the ex- 
 pense of all her husband's rarest ermines; and when re- 
 turning spring enamelled every field with fresh flowers, I 
 beheld at my feet a whole bevy of beauties, fresh as the 
 violet and the daisy, and, to own the truth, not much 
 more exalted in the scale of human flowerets : — but comfits 
 were only lures for boys; ermine had no charms except as 
 the garb of royalty; and beauty itself lost its attractions in 
 my eyes when destitute of rank and fashion. 
 
 The first lady possessed of these latter attributes whom 
 I found disposed to cast an eye of compassion on my suf- 
 ferings, was of the devout order, and the very domina who 
 had excited the oracular ingenuity of one of the party on 
 my first visit to Therapiah. The worthy archimandrite, 
 to whom were intrusted her spiritual concerns, had, on 
 the application of her husband, been exiled by the patriarch 
 to the holy mountain,-" in order to pursue his spiritual me- 
 ditations with less interruption. The lady, now finding 
 that even the long beard of a priest was unable to screen 
 her reputation, resolved to try whether the beardless face 
 of a boy would protect it. 
 
 A first success obtained in a distinguished quarter from 
 real preference leads to others granted by vanity. But 
 with my fashion increased my fastidiousness. All could 
 not catch that laid snares for me; nor could all keep that 
 caught me. My favour was precarious, and — a little tyrant 
 in love — I treated the tender passion quite in the Turkish 
 style. 
 
 StiU I continued undistinguished, nay, unheeded, by the 
 proud Theophania. Not even by accident could the looks 
 of this lofty lady descend to my level. She appeared un- 
 conscious that a being so insignificant as myself existed, 
 filled its portion of space, and breathed the same air with 
 
 I 
 
ANASTASIUS. 61 
 
 her noble lungs. If she wished to move from one part of 
 the room so another, and I happened to stand in her way, 
 her hand would mechanically push me aside, without the 
 participation of her mind, like a chair or a table; while 
 her averted eye was directed to some more distant point of 
 space. In vain might I lay myself out for her approbation, 
 — I could not even obtain her satire. The very ridicule of 
 Theophania would have been too much notice for one so 
 low as me. It was positive condescension in her, one day 
 when in an humbler quarter I showed myself insatiate of 
 adulation, to turn round to me, and with some impatience 
 to say, " it is the privilege of the great, sir, to receive 
 praise: the insignificant should be at the trouble of praising 
 themselves !" — So violent indeed was her temper, and so 
 sarcastic her conversation with individuals of every rank 
 and degree, that even the most distinguished among the 
 Fanariotes only approached her with fear and trembling, 
 and, as soon as the indispensable rites of politeness had 
 been performed, hastened away, ere, like the drones in 
 a hive, they felt the sting of this intractable queen bee. 
 The shafts of Cupid she had usually turned aside by her 
 petulance ; but the few times they happened to draw 
 blood she had loved as others hate. 
 
 Undismayed by these difficulties, I swore she should be 
 at the feet of the taooshan whom she vouchsafed not to 
 suffer at her own, and thenceforward bent the whole force 
 of my genius toward attracting her attention, and exciting 
 her interest. When therefore she, who at first had feared 
 to disgrace her pretty pouting lips with the mere sound 
 of my name, began to abuse my person and my character 
 with most loquacious virulence, I considered my triumph 
 as secure. "Theophania," cried I — though not yet loud 
 enough to be heard by herself — ** you only pursue me with 
 contemptuous looks, to feast your eye on my person; and 
 you only load me with opprobrious epithets, to fix your 
 mind on my image !" 
 
62 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 If at last — which love and discretion forbid ray ever 
 boastin2j ! — the prize rewarded my pains, yet troublesome 
 was its tenure. The Euxine passes not more quickly from 
 tranquillity to storms, than from serenity to passion changed 
 my tempestuous and variable mistress. One moment, in- 
 fatuated to perfect forgetfulness of her pride and station, 
 she would clasp my knees in ecstasy, and, humbling her- 
 self unto my very feet, glory in her debasement; the next, 
 choking with rage, she would suddenly start up again, rail 
 at her degradation, wonder what she saw in me to admire, 
 and charge me, on my life, to disclose by what spell I had 
 compelled her affections; but again, after having heaped 
 upon me every direst execration which her fertile fancy 
 could suggest, her passion would take another turn, and, 
 bursting into a flood of tears, she would conjure me by 
 all that was most sacred, if I could not return her love, 
 at least to pity her agony, and assist in breaking the charm 
 I had wrought, by rendering myself purposedly as hateful 
 as possible. 
 
 What more could I do than I did? The only thing she 
 ever saw me coax were my own little budding mustachios, 
 whose education and growth I watched over with the ten- 
 derness of an anxious parent : the only thing she ever heard 
 me praise were the qualities to which she had the least pre- 
 tension; self-command, endurance, meekness. The pre- 
 ferences I felt in other quarters I freely owned; and the 
 consolations I found when she banished me her presence 
 I regularly enumerated. In my vulgar exultation (for 
 vulgar it was), I treated with the familiarity of a clown one 
 who had been used to the deference of a queen ; and to all 
 such as had formerly suffered from Theophania's insolence 
 I boasted of being their avenger. Yet, in spite of my 
 conduct, her love lessened not; it only became more con- 
 spicuous ; it afforded a sneering public a richer treat ; and 
 at mass every eye in the church seemed constantly vibrating 
 between the grated gallery above, where Theophania sat 
 
ANASTASIUS. 63 
 
 with the other women, and the part of the nave below 
 where, by her express desire, I took my station, in order 
 that she might see me during her devout prayers. 
 
 Let man make his confidential friend of no woman, except 
 such an one as he cannot possibly make his mistress; — 
 namely, his mother, his sister, or his aunt. If she happen 
 not to stand with him in any of these forbidden degrees, be 
 she ever so old, or ugly, or infirm, she will end by feeling 
 disappointed; and will accuse her unsuspecting friend of 
 both too much and too little reserve. 
 
 A quiet demure looking woman — one of those persons 
 with whom one feels as much at ease the first lime of seeing 
 them as with an old acquaintance — ^once or twice so good- 
 naturedly cautioned me against the consequences, when 
 on the point of imprudently courting public censure, that 
 I determined professedly to open to her my whole heart and 
 circumstances. Why not ? ** She herself had renounced all 
 love engagements. They gave more trouble than they were 
 worth; and she infinitely preferred to the feverish en- 
 joyments of passion the calm pleasures of friendship — that 
 is, of stable male friendship, which one could depend 
 upon. A tenderer intercourse she only contemplated in 
 others, at a distance, by way of amusement, and in order 
 to study human nature in its different varieties and shades. 
 As to female friendship, she held it in the contempt it 
 deserved." The looks of this good lady had informed me 
 that she perfectly knew all my doings. Giving her my 
 confidence, therefore, was only binding her to discretion; 
 and at first I saw every reason to congratulate myself upon 
 this determination. The tone of my new friend with me 
 was that of a mother with her son ; overflowing only with 
 parental tenderness. Her whole mind seemed only bent 
 upon keeping an unexperienced youth out of difficulties. 
 But I soon found that from her appeals to my prudence 
 the company present was always excepted. Incensed at 
 this discovery, I spoke in anger, and was answered with 
 
f,4 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 asperity. We parted, no more to meet in friendship ; — bot 
 I continued not the less to live in the remembrance of this 
 excellent person. 
 
 Theophania's husband held one of the highest offices at 
 the court of Moldavia. He was wont to date his days of 
 repose from those of my attentions to his wife. He could 
 have raised a statue to my merits from sheer gratitude, 
 were statues ever raised in modern times from such an 
 antiquated motive. All he prayed for was the permission 
 to keep his eyes shut; — and this was precisely the only 
 favour which my little friend would not grant him. Qua- 
 lified for the task she undertook by my former confidence, 
 she kindly forced upon him such irrefragable proofs of his 
 wife's imprudence as permitted him no longer to be blind 
 to her conduct. 
 
 I was so accustomed always to be the last in my appoint- 
 ments with Theophania, that one day, in the verdant valley 
 of Kiad-han6," the favourite haunt of the Cupids of Con- 
 stantinople, I felt rather nettled at finding myself, though 
 much after my time, the first at the place of rendezvous. 
 Still I waited and waited on; until impatience began to fan 
 my languid flame, and Theophania's star began to mount. 
 Alas ! while I was trying to cool my ardour by contem- 
 plating the gurgling brook, in which the weeping willow 
 was lightly dipping its delicate spray, as if striving to steal 
 a last parting caress from the stream that fled its embrace, 
 little did I imagine that the proud Theophania was jogging 
 along in a rumbling kotshi — -screaming until she was able 
 to scream no longer — to the borders of the Black Sea ; 
 thence to be conveyed in an open boat — much too sick 
 with the motion even to scold — to the port of Galatsch, 
 where a stout mule waited to carry her, bumping in a wicker 
 basket, to the presence of her loving husband ! He gave 
 her a tender embrace, assured her she had a decided vo- 
 cation for the monastic life, and accordingly whisked her 
 off" the next morning to the most secluded convent in the 
 
ANASTASIUS. G5 
 
 province of Valachia; where, I understand, she has con- 
 tinued ever since, fasting, praying, and scohhng, Ly turns. 
 As soon as I heard of her adventure, I failed not to thank 
 my little friend for the great service she had unintentionally 
 rendered me. 
 
 My own day of retribution from the hands of my master 
 was approaching. Neither my affair with Theophania, nor 
 even, I believe, my daily neglect of my official duties, was 
 the cause of ray disgraoe. It was the cloud, the fatal cloud, 
 which I could not see when the bostandjee-bashee passed 
 by Therapiah, but which nothing could dispel from ma- 
 dames angered mind except my dismission. Her husband 
 would have preferred to have kept me; but, among the 
 tongues he commanded, that of his loving helpmate had 
 never been numbered. He neither could slop it, nor yet 
 had acquired the facility of listening to its explosions as to 
 the softer murmur of a mill. He therefore might rule in 
 great affairs abroad, hut always ended by obeying in little 
 matters at home : content to save his credit, by pretending 
 to do from choice what he did from necessity. 
 
 One evening, after playing truant the whole day, I went 
 up to submit to the accustomed lecture. Instead of blus- 
 tering as usual, Mavroyeni asked, in the most placid tone 
 imaginable, the cause of my long absence. I now gave 
 myself up for lost beyond redemption. It was precisely 
 the tone which the drogueman was wont to assume, when, 
 fully resolved to have no further dealings with the person 
 who had offended him, he deemed reproach an useless 
 waste of breath. Still I made out a little story, to which 
 Mavroyeni listened very patiently, — after which, without 
 further reply, pointing to the door, he desired me to walk 
 out and never to walk in again. 
 
 I knew him too well to have the least hope of his re- 
 calling a sentence uttered in this manner. My only re- 
 maining sohcitude, therefore, was to make a dignified re- 
 treat. After a profound bow— of defiance rather than of 
 
60 ANASTASrUS. 
 
 respect — I strulted away, carrying my head so high, that 
 I knocked it against the soffit of the door. 
 
 But in spite of my seeming indifference, I felt injured, 
 if not degraded; for in surveying my conduct, I only took 
 into account the last drop that rose above the brim; the 
 rest was hid within ihe vessel. 
 
 I need not observe that what to me appeared the height 
 of injustice was deemed by the remainder of the family 
 only a tardy act of bare equity. Such as it was, however, 
 it caused great jubilation, and in the twinkling of an eye 
 the whole Fanar was informed of the secretary's disgrace : 
 — only it was ascribed to my having, with a pistol in one 
 hand and a sword in the other, made such proposals to ma- 
 dame la droguemane as she could not possibly Hsten to 
 from her husband's clerk. 
 
 Eaves-dropping never was among my fancies. Nor was 
 I fond enough of puzzles to put together broken sentences, 
 which in general may be made to bear any signification ; 
 but one's own name is a great stumbling-block in the way 
 of one's discretion : and when, crossing a dark passage as I 
 went out of the house, I heard mine pronounced with great 
 vehemence, the sound acted like a talisman. It riveted mo 
 to the spot. I stopped to hear my panegyric. All I could 
 collect, however, was only, that most abundantly hated 
 while, in the fresh zeal of my service, I chose to perform 
 more than was set down for me, and to do better than 
 others, I had since retrieved my character in the family by 
 mending my ways and neglecting my business. On that 
 account I now carried away a certain portion of good will. 
 The party present regretted my fall ; but the chief orator 
 consoled himself by thinking me such a daring and dex- 
 terous fellow, that, happen what might, I was always sure 
 to come down upon my legs. 
 
 '' Amen !" cried I, walking out ; ** I accept the welcome 
 omen !" 
 
ANASTASIUS. 07 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 As the night was ah^eady far advanced, I went, till the 
 next morning, to one of those temples of hospitality ever 
 opened to the stranger who sues for admission with a silver 
 tongue. It was sheer churlishness in me, no doubt, to 
 defer for so many hours affording my numerous friends the 
 often wished-for opportunity of testifying the sincerity of 
 their regard. As soon, however, as the sun had risen high 
 enough to shine upon its testimonials, I determined no 
 longer to delay their happiness. I even resolved, in order 
 that no one should complain of being omitted, to begin my 
 visits methodically at one end of the Fanar, and not to 
 leave off till I had reached the other. In the course of this 
 experimental round, I found the warmth of my well-wishers 
 precisely in an inverse ratio to their means. The higher 
 classes made it a matter of conscience not to receive a ser- 
 vant discarded by his master. Those of a lower degree 
 expressed their willingness to continue my friends as long 
 as I had a piastre left; only reserving to themselves the 
 privilege of dropping me the moment their poor assistance 
 became of real consequence. Nothing however stopped 
 me in my circuit until I had knocked at the last door in 
 the district; — for I still bore in mind the last word I 
 had heard under my master's roof, and wished to preserve 
 an authentic record of my obligations to each of my friends. 
 When no one remained to apply to, I cast up the sum total, 
 and finding it a cipher, wished them all at the devil, and 
 crossed over to Galata.' 
 
 I here got for my money a new set of cronies : — jolly 
 souls, who, not possessing a para*^ of their own in the 
 world, never inquired what others were worth, but lived 
 
68 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 from hand lo mouth, banished care, and set melancholy 
 at defiance. They initiated me into a lower and more 
 riotons species of intemperance than the decorum of my 
 former situation had permitted. Every day we met in 
 some of the taverns of the neighbourhood, where my new 
 friends contributed their share of the entertainment in sal- 
 lies at the expense of my old ones — and I, in ready cash. 
 It was quite consoling to hear how they pitied the drogue- 
 man for losing such a treasure as myself; how they laughed 
 at my wit even before I spoke, and how they drank every 
 instant to my health and the success of my schemes. No day 
 passed without a party of pleasure being proposed, for the 
 sole purpose of keeping up my spirits : and, lest I should not 
 be aware how entirely they all joined in it for my sake, 
 no one ever ventured to inquire the cost. Indeed, so far 
 from presuming to offend my delicacy by requesting to 
 share in the expense, they thought it a proper compliment 
 to my liberality to borrow from me whatever money they 
 wanted. Not for the world would they give another the 
 preference ! 
 
 As soon as my finances were exhausted, my companions 
 of course disappeared; not, however— to do them justice — 
 from choice, but from sheer necessity, and because, having 
 been entirely supported by me, they now had to shift for 
 themselves. When my embarrassment became known, 
 one person only came forward to relieve me, and that a 
 female too, and one who had not much reason to be pleased 
 with my proceedings— the little grocer's wife, whose figs 
 and raisins I had disdained. Hearing an exaggerated ac- 
 count of my distress, and thinking me absolutely starving, 
 she trundled away with all her pristine affection still next 
 her heart, ^and a large pot of marmalade under each arm. 
 These, and all else her shop contained, she pressed me to 
 dispose of. Too proud to owe to charity what I could not 
 earn by love, I pointed to my dress, which had cost a great 
 deal, and was still, in its ruins, worth a few sequins, and 
 
ANASTASIUS. f,9 
 
 begged she would not urge me. '*I will not receive," 
 cried I, "where I can make no return; but when you 
 thought I wanted bread, you brought mc conserve of 
 roses; and if any fresh ones ever strew my path, the deed 
 shall be found recorded in the very kernel of my heart !" 
 
 Without leaving the poor little woman time to answer 
 so flowery a speech, I ran off lo the only one of my dis- 
 persed associates whom I knew wher-e to find. I wanted 
 his advice, and felt sure that he would not refuse what 
 even those who will give nothing else often bestow with 
 such readiness. 
 
 An ascent of about fifty steps brought me to his exalted 
 abode. Its tenant might truly be said to look down upon 
 the world. To him it was a journey to descend to the level 
 of his fellow- citizens; and he therefore conformed but 
 little to their hours. Just at mid-day Signer Vasili was 
 awaking from his night's repose. On entering his aerial 
 apartment, I still found him sprawling on his couch, — 
 stretching one arm, putting one leg to the ground, rubbing 
 his eyes, and giving such a yawn that I thought he would 
 have swallowed at least half Constantinople, spread out like 
 a map before him. At my unlooked-for visit he stared, 
 shook himself as if to be certain he was not dreaming, 
 and disposed his ears in silence to listen to my story. 
 
 ** I came," I said, **to ask how people lived, who 
 had not any ostensible means of subsistence ?" This feat 
 Vasili had performed so long, that it never struck him it 
 could puzzle any body. He therefore still continued some 
 lime staring at me in utter silence as before, in order to 
 collect his thoughts. At last, jumping up in such a fury as 
 almost to startle me, he seized hold of my arm, and led me 
 to the window. The prospect from it extended over the 
 immense city of Stambool unto its utmost boundaries, and 
 showed the inside like a prodigious ant's nest, where, far 
 below the eye, myriads of little insects were bestirring 
 themselves, crossing and jostHng each other in every pos- 
 
70 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 sible direction. I praised the view, said it was undoubtedly 
 delightful to the eye, but still I could not see how it was 
 to feed an empty stomach. ** It may teach how to fdl it 
 with something else though," cried my friend Vasili, — now 
 for the first time breaking his portentous silence. ** Of the 
 thousands you behold in those streets, on those quays, in 
 those boats, on the land, and on the walcr, scarce one 
 half knew this morning how to get a meal at noon and 
 a place of rest at night; yet I will engage that every block- 
 head of ihem by this time has broken his fast, and will find 
 a hole to sleep in ! Why therefore should you fail, but 
 from possessing too superior abilities? Only scare not away 
 your invention by your fears, and — depend upon it— some 
 means of livelihood will present themselves ! However, 
 what leisure I can give to help such measures forward I 
 shall willingly bestow." 
 
 So saying, Vasili thrust his hand in his pocket, and hauled 
 forth a heap of the smallest coin of the realm. This treasure 
 he poured on the sofa, and divided into three equal parts. 
 Then laying his finger on each in succession, *' The first," 
 said he, " we shall drink together this morning, in order to 
 whet our invention; the next I reserve for my own wants 
 to-morrow; the third is yours, until you find it particu 
 larly convenient to repay me. Your brain will by that 
 means have an entire holiday before you need call upon 
 your wits for your livelihood ; and when you are thus upon 
 a par with myself, the deuce is in it if you cannot do as 
 well !" 
 
 I thanked my generous friend ; but just as we sallied 
 forth to fulfil the first article of this partition treaty, he 
 cast his eye upon my attire. It was no longer the flowing 
 robe of the Fanar^ — the anteree of state ; I had exchanged 
 that for the more dashing short dress of my last intimates. 
 A rich embroidery covered the seams, and a costly velvet 
 formed the ground-work. " I am thinking," said Vasili, 
 *nhal your present wardrobe ill suits your purpose. Who. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 71 
 
 can fancy a purse stiff with gold outside, to be empty with- 
 in? Supposing, therefore, that on this occasion we give 
 business precedence over pleasure, and, reversing the 
 dreams of the alchymists, change gold into baser sub- 
 stances. We may afterwards adjourn to a tavern, to 
 drink success to your metamorphosis. Tlie showiest cater 
 pillar, you know, must become a chrysilis ere it can soar 
 a butterfly." 
 
 I could have dispensed with the chrysalis state : for. 
 though poor, I still liked to look well; but I yielded to my 
 friend's arguments, and hied with him to Sullan-Bayezid^ 
 to change the outward man. While we were looking for 
 something suitable to our purpose, in stepped a worthy 
 Israelite, who came, like ourselves, not to sell, but to buy. 
 A still decent beneesh — but of a dusky hue — hidden under 
 a heap of gaudier dresses, seemed to catch his fancy; 
 which the salesman no sooner perceived, than all the 
 powers of his oratory were summoned to extol the article 
 in question. He had better have been modest about its 
 merils. The jew — both by nature and by cultivation an 
 adept in the business— now put upon his mettle, at once 
 began to pour forth such a torrent of profound observa- 
 tions on the art of old clothes dealing, that the seller was. 
 glad at last to give him the cloak for nothing, ere he let 
 all the bystanders into every deepest mystery of the 
 trade. 
 
 In truth, it was diamond cutting diamond. The Hebrew 
 had himself professed, in the elegant quarter of Hash-keui,^ 
 the noble trade of old clothesman, till bankruptcy forced 
 him to quit his district and his business. Having early in 
 life served an Esculapius of his own nation, with whom he 
 learnt a few terms of medicine, he now resolved to turn 
 physician himself. The thing was easy enough at Con- 
 stantinople, where a man need only stalk about in a furred 
 cap^ and a dark-coloured gown, followed by an attendant 
 with a small square chest, to have all the men hold out 
 
72 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 their wrists and all the women put out iheir tongues lo 
 him — in consuUation. 
 
 The cap had already been provided. The beneesh was 
 immediately put on, and the very attendant chosen in 
 petto. For to the hawk's eye of my Israelite my anxious 
 look at once bespoke me the very thing he wanted. Calling 
 me aside, he made the proposal without much ceremony. 
 I was ostensibly to be his servant, but in reality his partner. 
 Even that clause, however, could not sweeten the nauseous 
 draught. I felt so indignant at being proposed too for an 
 apothecary's apprentice, that, without making any answer, 
 I went and imparted the impertinent offer to my friend 
 Vasili. But in that quarter I found little sympathy. 
 **See," said he, laughing, **how fortune throws herself 
 in your way. I wish you joy of your good luck." This 
 speech I was willing lo take as a joke, but I found it to be 
 serious; and more incensed than before, *' Sooner," I 
 cried, **if all other trades fail, would I, in one of those 
 coarse and dingy lahse^ jackets there, work for my bread 
 in the fields ! The earth cannot degrade its children, and 
 no one requires a character to plough the ground." 
 ''True," replied Vasili: ''but one may require a con- 
 stitution, though; and who in their senses, pray, would 
 take such a spindleshanked fellow as you are just now, 
 with a face as pale as a turnip already, and an eye round 
 which 'rake' is written inmost legible black letters, to 
 dig his garden for him ? Ere you had half done, he would 
 expect to have your own grave to dig ! For my part, I 
 would try what requires neither stock, nor capital, nor 
 labour, nor even science, as I take it, nor any thing but 
 the impudence of which you possess a sufficient stock; 
 were it only for the fun, and to see what no one but a 
 physician ever sees; — for, more potent even than gold, 
 medicine will open to you the deepest recesses of the 
 harem; and who can tell bul, like our friend Lorenzo,^ 
 you may feel Sultanas' pulses." 
 
ANASTASIUS. 73 
 
 This was selling the masquerade in its most tempting 
 light. It tickled my fancy, and I struck the hargain with 
 the jew. He was to carry his own Galen, in the shape of 
 the best half of an old missal, stolen from a capuchin; I 
 undertook the medicine- chest, with all its pills of starch 
 and all its powders of pipe-clay. The only thing I insisted 
 upon as a sine qua non in the treaty, was not to appear in 
 my new character in any of the streets I had before fre- 
 quented; and to this ultimatum the jew readily enough 
 agreed. Matters thus settled between us, I somewhat dole 
 fully exchanged my gaudy apparel for a dress in unison with 
 that of my principal; and after vainly begging, in gratitude 
 for my friend Vasili's advice, to have the honour of making 
 upon him my first experiment in my new profession, walked 
 away with my grotesque patron. 
 
 Immediately we began stalking through all the lanes and 
 by-streets of the capital; I, with a pace exactly regulated by 
 that of my master, who walked before me , and both of us 
 turning our heads constantly from right to left and from left 
 to right, like weather-cocks, to watch every call from a door 
 or signal from a window; but full as much on the alert to 
 avoid old faces as to court the notice of new ones. Now and 
 then, when we had time for idle chat, I used to advise Yacoob 
 — that was my principal's name — to provide himself with 
 a proper licence for killing the grand signer's subjects, in 
 the shape of a diploma from the hekim-bashee.^ He de- 
 nied not the expediency of the measure, but he always 
 found some pretence for delaying the performance. At 
 first his poverty prevented the purchase ; afterwards, the 
 pressure of business; and so long did we go on, without 
 any inconvenience from the neglect of the said formality, 
 that at last we began to think we never should feel the want 
 of it, and totally forgot there was such a person as the 
 hekim-bashee. 
 
 Ours was an offhand method of practice. As all cases 
 were pretty much alike in reference to our skill, a singlr 
 
74 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 feel of the pulse generally decided the most difficult treat- 
 ments. Our patients — chiefly of the industrious class — 
 could not afford long illnesses, and these we certainly pre- 
 vented. What most annoyed us was the headstrong ob- 
 stinacy of some individuals, who sometimes insisted that 
 they still felt disordered when we positively assured them 
 they were cured. Had they been killed instead, they would 
 not have complained I Still more disagreeable incidents 
 occasionally occurred. Called in one day to a woman in 
 convulsions, Yacoob, I know not why, prescribed a re- 
 medy which the Turks regard as an insult. In her rage, the 
 woman flew at him, and bit off half his ear. It was all I 
 could do to save the other half. Another day (a Mahom- 
 medan festival), a set of merry-making Osmanlees insisted 
 on Yacoob's putting on an European dress, which they car- 
 ried about on a pole, that they might kick him through the 
 streets as a Frank; and though he actually refused a fee 
 for gratifying their whim, he nevertheless was made to go 
 through the whole ceremony. 
 
 I remember a quieter but more impressive scene. One 
 evening, as we were returning from the Blacquernes,'° an 
 old woman threw herself in our way, and taking hold of 
 my master's garment, dragged him almost by main force 
 after her into a mean-looking habitation just by, where 
 lay on a couch, apparently at the last gasp, a man of foreign 
 features. ** I have brought a physician," said the female to 
 the patient, ''who perhaps may relieve you." **Why 
 will you," answered he faintly, " still persist to feed idle 
 hopes? I have lived an outcast : suffer me at least to die 
 in peace, nor disturb my last moments by vain iflusions. 
 My soul pants to rejoin the supreme Spirit; arrest not its 
 flight : it would only be delaying my eternal bliss J" 
 
 As the stranger spoke these words— which struck even 
 Yacoob sufficiently to make him suspend his professional 
 grimace— the last beams of the setting sun darted across 
 the casement of the window upon his pale yet swarthy fea- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 75 
 
 tures. Thus visited, he seemed for a moment to revive. 
 '* I have always," said he, "considered my fate as connected 
 with the great luminary that rules the creation. I have 
 always paid it due worship, and firmly believed 1 could not 
 breathe my last whilst its rays shone upon me. Garry me 
 therefore out, that I may take my last farewell of the heavenly 
 ruler of my earthly destinies !" 
 
 We all rushed forward to obey the mandate : but the 
 stairs being too narrow, the woman only opened the win- 
 dow, and placed the dying man before it, so as to enjoy the 
 full view of the glorious orb, just in the act of dropping 
 beneath the horizon. He remained a few moments in si- 
 lent adoration, and mechanically we all joined him in 
 fixing our eyes on the object of his worship. It set in 
 all its splendour; and when its golden disc had entirely dis- 
 appeared, we looked round at the parsee. He too had sunk 
 into everlasting rest. 
 
 Our easy successes amongst the lower orders made us 
 by degrees aspire to higher patients. We took to attending 
 the poor gratis, in order to appear qualified to try the 
 constitutions of the rich; and, by appearing to have re- 
 spectable customers, we got them. A beglier-bey" of Rou- 
 mili — the great-grandson of a sultan on the mother's side 
 (for on the father's such filiations are stifled in the birth) , 
 was passing through Constantinople. One of his Armenian 
 grooms chose to thank Yacoob for having been relieved by 
 nature from a troublesome quinsy, and recommended him 
 to his master's kehaya. The kehaya also — in spite of 
 Yacoob 's attendance — got the better of his rheumatism, 
 and praised us to the head eunuch. The head eunuch, left 
 by us as we found him, spoke of us in high terms to his 
 master; and the visier, on being seized with an indigestion 
 for which he had laboured very hard, himself condescended 
 to send for us. He however determined to have two 
 strings to his bow, and to consult the stars as well as the 
 faculty : so that my master found himself pitted against a 
 
76 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 moouedjim/^ who recommended an emetic, while Yacoob^ 
 insisted on a contrary remedy. The visier, determined 
 to be right, sHly took both, thinking thus to make the op- 
 posite opinions meet. The medicines certainly did, and 
 by their conflict kept us for a while in as violent a per- 
 spiration as the pasha himself. As, however, the disorder 
 only proceeded from too free an indulgence of a good ap- 
 petite, the double remedy, though a little violent, in the 
 end proved beneficial ; and after suflering a few sympathetic 
 pangs, we ultimately reaped both reputation and profit 
 from our treatment of this three-tailed patient. 
 
 Thus we were enabled to quit our itinerant mode of 
 life, and to set up near the Backtche-capoossee*^ a shop of 
 decent appearance, furnished with jars and phials of aI4 
 sorts and sizes. These we inscribed with the names of the 
 most costly medicines, while the inside bore witness to 
 their rarity. Instead of going in pursuit of patients, we 
 now waited till they came or sent. In the course of his 
 practice my principal had discovered that, if some ailments 
 will only obey a face furrowed with age, youth and freshness 
 best dispel certain others; and these he left to my sole 
 management. 
 
 Our visier (he was ours body and soul) had his two re- 
 gular wives — fixtures in the capital. But to his home esta- 
 blishment he added a lighter travelling equipage of half a 
 dozen slaves, Circassians and others. Among this latter 
 troop, the stag-eyed Fathm6 shone like the full moon 
 among the stars. Besides her patron of eighty or there- 
 abouts, this fair one boasted two other equally strenuous 
 admirers; the black eunuch who guarded the harem, and 
 the old governess who kept its contents in order. These 
 two personages used to devote half their time to the cares 
 of their own persons, and the other half to watching that 
 of their rival. Both having entrusted us with their health, 
 each took an opportunity of hinting how agreeable 1 might 
 make myself by putting that of the other beyond the 
 
 I 
 
ANASTASrUS. 7/ 
 
 Veach of conliiigencies. It was a glorious hint ! Wllhoul 
 going the whole length of the modest request, I might 
 contrive to keep Signor Suleiman and Signora Zelidah 
 confined to their heds, while I made my inquiries after 
 Uie health of their prisoners; but unlooked-for incidents 
 marred this bright scheme. 
 
 Disappointed at Yacoob's not being able to restore him 
 at fourscore to the vigour of forty, the visier had, unknown 
 to his jew doctor, called in a new ally; — the very person 
 "whose lynx-eye Yacoob dreaded more than the spectacles 
 of all the imperial moonedjims put together, namely, the 
 chief physician of the seraglio. Just as my master was 
 coming in triumphantly one morning to his patron, with a 
 phial of soap-suds and cinnamon, which he swore would 
 renovate the last defunct mufti himself, he unexpectedly 
 beheld the crabbed visage of the crusty Triestene the very 
 first thing on the threshold. Poor Yacoob looked as if he 
 had seen the Medusa in person ! He however had presence 
 of mind enough left to dash his phial to pieces, and then 
 to be in despair at the accident. It afforded him an op- 
 portunity of making an immediate retreat, under the pre- 
 tence of running home to repair the grievous loss; but with 
 the full determination never more to go near the pasha's 
 door. This availed him little. The old devil of a Triestene 
 — who at his exit had sent after him the ugliest grin I ever 
 beheld — satisfied that we practised unlawfully, denounced 
 our doings to the president of the killing college. The vi- 
 sier — the more incensed at being duped, from the pleasure 
 he promised himself in bringing together two such lumi- 
 naries of the profession — threw in his weight against us, 
 and the consequence was our being sentenced to an ex- 
 emplary punishment. As we sat brooding over the misfor- 
 tune of the pasha's proving less a fool than we thought, a 
 posse of police myrmidons invaded our shop, and sum- 
 moned us to prison. These gentlemen, however, as usual, 
 began their oflicial functions by emptying all our phials and 
 
78 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 gallipots into their capacious stomachs. This proceeding, 
 and its natural consequences, caused us a short respite. 
 
 While our first guardians were engaged, a new set was 
 to he sent for : hut these conveyed us without further delay 
 to the place of our confinement. The very hour which I 
 had destined for consoling the fair Fathm^ in her prison 
 saw me ushered into that of the bagnio.'* 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The vast and high enclosure of the bagnio, situated 
 contiguously to the arsenal and the docks, contains a little 
 world of its own, but a world of wailing. One part is te- 
 nanted by the prisoners made on board the enemy's ships, 
 who, with an iron ring round their legs, await in this dis- 
 mal repository their transference on board the Turkish 
 fleet. This part may only be called a sort of purgatory. 
 The other is hell in perfection. It is the larger division, 
 fdled with the natural subjects of the grand signer, whom 
 their real or supposed misdemeanors have brought to this 
 abode of unavaihng tears. Here are confined alike the 
 ragged beggar urged by famine to steal a loaf, and the rich 
 banker instigated by avarice to deny a deposit ; the bandit 
 who uses open violence, and the baker who employs false 
 weights ; the land robber and the pirate of the seas, the 
 assassin and the cheat. Here, as in the infernal regions, 
 are mingled natives of every country — Turks, Greeks, Ar- 
 menians, Jews, and Gipsies ; and are confounded indi- 
 viduals of every creed — the Mohammedan, the Christian, 
 the Hebrew, and the Heathen. Here the proud and the 
 humble, the opulent and the necessitous, are reduced to 
 the direst of equalities, the equality of torture. But I err : 
 
ANASTASIUS. 79 
 
 for should some hapless victim — perhaps guilty of no other 
 crime but that of having excited the sultan's cupidity — 
 still wear on his first entrance the livery of better days, his 
 more decent appearance will only expose him to harsher 
 treatment. Loaded with the heaviest fetters, linked to the 
 most loathsome of malefactors, he is compelled to purchase 
 every alleviation of his burthen, every mitigation of his 
 pain, at the most exorbitant price ; until the total exhaus- 
 tion of his slender store has acquired him the privilege of 
 being at least on a level with the lowest of his fellow-suf- 
 ferers, and spared additional torments, no longer lucrative 
 to their inflicters. 
 
 Every day a capital fertile in crimes pours new offenders 
 into this dread receptacle ; and its high walls and deep re- 
 cesses resound every instant with imprecations and curses, 
 uttered in all the various idioms of the Olhoman empire. 
 Deep moans and dismal yells leave not its frightful echoes 
 a moment's repose. From morning till night and from 
 night till morning the ear is stunned with the clang of 
 chains, which the galley-slaves wear while confined in their 
 cells, and which they still drag about when toiling at their 
 tasks. Linked together two and two for life, should they 
 sink under their sufferings, they still continue unsevered 
 after death; and the man doomed to liv.e on, drags after 
 him the corpse of his dead companion. In no direction 
 can the eye escape the spectacle of atrocious punishments 
 and of indescribable agonies. Here perhaps you see a 
 wretch, whose stiffened limbs refuse their office, stop sud- 
 denly short in the midst of his labour, and, as if already 
 impossible, defy the stripes that lay open his flesh, and 
 wait in total immobility the last merciful blow that is to 
 end his misery ; while there you view his companion, foam- 
 ing with rage and madness, turn against his own person 
 his desperate hands, tear his clotted hair, rend his bleeding 
 bosom, and strike his skull until it burst against the wall 
 of his dungeon. 
 
KO A>fASTASIUS. 
 
 A long unpunislied pirate, a liberated galley-slave, Ach- 
 inet-reis by name, was the fiend of hell who, by his in- 
 genuity in contriving new tortures, and his infernal delight 
 in beholding new sufferings, had deserved to become the 
 chief inspector of this place, and the chief minister of its 
 terrors. His joys were great, but they were not yet com- 
 plete. Only permitted thus far to exercise his craft on 
 mortals, he was still obliged to calculate what degree of 
 agony the human frame could bear, and to proportion his 
 inflictions to man's powers of suffering, lest, by despatch- 
 ing his victims too soon, he should defeat his own aim. 
 He was not yet received among his brother demons in the 
 blissful abodes where torments do not kiU, and where pangs 
 may be increased in an infinite ratio. 
 
 Of this truth the very hour of my arrival had afforded 
 him a sorely lamented proof ! An Armenian cashier, sus- 
 pected of withholding from the sultan — sole heir to all his 
 officers — the deposit of a deceased pasha, had just been 
 delivered over into Achmet's hands ; and many were the 
 days of bliss to whicH the executioner looked forward in 
 the diligent performance of his office. On the very first 
 application of the rack, out of sheer malice, the seraff 
 expired ! 
 
 Two days later the whole of Achmet's prospects of sub- 
 lunary happiness were near coming to a close. Some 
 wretches, driven by his cruelty to a state of madness, had 
 sworn his destruction. Their hands, tied behind their 
 backs, could be of no use to them in effecting their pur- 
 pose : — they determined to crush him with their bodies. 
 All at the same instant fell with their whole weight upon 
 the executioner, or upon their own companions already 
 heaped upon the monster, in hopes of burying his corpse 
 under a living tumulus. But Achmet's good star prevailed. 
 Ere yet his suffocation was completed, soldiers rescued the 
 miscreant. He recovered, to wreak on his disappointed 
 enemies his fiercest vengeance. Their punishment was 
 
ANASTASIUS. SI 
 
 dreadful I Sanguinary but not cruel, prone to shed blood 
 in anger, yet shuddering at torture, I was horror-struck 
 at the scene, and the yells of the victims still ring in my 
 ears. 
 
 Characters meet at large in the world which may almost 
 count as sure their meeting again, some time or other, 
 within the narrow precincts of the bagnio. Of this species 
 was the captain of the Maynote pirates, who took our Ve- 
 netian cutter. He now occupied his winter quarters among 
 the galley-slaves. Though I had had but little time on 
 our first interview to cultivate his acquaintance, I could 
 not help remembering that from the moment his tall com- 
 manding figure rose above the side of our vessel, and 
 stepped on board, my stars had assumed a milder aspect, 
 and my situation had been improved. Each, therefore, 
 was glad of the rencontre ; each expressed his sincere plea- 
 sure at meeting the other ; each politely hoped the other 
 might be destined to make a long sojourn in the place. 
 
 There are men so gifted, that in whatever situation fate 
 may place them, they still inspire a certain awe and respect ; 
 and, though fallen through dint of adverse circumstances 
 into the most abject condition, still retain over all around 
 them an innate superiority. Of this sort was Mackari. He 
 had been one of the chieftains of that small tribe of moun- 
 taineers, pent up in the peninsula of Moyno, who like 
 greater nations claim dominion over the seas that gird their 
 native rocks. Mackari, therefore, had only considered 
 himself as acting conformably to his natural right, in cap- 
 turing the vessels that trespassed on his domain without 
 purchasing his permission ; and in his conduct he dis- 
 cerned neither injustice nor treachery. Hence his lofty 
 soul still preserved all its dignity amid his fallen fortunes. 
 Patient under every insult, unruffled by the direst torture, 
 he was never heard to utter a sigh, to offer a remonstrance, 
 or to beg a mitigation of the agonies inflicted on him. Even 
 when his keepers, unable to wrest from his scornful lip the 
 I. 6 
 
82 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 smallest acknowledgment of their ingenuity in torturing, 
 began to doubt their own powers, and — irritated at his 
 very forbearance — resolved to conquer by a last and high- 
 est outrage his immoveable firmness ,• when with weights 
 and pullies they forced down to the ground that counte- 
 nance, which, serene in the midst of suffering, seemed only 
 fit to face the heavens ; when they compelled him, whose 
 mental independence defied all their means of coercion, 
 constantly to behold the fetters that contracted his body, 
 they only succeeded to depress his earthly frame ; they 
 were not able to lower his unbending spirit. Still calm, 
 still serene as before, he only smiled at the fresh chains 
 with which he was loaded ; and at each new fetter added 
 to his former shackles, his mind only seemed to take a 
 loftier flight. 
 
 Yet, impassible as he appeared to his own woes, was he 
 most feelingly alive to those of his companions. Of every 
 new hardship with which they were threatened, he uni- 
 formly stood forward to court the preference ; and while 
 his fortitude awed into silence the useless complaints of 
 his troop, his self-devotion still relieved its real misery. 
 One day, when a ferocious soldier was going to fell with 
 his club the comrade of Mackari's fetters, whom his ma- 
 nacled hands could not save from the blow, he opposed to 
 the frightful weapon all he could command, his arm; 
 which, broken by the stroke, fell by his side a wreck. 
 
 Thus did the Maynote captain's former crew still view in 
 their chief, though loaded with irons like themselves, not 
 only the master to whom they continued to pay all the 
 obedience they could show, but the protector on whom 
 they depended for all the comfort they could receive. His 
 very keepers were unable in his sight to shake off the awe 
 felt by all who approached him. They confessed by their 
 fears their nothingness in his presence : they scarce could 
 derive a sufficient sense of security from all the fetters 
 which they had heaped upo-n their victim. In vain would 
 
ANASTASIUS. 83 
 
 he himself, with a hitter and disdainful smile, point to his 
 forlorn state, and ask what they apprehended from one on 
 whom they might trample with impunity ? The mere 
 sound of his voice seemed to belie his words. It was the 
 roar of a lion, dreaded even through the bars of his cage. 
 And when his shackles were loosened in order that his 
 daily labours might begin ; when Mackari was enabled to 
 raise for a moment his long-depressed head; when his ma- 
 jestic brow soared above the humbler height of his tallest 
 companions, — he looked like the cedar of Lebanon, which, 
 though scathed by the hghtning from heaven, still overtops 
 all the trees of the forest ; and the wretches to whose care 
 he was committed used immediately to recede to a fearful 
 distance. 
 
 Unendowed with any of the forbearance of the Maynote 
 chief, I had scarcely been an hour in the bagnio before I 
 began to measure with my eye the height of its walls, to 
 consider the strength of its gates, and to count the number 
 of its guards. A good-natured fellow-sufferer, who guessed 
 my thoughts, called me aside. **Take care what you do," 
 whispered he ; ** there is danger even in looking at these 
 walls. The mere suspicion of a plan to escape from this 
 place meets with the severest punishment ,* the execution 
 is impossible. Should you have succeeded so far as to 
 clear every impediment, every barrier, every sentinel ; 
 should you have reached the very heart of the city; should 
 you in its seemingly impenetrable vortex think yourself 
 most secure from any search, you have yet achieved no- 
 thing ; you have not advanced a single step toward your 
 hberation. Many inmates of the bagnio, possessing fami- 
 lies in the city, enjoy unrestrained egress on the express 
 condition of bringing back the missing, or of taking their 
 place. The most active and watchful of the spies they 
 employ are stationed precisely wherever the security from 
 discovery seems the greatest ; and the sufferings of those 
 whose attempts at evasion have been baflled by their vigi- 
 
34 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 lance are so cruelly aggravated, that a man must have lost 
 all hope of any other deliverance on this side the grave ere 
 he attempt so desperate a mode of regaining his freedom." 
 
 Not such was my case. As soon as, recovering from 
 my first dismay, I had begun to cast my eye around, it had 
 been arrested by a neat little spire with a handsome gilded 
 top, peeping over the battlements of the western enclosure, 
 and which somehow struck me as an old acquaintance. 
 No wonder that it should ! It crowned that very pavilion 
 of the arsenal where the drogueman held his office; where 
 satMavroyeni; where I myself had performed with applause 
 my first part on the stage of the capital. An immediate 
 gleam of hope beamed from its golden ball, and glanced 
 on my mind. "How!" thought I, **Mavroyeni, my old 
 master, shall spend all his mornings within a stone's throw 
 of the place in which pines his Anastasius ; shall only be 
 impeded by the thickness of a wall from seeing his hapless 
 favourite; shall almost in the midst of his business hear the 
 moans of his suffering servant, and, if applied to, can he 
 refuse to reHeve me! — Impossible! He needs only know 
 where I am, and what miseries I experience, to restore me, 
 not perhaps to his pristine favour, but to the common pri- 
 vilege of living, or at least of dying, where I choose." 
 
 My only doubt was whether I should demean myself so 
 far as to implore his intercession. This scruple, however, 
 one of my satellites soon helped me to get over by an op- 
 portune application of his switch — only to keep his hand 
 in practice — just as I sat down in deep deliberation. 
 Accordingly I adjured the first fellow-prisoner who was li- 
 berated, by all that he held sacred, to acquaint the drogue- 
 man with my confinement, and to lay before him my 
 petition. I must confess that there was nothing the good- 
 natured creature did not promise in his joy to do for me; 
 but there I rather imagine his generosity stopped. Though 
 he had sworn that the sun should not set before he spoke 
 in my behalf, the sun set and rose, and set and rose again. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 85 
 
 >aiid nothing more was heard of the late oi my request. 
 I hereupon repeated it to another person allowed to leave 
 the bagnio, and after him to a third and to a fourth; but 
 always with the same result. All professed equal readi- 
 ness to serve me, but all were either alike forgetful of their 
 promise, or unsuccessful in their application; for no notice 
 was taken of me by Mavroyeni. In vain I lingered day 
 after day in feverish expectation: in vain I questioned 
 every new face that appeared. No one knew any thing of 
 my business; no one had heard my name mentioned. At 
 last I became convinced that the drogueman was deter- 
 mined to leave me to my fate, and resolved to give up all 
 further hopes of being freed, at least by the hand of man. 
 I say **by the hand of man;" — for a higher power was be- 
 ginning to manifest its awful presence, which held out a 
 prospect of speedy release, not only to me, but to the whole 
 bagnio. 
 
 This was the plague. 
 
 The scourge had been expected for some time. By se- 
 veral of the prisoners had the frightful hag, its harbinger, 
 been distinctly seen hovering with her bat's wings over 
 our drear abode, and with her hooked talons numbering 
 one by one her intended but still unsuspecting victims. In 
 the silence of the night she had been heard leisurely 
 calling them by their names, knocking at their several 
 doors, and marking with livid spots the damp walls of their 
 cells.' 
 
 Nothing but the visitation of this destructive monster 
 seemed wanting to complete the horrors which surrounded 
 me : — for if even, when only stalking forth among men free 
 to fly from its approach and to shrink from its contact, the 
 gaunt spectre mows down whole nations like the ripe corn 
 in the field, it maybe imagined what havock ensues when it 
 is permitted to burst forth from the inmost bowels of hell, 
 in the midst of wretches close-wedged in their dungeons, or 
 linked together at their tasks, whom it must trample down 
 
 ^ 
 
86 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 to the last, ere it can find a vent in space. It is there 
 that — with a focus of infection ready formed, a train of 
 miasma ready laid on every side — though this prime minister 
 of death strike at random, it never misses its aim, and its 
 progress outstrips the quickness of lightning or of thought. 
 It is there that even those who thus far retain full possession 
 of health, already calculate the hours they still may live; 
 that those who to-day drag to their last abode their life- 
 less companions, to-morrow are laid beside them; and that 
 those who are dying, make themselves pillows of the bodies, 
 not yet cold, of those already dead. It is there that we may 
 behold the grim destroyer in one place awaited in gloomy 
 silence, in another encountered with fell imprecations; here 
 implored with anxious cries, there welcomed with eager 
 thanks, and now perhaps received with convulsive laughter 
 and mockery, by such as, trying to drink away its terrors, 
 totter on the brink of the grave from drunkenness as well 
 as from disease. 
 
 The before busy beehive of the bagnio, therefore, soon 
 became a dreadful solitude. Its spacious inclosures, so 
 lately teeming with tenants of every description, now began 
 to present a void still more frightful than its former fulness. 
 Universal silence pervaded those endless galleries, but a few 
 days before re-echoing with the confused din of thousands 
 of prisoners, fighting for an inch of ground on which to 
 lay their aching heads; and nothing any longer appeared 
 that wore a humaa shape, except here and there some 
 livid skeleton, which, as if again cast up by the grave, 
 slowly crept along the clammy walls. When, however, the 
 disease had devoured all that could offer food to its vora- 
 city, it gradually fell hke the flame which has consumed 
 its fuel, and at last became extinct. What few miserable 
 remains of the former population of the bagnio had es- 
 caped its fury, were again restored to the regular sufferings 
 of the place, suspended during the utmost height of the 
 desolation. 
 
 m 
 
ANASTASIUS. 8? 
 
 I was among these scanty relics. I who, indiflerent to 
 life, had never stooped to avoid the shafts of death, even 
 when they flew thickest around me, had more than once 
 laid my finger on the livid wound they inflicted, had 
 probed it as it festered, I yet remained unhurt : for some- 
 times the plague is a magnanimous enemy, and while it 
 seldom spares the pusillanimous victim, whose blood run- 
 ning cold ere it is tainted lacks the energy necessary to 
 repel the infection when at hand, it will pass him by who 
 dares its utmost fury, and advances undaunted to meet ils 
 raised dart. 
 
 Not that my old masler Yacoob can be quoted as ano- 
 ther instance in point. He too escaped indeed; but it was 
 from any thing but excess of courage. Probably the 
 plague thought his former campaigns in her cause as an old 
 clothesman should not be forgotten in his later acts of hos- 
 tility as a physician. Little trusting, however, to the ge- 
 nerosity of his old ally, who might consider the obligation 
 fully repaid by the ample stock of goods she had occa- 
 sionally procured him, his mind had, during the progress 
 of the disease, brought forth nothing but plans of evasion. 
 Each later device indeed miscarried, as all the former con- 
 trivances had done before it ; but this was only to give 
 birth to some plan still later and more preposterous. One 
 day, astride on the lofty summit of the outer wall which 
 surrounds the prison, he had nearly given his enfeebled 
 guardians the slip, by softly letting himself down upon a 
 heap of rubbish thrown up outside as if on purpose to break 
 his fafl, when, most unluckily espied, he was hauled down 
 to receive a hundred lashes on the soles of his feet, for the 
 nimble use he had made of them. This castigation, if in- 
 flicted, must have ended his troubles. Fortunately, he 
 had laboured before under a suspicion of madness; and so 
 violent a paroxysm of raving now suddenly seized him, that 
 some of the by-slanders began to think an hospital filter for 
 his residence than a prison. The sacredncss of insanity 
 
88' ANASTASIUS. 
 
 saved his skin. The keepers durst not execute the sentence 
 passed upon him; and Achmet, to whom a treat in his own 
 way was, since the ravages of the plague, become quite a 
 rarity, walked off sorely disappointed, and devoutly praying 
 God to deliver the bagnio from all such madmen ! 
 
 Yacoob's contrivances to be released from his confine- 
 ment did not end here. He had got by heart all the prayers 
 of the Mohammedans, and secretly made himself perfect 
 in all the accompanying gestures. One morning, after he 
 had attracted the eye of a Turkish visitor of some distinc- 
 tion, he suddenly fell on his face, crying : ** he saw the 
 prophet, and was not only bidden by him to embrace Is- 
 lamism,"* but actually instructed how to perform its rites;" 
 — of which indeed he forthwith acquitted himself with great 
 dexterity. The bait took with the stranger; but the farce 
 was laughed at by the familiars of the place, who told 
 Yacoob he might go to the mosque if he chose, but re- 
 minded him that there was one in the bagnio. This 
 damped his religious ardour, and the vision sneaked oft', 
 as visions do. Still did he from lime to time repeat his 
 grimaces, and he was always observed to invoke Allah 
 most lustily when a stranger came in sight. It was curious 
 to see the holy violence with which on these occasions he 
 went through his namaz,^ until large drops of perspiration 
 trickled down his greasy face. No disappointments had 
 power to stop these pious but unavailing exercises. 
 
 He and I herded little together. The ordinary compa- 
 nion of my toil was a young Greek, nearly of my own 
 age, but from his less elevated stature, his rounder features, 
 and his more delicate complexion, seemingly three or 
 four years younger. His dress, though at the time rather 
 the worse for wear, preserved an appearance of something 
 beyond mere neatness, or even costliness : it had a sort of 
 studied and what would be called in Christendom theatrical 
 elegance. His gait and manners corresponded. They too 
 wore, not an air of quality, but a species of recherche 
 
ANA8TAS1US. «1> 
 
 carried beyond natural grace. This artificial exterior, this 
 refinement of appearance, were the more remarkable from 
 the simplicity of mind, the singleness of heart, on which 
 they seemed superstructed. The varnish penetrated not 
 beyond the surface. Yet there it adhered pertinaciously, 
 and amidst sentiments of the sincerest piety. Anagnosti 
 never fell upon his knees to say his prayers without an 
 air, and never rose from his devotions without a grace. 
 He himself, when aware of these superfluous ornaments, 
 blushed, and would have given all he possessed to shake 
 them off : but they clung to him in his own despite. Some- 
 times I used to rally him on a semblance of afiectation 
 so Httle suited to our abode, and so discordant with his real 
 character. *' Is it my fault?" cried he one day. "If 
 the plant has so long been trained to formal symmetry, can 
 the utmost neglect itself immediately recal its primitive 
 ease and wildness?" The subject, as you may have ob- 
 served, is one which I think of reluctantly, and hitherto have 
 avoided with care: but your good-nature assures me of 
 your pity. Hear my story, and judge." 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 '*My father," continued Anagnosti, ''was proesti' of 
 Stavro : Phonea gave birth to my revered mother " 
 
 ** No doubt," cried I, interrupting him, '* all the world 
 knows those two important places; but fancy me very ig- 
 norant, and tell me where they lie ?" 
 
 '* Near Corinth," answered the youth, somewhat sur- 
 prised, and resumed his tale. 
 
 **The inhabitants of Phonea," said he, "justly boast 
 of their proficiency in the mysteries of divination. This 
 
90 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 art formed my mother's principal portion. Unfortunately 
 her skill made her foresee every calamity, but it found a 
 cure for none; and she spent her life in bewailing her sor- 
 rowful endowments. Those of my father were of a dif- 
 ferent cast. They consisted not so much in doubling pre- 
 sent evils by the fear of future mischiefs, as in making the 
 best of the ills under which we unavoidably laboured. 
 When therefore one evening a troop of Arnaoots — in order 
 to pay themselves for the unwelcome protection they had 
 afforded us against the Russians — plundered our house, 
 made fire- wood of our ohve-trees, and turned out our cattle 
 into our vineyards, my much respected father observed 
 how fortunate was this misfortune, as we possessed at Sa- 
 lonica a rich relation who would do better for us thai^ we 
 could do for ourselves — unless, as my mother added, with 
 a shake of the head, he should be dead or ruined. 
 
 *'This kinsman we determined to seek. Leaving our 
 patrimony at the mercy of the waywode, as an acknow- 
 ledgment for his trouble in selling us to the robbers, we 
 bade adieu to our native land — which never had looked 
 more lovely than it did at that moment — and set out upon 
 our journey. My father trusted for our travelling expenses 
 to the charity with which he was sure Providence would 
 inspire every mortal we met, while my mother trembled 
 lest we should only meet banditti. If any thing could 
 move the hardest heart, it certainly was our procession. 
 Imagine, first, a man already in years, loaded with the 
 scanty wrecks of his property; next, a woman, pale, ema- 
 ciated and borne down by illness, with a baby at the breast, 
 and leading another by the hand, hardly able to follow; 
 while myself, between two little girls, one of ten and one of 
 twelve, in a most tattered condition, brought up the rear. 
 We did not beg, for we knew not the way; but we looked 
 wretchedness itself: and sometimes we found relief, and 
 to those that bestowed it we gave in return all we had to 
 give, —our blessing. As however we advanced on the jour- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 91 
 
 ney, we began to need less assistance. This my mother 
 had said would happen, and she herself was the one that 
 accomplished her prediction. Sinking under her grief, she 
 turned out of the path, sat down upon a stone, and urged 
 us to proceed — for she could go no further. I threw 
 my arms round her neck, tried to cheer her, and sobbed. 
 * O my Anagnosti !' said she, as she pressed my little fin- 
 gers within her clammy hand, and fixed on my counte- 
 nance her anxious boding look, — * my curly-headed boy! 
 remember your poor mother's last words : let others fear 
 their foes; you, my sweet innocent, beware only of your 
 friends !' Then, in convulsive agony, she clasped me to her 
 breast, laid down her head, and died. 
 
 '* Much as my mother's weakness had retarded our pro- 
 gress, her decease was the only event in which my father 
 could not at first see any advantage. Long he wept for 
 his loss, and at last, assisted by us all, he dug a grave by 
 the road- side. In it was buried my poor mother, — all but 
 this lock of hair, which shall only return to dust with her 
 child. 
 
 ** Just as we again set forward from the dismal spot, 
 the baby, which had long been pining, expired for want 
 of sustenance. We would not divide in death what in life 
 had thus far still been as one ; and turning back, deposited 
 the child in the lap of its parent: — they sleep together! 
 
 *' My father now observed, 'it was better for my mother 
 to be dead than to suffer; and my little brother was pro- 
 vided for.' Still he never ceased to weep until we arrived 
 at Yolo. A lady of that place, who had lost an only child, 
 took such a fancy to my rosy face that she begged to have 
 it. Her nauseous kisses had stamped it hers already ! 
 After my mother's, could I bear them? My father too was 
 but indifferently inclined to part with his Anagnosti — the 
 only one of his children who in all his looks and sayings re- 
 minded him of his Zoe : but he was poor, he thought that 
 
92 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 his loss would be my advantage, and he only proceeded on 
 with the other three. I staid, to cry and to be kissed. 
 
 **At Salonica, my father found that his affluent relation 
 had died a bankrupt, as my mother had foretold. * This,' 
 he observed, * must make him return to the labours of the 
 field, which after all were the healthiest.' Alas! in the 
 damp deleterious country to whose climate he was unac- 
 customed, they carried him off. It was what my mother 
 knew would happen. In a quarrel between my father and 
 his waywode, she had heard the spiteful wretch wish his 
 worthier neighbour a seven years' ague.^ The disease only 
 took seven months to bring him to the grave ; and this he 
 thought a great mercy. While ill too, he remembered 
 that one day in the fields, on suddenly turning round, he 
 had seen his fellow-labourers, jealous of a stranger, stamp 
 on his shadow. How could he after that be expected to 
 live ? At the last gasp, his eye lit up at the thoughts of re- 
 joining his Zoe ! — and his poor Anagnosti, he was sure, 
 would not long stay behind. Charitable persons took in 
 the other little orphans : I sent them the few pence I had 
 collected; but alas, my little hoard was lost by the way ! 
 
 ** My own good fortune lasted not. The old lady at 
 Volo, who had promised to adopt me, changed her fondness 
 into aversion when she found how dearly I loved to play in 
 puddles, and how little I liked to be kissed. She scolded 
 me for being a boy; and sighed to think what a tidy little 
 girl she might have had in my place, who never for an in- 
 stant would have quitted her side. The first of these faults 
 I acknowledged, and observed that she might have been 
 aware of it before; and as for the other grievance, I told 
 her, ' if I could not always stay by her side, I could do the 
 next best thing, which was never to go near her again.' 
 She made no reply, and I ran away. 
 
 *' As I had always promised the Holy Virgin faithfully 
 to divide with her whatever I might earn, I made no doubl 
 
ANASTASIU8. 93 
 
 that she would direct me well in my search for a livelihood. 
 I cannot think she did; though it might be for my good. 
 She made me engage on hoard a hydriote,^ laden with corn 
 for the Black Sea. A single family formed the crew, from the 
 captain down to the lowest cabin-boy. But to that family 
 poor Anagnosti belonged not; and when all the rest of the 
 sailors used in a calm to dance on the deck, I alone was left 
 out to listen to their mirth in the hold. Alas, I have since 
 had dancing enough ! At the time, however, I thought the 
 hardship so great, that on my knees I begged the captain 
 to let me too have my share of dancing, and to flog me 
 afterwards as much as he pleased. Had he granted my 
 petition, I might not have had leisure to discover, as I did, 
 how ill a sailor's task suited my abilities, or agreed with 
 my duty to the panagia. I therefore resolved to abandon 
 my amphibious life. The moment we touched at Gonstan- 
 tinople I took to my heels, not doubting to find an easy 
 subsistence in a place, where, as I had heard, the streets 
 were paved with silver, and the houses roofed with gold. 
 For two long days I waded knee-deep in mire — sleeping at 
 night among the cinders of the public baths, and waking in 
 the morning without a morsel of bread to break my fast. So 
 great became my hunger, that, at a sudden turn which 
 brought me opposite a cook-shop near the Tophana,^ the 
 sight of a plate of kiebabs^ hot from the oven almost bereft 
 me of my senses. Not daring to approach, I involuntarily 
 fell on my knees, and half worshipped the dear hissing 
 cutlets at a respectful distance. An ill-looking fellow saw 
 the action, and guessing the motive, told me, *if I was 
 hungry, to come along with him : — I should not want for 
 bread, as he was a baker.' He wanted a shop-boy; and 
 hard as it might seem for the son of a proesti of Stavro 
 to sell rolls at Constantinople, my stomach audibly groaned 
 the words : * necessity had no law !' 
 
 **My apprenticeship was short. The very second day of 
 my ministry, after a flying visit from a Turk, my master 
 
1)1 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 came up to me, and said * he liked me so well that he had 
 determined immediately to give me a share in the business ; 
 and I had nothing to do — whoever might call — but to say 
 that the concern was my own.' On this my principal ran 
 out, leaving me in astonishment at my speedy promotion. 
 
 ** A person did call, and I did say that the concern was 
 my own : but as that person was the stambool effendee,^ 
 who had set apart that day for weighing the weights and 
 for measuring the measures of the different tradesmen, the 
 deficiency he found in ours made him — though very con- 
 descending and familiar at first — end by ordering that I 
 should be dealt by as I dealt by my loaves; namely, baked 
 in my own oven. In this consisted the chief advantage 
 I was to derive from the partnership. 
 
 *' My cries of * aman'' at this intemperate sentence, 
 brought out the whole neighbourhood. It well knew my 
 master's character, vouched for mine without knowing it, 
 and through dint of strenuous intercession moved the ef- 
 fendee to such excess of lenity, as, in regard for my in- 
 nocence, only to order me three dozen strokes on the soles 
 of my feet. 
 
 **The change, undoubtedly, was to my advantage : yet 
 did I feel so angry that I swore rather to go without bread 
 all the days of my life than ever again to trust to a baker. 
 Lame as I was, I tried to hobble away. An odd-looking 
 man, who had been eyeing me all along from head to foot, 
 asked me whether I loved dancing. The question seemed 
 insulting ; but, lest I should commit myself, I neither an- 
 swered yes nor no ' You have been ill-used, ' added he. 
 * My compassionate heart moves me to take you home, 
 there to cure your bruises.' I fancied not the man's coun- 
 tenance, but my feet told me not to mind his face, and I 
 saw the less of it as he took me on his back. While 
 riding along I conceived very sinister forebodings; but 
 when set down where we stopped I smiled at my fears. 
 Nothing could look less terrific than the place of my desti- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 95 
 
 nation. Around the walls hung, suspended by elegant cords 
 and tassels, lutes, cymbals, guitars, and other musical in- 
 struments, beautifully inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The 
 richest dresses were airing at the windows, and if the ha- 
 bitation resembled any one thing more than another, it 
 was a temple of mirth. In fact, when, restored by whole- 
 some applications, both outward and inward, I asked what 
 return I could make for so much hospitality ? the answer 
 was, * to dance.' 
 
 **I immediately began capering. But this was not the 
 thing meant. My host — a Greek of Scyra. — had in his 
 youth been a dancer by profession. Age having stiffened 
 his joints, he now gained his livelihood by giving supple- 
 ness to younger limbs. He had a number of boys whom 
 he trained to perform ballet in the conacks or palaces of 
 the great. His eye had been caught by my nimbleness 
 when about to be put into the oven, and he roused my 
 ambition by pledging himself to make me a first-rale 
 dancer. 
 
 ** The greatest natural genius still requires cultivation. 
 For a while I toiled beyond all belief. But as I never at- 
 tempted a difficult step without addressing the panagia, I 
 succeeded at last. I may say without vanity that I acquired 
 the perfection of the art. The exactness of my poise, the 
 precision of my movements, the apparent ease with which 
 I performed the most difficult steps, were pronounced 
 positively sublime. From the ends of my fingers to the 
 tip of my toes, all was expression. The best connoisseurs 
 declared that in me alone they had found the poetry of the 
 heel; and my very shadow was lighter than other people's 
 shadows. But I do not wish to praise myself ! 
 
 **That I became celebrated I need not tell. Every other 
 dancer was voted execrable. Whenever I appeared, I 
 was stunned with applause before I moved a step ; and the 
 spectators were entranced at my performance of what 
 in olhers would have been hissed : for it was not always 
 
96 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 that I exerted my best abilities. With indifferent judges 1 
 would scarcely stir; and even with the best I sometimes 
 had my bad days, when all the coaxing in the world 
 could not draw out my powers. I once felt so ill in reality, 
 that another dancer was sent out in my clothes, who, ac- 
 complishing with evident effort what I performed with 
 ease, made the blockheads declare that I never yet had 
 danced so well as I did that evening. 
 
 "My emoluments kept pace with my celebrity. At 
 each pause in my exhibitions my forehead used to be 
 studded with gold coins, ^ and at the conclusion of the 
 performance, heaps of sequins showered from all sides 
 into my spangled cap. Who then could have fancied me 
 otherwise than happy ? But it is one thing to divert others, 
 and it is another to taste of joy one's self! The constant 
 fatigue, the sense of dependence, the fear of not succeed- 
 in"-, the liability to the humours of a capricious audience, 
 the danger of losing the attraction of novelty, the chance of 
 being eclipsed by some abler competitor, are alone dread- 
 ful drawbacks on a profession like mine. Yet with me 
 they were minor evils. Keener sufferings peculiar to my- 
 self assailed me, and that in general by preference just 
 when my situation seemed most enviable; for it was almost 
 always in the intoxication and Hurry of spirits produced 
 by the exertions I made, by the bravos I excited, and by 
 the crowds of people, the glare of lights, and ihe din of in- 
 struments I moved among, that the image of my deceased 
 mother, as she appeared in her last moments, would rise 
 with most distinctness to my heated fancy. And often 
 have I between the several acts of the entertainment re- 
 tired to some lonely corner to weep at liberty, while the 
 whole assembly seemed in ecstasies of pleasure. It is true 
 that, if dancing produced melancholy, melancholy more 
 than once in its turn produced dancing. Sometimes, in 
 the sort of phrensy brought on by the clang of a full band, 
 I have started up, and, like the Mewlewi derwishes,9 have 
 
ANASTASIUS. 97 
 
 reeled round a room full of people, unlil, completely ex- 
 hausted, I fell senseless on the floor. 
 
 *'To add to the discomforts of my situation, I was not 
 even allowed to retain the heard-earned fruits of my la- 
 bour. Of the gold which i gained by the sweat of my 
 brow not a para remained ray own, except what in the 
 evening, when I crossed the cemetery of Galata, I had the 
 address to slip into a hollow tree, or to drop behind a moul- 
 dering tombstone, where the crows often were the first to 
 find my little store. The moment I got home from our 
 nightly exhibition I was regularly searched, and every 
 farthing found about me went into my master's pocket 
 as his pay for my board, lodging, and maintenance. En- 
 raged at his illiberality, I one evening threw my gilt jacket 
 in his face, saying I wished to keep nothing that was his, 
 but would go and exercise my talent, naked as I stood, on 
 my own account. Hereupon the vampire — the odious 
 blood-sucker — brought against me such a bill for bestow- 
 ing that talent of which he said I wanted to rob him, as 
 must have left me all my life a mere drudge — a puppet 
 moving at his nod — had I not determined to settle the ac- 
 count in my own way. 
 
 *'In fact, now clearly discerning the whole drift of the 
 hospitality which the Scyrote had so kindly afforded me, 
 I henceforth watched my opportunity to slip away from 
 the ballet-master at Galata, as I had done from the lady at 
 Volo, the hydriote captain, and the fraudulent baker. This 
 was not an easy matter. Our manager was vigilance per- 
 sonified, and never allowed me to go out of his sight. An 
 accident befriended me. One of my companions had long 
 cherished the greatest envy of my superiority. In a pas- 
 de-deux which we performed together, as a lover and his 
 mistress, he kicked my shins; I boxed his ears; he retorted 
 by breaking on my head the guitar with which he was se- 
 renading me, and scratching my face in such a manner 
 that the next time the troop went out I was left at home 
 
98 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 as unfit to be seen. Whatever might ail my head, my 
 heels were in good order : I took to them as usual, and 
 never stopped till I had reached the quarter most remote 
 from where the Scyrote lived. 
 
 '*Here 1 might dance on my own account as much as I 
 pleased, but found nobody to dance to except the lowest 
 rabble. In retiring out of my master's latitude I had out- 
 stepped my own vantage-ground. From exhibitingin palaces 
 to assemblies of the great, amid showers of gold, I was re- 
 duced to toil in taverns for the amusement of ruffians, who 
 thought a few paras a very liberal reward, after perhaps 
 mortifying my pride into the bargain, by invidious com- 
 parisons with some arrant posture-maker. Obliged to lower 
 the tone of my performance to the standard of my new 
 patrons, I lost all that finish and delicacy of movement for 
 which my dancing had been celebrated, and dwindled into 
 little better than a tumbler. 
 
 "Nor was this all. One night, after drudging to amuse 
 a set of brutes, I met with such ill treatment from the 
 Bacchantes their companions, as to make me expect with 
 my poor lyre the end of Orpheus. Thank God ! the pa- 
 nagia — knowing how observant I always had been of her 
 festivals — protected me even against her own sex, and my 
 poor life was saved, little worth as it was. This signal 
 escape led me to serious reflections. 
 
 "I had always been punctual in my prayers, both be- 
 fore dancing and after ; and had as yet committed no very 
 heinous sin, save once on a fast-day eating some nice 
 yaoort, '"* which a Turk gave me after a long performance; 
 but I did not know what worse might happen in my daily 
 intercourse with infidels ; and I determined to avoid the 
 danger by quilting a profession, which, if distinguished, 
 is also dangerous, and full of hasard to one's faith and 
 morals. 
 
 "Alas ! it was too late to execute my good intentions I 
 My special admirers, brought in contact at a tavern with 
 
ANASTASIUS. 99 
 
 the professed supporters of a rival dancer, the two factions 
 came to a pitched battle, in which a life or two were lost, 
 while I — the innocent cause of the disturbance — was taken 
 up by the patrole, and thrown into this place of wretched- 
 ness ; more than ever convinced of the truth of all my ho- 
 noured mother's predictions : — for what were the old lady 
 of Volo, who washed her hands of me when I would kiss 
 her no longer ; the Hydriote captain, who would not let 
 me dance with my messmates, after giving me shelter on 
 board his ship ; the baker who first fed, and next slily des- 
 tined me to a snug corner in his oven ; the Scyrote, who 
 cured, who entertained, and afterwards robbed me of all 
 my lawful gains; and the caleondjees, who went about my 
 zealous champions, in order to get me almost torn to 
 pieces limb by limb, and locked up in the bagnio — but so 
 many persons, at first all professing themselves my stanch 
 and trusty friends ! and such is the horror with which that 
 word now inspires me, that were I to hear the panagia 
 herself say she was my friend, great as hitherto has been 
 the holy lady's goodness, I should expect her to end by 
 playing me some scurvy trick !" 
 
 Here ended my companion's tale — the faithful picture 
 of his mind, in which moral rectitude and affection were 
 strangely combined with conceit, credulity, and bigotry. 
 In the wide range of social intercourse this odd mixture 
 might not, perhaps, have taken much hold on my harder 
 compound ; nor should I greatly have coveted an intimacy 
 with the character of a stage-dancer grafted on a peasant; 
 but in the narrow precincts of the bagnio fastidiousness 
 wears out, and constant propinquity produced different senti- 
 ments; and the more, as athwart Anagnosti's apparent fa- 
 cility of temper and tenderness of heart there broke forth a 
 sort of determined sturdiness on certain points, which all 
 the laxity of his education and companions had never re 
 moved, and which, inclined as one might be to smile at his 
 studied exterior, induced a sort of respect for the stuff 
 
100 ANASTASIUS, 
 
 within. Insensibly, therefore, an attachment grew between 
 us, which, though it daily increased, gave my companion 
 no alarm, until one day I remarked how great an allevia- 
 tion our misery had derived from our friendship. At this 
 unguarded speech Anagnosti turned pale. ** Friendship 1" 
 repeated he; **Say not sol It will again hring me ill for- 
 tune. Like the rest of my friends, you will ultimately be 
 my bane." 
 
 ** Words," answered I, laughing, *' cannot alter the na- 
 ture of things. "We certainly at this moment are friends, 
 and warm ones too : for I believe each would willingly 
 lay down his life for the other; and even if the dangers of 
 friendship should now make us resolve to become bitter 
 enemies, it would already be too late; — already would the 
 present evil fail to insure redemption from the future one! 
 The mischief is done; the spell is upon you." 
 
 '* Then," said Anagnosti, after ruminating a Hllle, "if 
 we cannot be less than friends, let us be more ! Let us 
 become brothers; let religion sanctify our intimacy, so as 
 to divest it of its dangers;" — and upon this he proposed 
 to me the solemn ceremony, " which, in our church, unites 
 two friends of either sex in the face of the altar by solemn 
 vows, gives them the endearing appellation of brothers or 
 sisters, and imposes upon them the sacred obligation ta 
 stand by each other in life and in death. 
 
 Anagnosti, though he certainly had in his different avo- 
 cations run away full as often as he had stood his ground, 
 and had derived from his last mode of life a certain outward 
 tinge of effeminacy, yet in reality was as brave as affec- 
 tionate. He had more than once resisted his guardians 
 most manfully in their unjust behests; he had even de- 
 fended his new friend at the risk of his life : — for, one day 
 that, disabled by illness, I lay at the mercy of every ag- 
 gressor, he had wrested from a fellow slave the digger le- 
 velled at my breast for the sake of the worn-out capolc on 
 my back; and from his disposition there was every reason 
 
ANASTASIUS. 101 
 
 to expect that the fruits and the burthens of our alliance 
 would ever be equally shared. The first day, therefore, that 
 we could obtain the permission, we went to a priest in the 
 bagnio, and desired the holy man, after the short service 
 which our straitened means permitted, to accomplish the 
 indissoluble union. At first the venerable papas treated the 
 request as a jest. **The practice," he said, '*was quite 
 obsolete, except among the most barbarous clans of the re- 
 motest provinces. Epirotes, and other savages who like 
 ihem lived in eternal strife, might indeed still retain such 
 old customs, '"^ but the people at Constantinople were sufii- 
 ciently employed in minding their own concerns, without 
 gratuitously engaging to risk their lives for others." This 
 remonstrance producing no effect, the priest warned us 
 more earnestly to consider the consequences, before wc 
 irrevocably bound ourselves by so serious an engagement. 
 Still we insisted, and he at last complied. He enveloped us 
 in the sacred veil, symbol of the holy ties we contracted, 
 and made us swear on our knees, in the face of Heaven,. 
 to share together hke brothers, while we breathed, both 
 good and adverse fortune. 
 
 The solemn vow pronounced, and Heaven fervently 
 implored to bless it, we again arose. I shook Anagnosti 
 by the hand, and could not refrain from saying, ** though 
 now brothers, still friends as before." 
 
 He involuntarily shuddered. AH his fears recurred; 
 and on casting off the sacred zone, we found on It a fresh 
 stain of blood. How it came there neither of us could 
 guess. Both searched for the cause : none could be dis- 
 covered; and we at last forgot the evil omen. 
 
 The very period which saw our intimacy indissolubly 
 riveted was fated to be that of our separation. Whether 
 at the time of my imprisonment the length of my de- 
 tention had been fixed, or whether (as I afterwards sus- 
 pected) Mavroyeni, while apparently rejecting my apphca- 
 tion, in reality had procured my deliverance,— one morn- 
 
102 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ing, when I least expected my freedom, I was bidden to 
 quit the bagnio. I say *' bidden;" for, thinking the thing 
 optional, I at first, in conformity with my sacred engage- 
 ment, refused to accept the boon offered, unless shared by 
 my friend. But I now found myself as little allowed to 
 stay in, as I had before been to stay out of the bagnio, 
 at my pleasure. I must resume my liberty whether I 
 chose or not, and was very near being driven by force out 
 of prison, — a somewhat unusual circumstance ! Anagnosti 
 tried to sweeten the bitterness of my release, by observ- 
 ing, that it might be rendered instrumental in procuring his 
 own. ** Remember," said he, "^that in losing you, I lose 
 
 all. Anastasius, my — friend ! remember," 
 
 Here his sobs interrupted his speech, and the guards, 
 tired of our tedious leave-taking, tore us asunder. After 
 proceeding on a few yards, I turned round to cast one more 
 last look after my companion : but already the gates had 
 been shut behind me; and I went forth — shaking off indeed 
 the dust of my prison, and with all Constantinople open 
 before me, — but without a single particle of that rap- 
 turous joy of heart which I always fancied must crown 
 the hour of my liberation. 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 To enjoy liberty one must live, and to live one must 
 eat, and I had not a para in the world to purchase me a 
 meal. In this embarrassing situation I thought of my old 
 patron. If he really had procured my freedom, it was 
 proper to thank him ; if not, it still was wise to do so. In 
 the first case, he might be induced by my sense of past 
 kindness to seek still greater claims to my future gratitude 
 — since benefactors often resemble gamblers, who double 
 
 i 
 
ANASTASIUS. 103 
 
 their stakes rather than lose the benefit of a first throw; 
 and in the latter case, the thanks I gave for imaginary ser- 
 vices would make the drogueman wish to deserve them by 
 real obligations. Gratitude I had often found most pro- 
 ductive when it preceded the benefit. Besides, I had my 
 friend Anagnosti to intercede for; and I was desirous to 
 strike the iron while it was hot. 
 
 Most willingly would I have smartened myself up a 
 little for the visit. Not only a tattered appearance 
 smooths the way but indifferently athwart the outpost 
 of pampered domestics, who guard the approaches of the 
 great man's citadel; it often makes the master himself 
 ashamed of his petitioner. The rich are ever ready to 
 accuse the poor of wanting proper respect, when they 
 offend the fastidious eye of pride by the display of their 
 wretchedness. The utmost I could do, however, was to 
 arrange my rags gracefully ; and — repeating to myself, as 
 I strutted along, that a man's innate dignity of mien and 
 manners were a sufficient passport even to the presence of 
 a king — I boldly went to the fanar, and with the least 
 possible tremor knocked at Mavroyeni's door. 
 
 It certainly opened at my summons, but not to let me 
 enter. The porter who answered, holding it cautiously 
 ajar, contrived to fill the whole aperture with his own per- 
 son, until he had most leisurely surveyed mine. While 
 thus examined, I recognised in my surveyor an old ac- 
 quaintance. So it seems he did in me; for when I asked 
 to see his master, he banged the door in my face, without 
 a syllable of reply. It was just what I myself had done a 
 dozen times, when with Mavroyeni at Argos. The un- 
 couthness of the janitor's reception, therefore, I thought, 
 must originate higher. Servants behaved not thus, unless 
 they felt their conduct sanctioned by their masters; for 
 dependants know the antipathies of their patrons by instinct. 
 ^'Hie thee hence, therefore, Anastasius," exclaimed I; 
 
104 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 "thou hast no longer any business near this threshold :" 
 and hereupon I walked away. 
 
 At that instant the same door burst open again, and 
 almost flew off its hinges, I looked back. It was to let 
 out Mavroyeni himself. Convinced that an attempt to ac- 
 cost him would only expose me to fresh mortifications, I 
 now felt as solicitous to avoid his eye as I had been before 
 to be admitted to his presence. Hastily drawing back my 
 head, I passed on, or ralher ran away, as if it had been 
 an ignominy even to be seen near the drogueman's abode. 
 
 Heated with my race, I rushed into the first coffee-house 
 on my way, and observing a large bowl of hoshab' most 
 invitingly set out on the counter, greedily lifted it to my 
 lips, and gulped down the icy beverage. I had no earthly 
 means of payment; but heaven came to my assistance. 
 Exhausted with inanition, I felt loo weak to resist the 
 sudden chill : it struck me to the heart. I reeled back- 
 wards, and fell senseless on the floor. 
 
 How long the fit lasted I am unable to lell. All I know 
 is, that when my senses returned I found myself in a smart 
 jog trot, bumping at the back of a hamal, and travelHng 
 in this inconvenient posture at the rate of a league an 
 hour, up one dirty lane and down another; — but whither 
 was beyond my power to guess. 
 
 I therefore made free to ask the question, and was but 
 little pleased with the information obtained. Convicted in 
 the shop by my sudden seizure of a confirmed plague, the 
 master had only felt desirous to get rid as soon as possible 
 of so unwelcome a customer, and had called in the porter 
 aforesaid, to convey me to the hospital. Thither I was 
 speeding as fast as another man's legs could carry my per- 
 son : for even during the above account my bearer slack- 
 ened not his pace, but kept jogging on as lustily as before. 
 
 I took the liberty of representing that there was a mis- 
 lake in the case. How^ever weak and exhausted, I was 
 
ANASTASIUS. 105 
 
 totally free from any infectious disorder. *' Nothing more 
 likely," answered the hamal; **hut he was paid for the 
 job, and must earn his fare;" and upon this he only 
 grasped me somewhat tighter than he had done before, for 
 fear that, being less ill than he had imagined, I might con- 
 trive more easily to give him the slip. In vain I insisted 
 upon being let loose, and excused from going where, if I 
 brought not the plague, I was sure to find it. My ex- 
 postulations were of no avail; and I therefore tried to 
 liberate myself by pummeUing my vehicle with all my 
 might: — but the feeble impression of my unnerved fist 
 on the tough hide of my obstinate beast, instead of making 
 him throw me off, only served to quicken his pace. 
 
 I now resorted to the last means of salvation in my 
 power, fixed my claws in the brawny throat of the mis- 
 creant, and squeezed him almost to suffocation. Finding 
 his load became too troublesome, he at last let me slip 
 down from his back to the ground, swore I was the most 
 refractory piece of goods he ever had carried, and left me, 
 in order to seek elsewhere an easier fare. 
 
 One street appeared to me as good as another to die in; 
 — and my present sensations foreboded nothing else. I 
 crawled to a stepping-stone near the place where I had 
 been deposited, and on that pillow resigned myself to my 
 fate. 
 
 So near, in fact, seemed my exit, that a novelist writing 
 my history would have availed himself of the circumstance 
 happily to terminate his first volume, and to leave me ir- 
 retrievably for dead in the opinion of his reader, until my 
 unexpected resurrection at the beginning of volume the 
 second. Writing in the first person, I cannot keep my 
 friends in this state of agreeable suspense, or conceal from 
 them one single moment that I lived on : but it was for 
 some time in such wretchedness as would not even leave 
 the most fastidious critic any pretence to find fault with 
 the proceeding. One man passed by mc and another, 
 
106 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 and another, and several stopped and looked; but, when 
 their curiosity was satisfied, all went on again, only shrug- 
 ging up their shoulders. No one of my own sex offered me 
 the least assistance. At last came two females. For several 
 minutes ere they reached my resting-place, their incessant 
 loquacity had warned me of their approach; but I was 
 too ill to look up, and had closed my eyes. ** Bless me," 
 said the one, '*I see something alive there!" *' Bless 
 me," said the other, ** and so do I!" ** A man!" cried 
 the first. ** A handsome youth, I declare!" cried the 
 second. ''Unwell," rejoined the little one: ** Dying, I 
 fear," resumed the tall one. **How like Anastasius !" ex- 
 claimed the former. ''Himself, as I live!" replied the 
 latter. "Then, indeed!" continued the other, in a saga- 
 cious whisper, " I am very much afraid, neighbour, that 
 he is not dying, but only dead drunk." — Enviable effects 
 of a good name. 
 
 My character was now to me a matter of life and death. 
 "No," said I, therefore — making an effort to speak, but 
 in a scarce audible voice; — '*it is not drunkenness that 
 oppresses me: it is suffering— it is starvation." 
 
 At this speech, the women both scream out in asto- 
 nishment; both talk at the same time. They want to 
 know the how, the when, the where. "Torment me not 
 with questions," cried I; " but if you have any humanity, 
 get me conveyed to St. Demetrius.'^ Pay the five piastres 
 required for my admission; and expect not to be repaid in 
 this world." Saying this, I again fainted away. 
 
 The first perception which followed this second fit was 
 that of an entirely new change of objects. The women had 
 succeeded in their humane endeavours, and I was lying 
 under a fdthy coverlet, on a filthy pallet, in the filthy 
 hospital in question, next to a dead man, whose pulse, 
 the would-be physician of the place was just in the act of 
 feeling, — assuring some by-standers that it was perfectly 
 quiet, and no longer showed any symptom of fever. 
 
k 
 
 ANASTASIUS. 107 
 
 I shall not finish the picture of the disgusting abode, 
 where nevertheless I had been introduced only out of sheer 
 humanity. Suffice it to say, that under its truly hospi- 
 table roof every nuisance found a home, medicine alone 
 excepted. A scanty charity was the chief support of the 
 institution, and an unwieldy governor the chief object sup- 
 ported. Yet, after a fair contest between my constitution 
 and my pleurisy, in which neither side received the least 
 assistance from doubtful prescriptions, the former got the 
 better. The father of nine helpless orphans expired by my 
 side, and I recovered. 
 
 It was during my convalescence that I most forcibly felt 
 all the wretchedness of my receptacle : it was during my 
 convalescence also, that I most fully owned my unworthi- 
 ness of a better. '* But," cried I, tossing about on my hard 
 couch, **the deadliest poisons compose the most salu- 
 tiferous medicines, and the direst calamities produce the 
 best resolves. It will be my own fault if I rise not from 
 this bed of sickness and suffering both wiser and worthier !" 
 Thus I spoke while my pulse still beat low, and my passions 
 were still weak. 
 
 At last came the day which I fancied would never come 
 — that of my release from the hospital. It dawned about a 
 month after I had entered the dismal place. I sallied forth 
 at mid-day; and indescribable was the rapture with which 
 I first again breathed a pure air, and beheld the whole ex- 
 panse of an azure sky. 
 
 Still was I as much as ever at a loss how to subsist. 
 Absorbed in this weighty consideration, I slowly walked 
 down the hill of St. Demetrius, when I fancied I discerned 
 at a distance a caravan of travellers, who with a slow and 
 steady pace were advancing towards Pera, the residence of 
 the Franks at Constantinople. I mechanically quickened 
 my steps, in order to survey the procession more closely. 
 
 First in the order of march came a clumsy calash, 
 stowed as full as it could hold of wondering travellers; next 
 
108 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 came a heavy araba,^ loaded with as many trunks, port- 
 manteaus, parcels, and packages, as it could well carry; 
 and lastly led up the rear a grim-looking Tartar,"^ keeping 
 order among half a dozen Frank servants of every descrip- 
 tion, jogging heavily along on their worn-out jades. At 
 this sight the droguemanic blood began to speak within 
 me. *' These are strangers, Anastasius," it whispered: 
 "be thou their interpreter, and thy livelihood is secured." 
 I obeyed the inward voice as an inspiration from heaven, 
 and, after smartening myself up a Httle, approached the 
 first carriage. 
 
 ** Welcome to Pera, excellencies!" said I, with a pro- 
 found bow, to the party within. At these words up started 
 two gaunt figures in nightcaps, with spectacles on their 
 noses, and German pipes in their mouths — whose respective 
 corners still kept mechanically puffing whiffs of smoke at 
 each other. The first action which followed was to lay 
 their hands on the blunderbusses hung round the carriage ; 
 but seeing me alone, on foot, and to all appearance not 
 very formidable, they seemed after some consultation to 
 think they might venture not to fire, and only kept staring 
 at me in profound silence. I therefore repeated my salute 
 in a more articulate manner, and again said, ** Welcome, 
 excellencies, to Pera, where you are most anxiously ex- 
 pected. As you will probably want a skilful interpreter, 
 give me leave to recommend a most unexceptionable person 
 — I mean myself. Respectable references, I know, are in- 
 dispensable in a place where every one is on the watch to 
 impose upon the unwary traveller; but such I think I can 
 name. As to what character they may give me; that,'^ — 
 added I with a modest bow, — '*tliat it would ill become 
 your humble servant himself to enlarge upon." 
 
 At so Christian-like a speech, uttered in the very heart 
 of Turkey, the travellers grinned from ear to ear with de- 
 light. It produced another short consultation ; after which 
 the two chiefs cried out in chorus " Oui, dial pcsoln ;'* and 
 
I 
 
 ANASTASIUS. 109 
 
 bade me mount by their side. This enabled me, after a 
 little compliment on Germany, their birth-place, and oa 
 their proficiency in the French idiom, immediately to 
 enter upon the duties of my office — for which I thought 
 myself sufficiently qualified, by the squibs which I had 
 heard the drogueman of the Porte, Morosi, let off, in 
 company with my patron, at the diplomatic corps of Pera. 
 **This edifice," said I, pointing to the first building of 
 note in the suburb which we met in our way, ** is the palace 
 of the ich-oglans — the sultan's pages. It is the most 
 fruitful seminary of favourites, of pashas, and of sultanas' 
 husbands.^ In that direction lives that most respectable of 
 characters the imperial internuncio*' — the Baron Herbert; 
 who, with all the shrewdness of a thorough-paced mi- 
 nister, combines all the playful simplicity of a child. Fur- 
 ther on dwells the French ambassador. Monsieur de Choi- 
 seul-Gouffier — a very great man in little things; and op- 
 posite him lives his antagonist in taste, politics and coun- 
 try, the English envoy, Sir Robert Ainslie — of whom the 
 world maintains exactly the reverse. Quite at the bottom 
 of the street, likewise facing each other, live the envoys of 
 Russia and of Sweden. ' The former I feel bound to re- 
 spect, whatever be his merit; the latter really possesses 
 much. He is an Armenian, who writes in French a history 
 of Turkey. He has lately made with his bookseller an 
 exchange profitable to both,— he having given his manu- 
 script, and the other his daughter: that is to say, the 
 Armenian a single voluminous work, and the Frenchman a 
 brief epitome of his whole shop. Wedged in between the 
 palaces of Spain and Portugal is that of the Dutch ambas- 
 sador, whose name, Vandendiddem-tolgelder,^ is almost 
 too long for these short autumn days, and whose head is 
 thought to be almost as long as his name : inasmuch as he 
 regularly receives, twice a week, the Leyden gazette; 
 which renders him beyond all controversy the best in- 
 formed of the whole Christian corps diplomatique, with 
 
no ANASTASIUS. 
 
 regard to Turkish politics. You see, gentlemen, the re- 
 presentatives of all the potentates of Christendom, from 
 Petersburgh to Lisbon, and from Stockholm to Naples, are 
 here penned up together in this single narrow street, where 
 they have the advantage of living as far as possible from 
 the Turks among whom they come to reside, and of watch- 
 ing all day long the motions of their own colleagues, from 
 their most distant journies to the sublime Porte, to their 
 most ordinary visits to the recesses of their gardens." 
 
 These little specimens of my savoir-dire seemed to 
 please my German friends. They immediately noted them 
 down in their huge memorandum-books, which, no more 
 than their short pipes, were never left an instant unem- 
 ployed. Scarce had the party stepped into the inn which 
 I was allowed to recommend, when they engaged me for 
 the whole fortnight which they meant to devote to the 
 survey of the Turkish capital. 
 
 My travellers were of the true inquisitive sort. Every 
 body used to fly at their approach ; a circumstance highly 
 favourable to my interest. Under the notion of always ap- 
 plying for information at the fountain-head, they would stop 
 the surliest Turk they met, to ask why Moslemen locked up 
 their women. One day they begged the imperial minis- 
 ter, at his own table, to tell them confidentially whether 
 Austria was tobe trusted. Theywerevery solicitous to know 
 from the Piussian envoy the number of Catherine's lovers ; 
 and they pressed hard for an audience of thekislar aga,9 only 
 to inquire whence came the best black eunuchs. Had they 
 been in company wiUi the grand mufti, they certainly 
 would have asked his honest opinion of the mission of Mo- 
 hammed; and they would scarce have neglected the op- 
 portunity, had it offered, of inquiring of the sultan himself 
 whether he was legitimate heir to the califate, as he as- 
 serted. In consequence of this straight-forward system I 
 was every moment obliged to interfere, and to pledge my- 
 self for the guiltless intentions of our travellers. The sta- 
 
ANASTASIUS. Ill 
 
 tislics of the empire, its goverament, politics, finances, etc. 
 they indeed troubled themselves little about. All such 
 things they thought might be learnt much more compen- 
 diously at home from the Leipsic gazetteer; but the botany 
 and mineralogy of the country were what they studied both 
 with body and soul. Every day we brought home from 
 our excursions such heaps of what the ignorant chose to 
 call hay and stones, that the wags whom we met on our 
 way used to ask whether these were for food and lodging; 
 while the more fanatical among the Turks swore we car- 
 ried away patterns of the country, in order to sell it to the 
 infidels; and one party, by way of giving us enough of 
 what we wanted, was near stoning us to death. Hereupon, 
 to elude observation, my cunning travellers determined to 
 dress after the country fashion : but this only made bad 
 worse ; for they wore their new garb so awkwardly, that 
 the natives began to think they put it on in mockery, and 
 were frequently near stripping them to the skin; inde- 
 pendent of which, whenever they went out, they got so 
 entangled in their shaksheers and trowsers, their shawls 
 and their papooshes, that our progress might be traced by 
 the mere relics of their habiliments which strewed the 
 road. Sole manager both of the home and foreign depart- 
 ment, I however tried to give all possible respectability to 
 their appearance, and never would suffer their dignity to 
 be committed by paltry savings; at the same time, that, to 
 show them how careful I was of their money, I took care 
 sometimes to detain them an hour or two in driving a close 
 bargain about a few paras, — especially when I saw them 
 in a hurry. Accordingly, if they had any fault to find 
 with me, it was for my over-scrupulous economy. That 
 failing alone excepted, they thought me a treasure ; and 
 so I certainly found them. 
 
 The fortnight of their intended stay having elapsed, they 
 were all impatience to depart. Out of pure regard for 
 science I contrived to prolong their sojourn another fort- 
 
112 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 night, by various little delays, which, with a little industry, 
 I brought about in the most natural way imaginable, but 
 which I joined them in lamenting exceedingly : and when 
 at last they set off — which I saw with very sincere regret— 
 I was left by them in possession of a most flattering written 
 testimonial of my zeal and fidelity. As to their behaviour 
 to me, its liberality might be sufficiently inferred from the 
 change in my appearance. 
 
 This first experiment gave me a taste for the tergiumanic 
 life. It also increased my means of success in that depart- 
 ment. Till I took up my residence at Pera, I had little in- 
 tercourse with that odd race of people yclept Franks, ex- 
 cept through the stray specimens that now and then 
 crossed the harbour, on a visit of curiosity or business to 
 Constantinople. I now got acquainted with their Ways, 
 while they became familiarised with my person. This 
 gradually procured me the advantage of seeing and serving, 
 in my new capacity, samples of almost every nation of 
 Europe. Thus I formed a sort of polyglot collection of 
 certificates of my own ability and merits, which I filed 
 very neatly on a red tape according to the order of their 
 dates, and to a sight of which I treated every new comer 
 whom I thought worthy of that distinction. 
 
 Once, however, the lofty manner and the imperious 
 tone of an English traveller, newly arrived, completely de- 
 ceived me. From his fastidiousness I made no doubt I 
 was addressing some great mylordo : it was a button-maker 
 to whom I had the honour of bowing. He came red hot 
 from a place called Birmingham, to show the Turks sam- 
 ples of his manufacture. Unfortunately Turks wear no but- 
 tons, at least such as he dealt in; at which discovery he felt 
 exceedingly wroth. My ill-fated back was destined to feel the 
 first brunt of his ill-humour. After spending nearly two 
 hours in spelling every word of every one of my certificates 
 — '* This then," said he, in a scarce intelligible idiom, which 
 he fancied to be French, *' is the evidence of your deserts ?" 
 
ANASTASIUS. 113 
 
 **It is," answered I, with an inclination of the heatd. 
 *' And I am to make it the rule of my hehaviour?" '*If 
 your excellency be pleased to have that goodness," replied 
 I, smirking most agreeably. "Very well," resumed the 
 traitor, never moving a muscle of his insipid countenance, 
 "my excellency will have that goodness." And up he 
 gets, gravely walks — ^without uttering another syllable — 
 to the door, turns the key in the lock, takes a little bit of a 
 pistol scarce five inches long— also from Birmingham, I 
 suppose — out of his pocket, snatches up a cudgel as thick 
 as my wrist, and turning short upon me, who stood won- 
 dering in what this strange prelude was to end, holds the 
 pistol to my throat, and lays the cane across my back. 
 
 This operation performed to his satisfaction: *'It was 
 No. 5," coolly said the miscreant, ** whose contents I 
 thought it right to comply with first; as being written by 
 one of my countrymen, and because I make it a rule, in 
 every species of business, to get the worst part over first. 
 Had you understood our language — as an interpreter by 
 profession ought — you might have known the certificate 
 in question to be a solemn adjuration to all the writer's 
 countrymen to treat you as I have had the pleasure of 
 doing; and all that remains for you to perform is to give 
 me a regular receipt, such as I may have to show." 
 
 The pistol was still tickling my throat, I jammed up 
 against the wall, and the button-maker six feet high, and 
 as strong as a horse. All therefore I could do in the way of 
 heroism would have been to have let him blow out my 
 brains at once; — after which, adieu my turn, at least here 
 below ! I therefore signed, had the satisfaction of seeing 
 the receipt neatly folded up and deposited in a little red 
 morocco pocket-book with silver clasps, was offered a se- 
 quin for the exercise I had afforded, took the money, and, 
 leaving the button-maker to write home what mean rascals 
 the Greeks were, departed fully impressed with the useful- 
 ness of learning languages. 
 
 '• 8 
 
Almosl ever) -t;»o.i^.ig the man of buttons used to walk 
 from Pera, where he had his lodgings, to a merchant's at 
 Galata, from whence he frequently returned home pretty 
 late at night, without any escort — trusting to his small 
 pocket instrument, and to his own colossal stature, for his 
 safety. A dexterous thrust, at an unexpected turn, might 
 easily have sent him to the shades below; but this would 
 not have sufficed to assuage my thirst for just revenge. I 
 wished to inflict a shame more deep, more lasting than my 
 owu, and which, like Prometheus's vulture, should keep 
 gnawing the traitor's heart while he lived. His great am- 
 bition at Constantinople was to boast the good graces of 
 some Turkish female— young or old, fair or ugly, no mat- 
 ter I On this laudable wish I founded my scheme. 
 
 Mullled up in the feridjee which conceals the figure of 
 the Mohammedan fair, and the veil which covers their 
 faces, I went and seated myself, immediately after dusk, 
 on one of the tombstones of the extensive cemetery of Ga- 
 lata, where my traveller had to pass. 
 
 He soon arrived, and, as I expected, stopped to survey 
 the lonely fair one, whose appearance seemed to invite a 
 comforter. The bait took. My friend, on his nearer ap- 
 proach, aware that his pantomime was more intelligible 
 than his idiom, had recourse to the universal language : 
 he held up a sequin — and on the strength of this gift be- 
 comes more enterprising. Profane hands are laid on my 
 veil. I resist : — but by way of compromise for keeping con- 
 cealed my features, I show my necklace, my bracelets, my 
 girdle. In an infantine manner I slip the manacles from 
 ray own wrists over those of my amorous shepherd, and, 
 ])efore his suspicions are aroused, have the satisfaction to 
 see him fast bound in chains, not only of airy love, but 
 of good solid brass; and with a soft lisp wish him joy of 
 being at once handcufled and pinioned. It was now I 
 showed my face, and drew out my handjar.'" Perceiving 
 an inclination to remonstrate, "No noise," cried I, ''or 
 
ANASTASIUS. 115 
 
 you die; but return mo the receipt." Unable to slir, my 
 prisoner in a surly tone bade me take it myself. 1 did 
 so, and thanked him; **but," added I, ''as we have not 
 here — as with you — all the conveniences for writing, accept 
 the acknowledgment of the poor and illiterate;" saying 
 which, I drew the holy mark of the cross after the Greek 
 form, neatly but indelibly, with the button-maker's own 
 sequin, on his clumsy forehead; poured into the wound 
 some of the gunpowder out of his pouch ; and, apologising 
 for the poorness of the entertainment, bade him good-night, 
 and walked off. 
 
 A troop of caleondjees of my acquaintance, reeling home 
 from a tavern, happened to come up just as I retired, and 
 look all that I had left. The next morning the man of 
 buttons departed from Constantinople without sound of 
 trumpet, before sunrise ; and never since has been heard 
 of in the Turkish dominions. 
 
 This Httle frolic, at the expense of the English specu- 
 lator, recommended me to a French chevalier, come to 
 Stambool on a visit to his kinsman, the ambassador. The 
 lively young gentleman swore he wanted no other certifi- 
 cate of my character than my prowess. His object in un- 
 dertaking the long journey to Turkey seemed to be to play 
 on the guitar, and to compose French love songs. Twice 
 a week a messenger of the embassy was despatched to 
 Paris, with M. de Vial's effusions, in order that his friends 
 at home might see how he employed his time abroad. 
 Par contre, he had deterniined, as soon as he returned to 
 France, and found himself at leisure, to write a detailed 
 account of Turkey — rather, however, as it ought to be, 
 than as it was. For M. de Vial disapproved of the Otho- 
 man system in toto : and hence he deemed it sheer loss of 
 time to visit the curiosities of its capital. The only thing 
 he could have liked — had he not been too busy learning 
 the romeika — was an affaire de coeur with the favourite 
 sultana; and for a long while he continued exceedingly 
 
 8 * 
 
llf> ANASTASIUS. 
 
 anxious to give the ladies of the imperial harem a fete ori 
 tlie Black Sea ; but that project failing, from their sending 
 no answers to his notes, he wondered who could bear the 
 dowdies of Constantinople , that had seen the Trois Sul- 
 tanes of Marmontel at the Paris opera. In truth, M. de 
 Vial had no patience with ihe barbarians. Their language 
 was a gibberish, oh Con nentendait rien; and they had 
 so little savolr vivre, that they let their heads be chopped 
 off like cabbage-tops. Desirous, however, of treating them 
 to a sight of the last Paris fashions, he decked out his ne- 
 ther man in pea-green coloured clolh, and got himself 
 chastised by a hot-headed emir," for thus profaning the 
 forbidden colour — almost too sacred with the Turks for the 
 head itself. In his turn M. de Vial sent the cousin of Mo- 
 hammed a challenge, with which the emir lit his pipe. 
 At last, after a whole day uselessly employed in ogling the 
 sultana mother through a huge telescope, from the tower 
 of Galata, the chevalier felt seized with a desperate fit of 
 ennui, laid in a reasonable stock of embroidered handker- 
 chiefs, to throw to the Paris belles after a Turkish fashion, 
 which the Turks know nothing of, and determined to bid 
 adieu to Pera. My services and talents he transferred ere 
 he went to a flaxen-headed Swedish baron, whose ruddy 
 face had inflamed the susceptible heart of the drogue- 
 maness of the Venetian mission, and who was so highly fa- 
 voured by his doting mistress, that every night she allowed 
 him to pay her whole loss at tresette. This lady was an 
 uncommon proficient in writing. Proud of an accomplish- 
 ment which so few of her colleagues possessed, she used 
 every morning to fire at her lover a little billet-doux of 
 three or four pages. These refreshing epistles I came to 
 call for as regularly as for the water from the well, the mo- 
 ment the husband was supposed to have gone forth to the 
 reis-effendee, with the scarce shorter memorials of the Se- 
 renissima Republica — at that period any thing but serene. 
 This same husband, though only four feet high, presumed 
 
ANASTASIUS. 117 
 
 to be jealous; and the correspondence, therefore, was to be 
 kept from his knowledge — a circumstance which rendered 
 my office of Mercury an employment of some trust. 
 
 I acted accordingly. Tired of being postman without 
 pay, I one day hinted to the lady that I should expect 
 some species of acknowledgment for my trouble. Madame 
 
 D i was one of those fair ones for whom Cupid must tip 
 
 his darts with gold, or they recoiled unfelt. She resented 
 my freedom, called me a low-born fellow, and forbade mc 
 her presence. The tide of amorous billets now ceased to 
 flow for want of a channel. Nothing but my forgiveness 
 of the insult could make it resume its course. On the 
 part of the lady, accordingly, advances were soon made 
 towards a reconciliation, and on mine, every spark of re- 
 sentment was magnanimously extinguished until further 
 occasion. I saw myself formally reinstated in my daily 
 office. 
 
 The Hyperborean lover — not quite so brisk a corres- 
 pondent as his mistress — used to answer about one letter 
 in three or four. This, however, in the course of a few 
 weeks began to form a very respectable amatory collection. 
 The pink-edged , perfumed epistles — regularly endorsed — 
 were all deposited by the delighted droguemaness in a httle 
 mother-of-pearl casket, which she kept for the benefit of 
 her heirs by the side of her reliquary. From one of those 
 strange incidents which will happen in the course of things, 
 this casket, though most carefully locked up, fell into ray 
 hands ; but no contrivance of mine could conjure the key 
 out of the lady's unfathomable pocket. She used to sleep 
 with the huge receptacle under her pillow, in order to 
 obtain pleasant dreams. It mattered little : I had no sort 
 of curiosity to peruse the correspondence. I contented 
 myself with carefully wrapping up the box, sealing the 
 cover, and begging the signer drogucraan — that is to say, 
 thesiguora's husband— to keep llie parcel intrust for me, 
 as most valuable property, and such as could not be com- 
 
118 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 mitted to fitter hands. The rod thus kept suspended over 
 his faithless spouse, the reward of my discretion past and 
 future was demanded with becoming humihty; and to do 
 
 Madame D i justice, when she found that no other 
 
 way of extricating herself was left, she showed every readi- 
 ness to listen to the voice of reason. 
 
 By some accident, however, the baron got wind of 
 these transactions, and so far from feeling flattered, as he 
 ought to have been, with the anxiety which his mistress 
 evinced to recover his letters, had the ingratitude to cavil 
 about the mode, and left the fair one to find what conso- 
 lation she could in the reperusal of his correspondence. 
 Jupiter's retreat became the signal for that of Mercury. 
 I wanted nothing more of the commonwealth of Venice, 
 and, with a mock farewell , left the droguemaness punished 
 alike in her pride and her avarice. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 No sooner had my various little trades rendered me a 
 person of some substance, than I began to think of purchas- 
 ing a berath : '—I mean one of those patents of exemption 
 from the rigour of Turkish despotism, which the sultan 
 originally granted to foreign ministers, in behalf only of 
 such rayahs as they had occasion to engage in their im- 
 mediate service, but which these excellent economists now 
 readily sell to whatever other subjects of the grand signer 
 are disposed to pay the current price of the article. To a 
 youth like me it was highly desirable to possess a paper, 
 through whose magic power a native might in the very ca- 
 pital of his natural sovereign outstep the limits of his juris- 
 diction, brave his authority, put himself on the footing of 
 
ANASTASIU8. 119 
 
 a stranger, and from being licreloforc an Armenian ol a 
 Greek, at once find himself transformed into a reputed 
 Italian, or German, or Frenchman, wear the gaudiest 
 colours in competition with the Turks themselves, and 
 strut about the streets in that summum bonum, a pair oi 
 yellow papooshes. 
 
 The thing had been put into my head by an Itahan mis- 
 sionary of the Propaganda, who, considering me as a sort 
 of stray from the Greeks, had determined to stow mc 
 safely within the pale of the Romans. On first perceiving 
 his drift I gave his pious exertions small encouragement ; 
 observing that early habits, as well of belief as of action, 
 could only be rooted out later in life, cither by the most 
 irresistible arguments, or the most palpable interest to 
 adopt different tenets. To this remark the missionary 
 only repUed, that he had a very general acquaintance at 
 Pera, and, consequently, possessed many opportunities of 
 recommending a well-disposed youth to travellers. The 
 observation was in point. Impressed with its full weight, 
 I began to indulge Padre Ambrogio, whenever I happened 
 to be out of place, with a little conference on the disputed 
 articles; and for every Greek variation from the Latin creed 
 which I yielded up, he used to find me a new situation. 
 Unfortunately, the discussion of the Greek liturgy ran so pa- 
 rallel with that of the Signora D — i's correspondence, and 
 the interviews with the friar were so interwoven with 
 those of the lady, that I sometimes confounded the two 
 subjects, and more than once, in a fit of absence, let Padre 
 Ambrogio into the mysteries of my negotiation, instead 
 of learning from him those of his faith. The ghostly con- 
 ferences, however, only ceased entirely when the friar 
 very nefariously disappointed me, in favour of another 
 neophyte, of an excellent employment, for which 1 had sa- 
 crificed the whole procession according to the Greeks, 
 Hearing of this flagrant act of bad faith, I called iq>on him 
 in a very great passion; told him I again disbelieved all 
 
120 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 that he had enticed me to believe; and, leaving him ex- 
 ceedingly dismayed at my unexpected rebellion, went to 
 dispel the confusion in my head by a walk on the road to 
 Dolma-backtch6. 
 
 The snow which had lain several days on the ground 
 having entirely disappeared, I met a good many people 
 taking the air; but who all looked, I thought, as if, like me, 
 they had been bewildered by some friar or derwish. At 
 last came a Turkish woman of rank, accompanied by a 
 long train of females. The pavement being narrow, I 
 stood up against the wall to let her pass. As she brushed 
 by me, her hand, gently pressing against the back of mine, 
 <'ave me reason to think that I had not been unnoticed. 
 A gay adventure seldom found me slow to engage in it, 
 be what it might the peril of the enterprise. I therefore 
 let the lively group trot on a few yards, and then turned 
 back hastily myself, in the manner of a person who re- 
 collects having left something behind. Thus, without 
 casting right or left a single glance which might savour of 
 design, I gave the lady an opportunity of minutely scruti- 
 nising my appearance, should she be disposed to cultivale 
 my merits. That done, I crossed over to the other side, 
 and stole away into a by-lane, for fear of rousing the sus- 
 picions of her suite. 
 
 The next day, however, I failed not at the same hour 
 to take a walk in the same street, and again did the 
 same the next day, and the next; in the full expecta- 
 tion, each time, of meeting with some faithful Iris, com- 
 missioned to give me the verbal assurance of my good for- 
 tune. 
 
 During a whole week, my punctuality continued without 
 the least abatement. As sure as the clock struck one, I 
 used to sally forth, and display my handsomely attired 
 person before every woman, younger old, fair or ugly, who 
 bore the least appearance of coming on my business. Vain 
 and fruitless diligence ! The busier females passed on with- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 121 
 
 out noticing my disconsolate figure at all; the less dili- 
 gent baggages, who remarked my airs and graces, only an- 
 swered them with laughing. Some, who had become fa- 
 mihar with my forlorn perambulations, ironically pitied 
 me for the cruelty of my mistress. It was worse when two 
 or three goules, that haunted the same street, seriously 
 undertook to console me under my disappointment, and 
 put me in the greatest fright, lest, by their unconcealed 
 advances in the broad glare of day, they should drive away 
 any messenger of love that might be on the wing. 
 
 At last I lost all patience, and v/as going in good earnest 
 to execute the resolution fifty times solemnly taken, and as 
 often again broken, of giving up the vain pursuit, when, 
 just as for the last time I paced down the oft-trodden 
 pavement, looking anxiously round on all sides to see what 
 good tidings might still be in the wind, I perceived a 
 Jewess— seemingly equally on the alert with myself — who 
 eyed me with a promising air. I coughed once or twice ; 
 and this signal inducing the old dame to approach, we 
 opened a parley. My answers tallying with her private 
 tokens, she soon became confidential. 
 
 **you must know," said she, *'I am a tradeswoman, 
 one who goes about to ladies' houses to provide them 
 with " 
 
 ** What signifies, my dear," cried I, interrupting her, 
 *' what you are, and what you provide your customers 
 with? That speaks for itself. Only tell me who the lady 
 is, who graciously condescends to make me the object of 
 your embassy." 
 
 ** The lady," answered the Jewess, **is the young wife 
 of an old Turkish effendee of very high rank. Her own 
 birth and fortune made her parents stipulate that her spouse 
 should have no other wife but herself. Nor has he; but 
 while he adheres to the letter of the agreement, he vio- 
 lates its spirit. In short, he totally neglects his handsome 
 helpmate. This the fair Esm^ properly resents— and. ..." 
 
122 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 "And in me," cried I, interrupting my informer^ 
 ** she shall find the avenger she deserves. Let us forth- 
 with go !" 
 
 *^ Gently, gently," now whispered the old heldam. " It 
 is not thus that matters of this sort are conducted. If the 
 lady by whom I have the honour of being employed were 
 one of your ordinary women on whom the wind blows as 
 freely as on the weeds of the desert, all would be easy 
 enough. Females who go out at all hours to the bath, and 
 to the market-place, and to the bezesteen, or to visit their 
 friends, do whatever they please. But Cadin Esm^ is none 
 of those, I'll warrant you. This exalted fair one has in 
 her own apartment baths of marble and gold; twenty 
 slaves are always ready at her nod to execute whatever 
 whim may cross her fancy ; the richest goods of every 
 country are brought from every quarter to be spread out 
 before her at her toilet; her own chamber opens on gar- 
 dens whose roses make those of Sheeraz look pale. In 
 short — poor thing ! — she can find nothing to want abroad ; 
 and when she does go out, it seems rather for the sole 
 purpose of seeing how superior is all that she leaves at 
 home. Then she generally only travels about in a close 
 carriage. Her visits are confined to two or three of her 
 near relations; and she so seldom finds an excuse for stir- 
 ring out on foot, that the day you met her was the first 
 time these six months she had stepped across her own 
 threshold. Even when she indulges in a little excursion 
 of the sort, she only moves, as you see, accompanied by 
 a swarm of servants, or rather of spies." 
 
 " You only add fuel to my flame," cried I. *'The more 
 difficult the enterprise, the nobler the victory!" — and im- 
 mediately we fell to discussing the ways and means. A 
 hundred different schemes were alternately proposed and 
 rejected. At last a contrivance was hit upon, only liable to 
 half a dozen radical objections. Still it was the best, 
 and therefore adopted. A friend of the Jewess's, equipped 
 
ANASTASIUS. 123 
 
 as a woman of rank, was to spend the day on a visit to the 
 lady, Esm6, whose husband could not, during that period,^ 
 intrude upon the privacy of his wife's apartment. Esm4 
 would thus obtain an opportunity of slipping out in the at- 
 tire of a slave, of stopping at the Jewess's own abode, there 
 to put on Greek habiliments, and of thence going to meet 
 me at some selected house in Galata. After the interview, 
 she would have nothing to do but to resume her Turkish 
 dress, in order to release by her return her pretended vi- 
 sitor. The plan required some preparation, and the day 
 after the next was fixed upon for its execution. 
 
 Matters being thus all apparently settled : — ** One word 
 more," added the Jewess. **You are aware that we 
 embark upon an adventure of life and death. In this 
 nether world the joys of paradise can only be sipped with 
 the secrecy of the grave. The least indiscretion brings 
 ruin to us all." 
 
 I begged my instructress to make herself easy on that 
 score; — '' and," added I in my turn, * 'there is one circum 
 stance which the lady may not be sorry to learn; namely, 
 that in me she will find a youth not only of the greatest 
 discretion, but of the most respectable birth and con- 
 nexions." 
 
 I thought the peal of laughter never would have ended 
 into which the old hag broke out at this intimation. '' And 
 pray," cried she, **do you imagine the fair Esm^is in love 
 with you for your musty ancestors, or means to show you 
 off to her acquaintances? For my part, I mistook you for 
 little better than a porter. If you be a prince, so much 
 the worse! It will require consideration." — Here the bel- 
 dam hobbled off. 
 
 *' Can I have marred my hopes by my vanity?" thought 
 I, after the woman was gone. But though this idea gave me 
 a little uneasiness, it prevented me not from bestowing the 
 utmost pains, on the day appointed; in adorning my person. 
 
in ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ere I went to a place conveniently situated for watching the 
 entrance of the party into the house agreed upon. 
 
 Here minute after minute rolled on, without my per- 
 ceiving the least symptom of the looked-for couple. But 
 what I very clearly discerned instead were loud titterings 
 hehind a latticed window, which presently left no doubt in 
 my mind that the whole interview was a mere waggery of 
 some of the females who had found me out, and were de- 
 termined to have a laugh at my expense. The very de- 
 scription of the lady's grandeur now made that matter 
 palpable by its exaggeration; and I held myself assured that 
 the greatest real danger I had to apprehend was that of be- 
 coming the laughing-stock of the whole district. In this 
 conviction I cursed my credulity, and set my wits to work 
 in order to devise how I might turn the joke against its au- 
 thors, — when a faint murmur made me look round, and 
 behold two females, carefully muffled up, glide into the 
 place of our appointment. 
 
 ''Shall I follow or not?" was now my only thought, — 
 "and take my chance of whatever good or evil may offer?" 
 
 The Jewess suffered not my suspense to last. Coming 
 out again: — **What are you waiting for?" whispered she 
 impatiently in my ear; and, without staying for my answer, 
 took me by the hand and led me up stairs, where, having 
 bidden me not to be frightened, she left me, and ran down 
 again to keep Watch while I remained. 
 
 By some strange perverseness of human nature, the 
 Jewess's seemingly superfluous caution had the contrary 
 effect from that which was intended ; and, combined with 
 Esme's apparent backwardness to throw off" her ferldjee, 
 made me fancy I had been entrapped with a perfect mon- 
 ster. Full of this idea, I cursed the IsraeHte for leaving 
 me thus committed, would have given the world to have 
 seen her return, even with the account of some most urgent 
 danger, and stood riveted near the door like a statue, — 
 
ANASTA61US. im 
 
 utttil my expectant fair one, losing all patience, tore oft* 
 h^r envelopes more in anger than in love, and convinced 
 me of my error in doubting her attractions. 
 
 As her wrath did not continue inexorable, I trust I may 
 pass over the remaining details of this interview, without 
 any great violation of my duty as a biographer: — they 
 presented strong features of resemblance with many others 
 of the same description; and in truth, though the rare 
 beauties of my mistress — her soft black eyes, her coral 
 lips, and her carriage more graceful than the movements of 
 the sailing swan — might have obtained at olher times a 
 more elaborate encomium, thoughts of a sedaterhue occupy 
 my mind at present. 
 
 Irksome as I had thought the departure of the Jewess, I 
 thought her return still a thousand times more barbarous, 
 when, ere we had time to think of her existence, she 
 reappeared, and with relentless cruelty summoned us to 
 separate. 
 
 It seemed as if we had only just met, and it also seemed 
 as if we never were to meet again. For the expedient re- 
 sorted to could not be repeated, and our faculties were 
 too much bewildered to think of any other. Like people 
 just awaking from a rapturous dream, or rather just shak- 
 ing off a deep intoxication, we reeled about, lost in a maze 
 of confused feelings, and able to reflect neither on the past, 
 the present, nor the future. The vain attempt to think 
 was soon given up, and we settled to communicate through 
 the channel of the Israelite, when our minds should be 
 sobered by separation. At the moment of parting, however, 
 and when casting on each other the last farewell glance : 
 — **What can I do," cried the grateful Esm6, **to repay 
 my more than preserver, my sovereign, and my god; what 
 gifts worth acceptance can I bestow? Take this, and this, 
 and this : it is nothing to what I owe for the felicity con- 
 ferred ; it is all I can give in return;" and so saying, she 
 tore off her richest jewels, and heaped upon me— in spite 
 
126 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 of my resistance — strings of pearls, clasps of rubies, and 
 girdles of diamonds. ^ 
 
 '*And do you then imagine," cried I, '* that one ho- 
 noured hy your smiles can expect or can want a recom- 
 pense of this sort ?" 
 
 *«What signifies," replied the fair one, "what you 
 expected or what you want ! — You wanted not the poor 
 recluse Esm6, when you vouchsafed to come to me. I have 
 my burthen of gratitude to lessen. For my sake I must 
 give, and for mine you must receive." 
 
 Still I refused. But a cloud began to gather on the 
 brow thus far serene: gleams of ominous lightning flashed 
 from those eyes that before glowed only with unmixed 
 tenderness. '*I see it," cried Esm6. '^You love me not. 
 You fear to take an earnest. You intend not to return to 
 my arms!" — and upon this she tore her jetty locks. The 
 Jewess now stepped forward. '* For God's sake," said she, 
 ** pocket all, as I do. It may cost us our lives thus to stand 
 upon ceremony." I therefore yielded, took the proffered 
 gifts, for this magnanimous act received a last rapturous 
 glance, and tore myself away. 
 
 Scarce deigning to lower my looks to the earth, scarce 
 feeling the ground that bore my feet, gliding along on in- 
 visible pinions rather than walking, I proceeded at random, 
 intoxicated with my good fortune. In my own mind, I 
 soared at that moment above all the monarchs of the globe. 
 Constantinople seemed too small to contain my exultation, 
 and, oppressed within its walls by the excess of my hap- 
 piness, I went forth at the gates, and poured out into the 
 country the ebullitions of my joy and the ferment of my 
 spirits. 
 
 Three good hours of uninterrupted exercise were requisite 
 to allay them ; after which I went home through the street 
 which had been the scene of my forlorn perambulations, for 
 the purpose of showing its familiars the difference in my 
 air! 
 
ANASTASIUS. 127 
 
 Here, however, let me for an instant interrupt the thread 
 of my subject, in order to observe that, though my court- 
 ships have thus far occupied a great portion of my nar- 
 rative, it is not the history of my loves, but that of my hfo, 
 which I wish to record. Instead, therefore, of detailing the 
 scheme through means of which was effected our next meet- 
 ing, and the many others which followed, I shall only in gene- 
 ral state, that each interview seemed to increase the fondness 
 of my mistress. Every circumstance of my situation which 
 gradually unfolded itself to her knowledge, only gave me 
 new attractions in her eyes. Above all, she delighted in 
 that inferiority of my condition to her own, which enabled 
 me to become indebted for ease, affluence, and whatever 
 else appeared desirable, to her sole affection. Hers was 
 the mighty bliss of giving me all I possessed ; of making me 
 all I was. 
 
 Out of compliment to her taste, I bestowed upon my per- 
 son the utmost attention. The berath which before I had 
 coveted I now failed not to purchase, and the gold which 
 1 accepted for the sake of peace, I laid out in such a way 
 as to make the liberalities of the donor yield her eyes at 
 least an ample return. Every time I appeared anew in 
 her presence, it was with some fresh improvement in my 
 ostensible person. Now and then, indeed, too plentiful sup- 
 plies proved hostile to my prudence; but if an opulence 
 lo which I had not been accustomed often got me into 
 scrapes, it always got me out again; nor left me, like mo- 
 dern friends, in the difficulties into which it had lured me. 
 In one of my midnight orgies — for instance — being sum- 
 moned by the parole before the waywode, " I was actually 
 on my way to his worship," I forthwith exclaimed, **in 
 order to discharge an old debt. Pray, gentlemen, have the 
 goodness to take charge of these few sequins; but only pay 
 them at your own convenience;" — and immediately my 
 freedom was restored to me with a hundred bows and 
 scrapes. In another frolicsome mood, making so great 
 
128 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 a noise on the canal that the bostanjee-bashee had me hand- 
 cuffed in spite of my bcrath— on the plea that it was too 
 dark to read it: — ** I have heard," I cried, **that a fine 
 carbuncle will throw out as much light as a lamp. Vouch- 
 safe, mighty sir, to try the experiment with this ring;"— 
 and all at once the officer saw so clearly I was a berathlee, 
 as to grant me the entire range of the Bosphorus. 
 
 These occasional frolics were necessary to keep up my 
 spirits under the depression which they began to expe- 
 rience. For my intrigue cast upon my free agency a con- 
 straint which I had never felt before. I, who until that 
 period knew not what it was to abstain or to conceal ; who 
 even with the haughtiest of the archondessas of the fanar 
 used to assert my liberty, and to mock the fair one's rage, 
 now felt anxious, with the prisoner of a harem, to dissemble 
 the least act of inconstancy, however unpremeditated. Nor 
 let it be supposed that this conduct proceeded from any 
 fear of stopping the current of the lady's bounty. It is 
 true that where I gave my love, and would have given my 
 utmost largess, had the means been mine, I scrupled not, 
 with the affections, to receive the gifts of my wealthy mis- 
 tress : but all the gold of Peru could not have purchased 
 my person, had not my heart fully ratified the bargain; 
 and Esm6 owed to her situation — not to my selfishness — a 
 consideration which never yet had accompanied my pre- 
 ferences. The archon's wife, a free agent like myself, like 
 me had been mistress of her choice, and where I sinned 
 against her, had possessed all the means to retaliate. It 
 was not so with Esm^. She was a helpless captive, who 
 could not punish my offences by following my example. 
 What with the one seemed a justifiable proceeding, with 
 the other became wanton cruelty. 
 
 And most acutely would the fair Mohammedan have felt 
 any unnecessary wound inflicted by my hand : most alive 
 was her susceptible mind to all the fellest pangs of jea- 
 lousy. ''When first I loved you," she said, '*you had 
 
ANASTASIUS. 129 
 
 never beheld me, you knew not whether I was fair or hi- 
 deous, you could not harbour the least spark of reci- 
 procal affection; you might, without the smallest sacrifice 
 on your part, for ever have kept out of my sight, and left 
 my hopeless flame, unfed, to die away. This, indeed— had 
 not your heart been free, and able to return all the warmth 
 of my feelings — honour, justice, and humanity required. 
 You acted otherwise ; ere yet you felt a spark of reciprocal 
 tenderness, you threw yourself purposely in my way; you 
 sedulously nourished my passion, and you have carried 
 my madness to that pitch where it must find yours com- 
 mensurate, or end in my perdition. You now are bound 
 to sustain the affection which you have gratuitously raised : 
 you are pledged to save me from despair. If, after having 
 fanned my love into a resistless blaze, you should think of 
 forsaking me, I die ; but the blow by which I fall — that 
 same blow shall kill us both." 
 
 The same blow did not kill both ! Fbr when long impu- 
 nity had made me so daring as to invade the effendee's own 
 roof; when suspicions arose in the husband's mind which 
 he resolved to verify; when on he rushed to his harem; 
 when right and left flew the woman's slippers, placed as 
 a spell at its threshold; when open burst the door of the 
 sanctuary, and jealousy carried its search into the inmost 
 recesses of the gynecaeum ; when what became of the hap- 
 less Esm6, heaven, the effendee, and the Black Sea alone 
 can tell, — not a hair of my head received the smallest in- 
 jury. That very impetuosity of my enemy which seemed 
 to doom me to certain and immediate destruction, proved 
 the means of my preservation. In the very act of making my 
 escape, the door, which turned back upon its hinges, turned 
 back upon my person, and concealed the intruder behind its 
 friendly screen, till the effendee and his troop had passed by. 
 1 then slipped away, unperceived by any creature within. 
 Some slaves, however, who kept watch on the outside, seeing 
 me run, and in evident confusion, set up a hue nndcry. Find- 
 
 i. 9 
 
130 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ing they gave me chase, I darted into a mosque, whose open 
 gate seemed to invite my entrance. All I wanted was to 
 throw my pursuers off the scent. A few old Moslemen 
 were in the djamee*^ mumbling their evening prayers; and 
 while the mob outside howled after the adulterer, the 
 congregation within began to scream at the yaoor. Thus 
 placed between two jfires, all hopes of escape forsook me. 
 I felt as if I must — but for some special miracle — soon be 
 torn to pieces ! 
 
 One human measure only remained to save my life. I 
 drew my dagger, threw my cloak over my face, leaned my 
 back against the mihrab,^ and cried, '*I am a Moslemin !" 
 
 If there existed not even any positive evidence of guilt 
 having found its way at all into the effendee's harem, still 
 less did there exist any direct proof of my being the of- 
 fender. All that could be alleged against me was merely 
 circumstantial. So far from being found in the wife's 
 faithless arms, I had not even been caught under the in- 
 jured husband's roof. At most I had displayed my acti- 
 vity somewhat near the dwelling disturbed; but though this 
 might be reason enough to massacre an infidel, a follower 
 of the true faith — however recent his conversion — demand- 
 ed greater respect. 
 
 From the moment, therefore, in which I invoked the name 
 of the prophet, every breath of accusation was hushed, 
 every hand became suspended. A magic poAver seemed 
 to arrest the daggers on my very breast. A fanatical mob 
 instantly took under its protection the new, the fervent 
 proselyte. 
 
 But this proselyte I had bound myself to be. I had 
 proclaimed myself one of the faithful ; and on the spot, in 
 the very mosque, I went through the various forms which 
 mark the reclaimed infidel, and announce his admission 
 into the bosom of islamism. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 131 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Historians often err in attributing to a single great cause 
 the effect of many minute circumstances combined. My 
 sagacious biographer, for instance, would not fail to place 
 my abjuration of the Christian faith entirely and solely to 
 the account of my intrigue with a Turkish fair one, and the 
 desperate alternative between life and death which ensued. 
 Nothing would be more erroneous. The seemingly bold 
 measure had long been preparing in petto; and the un- 
 expected dilemma to which I was reduced may only be 
 said to have fixed the period for its exegution. 
 
 There had arrived at Pera a foreigner whom I shall call 
 Eugenius. His ostensible object was to acquire the an- 
 cient lore of the East, in return for which he most Hberally 
 dealt out the new creed of the West. I cannot better 
 describe him than as the antipode to Father Ambrogio. 
 For as the one was a missionary of a society for the propa- 
 gation of belief, so was the other an emissary of a sect for 
 the diffusion of disbelief. He meditated indeed a pilgri- 
 mage to the Holy Land, but with the view to prove more 
 scientifically the fatuity of all things holy. Reason, phy- 
 losophy, and universal toleration were the only objects of his 
 reverence ; and some of his tenets, which I picked up by 
 the way, had in them something plausible to my mind, and, 
 if not true, seemed to my inexperience ben trovati. He 
 conceived that there might exist offences between man and 
 man, such as adultery, murder, etc., of a blacker dye than 
 the imperfect performance of certain devout practices — 
 eating pork steaks in Lent included; and, above all, he 
 thought that, whatever number of crimes a man might, on 
 
 9 * 
 
132 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 using his utmost diligence, crowd in the short span of this 
 life, they still might possibly be atoned for in the next by 
 only five hundred thousand million of centuries (he would 
 not abate a single second) of the most excruciating tor- 
 ture; though this period was absolutely nothing compared 
 with eternity. As to his other tenets, they were too 
 heinous to mention. 
 
 Ere Father Ambrogio was aware that Eugenius broached 
 such abominable doctrines, he had introduced me to him 
 in the quality of drogueman, or rather of cicerone ; and 
 the tone in which I was received might have made the 
 father suspect that all was not right. But the father^s 
 range of intellectual vision extended not further than his 
 own nose,^ and that nose was a snub one. 
 
 "It was you quibbling, sophistical Greeks," cried Eu- 
 genius, laughing, **who, proud, at the commencement of 
 the Christian era, of your recently imported gnosticism, 
 perverted by its mystic doctrine the simple tenets of Chris- 
 tianity. It was you who, ever preferring the improbable 
 and the marvellous to the natural and the probable, have 
 contended for taking in a literal, and therefore in an absurd 
 sense, a thousand expressions which, in the phraseology of 
 the East, were only meant as figurative and symbolical ; 
 and it was you who have set the baneful example of ad- 
 mitting, in religious matters, the most extraordinary de- 
 viations from the course of nature and from human ex- 
 perience, on such partial and questionable evidence, as, in 
 the ordinary affairs of man, and in a modern court of jus- 
 tice, would not be received on the most common and pro- 
 bable Occurrence/' 
 
 Father Ambrogio, who conceived that every reflection 
 upon the Greeks must be in favour of the Romans, was de- 
 lighted with this speech, and, as he went away, earnestly 
 recommended to me to treasure up in my memory all the 
 sagacious sayings of the wise man whom I had the hap- 
 piness to serve. 
 
AxVASTASlUS. 133 
 
 But it was not long before he changed his mind. The 
 very next day, when I called on Eugenius, I found Padre 
 Ambrogio in most angry discussion with him about the 
 doctrine of divine clemency, which the friar could not 
 abide. Eugenius at last was obliged to say, in his laugh- 
 ing way, that since the father appeared so incurably anxious 
 for endless punishment, all he could do for him was to 
 pray that, by a single exception in his favour, he at least 
 might be damned to all eternity. Father Ambrogio, who 
 never laughed, and who hated Eugenius the more for 
 always laughing, upon this speech left the room : but the 
 next time he met me alone, he very seriously cautioned me 
 against one who, he was sure, must be a devil incarnate. 
 
 " If so," thought I, "he preaches against his own trade ; 
 and his principal is little obliged to him for making his do- 
 minion a mere leasehold, instead of a perpetuity." Mean- 
 while 1 resolved not to be too sure, and, when Eugenius 
 took off his clothes, watched whether I could perceive the 
 cloven foot. Nothing appearing at all like it, and his dis- 
 position seeming gentle, obliging, and humane, I began to 
 be fond of his company, — until, from liking the man, I un- 
 fortunately by degrees came not to dislike some parts of 
 the doctrine of which he was the apostle. 
 
 Eugenius differed in one respect from his brethren of 
 the new school. While they wished to subvert all former 
 systems m toto, ere they began to re-edify according to 
 their new plan, he, on the contrary, only contended for 
 the appeal to reason on points of internal faith, and urged, 
 in external practices, the propriety of conforming to the 
 established worship; — and this, not from selfish but phi- 
 lanthropic motives; *' for," said he, ** while the vulgar 
 retain a peculiar belief, they will close their eyes and hearts 
 against whatever practical good those wish to do them 
 who join not in their creed; and should they, in imitation 
 of their betters, give up some of their idle tenets— unable 
 immediately, hke those they imitate, to replace the checks 
 
134 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 of superstition by the powers of reason — they will only 
 from had lapse into worse, let loose the reins to their 
 passions, and exchange errors for crimes." 
 
 Now, in conformity to this doctrine of my master, what 
 could he clearer than that it behoved me, where the koran 
 was become the supreme law, —as a quiet orderly citizen, 
 zealous in support of the establishment — with all possible 
 speed to become a Mohammedan? Should there happen 
 to be any personal advantage connected with this public 
 duty ; should my conforming to it open the door to places 
 and preferments from which I otherwise must remain shut 
 out; should it raise me from the rank of the vanquished to 
 that of the victors, and enable me, instead of being treated 
 with contempt by the Turkish beggar, to elbow the Greek 
 prince, was that my fault? or could it be a motive to ab- 
 stain from what was right, that it was also profitable ? 
 
 The arguments appeared to me so conclusive, that I had 
 only been watching for an opportunity to throw off the 
 contemptuous appellation of Nazarene, and to become as- 
 sociated to the great aristocracy of islamism, some time be- 
 fore the fair Esme lent the peculiar grace of her accent to 
 its Allah Illah Allah; and though, for the credit of my sin- 
 cerity, I could wish my conversion not exactly to have taken 
 place at the particular moment at which the light of truth 
 happened to shine upon me, yet, all things considered, I 
 thought it wiser not to quibble about punctilios, than to 
 be sewed in a sack, and served up for breakfast to some 
 Turkish shark. 
 
 Thus it was that the doctrine of pure reason ended in 
 making me a Mohammedan :— but with a pang I quitted 
 for the strange sound of Selim my old and beloved name 
 of Anastasius, given me by my father, and so often and so 
 sweetly repeated by my Helena. 
 
 I was scarce a Mohammedan skin-deep, when I again 
 met Padre Ambrogio, whom, since my affair with Esm6, I 
 had entirely lost sight of, and who knew not my apostacy. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 135 
 
 *'Son," said he in a placid tone, **weareali at times 
 prone to passion. I myself, meek as you now see me, have 
 had my unguarded moments : but it is impossible that you 
 should not wish to achieve the glorious work so well begun. 
 Suppose, therefore, we resume our spiritual exercises. You 
 are already so far advanced in the right road, that we can- 
 not fail ultimately to make you an exemplary Roman ca- 
 tholic." 
 
 *' Father," answered I, ** what may ultimately happen it 
 is not in man to foresee : meantime, since we met last, 
 another trifling impediment has arisen to my embracing 
 the Latin creed. I am become a Moslemin." 
 
 At this unlooked-for obstacle. Father Ambrogio started 
 back full three yards. ** Holy virgin !" exclaimed he, ** how 
 could you make such a mistake?" 
 
 Not caring to assign the true cause , ** I wanted," said I, 
 *' to secure in the next world a little harem of black-eyed 
 girls." 
 
 At this speech Father Ambrogio fetched a deep sigh ; and 
 began to muse, looking alternately at his habit and at 
 mine. — *'Well !" said he, after a pause; '*at least you no 
 longer are a Greek, and that is something;" and here- 
 upon he departed, — wondering, I suppose, where, in his 
 paradise, Mohammed meant to dispose of the angels whose 
 eyes were blue. 
 
 I never was very ambitious of learning, but my new god- 
 father, a formal Turkish gray-beard, could not brook my 
 total ignorance of my new religion. **You are not here 
 among Scheyis,"^ said he, *'who under the name of Mo- 
 hammedans live the lives of yaoors, drink wine as freely 
 as we swallow opium, and make as little scruple of having 
 in their possession paintings of pretty faces, ^ as if at the 
 day of judgment they were not to find souls for all those 
 bodies of their own creating. You are — Allah be praised ! 
 -—among strict and orthodox sunnees; and however an old 
 
136 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 believer may have had time to forget his creed, a young 
 neophyte should have it at his fingers' ends." 
 
 So I had to learn my catechism afresh. Great indeed 
 was my inclination to expostulate : — hut all I could obtain 
 was to be provided with a teacher who, for my twenty paras 
 a lesson, should put me in the way of passing over the 
 bridge Seerath^ as speedily as possible. And this I was 
 promised. 
 
 Nothing therefore could exceed my surprise, when in 
 walked the gravest of the whole grave body of doctors of 
 law — the very pink and quintessence of true believers; one 
 who would not miss saying his namaz regularly four times 
 a day, three hundred and sixty days in the year,^ for all 
 the treasures of the devas :^ who, to obtain the epithet of 
 hafeez,' had learnt his whole koran by heart unto the last 
 stop; and who, not satisfied with praying to God like other 
 people, had Hnked himself to a set of dancing derwishes, 
 for the sole purpose of addressing the Deity with more ef- 
 fect in a sugar-loaf cap, and spinning round the room like 
 a top : — a personage who, in a devout fit, would plump 
 down upon his knees in the midst of the most crowded 
 street, without turning his head round before he had 
 finished the last reekath^ of his orison, if all Constantinople 
 were trembling in an earthquake; who, considering all 
 amusements as equally heinous, made no difference be- 
 tween a game of chess or mangala and illicit attentions to 
 one's own great-grandmother; and once, in his devout fury, 
 with his enormous chaplet positively demolished Kara- 
 gheuzs in the midst of all his drollery : a personage who, 
 at the end of the Ramadan, '° looked like a walking spectre, 
 and the very last time of this fast absolutely doubled its 
 length, only for having snuffed up with pleasure, before 
 the hours of abstinence were over, the fumes of a klebab 
 on its passage out of a cook-shop : a personage who had 
 ^n absolute horror of all representations of the human 
 
 I 
 
ANASTASIUS. 137 
 
 figure — those of St. Mark on the Venetian sequin only ex- 
 cepted: a personage, in fine, who already was surnamed 
 in his own district the wely or saint; and whom all his 
 neighbours were dying to see dead, only that they might 
 hang their rags round his grave, and so get cured of the 
 ague. 
 
 When this reverend moollah" first made his appearance, 
 his face was still bedewed with tears of sympathy, occa- 
 sioned by a most heart-rending scene of domestic woe, 
 which his charitable hand had just assuaged. In an ad- 
 joining street he had found, stretched out on the bare pave- 
 ment, a whole miserable family — father, mother, brothers, 
 sisters, together with at least a dozen children of tender 
 age — in a state of complete starvation. The very de- 
 scription of such a piteous sight harrowed up my soul. Lest, 
 however, the holy man should incur a suspicion of having 
 been betrayed into a weakness so reprehensible as that of 
 pity for the human species — for which he felt all the con- 
 tempt it deserved, and which he never presumed to solace 
 under any of the visitations inflicted by Providence— 1 
 should add, that the wretched objects of his present compas- 
 sion were of that less reprobated sort, the canine species ! 
 They belonged to those troops of unowned dogs which the 
 Turks of Constantinople allow to live in their streets on 
 the public bounty, in order to have the pleasure of seeing 
 them bark at the Christians whom their Frank dress be- 
 trays. To these, and other beings of the irrational genus^ 
 were confined the benefactions of my tutor; but if his own 
 species had few obligations to acknowledge from him, he 
 was recorded as having purchased the liberty of three hun- 
 dred and fifty canary-birds in cages, granted pensions to 
 the baker and butcher for the maintenance of fifty cats, and 
 left at least a dozen dogs, whom he found on the pave, 
 handsomely provided for in his will. 
 
 No sooner was my venerable instructor comfortably 
 seated on his heels in the angle of my sofa, than, looking 
 
138 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 around him with an air of complacency, as if he liked my 
 lodgings, he told me, to my infinite satisfaction, that, pro- 
 vided he only took his station there for two hours every 
 day, he pledged himself hefore the end of the first year to 
 instruct me thoroughly in all the diversities of the four 
 orthodox rituals — the Hanefy, Schafey, Hanbaly, and 
 Maleky; together with all that belonged to the ninety-nine 
 epithets of the Deity, represented by the ninety-nine beads 
 of the chaplet. In the space of another twelvemonth he 
 ventured to hope that he might go over with me the prin- 
 cipal difference between the two hundred and eighty most 
 canonical mufessirs or commentators on the koran, as well 
 as examine the two hundred and thirty-five articles of the 
 creed, concerning which theologians disagree ; and in the 
 third year of our course, he promised to enable me com- 
 pletely to refute all the objections which the aiewys and 
 other dissenters make to the sunnee creed; and to give me 
 a general idea of the tenets of the seventy-two leading he- 
 retical sects, from thatof Ata-hakem-Mookanna, or the one- 
 eyed prophet with the golden mask, to Khand-Hassan, the 
 fanatic who eat pork and drank wine in the public market- 
 place like any Christian : so as, through dint of so much 
 diligence, on the fourth and last year to have nothing to do 
 but to go over the whole again, and imprint it indelibly on 
 my memory. By way of a little foretaste of the method of 
 disputation in which he promised to instruct me, he took 
 up one of the controverted points; first raised his own ob- 
 jections against it; and then — as he had an indubitable 
 right to do with his undisputed property — again completely 
 overset them by the irresistible force of his arguments; after 
 which — having entirely silenced his adversary — he rose, 
 equally proud of the acuteness of his own rhetoric, and 
 charmed with the sagacity with which I had Hstened. 
 
 The truth Is, I had fallen asleep; for which reason, when 
 1 suddenly awoke on the din of his argumentation ceasing, 
 I shook my head with a profound air, and by way of show- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 139 
 
 ing how much in earnest I meant to be, with a very wise 
 look said, I could not give my unquahfied assent until I 
 heard both sides of the question. Thus far I had heard 
 neither. 
 
 This determination rather surprised my doctor, who 
 seemed to have relied on my faculty of implicit credence. 
 **Hear both sides of the questioji!" exclaimed he in utter 
 astonishment. ** Why, that is just the way never to come 
 to a conclusion, and to remain in suspense all the days of 
 one's life ! Wise men first adopt an opinion, and then 
 learn to defend it. For my part I make it a rule never to 
 hear but one side, and so do all who wish to settle their 
 belief." 
 
 The thing had never occurred to me before; but I thought 
 it had in it a something plausible, which at any rate made 
 me resolve not to lengthen the four years' course by idle 
 doubts. Accordingly, in the three first lessons I agreed to 
 every thing the doctor said or meant to say, even before he 
 opened his mouth, and only wondered how things so 
 simple, for instance, as the prophet's ascent to the third 
 heaven on the horse Borak, with a peacock's tail and a 
 woman's face (I mean the horse) , could be called in ques- 
 tion. Unfortunately, when in the fourth lesson the moollah 
 asserted that islamism was destined ultimately to pervade 
 the whole globe, a preposterous longing seized me to show 
 ray learning. I asked how that could be, when, as Eu- 
 genius had asserted, an uninterrupted day of several months 
 put the fast of the Ramadan wholly out of the question near 
 the poles? This difficulty, which the doctor could not 
 solve, of course put him into a great rage. He reddened, 
 rubbed his forehead, repeated my query, and at last told 
 me, in a violent perspiration, that if I mixed travellers' tales 
 with theology, he must give up my instruction. 
 
 I was too happy to take him at his word; instantly 
 paid what I owed for the lessons received, and begged 
 henceforth to remain in contented ignorance. Lest, how- 
 
140 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ever, I should appear petulant to my godfather, I went 
 and desired him to find me a moollah that was reasonable. 
 " A moolah that is reasonable ! " exclaimed an old gen- 
 tleman present, who happened to belong to the order him- 
 self. **Why, young man, that is a most unreasonable 
 request. The koran itself declares the ink of the learned 
 to be equal in value to the blood of martyrs ; and where will 
 a single drop be shed in disputation, if all agree to be reason- 
 able? But come," added he, laughing, "I will undertake, 
 without a fee, to teach you in one word all that is ne- 
 cessary to appear a thorough-bred Moslemin ; and if you 
 doubt my receipt, you may even get a fethwa of the mufti, 
 if you please, to confirm its efficacy. Whenever you 
 meet with an infidel, abuse him with all your might, and 
 no one will doubt you are yourself a stanch believer." I 
 promised to follow the advice. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Stern winter had breathed his last : his churlish progeny 
 had fled. The waves were no longer lashed by storms, 
 nor was the earth fettered by frost. Constantinople hailed 
 the day, revered alike by Greeks and Turks, when St, 
 George opens in state the gaudy portals of the spring. 
 The north wind had ceased to howl through Stambool's 
 thin habitations. Mild zephyr reigned alone; and as his 
 fragrant breath went forth in gentle sighs, the white wind- 
 ing sheet of snow shrunk on the swelling mountain, while a 
 soft and verdant carpet of young herbage spread along the 
 hollow valley. The taller trees of the forest might still 
 
A>3ASTASJUS. 141 
 
 slumber awhile; the lesser shrubs and plants of the garden 
 were all waking, to resume their summer robes of rich 
 and varied dye. Blushing blossoms crowned their heads, 
 and every transient gale was loaded with their fragrance. 
 Over fields enamelled with the crimson anemone fluttered 
 millions of azure butterflies, just broke forth from their 
 shells with the flowers on which they fed, and hardly able 
 yet to unfurl their wings in air : while on every bough 
 was heard some feathered songster, hailing the new season 
 of joy and of love. The very steeds of the imperial stables, 
 liberated that day from their dark winter stalls, measured 
 with mad delight the verdant meads of Kiadhane, while 
 their joyful neighing re-echoed from the hifls around. 
 Under each dazzling portico reflected in the Bosphorus, 
 were seen groups of ich-oglans and pages, sporting their 
 new spring suits, like gilded beetles, in the sun. All eyes 
 seemed riveted on the Othoman fleet, which in gay and 
 gallant trim issued forth from the harbour, and, with every 
 snowy sail swelling in the breeze, majestically advanced 
 towards Marmora's wider basin, there to commence its 
 yearly cruise through the mazy Archipelago. Of the im- 
 mense population of Constantinople a part was skimming, 
 in barges glittering like gold-fish, the scarce ruflled sur- 
 face of the channel, while the remainder gaily sauntered 
 on the fringed terraces that overhang its mirror, and in the 
 woody vales that branch out from its banks. On all sides 
 resounded the tuneful lyre and the noisy cymbal, animating 
 the steps of the joyous dancers. Nature and art, the human 
 race and the brute creation, seemed alike to enjoy in 
 every form of diversified festivity the epoch when recom- 
 mence the hopes, the labours, and the dellghtsof summer. 
 I too was one of the mirthful throng. In company with 
 a few Osmanlees, not the most rigid of their race, I had 
 been indulging in the orgies of the day outside the gate of 
 Selivria. Somewhat flushed with the juice of the berry 
 which Bacchus first planted in my country, we were re- 
 
142 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 turning toward the Top Capoossee,' when close beside us 
 came prancing an exceeding bad horseman mounted on a 
 worse steed. At Constantinople it often occurs that an old 
 menial, whose rambles never extended beyond the village 
 of St. Stephen's, and whose foot never pressed a stirrup, 
 is rewarded for his domestic services by a military fief or 
 zeeameth,"* at ten or twenty days' journey from the capital. 
 He then first learns to ride in the plains outside the gate 
 of Andrinople, — in order that he may know how to cling 
 to his saddle, when constrained to present himself before 
 his distant vassals. Of this description seemed to be the 
 equestrian whose pleasure it was to annoy us. Proud of his 
 newly acquired horsemanship, he was incessantly in our 
 way, now trotting, now prancing, now galloping at full 
 speed; so as to keep us involved in a constant cloud of 
 dust, with the additional advantage of expecting every 
 instant a nearer participation in his horse's kicks and cur- 
 vetings. Whether we went slow or fast, or turned to the 
 right or the left to avoid him, still he haunted us like our 
 shadow; or, if for a moment he seemed to have taken his 
 leave, it was only to raise a fallacious hope, and to return 
 to the charge, like the forest fly, when least expected. 
 Vexatious as was the fellow's behaviour, my either less ir- 
 ritable or more sober companions agreed not to notice it. 
 They would have nothing to do, they said, with a saucy 
 green-head, only amenable before his own officers, and 
 sure to be supported — be his behaviour what it might — 
 by all his comrades. Less patient, or less awed by the 
 prophet's kindred, I swore I would grapple with the emir, 
 and soil with the crimson of his own blood the green rag 
 round his thick skull, upon which he presumed with such 
 insolence, — when, guessing my intentions, he buried his 
 sharp stirrups^ in his lank and harassed steed, and scam- 
 pered away: but not before he had succeeded in what 
 seemed throughout to be the sole aim of all his labour; 
 namely, in bespattering me from head to foot with all the 
 
ANASTASIUS. 143 
 
 mud of almost the only puddle which the sun's daily in- 
 creasing power had left in the road. 
 
 Who that — in the full pride of an entire new suit, of 
 which the colour has long been pondered over, the stuff 
 chosen after infinite consideration, the making only in- 
 trusted to the most skilful artists, the fitting tried in all its 
 various stages, and the final possession obtained only at the 
 very period destined for its display — is fated to see the 
 work of so much thought and labour irretrievably spoilt in 
 its first bloom, and ere yet the world has been dazzled by 
 its splendour; — who, I say, that is fated to undergo such a 
 trial ever preserved his temper unruffled, and was blessed 
 with feelings sufficiently torpid to abstain from falHng out 
 even with blind undesigning chance? 
 
 Then fancy my impatient spirit submitted to this trial, 
 and that by the unprovoked malice of a fellow mortal ! But 
 a few moments before, alas! the vest of purple broad 
 cloth, the velvet jacket of emerald ^reen, the scarlet 
 bernoos"^ lined with sky-blue satin, and the ample trowsers 
 of a blushing lilac, still shone through the mazy net-work 
 of gold cast over every seam, in the full perfection of their 
 primitive purity. After parading their beauties all day 
 long, like a peacock, in the country, I was only going home- 
 wards to display them all the evening, to still greater ad- 
 vantage, in the most brilliant coffee-houses in the town, when 
 all my honours fell blasted in the bud^ and — through the 
 insolence of a paltry serving-man — every item of my gay 
 attire was made to drip with a black offensive mud; so 
 that I looked like a once gaudy tuhp, whose erect splendour 
 has been crushed by some ass's heedless hoof. Such was 
 my indignation at the insult, and still more at the escape 
 of the culprit, that I felt a positive want of some luckless 
 wight, on whom to vent my ungovernable rage. 
 
 At that inauspicious moment, who should suddenly start 
 up, as from the very bowels of the earth, but Anagnosti, 
 whom I had left a prisoner in the bagnio I 
 
144 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 On quilling that hideous place, I was fully determined 
 not to let an hour elapse without applying for my friend's 
 liberation, nor to rest until I had procured it. For that 
 purpose chiefly I had gone to Mavroyeni. The reader may 
 remember how I was received at his door. The fainting 
 fit which followed this ineffectual visit, the illness in the 
 hospital, and the indigence I had to encounter on first being 
 thrown anew upon the world, were circumstances which 
 combined to prevent for several weeks all furtherance of 
 my design. When my condition improved, other impe- 
 diments arose. I then thought it advisable to wait till I had 
 earned a character, had acquired friends among the Franks, 
 and had purchased the berath which might give greater 
 independence to my movements in behalf of a rayah. 
 These desiderata came in due time, but with them also 
 unfortunately came the infatuation of my Turkish amour, 
 during which I was obliged, for my mistress's sake, care- 
 fully to avoid attracting the public attention; and this 
 affair only ended in that apostacy which made me, bold as 
 I was, dread the reproachful sight of Anagnosti, — of him 
 whose faith neither fear, nor interest, nor even pleasure 
 had had power to shake. Yet I had not abandoned 
 my purpose; and had determined, the very day after St. 
 George, to undertake the seemingly arduous work of my 
 friend's release, when he thus unexpectedly crossed my 
 way. 
 
 The very presence of Anagnosti — of Anagnosti so long 
 neglected in his forlorn situation, and of Anagnosti freed at 
 last from his fetters without my assistance — was in itself a 
 severe rebuke. Convicted by my friend's enlargement of a 
 culpable neglect, I almost regretted his liberation as pre- 
 mature. I felt it as an event expressly brought about 
 to shame me. Though in reality the poor youth only came 
 from celebrating — somewhat more devoutly, no doubt, — 
 the same festival^ with myself, he seemed only to rush thus 
 full upon me, while yet ignorant of his liberty and unpie- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 145 
 
 pared for his appearance, in order to take me by surprise, 
 and to enjoy my confusion. ' 
 
 And this idea, mortifying in itself, became doubly galling 
 at a moment when, had even my conscience proclaimed 
 me Anagnosti's sole deliverer, I still would have wished 
 to be spared all expression of his gratitude. Thrown among 
 Osmanlees proud of their untainted blood, I had but just 
 asserted a perfect equality with my lofty companions. I 
 had sworn, indeed, that I was not one of those Candiote 
 Turks^ who, though three parts Greek, are yet regarded 
 as among the highest mettled of the sultan's Mohammedan 
 subjects: but I had sworn to this truth in a jesting tone; 
 had in consequence been disbelieved as I wished, and had 
 thus found means to combine with pretensions to strict 
 veracity the benefit of a lie : I had even, in conformity 
 with the moollah's advice, most vehemently abused the 
 whole race of Christian dogs; and, in the midst of my 
 success and my exultation, I now stoodxnost unexpectedly 
 confronted with the only person who must, by his familiar 
 address, not only overturn the whole fabric of my raising, 
 but proclaim me a mere renegade, — a downright outcast 
 from the very bagnio ! 
 
 A circumstance so provoking — so subversive of all my 
 views and wishes — was sufficient to give Anagnosti, in my 
 already ruffled mind, the character of an enemy rather than 
 a friend. The instant I perceived him, shame set my cheek 
 on fire; I tried to avoid his irksome notice: but already 
 I had caught his watchful eye. 
 
 In this situation I felt that a mere retreating movement 
 would only invite a more eager advance; and conceived that 
 nothing but a coolness so marked on my part as to chill 
 on that of Anagnosti every demonstration of warmth, and 
 perhaps even to make him scorn in his contempt of me all 
 signs of recognition, could save me from his fearful fami- 
 liarity. Upon this principle, instead of rithcr darting for- 
 ward to meet his embrace, or shrinking from his approach, 
 
 I. 10 
 
146 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 I stopped suddenly short, stood entirely motionless, and, 
 with all the dignity of the turban, merely put out my hand, 
 to receive the homage of his respectful lip. 
 
 His first glance, alighting only on my features, had made 
 him rush forward to press me to his bosom. His second 
 look, falling on my dress and companions, again arrested 
 his progress, and seemed to rivet his feet to the ground. 
 Hence, judging him sufficiently awed by my mere ap- 
 pearance, 1 now ventured to utter some condescending 
 expressions: but my words he heeded not. Keeping his 
 haggard eyes fixed on my person, he asked me whether a 
 spell fascinated his senses, or whether in reality I was be- 
 come a Moslemin, he would have said; but the 
 
 hateful appellation he had not power to utter. Not caring 
 for the completion of the sentence — '*be Selim what he 
 may," I hastily cried, **proceed thou, without fear." 
 
 The pious ceremonies of the morning had even carried 
 beyond its usual exalted pitch my friend's religious en- 
 ihusiam. At this mortifying speech, resentment of my 
 neglect, indignation at my apostacy, wounded pride, and 
 disappointed affection took possession of his soul. 
 
 <*Fear!" exclaimed he, — repeating my last words with 
 an hysteric laugh; while his eye darted lightning, and his 
 lip curled up in scorn; — "Fear suits only the deserter of 
 his country and his God!" 
 
 So proud a taunt completed the rising ferment of my 
 blood. Enraged at the invective ; still more enraged at its 
 coming from a rayah, from a man of mean appearance, and 
 in the presence of sneering Osmanlees, I mechanically thrust 
 my hand in my girdle, and drew out my handjar. It was 
 an unmeaning and half involuntary action : I had no fatal 
 purpose ; 1 intended not — no ! upon the solemn word of one 
 again prostrate before the cross — I intended not to hurt a 
 hair of my friend's sacred head. A flourish, to dazzle the 
 Osmanlee eyes which were watching all my motions, was 
 all I had in view. Frantic, Anagnosti rushed forward and 
 
ANASTASIUS. 147 
 
 fell — fell Upon the too diligently sharpened weapon ! Feel^ 
 ing that its point had entered, he with one hand pressed it 
 home to his heart, while with the other he struck me con- 
 vulsively away* The dagger — slipping through my palsied 
 lingers — remained, as he intended, deep Luricd in his side I 
 
 Leisurely he drew it out, and with a sort of complacency 
 viewed his blood as it trickled from the blade : but pre^ 
 sently his eyes filling with tears, — tears not flowing for his 
 present sufferings, but from the remembrance of things 
 gone by — ** my mother, my mother," he exclaimed^ 
 ** thy dying words prove true ! My friends alone have been 
 my perdition; and the small crimson speck found on the 
 bands of our brotherhood is grown into the stream that 
 now gushes from my heart ! — but at least, Anastasius,'* 
 added he, with a look which pierced my very soul, **I 
 have prevented him, who made a voav to defend me to his 
 last dying breath, from being himself the destroyer of my 
 wretched life. When released from the bagnio through 
 the kindness of strangers, I wondered what event caused the 
 neglect of my friend, — wondered why Anastasius alone 
 had abandoned his Anagnosti. Alas ! I knew not that thou 
 hadst forsaken thy God I — May he pardon thee as I do. 
 Life to me has long been bitterness ; death is a welcome guest: 
 I rejoin those that love me, — and in a better place. Al- 
 ready, methinks, watching my flight, they stretch out their 
 arms from heaven to their dying Anagnosti. Thou, — if 
 there be in thy breast one spark of pity left for him thou 
 once namedst thy brother; for him to whom a holy tie, a 
 
 sacred vow Ah ! suffer not the starving hounds in 
 
 the street See a little hallowed earth thrown 
 
 over my wretched corpse." 
 
 These words were his last : he staggered ; his body fell 
 lifeless across the highway, and his spotless soul flew to 
 heaven. 
 
 In the day of battle, so mighty are the preparations for 
 
 hurhng death at thousands; by so many are the shafts of 
 
 10 * 
 
148 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 the grim destroyer expected, launched, and felt, so rapidly 
 are the slain often followed by their slayers, and the mourned 
 by their mourners, that the harvest of the grave, hovi^ever 
 dire and sudden, scarce finds leisure to be noticed; and no 
 longer appals an imagination already dizzy with excitement, 
 or stunned with repeated blows : but, when, in the hour 
 of mirth and revelry, a single living frame of exquisite per- 
 fection is, by some unforeseen shaft of fate, suddenly snatch- 
 ed away from the gay scene, and in the full exercise of 
 all its energies transformed to a lump of insensible clay — 
 when we behold it stretched out, equally unconscious of 
 insult and of pity, in the kindred dust — how drear, how 
 awful is the sudden change ! ^- 
 
 Then add that this frame thus transformed was that of 
 my friend — of my brother ;—^dnd that my own thrice 
 cursed dagger had wrought the deadly change ! 
 
 Oppressed at this spectacle beyond the power of a hu- 
 man pen to describe, I long continued fixed in intent amaze- 
 ment on the spot ; I long continued gazing on my friend's 
 lifeless form; and at last — late at night, and after every 
 curious bystander had insensibly dropped oiF — returned, 
 exhausted with anguish, into the city, by the same gate 
 through which in the morning I had sought the country, 
 brimful of thoughtless mirth. 
 
 Sad, indeed, was now my soul! I felt the hand of the 
 Almighty growing heavy upon me. I felt the long series 
 of chastisements beginning which awaited my apostacy. 
 Precisely where the religion of my fathers had imposed upon 
 me the most sacred ties, where by my change I had most 
 grievously sinned against its high behests, and where the 
 punishment of my infidelity must give my heart the deepest 
 Avound, there the first blow had been struck ! It was be- 
 cause I had abandoned my God that I had been doomed to 
 lose my friend — the friend to whom I had been sworn in 
 his holy name! — and doomed to lose that friend by my 
 own baleful hand ! And so i:;rcat became, from the bitter 
 
 J 
 
ANASTASIUS. 149 
 
 taste of its first fruits, the sense of my guilt, that, could I 
 only have avoided the dismal fate of an utter outcast, 
 forced for ever to fly from home and country, I should 
 willingly have forfeited all else which I possessed, even 
 now to abjure my new errors and to return to my for- 
 saken faith. Nor did any fear of the consequences which 
 awaited my rashness mix itself with the feelings called forth 
 by my misfortune. Had I even been most unquestionably 
 guilty of the premeditated murder of an infidel, my life, as 
 a Moslemin, could run no risk from the award of the Turkish 
 law. But the numerous circle which had witnessed the 
 scene united in asserting my entire innocence of the deed 
 which I bewailed; and when, on the morning ensuing, I 
 presented myself of my own accord at the nearest mek- 
 kiem67 to take my trial, the cadee, after exchanging a few 
 words with his naib,^ dismissed me fully acquitted. 
 
 Not so my own conscience ! Loud and ceaseless were 
 its upbraidings. ''Thy dagger," it cried, *' has been lifted 
 on thy friend; it has killed thy brother; it h«s struck him 
 to the heart, whom it ought to have defended while thy 
 hand could grasp its hilt; its accursed edge has cut through 
 the holiest of engagements, and doomed to destruction the 
 sincerest piety and the tenderest affection. To the last day 
 of thy life, the wound inflicted by thee on Anagnosti shall 
 continue to fester in thine own distracted bosom ; it shall 
 remain fresh and green when his mouldering remains have 
 fallen into dust; it shall follow thee beyond the grave; it 
 shall make thee dread to meet thy friend even in the re- 
 gions of eternal bliss,— if it should not eternally close against 
 thee their inexorable doors." 
 
 To hush the relentless monitor, to honour my ill-fated 
 friend's remains, and to appease his shade, I did all that I 
 now could do. I not only had his body carried to the 
 grave in splendid procession, masses performed for his un- 
 spotted soul, the boiled wheats handed round among the 
 congregation, the purest marble sought for a gorgeous 
 
i50 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 tombstone; I myself — clothed as I was in Mohammed's 
 hateful livery — followed at a distance the dismal pomp, 
 with my garments soiled, my feet bare, and my head 
 strewed with ashes. From an obscure aisle in the church 
 I beheld the solemn service; saw on the field of death the 
 pale stiff corpse lowered into its narrow cell, and hoping to 
 exhaust sorrow's bitter cup, at night, when all mankind 
 hushed its griefs, went back to my friend's final resting^ 
 place, lay down upon his silent grave, and watered with my 
 tears the fresh raised hollow mound. 
 
 In vain ! Nor my tears nor my sorrows could avail. No 
 offerings nor penance could purchase me repose. "Wherever 
 I went, the beginning of our friendship and its issue 
 still alike rose in view; the fatal spot of blood still danced 
 before my steps, and the reeking dagger hovered before my 
 aching eyes. In the silent darkness cf the night I saw 
 the pale phantom of my friend stalk round my watchful 
 couch, covered with gore and dust; and even during the 
 unavailing riots of the day, I still beheld the spectre rise 
 over the festive board, glare on me with piteous look, and 
 hand me whatever I attempted to reach. But whatever it 
 presented seemed blasted by its touch. To my wine it 
 gave the taste of blood, and to my bread the rank flavour 
 of death ! 
 
 I who before had set at nought even the sober creed of 
 the sage, now sought comfort in the silly superstitions of 
 the vulgar. I made offerings to the inexorable Fates. I 
 supplicated the awful Moiral^'^ to withhold from me their 
 scourges. Thinking by swift motion to fly from the vision 
 which every where pursued my steps, I bestrode the swift- 
 est coursers, and roamed the country over. I flew across 
 hill and dale, both early in the morning and late at night 
 — now descending headlong the steep banks of the Pro- 
 pontis, now rushing along the rugged shores of the Euxine. 
 Among my acquaintance was a rich Armenian. The 
 fondness for handsome horses, prevalent among his nation, 
 
ANASTASIUS. 131 
 
 in him was a perfect passion; but a passion which the 
 jealous laws of the Turks only suffered a rayah to indulge 
 in secret. He might keep, at an immense cost, the most 
 magnificent coursers that came from his own country : 
 bestride them he durst not — except in their stalls. To ride 
 and to enjoy ihem he was obliged to hire some mean Mo- 
 hammedan ; and, as the noble animals often wanted exer- 
 cise, he was glad to assist me in flying from my sorrows, 
 by giving me the unrestrained use of his costly stud. 
 
 Thus enjoying the command of the fleetest horses and 
 the most active grooms, I took care that neither should 
 want exercise. I devoted my whole time to drawing the 
 bow, and flinging the djereed." No where was I seen, but 
 at the Ocmeidan and in the Hippodrome;'^ where I en- 
 deavoured to raise my oppressed spirits, by sending them 
 on the wing after a barbed arrow or a staff that cleft the air. 
 In order to concentrate on one point all my faculties and 
 feelings, I used to set myself a task. I resolved to hit a 
 particular mark at an assigned distance, and I left not the 
 spot until I had performed the feat. This practice gave 
 me a dexterity in warlike exercises, of which at a later 
 period I reaped the benefit. At the time of its acquire- 
 ment, the swiftest motion of my body was not sufficient to 
 afford my mind repose. The instant I vaulted into my 
 saddle, the gaunt spectre of death leaped up behind me. I 
 might walk or I might gallop, saunter along or fly at full 
 speed; yet would the avenging spirit alike goad my galled 
 heart, and with his iron gripe wring my breast to suffoca- 
 tion. If for an instant I breathed more freely — if some- 
 times I conceived a transient hope that my gloom was 
 wearing out, it soon proved a mere delusion; and even in 
 Beotia's swamps, and where autumn seres the leaf, the 
 sun's enfeebled rays find not greater difficulty to pierce the 
 chilling mist, than did the least glimpse of hilarity to pene- 
 trate the shroud of anguish which surrouqded my heart. 
 
152 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 As a last and desperate resource, I tried to drive away 
 my frightful visions by gayer dreams, the children of 
 drowsy opium. I found my way to the great mart of that 
 deleterious drug, the Theriakee-tchartchee.*^ There, ia 
 elegant coiFee-houses, adorned with trellised awnings, the 
 dose of delusion is measured out to each customer accord- 
 ing to his wishes. But lest its visitors should forget to 
 what place they are hieing, directly facing its painted por- 
 ticoes stands the great receptacle of mental imbecility, 
 erected by Sultan Suleiman for the use of his capital. 
 
 In this tchartchee might be seen any day a numerous 
 collection of those whom private sorrows have driven to a 
 public exhibition of insanity. There each reeling idiot might 
 take his neighbour by the hand, and say: ^'Brother, and 
 what ailed thee, to seek so dire a cure ?" There did I with 
 the rest of its famihars now take my habitual station in my 
 solitary niche, like an insensible motionless idol, sitting 
 with sightless eye-balls staring on vacuity. 
 
 One day, as I lay in less entire absence than usual under 
 the purple vines of the porch, admiring the gold-tipped 
 domes of the majestic Sulimanye, the appearance of an old 
 man with a snow-white beard, reclining on the couch be- 
 side me, caught ray attention. Half plunged in stupor, 
 he every now and then burst out into a wild laugh, occa- 
 sioned by the grotesque phantasms which the ample dose 
 of madjoon'^ he had just swallowed was sending up to his 
 brain. I sat contemplating him with mixed curiosity and 
 dismay, when, as if for a moment roused from his torpor, 
 he took me by the hand, and fixing on my countenance his 
 dim vacant eyes, said in an impressive tone : *' Young man, 
 thy days are yet few; take the advice of one who, alas 1 has 
 counted many. Lose no time; hie thee hence, nor cast 
 behind one lingering look: but if thou hast not the strength, 
 why tarry even here ? Thy journey is but half achieved. 
 At once go on to that large mansion before thee. It is thy 
 
ANASTASIUS. 153 
 
 ultimate destination; and by thus beginning where thou 
 must end at last, thou mayest at least save both thy time 
 and thy money." 
 
 The old man here fell back into his apathy, but I was 
 roused effectually. I resolved to renounce the slow poison 
 of whose havock my neighbour presented so woful a spe- 
 cimen; and, in order not to preserve even a memento of 
 the sin I abjured, presented him, as a reward for his ad- 
 vice, with the little golden receptacle of the pernicious 
 drug which I used to make my solace. He took the bauble 
 without appearing sensible of the gift, while I, running 
 into the middle of the square, pronounced with out- 
 stretched hands, '^ against the execrable market where in- 
 sanity was*sold by the ounce, a solemn malediction. 
 
 The curse, I believe, took effect. Certain it is, that with 
 me seemed to depart for ever the prosperity of the The- 
 riakee-tchartchee. From the day I turned my back upon 
 its fatal abodes, the use of wine and spirits may be said 
 in Constantinople to have superseded that of opium. Every 
 succeeding year has seen the trade of madjoon decline 
 faster, and the customers of those that sell it diminish more 
 rapidly. The old worshippers of the poppy juice have 
 dropped off like the leaves in autumn, and no young de- 
 votees have sprung up in their stead. The preparation has 
 not even preserved its adherents among those men of the 
 law, formerly anxious to combine, through means of a drug 
 that may be taken unperceived, the pleasures of intoxica- 
 tion with the honours of sobriety. 
 
l&l ANASTASIUS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 By degrees my purse, exhausted in the daily purchase of 
 ready-made mirth, had — hy the ill-wearing of that com- 
 modity — hegun to partake of the depression of my spirits; 
 and on this occasion I found pecuniary embarrassments 
 an excellent remedy for a settled melancholy. When a 
 man knows not how to support life, he has httle leisure for 
 feeding sorrow. To replenish, however, my empty cof- 
 fers, I commenced upon a novel pursuit, which, if it com- 
 pleted the waste of present resources, made me amends by 
 the brilliancy it cast over my future prospects. 
 
 This I shall explain. 
 
 My melancholy, my retirement, and my endeavours to 
 find relief from my sorrow in superstitious practices, had 
 brought me in contact with a personage who long since had 
 exchanged the society of man for habitual converse with 
 spirits, and who, disclaiming all further intercourse with 
 the inhabitants of the earth, employed himself solely in 
 cultivating an extensive acquaintance in the different re- 
 gions of the heavens. The only easy and familiar chit-chat 
 in which my friend Derwish might be said to indulge was 
 with the stars. His accurate information respecting the 
 various occurrences in the firmament, it is true, gave him 
 so superior an insight into the affairs of this globe itself, 
 that he could not help feeling mortified as well as surprised 
 at seeing both in potentates and private individuals so unac- 
 countable a backwardness to profit by his wisdom : for he 
 was as fond of giving advice as those who have not the stars 
 to back their opinion; — and indeed, who more capable 
 than Derwish of directing every concern of man ? He un 
 
ANASTASIUS. 155 
 
 derstood the composition of cabalistic sentences capable ol' 
 baffling the subtlest witchcraft, and disarming the most 
 determined evil eye : he could tell to a second the precise 
 period for every critical measure, from the giving a battle 
 to the taking a dose of rhubarb; and in casting nativities 
 and predicting seasons, the Venice calendar itself must 
 yield to the all-comprehending Derwish, It is well known 
 what innumerable little devils float in air, always on the 
 watch, when people inadvertently yawn, to whip into their 
 mouths and slip down their throats, when they make sad 
 intestine commotion in their stomachs. These he pos- 
 sessed the art of expelling with rare success, and, soon 
 preparing to soar far beyond his former flights, he was at 
 the eve, when I made his acquaintance, of a discovery 
 which promised mines of wealth to whoever might choose 
 to join him in its pursuit. It consisted in ascertaining, by 
 the itching of one's fingers, what heaps of gold lay buried 
 under those ancient piles which — like the arches of Back- 
 tchekeui,^ the ruins in Greece, and the pyramids of Egypt 
 — are mistaken by the ignorant for aqueducts, and temples, 
 and mausolea, but by the wise are known to be the secret 
 treasuries of the Constantines, the Suleimans, and the 
 Pharaohs of old. The exact situation of the deposits known, 
 what so easy as to pull down the buildings over them ! 
 
 Ere, however, this measure could be quite accomplished,, 
 other resources, less splendid, no doubt, but more accept- 
 able, and in which Eblis*^ had no hand, lent me their sea- 
 sonable aid. 
 
 One day when walking through Galata with a brother in 
 distress; **See,'* said I to my companion,** all those bales 
 of costly goods tossed about on the quay like common 
 warel For whom think you they are landing? Why, for 
 some old churl, to be sure, immured in his dingy counting- 
 house, and who perhaps will never behold with his own 
 eyes either theircontents, or even theirfinal produce. For- 
 tune reserves all her favours for those who only know their 
 
156 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 amount by a cipher more or less in their ledger. Young 
 fellows like us, who would proclaim her bounty by sound 
 of trumpet, and sow its golden fruits far and wide in the 
 world, the churlish prude leaves to starve." 
 
 '^ Fortune, gentlemen," observed the caravokeiri^ of the 
 ship, who had overheard my speech, *' cannot, if she be 
 a lady, dislike her votaries more than other females do, for 
 being young : but perhaps, like other ladies, to be won, she 
 must be courted." 
 
 I now recognised in the captain one of our islanders : he 
 knew me before. ** You, sir," added he, ** might have 
 had the goddess in question on your own terms, as much 
 as any body. Who so petted as you were by your worthy 
 deceased mother ?" 
 
 *'What! my mother dead?" exclaimed I, both shocked 
 and surprised. 
 
 **To be sure," rejoined the reis; "and had she known 
 where to fmd you, ere that accident happened, who doubts 
 that she would have left her wealth to you rather than to 
 that cross-grained minx — pardon my boldness — your elder 
 sister?" 
 
 ** All left to my eldest sister?" cried I, drying up the 
 tears that had begun to flow profusely. ** Ah, if I too had 
 but scolded her all the day long ! — That at least is a pro- 
 ceeding which shows attention, and, it seems, meets with 
 adequate thanks. Or rather," added I, on thinking of her 
 ruinous lenity with regard to my youthful aberrations, 
 **if she had but scolded me, when I deserved reproof! 
 But she is gone to a better place than her son must hope 
 to see her in : Peace be to my own soul, as it is sure to be 
 to hers!" 
 
 *'It would not much perhaps disturb its repose," ob- 
 served my companion, *' to make a little inroad on that of 
 your sister, and try, in your quality as Moslemin, which 
 went furthest, your mother's partiaHty or that of the law." 
 
 Next to her mother and her husband, Uoxana (now the 
 
ANASTASIUS. 137 
 
 eldest female of the family) had always made poor me the 
 favourite object of her ill-humour. I owed her a longer 
 score of petty spites than I had hoped ever to pay off. It 
 would have been a pleasure to me to hustle her out of the 
 inheritance, had it even been for a stranger. Finding, 
 therefore, that the accumulated produce of my mother's 
 estate at Naxia was in the hands of a merchant in Constan- 
 tinople, and in ready cash, I went to claim it. My sole re- 
 gret on my way was my not having provided sacks and 
 porters sufficient to carry away the whole treasure at once. 
 
 There was little occasion for such a hurry. At first my 
 mother's fortune seemed little easier to get at than the 
 wealth of the Pharaohs, which my friend Derwish meant 
 silly to pocket, by displacing the pyramids. In order to 
 obtain the much- valued memorial, I found legal forms to 
 go through, certificates to sign, petitions to present, se- 
 curities to give, and accounts to settle, which only allowed 
 me at the end of several weeks to pocket my money, or 
 rather the half of my money which had not been melted 
 away in the interval, in law expenses, merchants' com- 
 missions, presents distributed among men in power, and 
 fees paid to men In office. Even that half, however, my 
 necessities rendered a most welcome supply. 
 
 To the landed property at Naxia I could only enforce my 
 right by personal appearance; and a little voyage round 
 the Archipelago seemed to promise a pleasing as well as 
 profitable change of scene. Accordingly I bargained for 
 my passage in a Greek vessel bound for Ragusa, but which 
 was intended to touch at Chios. I should thus once more 
 behold, under the protection of the turban, my home and 
 friends; and, having gratified that wish, an open boat 
 could easily convey me, whenever I pleased, from my fa- 
 ther's birth-place to my mother's native shore. 
 
 With all these arrangements settled in my mind, I sent 
 my baggage on board; meaning myself to go by land as 
 far as Gallipoli, where the sacolcva'^ was to ballast. Al- 
 
158 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ready, with one foot in the stirrup, was I taking my last 
 leave of all my acquaintance, collected in a merry circle 
 around me, when from a distance resounded a loud cry 
 of— ''Stop him, stop him!" Accordingly I was going to 
 set off as fast as possible — cursing the fellow who had girt 
 my saddle ill, and now detained me to rectify his awk- 
 wardness — when, ere I could get away, who should burst 
 through the opening crowd and seize my bridle like one 
 frantic, but the star-gazer Derwish 1 
 
 **Can you," said he in an angry whisper — almost biting 
 off my ear — **can you think of going after a paltry rabbit 
 warren, when placed by my skill on the very threshold 
 of all the treasures of the universe ?" 
 
 *' Friend," answered I, ''accuse the stars; they have 
 been so dilatory in performing their promises, that I dis- 
 claim all further engagement with their highnesses." 
 
 "Foolish impatience of youth!" resumed Derwish. 
 "But if hope cannot stop you, at least listen to fear. For 
 your sake I have spent the whole night on my roof, watch- 
 ing your perplexing planet. It looks all spleen and malice* 
 Therefore at any rate go not till Saturday. Besides, who 
 in his senses sets out upon a journey on any other day of 
 the week?" 
 
 "Every day is auspicious," replied I, laughing, "to 
 those who go after their money." 
 
 " Hark!" exclaimed the persevering star-gazer, " there 
 is the muezzeem^ of Sultan Achmed, just calling to prayers. 
 Before you go, say your namaz." — " I have said it three 
 times over," replied I. — "And the bag of garlic against 
 witchcraft?" — "There it dangles from my horse's throat !" 
 "And the amulets against the evil eye?" — " Head, sto- 
 mach, arms, all are stiff with them." " I see," observed 
 my friend, deeply sighing, "you have done everything 
 for yourself: now do something for me, whom you desert 
 with all my excavations on my hands. It will not cost less 
 than fifty thousand piastres only to undermine the aqueduct, 
 
ANASTASIUS. ir>9 
 
 tind I have not five paras in the world ! Give me at least in 
 advance a couple of sequins." 
 
 Derwish had now completely worn out my patience. 
 In order to get rid of him—** This good gentleman/* cried 
 I to the bystanders, ** only wants to deprive the capital of 
 every drop of water. Pray assist him in this good work, 
 as I have not time to stop." Derwish at these words grew 
 frightened; he let go my reins, and slunk away. I rode off, 
 rested during the heat of the day at a village on the road, 
 and in the evening arrived at Gallipoli. 
 
 The captain had already taken in his ballast; so we set 
 sail immediately. At the Dardanelles we were detained 
 several hours by private jobs of the crew, of which the cus- 
 tom-house officers unconsciously bore the blame. Just as 
 we got under sail again, an Israelite, who had heroically 
 determined to go by water whither he could not get by 
 land, begged admittance. He pleaded poverty so piteously, 
 that no other conditions were attached to the granting of 
 this favour, save the diversion which he might afford. 
 Another Jew, seeing his countryman so readily taken in, 
 begged hard for the same boon; but the sailors, thinking 
 they had provided sufficient pastime for the voyage, now 
 became obdurate, and, when the supplicant attempted 
 to creep up the sides of the vessel, stoutly beat him off. 
 In this ungracious operation no one was more active than 
 his brother Jew, who, concealed behind the sailors, gave 
 him with his slick the last rap over ihe knuckles, which 
 put an end to his attempts. I could not help noticing this 
 want of charity in one who had experienced ours so re- 
 cently : but on imparting to Mordecai my feelings on that 
 subject, I found that he was acting from the very impulse 
 of that virtue in which I thought him deficient. The 
 other Jew, he informed us, was an arrant rogue, and, if 
 admitted, no one could tell what mischief he might do. 
 
 We now thought ourselves secure from further intrusion, 
 when a light wherry, skimming the waters like a swallow. 
 
160 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 shot alongside of us, and flung upon our deck, without 
 even a show of waiting for our permission, a smart ca- 
 leondjee, whose high behest was to he conveyed to Te- 
 nedos. The captain immediately bowed submission. 
 
 In this new passenger I soon recognised a personage with 
 whom I had made acquaintance on board the Turkish fleet, 
 during the expedition to the Morea. Never had we met 
 since the failure of the attempt on Mayno. The conse- 
 quential marine, therefore, felt great pleasure in boasting 
 of the more successful cruise against the same nest of pi- 
 rates, undertaken the ensuing year. The delight with 
 which he described how the Moohassil of the Morea forced 
 the little peninsula by land, and the capitan-pasha block- 
 aded it by sea, and how the inhabitants, driven by the one 
 out of their strong holds, fell with their boats into the clutches 
 of the other, could only be exceeded by the rapture with 
 which he painted the males all hanged, and the women and 
 children all drowned, in order to reconcile them to the 
 
 Turkish yoke '* You," he concluded, ** who are going to 
 
 take possession of your estates, mean henceforth, I suppose, 
 to lead a sober country life, and have done with all such 
 frolics. May you prosper ! For my part, I hate innocent 
 amusements, and want a little vice to season my pleasures !" 
 Tenedos now being near, my friend called for the boat, 
 and got himself rowed ashore; while I wished hira at parting 
 a great deal of pleasure, with all manner of vice. 
 
 The current had faithfully escorted our vessel out of 
 the straits; but, having seen us fairly launched in the 
 open sea, it now made a deep obeisance, and bade us fare- 
 well; leaving our further conveyance to the care of the 
 winds. These apparently had business elsewhere; at least 
 they attended not our summons ; and for several days we 
 were left to confront a dead calm. 
 
 Should any one be so fortunate as to have had no ac- 
 quaintance before with the monster ennui, the most favour- 
 able situation without doubt for witnessing all its powers 
 
ANASTASIUS. 161 
 
 is, when on board a small boat in a sea almost bound- 
 less, one lies for hours watching a cloudless sky for a breeze 
 which stays away, and a waveless sea for a ripple which 
 chooses not to come. In this situation, while all else is 
 entirely at a stand, time itself seems to roll on so heavily, 
 that though every hour of one's short life runs wholly to 
 waste, one still Avishes that waste to be more rapid. I who 
 could only exist in a bustle, and thrive in a whirlwind, found 
 myself so completely weighed down by this obstinate still- 
 ness of every surrounding element, as absolutely to gasp 
 for breath ; to persuade myself that even a sense of pain 
 would be a welcome relief from so horrible a tedium, and 
 at last to cry out in an evil moment, **0 for an end to 
 this misery, even by the worst storm which the heavens 
 have in store !" 
 
 Just such a storm happened to Le within hearing. It 
 took me at my word. Scarce had I uttered the wish, 
 than it hastened with all possible alacrity to attend the in- 
 vitation. A white fleece arose in the distant sky; a dark 
 streak shot across the furthest wave ; a breeze was felt. 
 This breeze became a gale, and this gale grew to a hurri- 
 cane. Angry clouds, gathering on all sides, began to travel 
 in every opposite direction. They met, they crossed, 
 and stopped each other as if to parley, until the whole 
 heavenly vault became a continuous mass of darkness. 
 It would have been difficult to decide which howled the 
 most dismally — the frightened sailors, in the act of lowering 
 the yards, closing the hatchways, and clearing the deck — 
 or the frightful blast, while mocking their petty endeavours, 
 and tearing and tumbling every thing about our ears, it 
 kept lashing the roaring waves, until they alternately hove 
 us up to the sky, or almost left us aground at the bottom of 
 the sea. 
 
 When the tempest became so furious that a crew ten 
 limes more numerous than ours would have found ample 
 employment, each sailor wisely left off his work, to fall 
 
1G2 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 upon his knees, and say his prayers. Had Saint Spiridion, 
 the protector-general of ships in distress, been ears all over, 
 he scarce could have heard or have heeded half the vows 
 addressed to him on this occasion. But the more we prayed 
 the more the blast increased, until our ship must inevitably 
 have sunk, had not the sailors at last most providentially 
 hit upon an infallible expedient for appeasing the tempest. 
 
 The Jew, content with making sport for us most hand- 
 somely on deck, during the whole of the fine weather, 
 had, at the very first lowering of the sky, taken care to 
 dive into the hold. Entirely forgotten for a while, he 
 happened just to be remembered at this critical period. 
 All now plainly saw the whole cause of the hurricane, 
 but with it also the remedy. The Hebrew must be sacri- 
 ficed to appease the angry waves. 
 
 From his very hiding-place the wretch heard his doom. 
 He strove to creep between the stones of the ballast : but 
 had he nestled, like a toad, in their heart, he could not 
 have escaped. He was dragged upon the deck, to be 
 tossed into the sea. When indeed held absolutely over 
 the brink of eternity, he begged to ransom his life for that 
 article of which he had pretended to be entirely destitute — 
 for money; and offered, first, one piastre, then two, then 
 five-and-twenty ! The sum was tempting : — but existence 
 was at stake with the sailors themselves, and gold had lost 
 its power. They let the Hebrew drop. 
 
 Meanwhile I had fancied that the storm began to slacken: 
 — wherefore, catching the sinking wretch by his coat; 
 ** Hark ye, palikaria,"^ said I to the crew, *' the question is 
 not what the cheating scoundrel may deserve; it is only 
 what further evils we may suffer by bringing him to punish- 
 ment. Now if the mere sight of his uncouth figure is suf- 
 ficient to frighten the sea into these fits, what will she do 
 when his whole ugly carcass, skin and all, is crammed 
 down her throat? Worse, depend upon it, than when, on 
 a similar occasion, she threw up near Saint Irene, amidst 
 
ANASTASIUS. 163 
 
 fire and flaities, a raging volcano ! Let us therefore appease 
 the ruffled elements by only quietly squeezing the mis- 
 creant's soul — doubtless composed of good sequins — out 
 of his dirty body. In my quality as Moslemin, I fear I 
 must encumber myself with half the load." 
 
 The wind having slackened by this time, the proposal 
 was approved of by the majority : the few that looked 
 askance at me were frowned into silence; and the Jew, 
 tossed back into ttie vessel, was submitted to our search. 
 
 His vest, trowsers, and shirt — attacked first — yielded 
 nothing. His enormous leather belt, therefore, became 
 the next object of our scrutiny : and for fear of losing 
 aught of the wealth its weight bespoke, we spread a small 
 ihram ' on the deck, ere we began its dissection. 
 
 Scarce was its paunch opened, by the most delicate 
 puncture which the point of my sabre could inflict, than 
 out rushed, with resistless impetuosity, such a stream of 
 clattering coin, as lasted full five minutes, ere it was quite 
 exhausted: but the highest pieces were paras, and the 
 whole amount of the heap scarce a piastre I 
 
 The sailors turned pale with disappointment: nor was I 
 myself greatly pleased. ** Son of Satan and of the witch 
 of Endor," exclaimed I, with furious gesture, *' do you wish 
 me to treat your own body like your belt, and to seek for 
 your treasure in your bowels ?'* Mordecai was not put 
 to the trouble of answering; for, on my clawing his head 
 to give it a shake, his caul remained in my hands^ — a po- 
 sitive musket-proof helmet of conglomerate sequins ! I now 
 had my cue, and it struck me that, where the head was so 
 •well furnished, the heels might also be worth investigating. 
 Like the dirty caul, the clumsy buskins offered a solid 
 stratum of gold ! 
 
 As soon as stripped of his pelf, the Jew begged to be 
 killed outright : he was worth nothing now ! We thought 
 otherwise. Another vessel hailing us at that moment for 
 
164 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 some water, we sent two casks : — in one of thein T^a^ 
 Mordecai. 
 
 The gale, which had not entirely fallen, soon carried us 
 full sail into the straits of Chio, and the distant sound of 
 bells, so long unheard, again struck my ears. Though 
 now become a Mohammedan, it affected me with inex- 
 pressible rapture. The impression of approaching home, 
 however, as it strengthened became sadder. From what I 
 still hoped to find under the paternal roof, I turned my 
 thoughts to what I was to find no more. My mother had 
 not been the wisest of mothers : as a son I owed her not 
 unlimited gratitude. Instead of skimming off the dross of 
 my disposition, she had, by injudicious treatment, only 
 added new alloy to its ore, and then cast the compound 
 away, as utterly worthless : yet she had been my mother; 
 and however lightly all the later ties of choice or of chance 
 were wont to sit upon my mind — however often I may wan- 
 tonly have broken the social bands of friendship and of 
 love — the primary claims of nature and of instinct seemed, 
 spite of my own reasoning, still to maintain their roots 
 firm in my heart. 
 
 Absorbed in my musing, I found myself opposite the town 
 of Chio, ere I fancied it in sight. A boat from the island 
 soon took me ashore. When setting foot on the beach, I 
 threw myself on my knees, with both hands gathered up 
 the loved dust of my native land, and, bringing it with 
 ecstasy to my lips; ** Ah, my own parental soil !'* cried I 
 in a wild rapture; "defiled as thou art by the tread of 
 rank barbarians, and by the yoke of ruthless Tartars, still 
 do I bear thee devout worship; still does thy arid surface 
 more entrance my longing eyes than all the gilded domes 
 of Eyoob, and all the gaudy gardens of Sultanieh !"^ 
 
 As, advancing with hurried steps, I beheld in quick 
 succession the various spots endeared by the incidents of 
 my early years, the agitation of my mind still increased. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 165 
 
 Here was the corner of the quay where, with other hoys of 
 my age, I used to watch the ships unloading. There, at 
 the turn of the street, stood the house in which on St. 
 John's eve we played at kleidon rysika.9 A little further 
 on I passed hy the abode of our ancient paramana,'° whose 
 nursery tales I still could listen to with pleasure. Right 
 over the way my eye fell on the fatal window whence, at 
 Easter, a whole load of broken pots and pans — the wrecks 
 of a twelvemonth — fell on my devoted head.^* Ere I had 
 quite done looking — with some still remaining fright — at 
 its threatening aperture, I stumbled over the steps of the 
 cross old papadia's'- hovel, whose flesh-pot I fdled one day 
 with'glue, in revenge for her complaints of my prior frohcs. 
 1 was still inwardly laughing at the i^membrance of her 
 fruitless attempts to unclose her toothless gums, after 
 tasting her broth, when I grazed the stone seat of a house 
 where. .... but at present pass we on ! Suflice it to say, 
 that out of the open entrance of this forlorn mansion there 
 seemed to rush a chilling blast, which, hastily as I darted 
 by, changed the warm moisture on my forehead into a 
 cold clammy dew ! 
 
 In this way did an uninterrupted chain of recollections 
 carry me on from the water-side to my paternal threshold. 
 There all seemed solitude and desolation. The only ac- 
 quaintance remaining— the only being that gave me wel- 
 come, was Xeno, the old dog; procured when a puppy 
 from the consul, and reared by myself. Many a tinie he 
 had stood sentinel during my meetings with the donor's 
 daughter; and when I fled from my home, I had been 
 obliged to lie him to a post on the quay, lest he should 
 foflow me to the ship, and betray me by his fidelity. He 
 still seemed to remember his old master, looked up in my 
 face as if to say, *' what had he done to be thus deserted;'* 
 and, wagging his tail, Ucked my hand. His joyous yelping 
 brought down an unknown female of uncourteous appear- 
 ance, who asked my business. Having told her its na- 
 
166 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ture, she desired me to go to the garden in the Campo, 
 where the signer drogueman at present resided. 
 
 The objects I met in my way to the country were no 
 less interesting than those which I had passed in the town. 
 But in the one as in the other, I perceived a change which 
 quite confounded all my calculations. Every thing slill 
 stood in the same place, and still preserved the same shape, 
 as before ; but the dimensions of every object appeared 
 totally altered. What I thought I had left huge, gigantic, 
 vast as the tower of Babel, now, to my infinite surprise, 
 seemed paltry, diminutive, reduced to the size of a child's 
 plaything. Houses, gardens, hills, and dales, all looked as 
 if, since my childhood, they had shrunk to half their pri- 
 mitive size. A few steps brought me to the end of what I 
 thought covered acres ; and what formerly I fancied reared 
 its head in the sky now hardly rose out of the ground. I 
 had left my home, impressed with the magnitude of every 
 object : to the first images imprinted in my memory I had 
 assimilated all the vaster scenes which I had since beheld; 
 and only now I first perceived the difference, and from the 
 comparison thought what I saw even smaller than it was. 
 
 My long strides soon brought me abreast with a little 
 man, advanced in years, who was hobbling on before me. 
 The few additional wrinkles that furrowed his face could 
 not prevent my recognising in him the Signer Polizoi, an 
 old friend of the family ; while, to his failing eyesight, my 
 change from boy to man left me an entire stranger. As 
 I must in that capacity have the more to learn, he seemed 
 to increase in the same proportion the natural communi- 
 cativeness of his disposition. At my request he went re- 
 gularly over all the members of the paternal house, until 
 he came to a certain graceless youth named Anastasius, 
 who — he informed me in a sort of confidential whisper — 
 was the saddest reprobate that ever had disgraced Chio; 
 insomuch that even he, Polizoi— a primate as he was — 
 never felt safe from his pranks, while yet only a mere boy; 
 
 ^% 
 
ANASTASIUS. 167 
 
 and if he met him now, would, he verily believed, die with 
 positive terror. 
 
 Far be from me all suspicion of an intent to commit 
 murder, in acquainting the old gentleman that this dreaded 
 reprobate actually stood before him. Thunderstruck at the 
 intelligence, he stared at me some time in silent horror; 
 then suddenly wheeled ^about and scampered away. My 
 calling to him to quiet his apprehensions, till I grew hoarse, 
 could neither bring him back nor stop his progress. Some 
 block or stone I fancy was more persuasive; for I heard a 
 loud tumble, and would have gone to his assistance, when 
 the sight of our door drove all other thoughts away. 
 
 I paused a few seconds on the threshold. Signer Po- 
 lizo'i's speech had taught me to expect little kindness; 
 **And might it not," thought I, **be preferable to fancy 
 what was best, than to be certain of the worst?" But 
 that worst — filial piety suggested — '' I might make the best 
 by my change of deportment !" I therefore entered. 
 
 As I ascended the steps, and, near the trellis of the 
 landing, caught my father's voice, grown tremulous with 
 age — my heart began to throb. He was conversing with 
 his friends, and the ceaseless grinding of the water- wheeP'^ 
 in the yard, prevented his hearing my approach. Un- 
 prepared, he saw me stand before him. Perceiving his 
 surprise at the appearance of one in the Moslemin dress 
 walking in thus familiarly; "Sir," said I, '* you see your 
 son." At these words my father started: — yet he seemed 
 moved, and made a sort of gesture to bid me welcome; 
 but again suddenly checking himself, as he caught my bro- 
 ther Gonstantine's eye, eagerly scanning his countenance : 
 ** The sons I know," observed he drily, *' when they greet 
 me, begin by kissing my hands : I know none other. Per- 
 haps you are only come to wrest from them their re- 
 maining property, and to leave me, in my old age, to beg 
 my bread. " 
 
 I was going to make the only lit reply in my power; — 
 
168 ANASTASIUS^. 
 
 to throw myself on the ground ; to kiss, not my father's? 
 hands, but his feet; to beg his blessing, and to renounce 
 his property; when my ungracious brother stepped in be- 
 tween the purpose and the deed, to mar all my good intent. 
 *' I made no doubt," said he in a brutal tone, ** that, after 
 disgracing your family by your conduct, you would also 
 wish to brave it by your presence; but truly you should 
 avoid the air of Christian houses. It can do you no good, 
 and to us your breath is pestilence." 
 
 At any other time such a speech would instantly hsite 
 been resented. But I felt this the decisive moment of my 
 Jife. I stood at the turn between good and evil. I de- 
 termined to repress my rising wrath, though I should choke 
 in the attempt. 
 
 **Sir," said I to my father — looking earnestly in his 
 face, while the tears ran down my cheeks — **is it your 
 pleasure that I should be treated thus?" 
 
 This unexpected appeal to his feelings seemed for a mo- 
 ment to stagger my not yet impenetrable parent. But 
 whether it was that he felt awed by my brother, who ruled 
 him with a rod of iron, or that his own heart had entirely 
 ceased to plead for Anastasius : **Stanco," said he coldly, 
 **is in the right. You ought ere this to have perceived 
 that your company is not acceptable. We can have no- 
 thing to interchange with each other. Go, therefore, and 
 disturb us no longer." 
 
 At these harsh words my heart swelled till it was ready 
 to burst. Lest my enemies should have the pleasure of 
 beholding me unmanned, I turned away, and leaned over 
 the stone parapet. Had Constantino not been by, I should 
 have made another attempt to soothe my less inexorable 
 father. In the presence of this unnatural relation I knew 
 it must be fruitless. Yet I lingered on. I could not bring 
 myself to depart. I still hoped to be called back. Alas ! 
 I only staid to hear my brother propose, in an audible 
 whisper, to have ine turned out. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 169 
 
 Turned out of my father's house ! It was too much. I 
 rushed away. 
 
 Sacred walls of the parental mansion, I call you to wit- 
 ness ! By your moaning echoes denounce me a wretch to 
 all future ages : be the name of Anastasius in my native land 
 the name of guilt, and among foreign nations a title of dis- 
 grace, if I entered not your sacred threshold with feelings 
 of love, of peace, and of sub mission ! They were rejected : 
 they were spurned. Let those thank themselves for other 
 sentiments, who strove to obtain them ! 
 
 In three strides I cleared— I do not know how — the four- 
 teen steps of the stone flight at whose top I had lingered, 
 and got out at the gate. Then, turning round to the un- 
 kind habitation, I stopped, once more to contemplate — 
 but for the last time— its well-remembered features, whose 
 former smiles now were changed into everlasting frowns ! 
 *'Dear abode!" exclaimed I, ** where first I received the 
 boon of life, too soon become irksome, adieu for ever! 
 Anastasius shall no more approach thy loved shade ! If he 
 do, may it prove to his perjured soul the shade of death !" 
 This said, I hurried away, as if pursued by all the fiends of 
 hell; and in less than half an hour again reached the town. 
 
 Ah ! how often does it happen in life, that the most bfiss- 
 ful moments of our return to a long left home are those 
 only that just precede the instant of our arrival; those dur- 
 ing which the imagination still is allowed to paint, in its 
 own unblended colours, the promised sweets of our re- 
 ception ! How often, after this glowing picture of the 
 phantasy, does the reality which follows appear cold and 
 dreary ! How often do even those who grieved to see us 
 depart grieve more to see us return ; and how often do we 
 ourselves encounter nothing but sorrow on again behold- 
 ing the once happy, gay, promoters of our own hilarity, 
 now mournful, disappointed, and themselves needing what 
 consolation we may bring ! 
 
170 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The visit to my father was not the only fearful duty I 
 had to perform. Another and more appalling task re- 
 mained to be achieved. Of this, however, the nature was 
 such as no longer to leave room either for hope or fear. 
 I knew the worst, and grievously did that worst oppress 
 my heart. Helena, my first love — Helena was no more ! 
 At Constantinople, in the heyday of my devotion to the 
 fair Esm6, I had heard her mournful fate. The moment 
 my flight from Chios was known, she made a full con- 
 fession. To avoid unavailing exposure, the consul sent her 
 for change of air to Samos. There she was attended by one 
 of those nuns of St. Ursula who, in our islands, double the 
 merit of their chastity by disclaiming the defence of a con- 
 vent. Wretched from the first, Helena, as the hour of 
 maternal anguish approached, became every day more 
 impressed with the idea that she should not survive it. In 
 this persuasion she wrote me a letter, which she confided 
 to the nun ; and soon became the unhappy mother of a 
 lifeless child. In conformity with her foreboding fears, 
 or rather, perhaps, in consequence of her apprehensions, 
 she only survived the birth of her babe a few hours. The 
 nun had made a solemn promise not to part with her trust 
 except into my own hands. She however sent me word at 
 Constantinople that it only waited my return to my de- 
 serted home. Hearing that she now lived on my own 
 island, and only a short distance from the town, I went to 
 claim the melancholy bequest. I found sister Agnes at 
 home, and alone. The people with whom she boarded 
 were gone to a neighbouring fair. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 171 
 
 The nun had heard me described as a fair complexioned 
 Greek boy, Avith a sDiooth skin and flowing locks. No 
 wonder, therefore, that in the swarthy rough-cheeked Mosle- 
 inin, with forehead bare, and shaded lip, she should not 
 recognise the original of her fancied portrait. The first 
 sight of my fierce figure, standing unannounced before the 
 lonely maiden, made her start with evident surprise; but 
 when I showed her a note from Anastasius — whose hand- 
 writing, treasured up by her friend, had met her eye before 
 — she became more composed, and gave me the history 
 of Helena's sufferings. Touched with a sense of shame 
 for the ruin heaped by my lawlessness upon this innocent 
 girl, I had determined, while I remained in the presence 
 of her friend, not to deposit my assumed character, but to 
 hear the tale of woe to the end with pretended unconcern. 
 Soon, however, unbidden tears would start, and began to 
 flow so fast, that, for fear of betraying my feelings, I hid 
 my face in my cloak. Even that could not conceal from 
 the quick-sighted nun the anguish which throbbed beneath 
 the gaudy mantle. "I wonder not, sir," said she, **to 
 see you moved. In truth the story is touching, and cal- 
 culated to affect even the stout heart of an Osmanlee. 
 But, to behold such deep emotion in a stranger 1 while the 
 
 author of so much woe, while Anastasius himself " 
 
 Here all control over my tongue forsook me. ** I am 
 that Anastasius," cried I : *' could you a moment doubt it ?" 
 The nun appeared confounded. Shuddering with horror 
 at finding herself thus unconsciously in the actual presence 
 of him whom she looked upon as her friend's murderer — 
 as little less than a devil incarnate, a complete fiend — she 
 darted at me the gesture of anathema, and to the dread 
 sign added such dire imprecations, that I could not help 
 mechanically uncovering my breast, and wetting it with the 
 moisture of my lips,' to avert the evil influence. This ac- 
 tion, however, did not prevent a torrent of more explicit 
 abuse from following the first vague explosion of anger; 
 
17-2 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 and a full quarter of an hour did Sister Agnes rant, and 
 rave, and curse, ere I could find an opportunity of claiming 
 the letter I had been promised. With a hand still trembling 
 with rage she at last took it out of a small casket, and bade 
 me read — with compunction if I could — the last words of 
 my lovely and murdered mistress. 
 
 They were these : 
 
 **I neither reproach you with my ruin, which was my 
 own fault, nor with your want of love, which was not yours. 
 It depends not on ourselves to love,* but it does to be 
 merciful, and you were inhuman : you deliberately pierced 
 that heart in which you were worshipped; and of this deed 
 I die. On a foreign shore I soon shall breathe my last, 
 and my wretched father, who expected in me the comfort 
 of his old age, shall see me no more. Thanks be to God ! 
 the author of my unfortunate existence shall not have to 
 blush at the sight of his daughter; nor shall I, wont to look 
 up with the confidence of innocence, have to avert my eyes 
 with shame from a parent. For the unfortunate offspring 
 — I dare not say of our love — which perhaps may survive 
 me, I must not claim a father's care. You have trod under 
 foot the duties which you owed her who in the eyes of 
 heaven was your wife, and had committed no offence ex- 
 cept loving you too ardently. My child will be abandoned 
 to the hands of strangers; will live in contempt, and die 
 in misery. But should heaven ever bestow upon you the 
 pledges of a less ill-recjuited affection, fear, ah fear lest my 
 infant's wrongs be visited upon them ! Yet, if the last 
 words of a wretch, who is afraid her love will only cease 
 with her life, can find entrance into your too impenetrable 
 heart, ah, Anastasius ! ah, my Anastasius ! repent of your 
 sins, run not from crime to crime, and revenge not my 
 woes so severely on yourself, as to render it impossible 
 that we should ever meet again !" 
 
 The lime that had intervened between the writing and 
 the perusal of this letter might already be counted by years. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 17li 
 
 The Fair writer had ceased, not only to exist, but to he the 
 subject of the pubUc talk. The guilty boy to whom it was 
 addressed revolving years had made a man. The event 
 of which he was the worthless hero had been forgotten 
 even in the district where it took place, for more recent 
 adventures, and the very ink of the admonition had al- 
 ready become pale. Still did my heart feel every sentence 
 of the appeal as if yet in all the freshness of its first inditing. 
 It forgot the lapse of time, and became filled at once with 
 sadness as sincere and profound as if Helena's last despairing 
 sighs still were breathing on my ear. Keeping the sacred 
 characters pressed to my lips, I struck my heaving bo- 
 som, and flung myself on the floor. *'Here," cried I, 
 " let me lie, and commune undisturbed with my wretched 
 soul; here let me shed tears of blood for her whom I first 
 learnt to prize, when through my fault I had lost her for 
 ever!" 
 
 Had Sister Agnes known the omnipotence of mercy; had 
 my penitent, my humble suit been unconditionally granted, 
 who knows what richer fruits my first contrition might by 
 degrees have borne? None such were in store for the de- 
 stroyer of Helena ! The nun, the fatal nun, more impelled 
 by vanity than by friendship, more anxious to see my 
 sex humbled than her own exalted, was not satisfied with 
 my writhing under the reproaches of my own conscience, 
 unless I also smarted from the sting of her viper tongue. 
 So keenly did she sharpen its dart, so many little punctures 
 did she one by one inflict, so much venom did she pour 
 into each fresh wound, that resentment at last left not 
 room for regret, and instead of slowly rising with resolves 
 of amendment, I hastily started up with schemes of re- 
 venge. A mean ungenerous triumph over one already 
 prostrate I swore should meet with an adequate punish- 
 ment. 
 
 How this was inflicted; how Sister Agnes, who had 
 witnessed the last and direst eftects of my unworthincss, — 
 
174 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ■whose curses still pursued me fresh and green, though time 
 had already long laded the less wrathful farewell of her 
 friend, — was made to hlush herself; hut to blush at my 
 contemptuous forbearance, let the humbled nun herself 
 explain. All I wanted was, after the haughty dame had 
 sneeringly exclaimed, "You of all men!" to be able in 
 my turn to retort in the same tone, *' And you of all 
 women I" 
 
 Notwithstanding the ill success of my visit to my father, 
 I had not yet given up all hopes of being restored to his fa- 
 vour. Knowing the uselessness of any attempt at a con- 
 ciliatory interview, with my brother as the mediator, I 
 penned a letter replete with every possible offer of sub- 
 mission and sacrifice consistent with my safety as a follower 
 of Islam, and sent the supplicating words to their desti- 
 nation by a common friend. Independent of the force of 
 paternal feelings in the head of the family, I depended upon 
 the suggestions of policy in the younger branches. Hatred 
 prevailed over prudence, and I received no answer. After 
 lingering several days in fruitless expectation, I at last pre- 
 pared to leave Chios. 
 
 Ever since the sight of home had revived ancient recol- 
 lections, and with them the remorse for ancient misdeeds, I 
 had panted for a journey to Samos, there to perform on 
 the lonely grave of my Helena the sad rites of contrition 
 and of penance. On the morning of my own birthday I 
 proceeded to the not far distant island, whose privileged 
 earth held the sacred deposit; landed on its rocky shore 
 early in the afternoon, and, ere the evening cast its length- 
 ened shadows around, reached the hallowed spot, sole 
 object of my visit. 
 
 The sun's departing rays were just gliding from the 
 moss-grown tomb. I approached it with awe; strewed 
 upon it the wild flowers which had grown in its shade, be- 
 dewed its silent stones with tears of grief and remorse, and 
 over the ill-fated treasure underneath poured out my 
 
ANASTASIUS. 175 
 
 heart's bitter anguish in alternate groans and prayers. 
 The whole night Helena's gravestone was my pillow; and 
 early the next morning, ere yet the orb of day rose out 
 of the sparkling wave — making my dagger my pen— I traced 
 on the dusky slab, as on a recording roll, my Christian, 
 my Grecian, my old name Anastasius; filled in the deep 
 sunk characters with the hot stream drawn from my bosom; 
 and exclaiming : '* With the purple of my own blood I sign 
 the marriage contract : ^ I make thee mine in death, and 
 mine in life hereafter !" for the last time imprinted my 
 quivering lips on the cold marble, and rushed away from 
 death's receptacle, which I had made my nuptial couch. 
 
 By this expiatory visit I felt my heart somewhat relieved. 
 I thought my Helena might, from the higher regions where 
 she dwelt, have viewed if not in forgiveness, at least in pity, 
 my tardy atonement; and with a lightness of soul to which 
 I long had been a stranger, I proceeded to Paros, and there 
 spent a day or two with some of my old kinsmen. Dull 
 stupid islanders as they were, they entertained me not the 
 less kindly for being out of favour at Stambool, and when 
 I went on to Naxia, actually expressed a wish that I might 
 visit them again ! 
 
 At Naxos reigned supreme, under the wide-spreading 
 wing of Hassan-pasha's all powerful protection, my maternal 
 cousin Marco Politi, heir to all the favour enjoyed at the 
 arsenal, before him, by the papas his uncle, and sole epi- 
 trope^ of the Greek villages that cover the island. From 
 every one of these individually might this wily and ambi- 
 tious personage be said to wage an incessant warfare against 
 the Latin inhabitants of the city; and if the Grimaldis, the 
 Giustinianis, and the Barozzis of yore once caused Marco's 
 forefathers to groan under the weight of the Venetian yoke, 
 amply did Marco now make the miserable relics of these 
 proud families pay for the sins of their slumbering ances- 
 tors. He kept them absolutely shut up in their citadel and 
 towers. Fearful of letting down their draw-bridges to take 
 
ANASTASIUS. 
 
 a stroll in the fields, they envied their own flocks of 
 pigeons the liberty of their roamings, and seemed perched 
 up in their lofty habitations for no other purpose than to 
 have a better bird's-eye view of their adversary, leisurely 
 walking forth to skim the fatness of the land, and going 
 his rounds among the peasantry, to reap the country's 
 choicest fruits, and to levy his tithe on its fine wines, its 
 fragrant oils, and its rich honey, — while they had often 
 nothing else to beguile gnawing hunger but the treat offered 
 their eyes in the mouldering insignia of their ancestors, 
 clumsily carved over their gloomy gates. Such was their 
 dread of Marco's hostihty and power, that, whenever he 
 made a trip to Constantinople, the whole nobility of Naxos 
 took to their beds, in expectation of some new avaniah/ 
 
 Of his own villages Marco was the idol. Like other 
 idols indeed he was not to be worshipped empty-handed. 
 But he hated the Latins so cordially, that it was universally 
 allowed he must feel an unbounded love for his Greek coun- 
 trymen. The more, therefore, in his management of the 
 haratsch, and the other contributions to the Turks, he 
 squeezed out their inmost substance, the more he was 
 thanked for his disinterestedness and pubhc spirit. If 
 Marco had any private foibles, they were, like those of 
 other great men, deemed more than atoned for by his 
 public virtues. This was his own opinion also ; and it even 
 appeared, as he observed, to be that of the higher powers 
 themselves; from the frequent signal interpositions of Pro- 
 vidence in his favour, and the almost miraculous manner 
 in which his greatest enemies had been disabled from put- 
 ting their wicked purposes against him in execution, by al- 
 most always disappearing — nobody knew how or where — 
 just at the juncture when he seemed exposed to the great- 
 est danger, or involved in the most inextricable difficulties. 
 It was from a kinsman thus mighty and thus fortunate 
 that, within his own dominions, I, a poor unprotected 
 stranger, had to claim an estate, which he called my mo- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 177 
 
 ther's indeed, but which, for upwards of five-and-twenty 
 years, he had taken care to nurse as his own. My first 
 point for consideration, therefore, on landing was, whether 
 I should at once offer to him my unwelcome visage, or 
 first keep myself in abeyance until I had tried my ground. 
 It was not exactly the dictates of reason which decided my 
 conduct. During the conflict in my mind, I filled, by way 
 of assisting my judgment, a cup of that delicious muscadel 
 in which , I was credibly assured, Theseus had on that very 
 spot pledged the too tender Ariadne : but just when in con- 
 tact with my lips, the still untasted glass slipped through 
 my fingers, as the hero did through those of the nymph. 
 **I accept the favourable omen !" cried I, (to my Frank 
 readers it might not appear such) — and resolved to dare 
 my antagonist at once. '*Let me seem to fear no one," 
 was my maxim, '* and some may fear me !" 
 
 Upon this I immediately set out for the village of Tri- 
 malia, where the primate resided. He vyas employed with 
 his men in the fields. The day being sultry, I threw ofF 
 my cloak in a corner of the house, and weiit out with a 
 servant in search of his master. We found Marco on a 
 little knoll under an old oHve-tree, in the midst of his far- 
 mers, finishing his midday meal. He appeared to be eating 
 with uncommon relish a crust of black barley-bread, and 
 enlarging with great earnestness on its peculiar excellence 
 and flavour, when my salutation interrupted the eulogy. 
 
 My tone was civil, but decided. I told his primateship 
 that, in conformity to the established custom of informing 
 near relations of especial calamities, I had thought it my 
 duty to acquaint him with the misfortune which had be- 
 fallen me of turning Mohammedan; and added, how very 
 much I regretted my being obliged, out of respect for my 
 new rehgion, to claim my mother's estate, till then en- 
 trusted to his management. This circumstance he regretted 
 as sincerely as myself; and the more, when I hinted how 
 absolutely my particular situation prohibited my disregard- 
 
178 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ing the partiality of the Moslemin law to its new proselytes i 
 and expatiated upon the powerful support I was promised 
 by the Turkish ministers in the task of maintaining my 
 privilege — and which, to say the truth, I a little exagge- 
 rated. At the conclusion of my speech, however, I assured 
 my cousin that I did not think my obligations to my new 
 creed so very strict, but that I might consider myself 
 warranted in some degree to proportion my facility in 
 passing old and intricate accounts to the alacrity I found 
 in giving up the trust. 
 
 Much against my expectation, my relation expressed 
 entire readiness to conform to circumstances. No ex- 
 ception was taken to any part of my statement. Nay, my 
 avowed determination to disregard all opposition seemed 
 rather to increase Marco's apparent cordiality and frank- 
 ness. He even pressed me so earnestly to take up my 
 abode with him, during my stay at Naxos, that I found 
 some difficulty in handsomely declining the offer. But 
 my obstinacy was equal to his solicitation, and after fixing 
 the time the next day when I was to return and enter upon 
 business, I at last took my leave, and bent my steps to- 
 wards the town. 
 
 Scarce had I measured three hundred yards, when I 
 remembered the cloak which I had left behind. Re- 
 turning back to the house the shortest way across the 
 fields, my path led me by the side of a thick lentiscus 
 hedge, which surrounded the garden. To this my cousin 
 had by this time retired with his confidential agent, for 
 the purpose of more private conversation. As I ap- 
 proached, I could not help hearing my own name uttered 
 with such emphasis, that I was tempted to stop, and in- 
 dulge for a few minutes in the contemplation of the beau- 
 tiful shrubs which formed the inclosure. Meantime Marca 
 was proceeding with his conversation. '* Cannot you 
 understand," said he to his confidant ( In rather a louder 
 tone than became so wary a personage), "that if I had 
 
ANASTASIUS. 179 
 
 tempted at once to oppose his claim, he would imme- 
 diately have resorted to the most effective means for en- 
 forcing his demands ; and the world would infallibly have 
 joined him in condemning my proceedings : whereas, by 
 admitting his title in the gross, I begin by lulling asleep his 
 suspicions, gain credit with others for fair dealing, and 
 then, by every quibble about the items, and every delay in 
 the forms of law, defeat his purpose in detail, and tire out 
 his very heart, before he gels from me a single inch of 
 his estate ?" This plan of the campaign seemed so well 
 worth a cloak, however handsome, that I left mine for the 
 present unclaimed, and wheeling about, went straight to 
 the town. 
 
 But I had my cue for the interview of the next day. 
 When therefore I found, in the course of its proceedings, 
 that the more Marco explained the less I understood, and 
 that certainly I was much less master of the subject at the 
 conclusion of the sitting than I thought myself at the open- 
 ing, I rather abruptly broke off the conference, and rising, 
 said in the smoothest tone I was master of: *' Hark ye, 
 cousin ; I make no doubt that you have brought forward 
 every quibble concerning the items, and equally mean to 
 use every delay in the forms of law, which belong to so able 
 a diplomatist : but this I would have you remember, that 
 when, thanks to its unraveller, a business is become so 
 thoroughly entangled as to defy the keenest intellect, I 
 know but of one way to cut the knot asunder ; and that," 
 added I, pointing to my yatagan, ** is with a good Da- 
 mascus blade; — and so fare ye well." 
 
 Marco was fonder of diplomacy than of fighting. He 
 knew his cousin to be a desperate fellow, and he began to 
 think his agent a traitor. In this double apprehension he 
 delivered over the whole concern into my hands ; including 
 every deed, agreement, bill, and receipt, accumulated upon 
 the estate since the last clearance of the deluge. '* What 
 a thing it is," thought I, *' to show a little mettle !'* 
 
 12 * 
 
180 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 But I soon found that by mine I had got more than 
 enough. Many of the transactions relative to the properly, 
 in the way Marco had managed them, were to me inexpli- 
 cable enigmas, and this the scoundrel knew. The moment 
 I was proclaimed sole possessor of the estate, and sole 
 respondent for every claim relating to it, there came upon 
 me a host of creditors of every description, from the bishop 
 who had witnessed my mother's will to the moiro-logistri^ 
 who had wept at her funeral, all of whom I verily believe 
 Marco had kept back on purpose for the occasion. With 
 this posse constantly at my heels, I did not know which 
 way to turn myself. My cousin Marco meanwhile was all 
 at once become so very discreet as to decline interfering 
 even in the smallest trifle, or offering his opinion on the 
 simplest question, until he had the satisfaction of seeing 
 me fairly worn out with business and with perplexity. He 
 then ventured to suggest that the science of accounts did 
 not seem to be the acquirement most congenial to my dis- 
 position, and proposed — but with the sole view of relieving 
 me — to take over the estate entirely, for a round sum of 
 money. Convinced, by this time, that every fresh step 
 I took in the management would only lead to fresh con- 
 fusion, I was become vastly more tractable, and so, after a 
 little demur, agreed to have the property valued. This 
 was done by arbitrators, all so very liberal in their con- 
 cessions on my part, that the estate was estimated at about 
 half its real worth. But this half was tendered in ready 
 cash; and taking into consideration what most men who 
 drive close bargains seem entirely to overlook, — the wasle 
 of time, temper, and breath, in standing out for more 
 than is willingly conceded, — I accepted the sum offered, 
 signed the proper receipts, put my capital into my bag, 
 and took leave of Marco to return to the town. 
 
 Whether or not I might think the money too little to 
 take, Marco evidently still thought it too much to part wit,h. 
 Most kindly had he stationed two of his trustiest myrmi- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 181 
 
 lions in a narrow lane only just outside his gate, in order 
 to rid me of the burthen as soon as possible. At my going 
 he so earnestly recommended the utmost caution, and so 
 pathetically lamented the unsafeness of the path, that it 
 struck me he must have good authority for his surmises, 
 and considered I could not show my sense of his solicitude 
 more effectually, than by avoiding altogether the road to 
 which he gave so ill a character. Accordingly I waited 
 not even till I was out of my cousin's premises, but, as soon 
 as out of his sight, jumped nimbly over a hedge, and soon 
 got entirely clear of his outpost. I might never have more 
 than surmised the favour intended for rtie, had I not learnt 
 all the particulars of the scheme the very next day from 
 his own deputy. This worthy person, having been drubbed 
 by his master for not stopping me, came to demand a 
 compliment for the civility of his forbearance. *' Then 
 you really saw me pass by?" said I to him. '* Yes." 
 ** And intentionally permitted my escape?" ** No doubt." 
 ** Nor let me go home unmolested, only because you could 
 not help it?" '' No, indeed." *' If so," exclaimed I, 
 '• heaven forbid I should encourage disobedience in ser- 
 vants ! You were sent by your princip^il to rob me, and 
 you ought to have done as you were bidden. Here is all 
 the compliment I can in conscience make." Upon which 
 I gave the fellow a second drubbing, and desired him to 
 inform his master of my proceeding ; but this he neglected. 
 From that day forward, however, I thought it prudent 
 not to take long walks by myself in the country ; nor to 
 put the obedience of my cousin Marco's servants a second 
 time to the test. I remained chiefly among the Latin in- 
 habitants of the castle, until a conveyance should offer for 
 some other place, which only seldom occurs in an island 
 destitute of harbour, and rarely visited by ships. But my 
 time hung far from heavy upon my hands. I was treated 
 among the Catholics, in my quality of Moslemin, with very 
 great deference. The chancellor held my stirrup; the fiscal 
 
18-2 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 lit my pipe ; and ihe archbishop — an entertaining old ca- 
 puchin — used, when I went out, to mumble prayers in hh 
 chapel for my safe return. I paid these civilities in Constan- 
 tinople news. What I brought not, I made; but this only 
 rendered it the more novel and acceptable. All I regretted 
 was occasioning a schism between church and state. I had 
 spread the report of a secret correspondence between the 
 grand signer and ihe pope on an intended conversion of 
 the former to the Catholic faith ; and upon this the chan- 
 cellor and the archbishop quarrelled who should sign the 
 address of congratulation. Before the question was de- 
 cided, a khirlangitsch ^ of the admiralty, which had spent 
 the summer in a fruitless chase of the Maltese corsairs, cast 
 anchor at St. Mary's, in the neighbouring island af Paros, 
 and induced me to take my departure. Just on setting 
 out, however, a perhaps too fastidious scruple arose in my 
 mind. I did not like to go without making my cousin 
 Marco some acknowledgment for his last mark of attention, 
 however unsuccessful it had been. Five or six honest lads 
 were come from the khirlangitsch to fetch me away in 
 their boat. With a handful of Marco's own piastres, I made 
 it worth their while to convey to the primate my leave- 
 taking in the most cordial manner. But as my cousin had 
 taught me by his example how necessary it is for the 
 master's eye to watch delicate commissions, I super- 
 intended the business myself. From the high bank of the 
 lane which led to Marco's fields, I had the satisfaction not 
 only of seeing my relation soundly bastinadoed, but of 
 condoling with him as pathetically as he had done with me, 
 on the unsafeness of the path. This performed, ere he 
 had time to get up and to crawl home I bid him adieu, scam- 
 pered away with my associates to the boat which lay 
 waiting under a cliff only a few hundred yards off, and was 
 rowed to Parecchia. From that port I got in a few hours, 
 across the mountains, to St. Mary's, and on board the khir- 
 langitsch. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 181 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The cutter which touched at Paros so conveniently was 
 on its way to receive the annual contribution of part of the 
 circumjacent islands, and was to finish its cruise at 
 Rhodes. This destination perfectly suited my purpose. 
 In want of occupation, and without any precise aim, 
 Rhodes promised a scene of interest to which I hastened 
 with pleasure. 
 
 As my former connexions with the arsenal gave me a 
 certain predilection for whatever belonged to the navy, I 
 speedily formed an acquaintance with one of the tcha- 
 wooshes of the capitan-pasha, who like myself was only a 
 passenger. Aly was his name, and Crete his country. 
 This latter circumstance added much, in my eyes, to the 
 merit of his society. The Turks of Candia, by their con- 
 stant intermarriages with Greek women, to whom they per- 
 mit every latitude of worship, become divested of much of 
 their Mohammedan asperity, and Aly,hiinself half a Greek, 
 was not entitled to any great prejudice against me for being 
 only half a Turk. In the refinements of his toilet, how- 
 ever, Aly tchawoosh might be considered as a finished 
 Osmanlee. Nothing could exceed the exquisite taste of his 
 apparel. His turban attracted the eye less even by ils 
 costliness of texture than by its elegance of form. A band 
 of green and gold tissue, diagonally crossing the forehead, 
 was made with studious ease completely to conceal one 
 ear, and as completely to display the other. From its 
 fringedextremity always hung suspended, like a tassel, a rose 
 or a carnation, which, while it kept caressing the wearer's 
 broad and muscular throat, sent up its fragrance to his 
 
184 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 disdainful nostril. An hour every day was the shortest 
 time allotted to the culture of his adored mustachios, and 
 to the various rites which these idols of his vain-glorious 
 heart demanded — such as changing their hue from a bright 
 flaxen to a jetty black, perfuming them with rose and am- 
 ber, smoothing their straggling hairs, and giving their taper 
 ends a smart and graceful curve. Another hour was spent 
 in refreshing the scarlet dye of his lips, and tinting the 
 dark shade of his eyelids, as well as in practising the most 
 fascinating smile and the archest leer which the terzhana ' 
 could display. His dress of the finest broad-cloth and 
 velvet, made after the most dashing Barbary cut, was 
 covered all over with gold embroidery, so thickly em- 
 bossed as to appear almost massive. His chest, uncovered 
 down to the girdle, and his arms bared up to the shoulder, 
 displayed all the bright polish of his skin. His capote was 
 draped so as with infinite grace to break the too formal 
 symmetry of his costume. In short, his handjar with its 
 gilt handle, his watch with its concealed miniature, his 
 tobacco-pouch of knitted gold, his pipe mounted in opaque 
 amber, and his pistols with diamond-cut hilt, were all in 
 the style of the most consummate petit mattre ; and if, 
 spite of all his pains, my friend Aly was not without ex- 
 ception the handsomest man in the Othoman empire, none 
 could deny his being one of the best dressed. His air and 
 manner harmonised with his attire. A confident look, an 
 insolent and sneering tone, and an indolent yet swaggering 
 gait, bespoke him to be, what indeed it was his utmost 
 ambition to appear, a thorough rake. Noisy, drunken, 
 quarrelsome, and expert alike in the exercise of the bow 
 (the weapon of his country), and in that of the handjar, 
 he possessed every one of the accomplishments of those 
 heroes chiefly met with on the quays of Constantinople and 
 the other principal seaports in the Othoman empire, whom 
 a modest woman avoids, and to whom a respectable man 
 always gives way. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 185 
 
 Intimacies are soon contracted at sea; and Aly was too 
 vain to keep up much reserve. He soon favoured nie with 
 an account of some of his adventures! *'My dear fellow," 
 said he one day, **I would have you know that from my 
 earliest infancy I always had the most decided taste for 
 idleness; and this ruling passion of my heart has never 
 ceased increasing. The only agreeable occupation I could 
 ever devise was doing nothing. Whatever lures were held 
 out to me by fortune lost all their charms to my eye, the 
 moment their pursuit required the least exertion. Not 
 for an empire would I give up my dear laziness. At the 
 same time, next to doing nothing, my chief delight always 
 consisted in spending a great deal of money. Unfortu-r 
 nately, I was not one of the privileged few who can afford to 
 indulge both these tastes at once. My luck, however, made 
 me succeed in some little commissions for the governor of the 
 Canea, which gained me his good will; and his good will in 
 its turn gained me an employment, in which I was enabled to 
 enjoy my two chief conditions of earthly happiness, if not to- 
 gether, at least allernately. It was that of tchawoosh or mes- 
 senger of the capitan-pasha. You know the jolly lives these 
 gentry lead ; you also know the scanty wages they receive : 
 and you moreover know the splendid figure they are ex- 
 pected to make. I have always suspected our grandees, 
 so profuse in their salaries to their own followers, of having 
 struck a secret agreement with each other, by which each 
 was to support his neighbour's retinue instead of his own. 
 It is but justice to us to say, that we do all in our power 
 to give effect to this contract ; for you cannot but remember 
 how, at the terzhana, we lie in wait for every hapless 
 stranger whose evil stars inflict upon him business with 
 our pasha; what fees we exact for every audience he 
 craves, and for every favour he receives. The utmost 
 produce, however, of the fines levied in the capital would 
 but indifferently defray the * expenses of our apparel, 
 board, etc. were It not for the chance of being each in 
 
186 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 our turn intrusted with some lucrative" commission in the 
 provinces. 
 
 ** For my part, I never, till I saw my wishes fuifilled, 
 ceased praying Allah both morning and evening, that he 
 might be pleased to whisper in the pasha's ear a word in 
 my favour, and make him employ his faithful servant Aly 
 as his representative in some lucrative negotiation. The 
 occasion on which my prayers were granted was this. 
 Certain Speciote'^ adventurers had waylaid a Greek vessel 
 bound for Ancona, and not yet knowing — poor souls — the 
 difference 'twixt good and evil, had, in the innocence of 
 their hearts, sold both cargo and ship in their own native 
 place, among their own fellow-citizens, all more or less 
 engaged in the same primitive sort of profession with them- 
 selves. On an application from the owners of the vessel, 
 I was sent to Specia to recover the property, and to bring 
 to justice the culprits. We gentlemen of the short dress 
 carry httle ballast, and when we have a prize in view know 
 the value of time. I no sooner had received my instructions 
 than I hoisted my pennant, and set sail. Not that my 
 journey was quite as expeditious as my departure was 
 prompt. Ships at sea sail not always as the crow flies. 
 Besides, one has often to seek a conveyance, as chance 
 may offer it. In addition to which, I thought it would be 
 showing a proper respect for the grand admiral, my patron, 
 to represent his person in some of the smaller islands on 
 my way. This cost him nothing, nor me either. Every 
 where I found board and lodging gratis. I was made wel- 
 come to all the necessaries of life, — among the foremost of 
 which I reckoned its superfluities, — and, at my departure, 
 never failed to receive a small present for the honour con- 
 ferred on the place ; for which I always took care, in re- 
 turn, to promise my protection. 
 
 * ' By my deliberate mode of proceeding, I gave the fame 
 of my approach time to precede me to Specia : for I did 
 not wish to take any unfair advantage of its inhabitants, by 
 
ANASTASIUS. il7 
 
 coming in upon them unawares, and before they had had 
 sufficient leisure to prepare for my reception. The island 
 is so small, and its population so scanty, that, but for 
 some little management of this sort, I could not have 
 avoided stumbling upon the poor wretches whom I was 
 sent in quest of, at the very first step; and this, consider- 
 ing how essential it was to them to avoid my sight, would 
 have been most unhandsome. Such was the confidence 
 which I inspired by the humanity of this proceeding, that 
 the plunderers of the merchantman did not even seek con- 
 cealment on the news of my actual arrival, but treated me 
 with an openness of behaviour quite equal to my own. To 
 have taken advantage of such frankness of conduct I must 
 have been callous to all liberal feehngs. As the rogues as- 
 sured me, therefore, upon their honour, that they had al- 
 ready ate and drank three-fourths of the produce of their 
 prize, I only exacted restitution of the fourth which re- 
 mained. Not wishing, however, to mortify my employers 
 by restoring to them so small a portion of their properly, 
 I put it into my own pocket. My conciliatory spirit gained 
 me universal esteem; and the inhabitants — all more or les& 
 liable to the same errors — showered upon me from alt 
 quarters presents of all descriptions; sheep, kids, fowls, and 
 other live as well as dead stock. Just as I was consider- 
 ing to what market I should carry my perquisites, this 
 vessel hove in sight. I thought the opportunity a good 
 one for disposing of my provision and my person ; and 
 thence it happens that you find me going onward to 
 Rhodes, instead of returning back to Constantinople." 
 
 "And do you not fear," said I, **that the grand admi- 
 ral may some day discover your exploits ?" *' No," replied 
 the Candiote. ** He lays his account with them before- 
 hand. He knows he cannot furnish his hall with forty or 
 fifty strapping fellows stiff with gold lace, and ready to 
 break their necks at his nod, for nothing but a miserable 
 dish of pilaff; and like a man of sense, he suffers his Greek 
 
188 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 subjects to maintain fellows, by whom they think it an ho- 
 nour to be soundly cudgelled." 
 
 A young sailor boy of the district of Sphachia^ — whose 
 inhabitants consider themselves as the only descendants of 
 the ancient Cretans, and are shepherds in their mountains 
 half the year, and pirates at sea the other half — stood by, 
 listening to Aly's narrative. ** You Sphachiote scoundrels," 
 added the tchawoosh, turning sharply upon him, *'may 
 thank your stars that your sultana is fond of your cream 
 cheeses. Many a well deserved avaniah does her favour 
 save you from — you and your blessed malkiane.^ The last 
 gentle correction you had, I think, was in the Russian war, 
 when the expedition from the Canea left not a soul alive in 
 any of your villages." 
 
 ** Found none to kill, you mean;" answered the boy. 
 *' Our men were on board the Russian vessels, and our 
 women and children in the mountains with their flocks. 
 This you knew, or you durst not have come." 
 
 Aly began to knit his brow, — and the more, as he saw 
 me entertained. Wishing, however, to prevent a quarrel : 
 ** Who," cried I, laughing, "ever wants a broken head, that 
 can get plunder without a scratch on his little finger? For 
 my part I always prefer marauding when the owner is from 
 home; were it only to save the goods from being knocked 
 about." 
 
 In this sort of conversation passed away our time, until 
 we came in sight of the island of Scyra. ** What have we 
 here!" cried I. **A town like a sugar-loaf, built on the 
 model of a derwish's cap; with the church at the top, by 
 way of a tuft ! It must be strange enough to step from one's 
 garret into one's neighbour's cellar! — Though I should be 
 afraid that a walk, begun on two legs, here might end on 
 all fours." 
 
 **This happens the oftener," observed Aly, '*as the in - 
 habitanls arc by disposition stalely, and fond of strutting 
 about in long robes, in which the unevcnness of their 
 
ANASTASIUS. 189 
 
 ground often makes them get entangled. Surely you must 
 know that Scyra is the great nursery of men and maid ser- 
 vants of Pera. Two sacolevas, loaded only with this ar- 
 ticle, go to the capital regularly every year; and no Scy- 
 rote returns home till he can live on his island in comfort. 
 This comfort consists in milking their goats and grinding 
 their harley in all the cast-ofF finery of their former masters 
 and mistresses, with feathered heads and furred tails. 
 When they meet, they treat each other with the forms and 
 ceremonious language of people of quality. The first time 
 I visited the island, I witnessed a salutation in the street 
 between two ladles whom I took for princesses. It begun 
 very well, but it ended with one being rolled in the mire by 
 a jackass, and the other riding away upon a pig, which had 
 got entangled among the folds of her trailing drapery." 
 
 The captain of our khirlangltsch had to receive the con- 
 tribution of the little islet of Serpho. On going ashore for 
 that purpose, he proceeded straight to the hospice of an old 
 capuchin. A sort of attraction subsisted between these 
 two gray-beards. From the heaviness of their intellects, 
 I suppose it was only that of gravitation; for it ended in 
 mere bodily juxtaposition, and scarce ever was a word or 
 idea interchanged. Still did its constancy give their mu- 
 tual regard quite a romantic air. No where but in the 
 friar's dingy cell would the bey receive in state the salu- 
 tation and the tribute money of the Greek primates, whose 
 troop presently made its appearance. All its members had 
 their hands crossed on their stomachs, and their features 
 composed into as demure a form as possible. The whole 
 Greek community of the island, men, women, and children, 
 formed the long train of the procession. 
 
 No sooner was it arrived within hearing of the captain, 
 than the coryphaeus of the party stopped short, hemmed, 
 coughed, and commenced his harangue. With singular 
 aptitude of simile, he compared the whiskered bey to an 
 
100 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 angel of light, and with equal consistency he besought him 
 not to diffuse darkness over the land, by exacting a contri- 
 bution which its inhabitants could not pay. The pleas for 
 exemption consisted in a catalogue of calamities, of which 
 pirates, floods, short crops, earthquakes, and conflagra- 
 tions were the least ! 
 
 **A11 that, gentlemen," answered the bey in his Bar- 
 baresque idiom, fetching a sentimental sigh, ** no doubt 
 very true and very miserable; but, sun set, you no put 
 tribute here," — and he pointed to his pouch — ** me put 
 bastinado there," added he, pointing to their backs. 
 
 At these appalling words, the whole troop, epitrope and 
 commoners, joined in a full chorus of lamentations. When 
 they could squeeze out no more tears, they beat their 
 breasts, and uttered the most piteous groans. Finding all 
 this of no avail, and the bey as obdurate as ever, they at 
 last retired, hanging their heads, and like men led out for 
 execution. 
 
 The sun was still above the horizon when the troop re- 
 turned, with faces as dolorous as before. They only 
 brought half the sum required; affirming with greater oaths 
 than ever, that if they were to be pounded in a mortar they 
 could not produce another aspre. 
 
 ** Me believe that," said the bey, "and me therefore 
 sorry me obliged to perform my promise. Me however 
 begin with signor epitrope, in due respect for his rank. 
 Him me not dare give less than fifty strokes. Up with his 
 lordship*s heels !" added he, turning to one of his attend- 
 ants, ** and begin." 
 
 All now cried out for mercy, and swore that, if but al- 
 lowed five minutes more, they would try to bring the com- 
 plement, were they to wrest it from the bowels of the earth. 
 
 The bey assented, and the troop again retired; but it 
 was only to make a full stop at the first turn of the road, 
 and there to lug out from under their cloaks the entire sum 
 
ANASTASIUS. 191 
 
 demanded, neatly tied up in bags. With this reserve they 
 returned, and delivered it. The bey made the proper apo- 
 logies to theepitrope, and the party was dismissed. 
 
 They now in a close phalanx walked slowly home, with 
 the most dejected and miserable look ; but they had not 
 gone a hundred yards, when they met some friends return- 
 ing from a wedding, preceded by music. Both parties 
 stopped, a parley ensued, and presently the whole of the 
 procession, the epitrope the foremost, spread out their 
 arms, and began dancing the romeika! Attracted by the 
 sound of the instruments, the bey went to the window, and 
 beholding the merry scene i *'Mirar papas," said he to the 
 friar in lingua franca; *'mi parler bono, canaglia senza 
 fede piandgir; ma mi bastouar, mi far pagar , subito ballar 
 et cantar." 
 
 Not quite so gay were my friend Aly's accompani- 
 ments, when our ship lay rocking on the waves to the music 
 of the roaring winds. On those occasions there was any 
 thing but grace in his movements or melody in his ut- 
 terance. He had not even a pretension to heroism at sea. 
 The slightest rufiling of its surface made him as quiet as a 
 lamb* To his noisy insolent tone immediately succeeded the 
 most piteous and subdued look and manner. Aware him- 
 self how altered a man he became in rough weather, he 
 used, at the first breeze, to slink away like the moulting 
 peacock, and conceal himself in some hole or corner, where 
 he lay speechless while the motion lasted : — nor until the 
 sea resumed its tranquillity did Ali reappear on the deck. 
 How glad he was to see Rhodes need not be told. He al- 
 most plumped into the waves in his impatience to step into 
 the boat. But even ashore, he still awhile wore a languid 
 look, which made all the acquaintance he met ask him iron- 
 ically, **with what fair one of the islands he had left in 
 pledge his spirits ?" 
 
 My reader has already classed me among those vulgar 
 beings, who take a greater interest in the living occurrences 
 
19-2 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 of the passing day than in the dead letter of remote ages. 
 As a Greek, I ever found but little motive for exultation 
 in any research which led me to compare the present with 
 the past. Still, I had learnt — where, I cannot tell — that 
 Rhodes belonged not to the Turks from the days of the de- 
 luge; that it had once obeyed a Christian order of knight- 
 hood, of noble blood, high spirit, enthusiastic devotion, 
 and undaunted bravery; that a handful of these valiant 
 warriors had defended it an entire twelvemonth against 
 the whole force of the Othoman empire; and that the Mo- 
 slemen at last only found an entrance to the citadel over 
 the bodies of its brave defenders, fallen, to the last man, in 
 the long contested breach. 
 
 The outside of the ancient fortress--once the chief 
 theatre of these brilliant and bloody achievements— might 
 be seen from every part of the quay, towering high above 
 the modern city. Its wide ramparts, its lofty bulwarks, its 
 crested batteries of a black and rugged stone, deprived as 
 they now were of the once thundering engines of fire and 
 destruction, looked like the silenced crater of an extinct 
 volcano, still frowning upon the fertile plain below, though 
 its devastating powers are no longer feared. 
 
 ** Let us go," said I to Aly, **and examine this object 
 of so much strife, which Osmanlees knew how to wrest 
 from the hands of the infidels, but know not how to pre- 
 serve from the injuries of time." **Letus go," echoed 
 Aly, who expected some opportunity to play the tcha- 
 woosh : and accordingly we went. 
 
 Though now thrown open to all, the formidable enclosure 
 still seems guarded by an invisible power. Few ever enter 
 its precincts ; and, on passing its massy gates, I felt struck 
 with inexpressible awe. 
 
 Monuments that already have been so long in a state of 
 progressive decay, as less to retain the regular forms of art 
 than they resume the ruder semblance of nature ; as to offer 
 less of a mode of existence gone by than of a new one 
 
ANASTASIUS. 193 
 
 commencing; less of lapse into death than of return to a 
 difl'erent shape of life; less of dissolution than of regenera- 
 tion : as again on all sides to let in through their crumbling 
 ■walls the broad glare of day; again every where to show 
 their mouldering joints clothed in fresh vegetation, and 
 again, at every step, to display their mazy precincts te- 
 nanted by the buzzing insect, and the blithe chirping bird, 
 — such monuments have their gloom irradiated by at least 
 an equal portion of gaiety; and resemble the human frame 
 so entirely returned to its original dust, as to preserve no 
 trace of its former lineaments, and only to break forth 
 afresh from its kindred clay, in the shape of plants and 
 flowers more luxuriant and more gaudy. 
 
 But edifices, whose abandonment by man has been so 
 recent that they still bear about them all the marks of 
 death and mourning, still preserve undiminished their fu- 
 nereal darkness, still remain the uninvaded property of so- 
 litude and silence; that their outlines scarce are indented 
 by the sharp tooth of time, or their surface varied by the 
 softer Impressions of the weather-stain; that their precincts 
 offer not yet the smallest transition from entire unmixed 
 death and dereliction, to a new modification of life, and a 
 new order of inhabitants; that they say in distinct terms 
 to the beholder: **It was but yesterday we still resounded 
 with the din of business, and the song of joy," — such edi- 
 fices preserve their sadness unaltered; they chill the sense, 
 oppress the heart, and make the blood run cold : for they 
 resemble the human body just abandoned by the vivifying 
 soul; just stiffened into an insensible and ghastly corpse; 
 just displaying the first awful signs of fast approaching 
 corruption. 
 
 And of such mansions was composed the scene before 
 me. The broad square, the stately palace, the solemn cha- 
 pel, once re-echoing with the clang of arms, the bustle of 
 trade, the boastings of youth, and the peal of devotion, 
 looked as if the blood scarce was clotted which had stained 
 J. 13 
 
194 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 their massy walls, and the sounds still must vibrate in air, 
 which had circulated through their lofty passages; — as if 
 one still might discern at a distance the dying voices of 
 their departing tenants : though the deathlike stillness of 
 the nearer objects was only broken by the plaintive mur- 
 mur of the pensive turtle-dove, nesthng in the jagged bat- 
 tlements, or the measured bounds of some stone, slowly 
 severed from them by the hand of time, and dropping with 
 hollow din through the yawning vaults. 
 
 Contemplating the greatnames, the sadly eventful dates, 
 and the proud armorial bearings, still shining in marble of 
 resplendent whiteness on the black honey-combed walls, 
 like the few memorable persons and periods that still con- 
 tinue to soar in light among the general obscurity of times 
 long past: thinking on the noble ancestry, the high blood, 
 the martial character, and the monasticlife of the illustrious 
 youth — the flower of Europe — whose abodes, whose his- 
 tory, and whose habits these monuments so clearly marked, 
 I experienced a new and hitherto unfelt emotion. I envied 
 the heroes who, after a life of religion, of warfare, and of 
 glory, slaughtered in the very breach they defended, now 
 slept in peace and renown, leaving after them names ever 
 young and ever flourishing in the hearts of grateful Europe. 
 I wished that I too had been among these noble few ; that 
 I too had sprinkled these edifices with my heart's fullest 
 tide ; that I too had fallen in these ramparts, and had filled 
 these yawning chasms with my body. In the enthusiasm 
 of the moment I wished that I too might now be nothing 
 more than a spirit; but a spirit entitled to haunt this august 
 spot as the scene of my past achievements, and to say to 
 other inferior and wandering ghosts : ** Here I lived, here 
 I died, here I immortalised my name !" 
 
 Disposed, by the comparisons which these ideas sug- 
 gested, to repine at my own country, condition, and parent- 
 age, I sat down on the prostrate trunk of a pillar, and 
 there lamented the hard lot of man, who, so ftir from being 
 
ANASTASIUS. 105 
 
 able lo adapt his circumstances to his faculties, is often, 
 with a spirit equal to the highest station, left to hnger in 
 the lowest. In my despondency my eye caught a piece of 
 broken marble, gorgeously emblazoned with chivalresque 
 insignia : — but, if the side which lay uppermost displayed 
 the plumed crest of a Gothic knight, the reverse still bore 
 the remains of an Hellenic inscription. It was a work'and 
 a record of the ancient Greeks, and had no doubt been 
 brought from the opposite shore, where the ruins of Cnidus 
 furnished the knights of Rhodes with an ample quarry for 
 the monuments of their feudal vanity. At this sight my 
 own national pride returned in all its force. ** And does 
 it then belong to me," cried I — the dormant energies of 
 my mind all again aroused and starting up — **to envy the 
 borrowed greatness of Goths and barbarians, only able in 
 their fullest pomp to adorn themselves with the cast-ofF 
 feathers of my own ancestors? Am I not a Greek? And 
 what Grecian blood, even where remotest from the source 
 and running in the smallest rills, is not nobler than the 
 base stream that flows through the veins of these children 
 of the West, whose proudest boast it is to trace their names 
 to the obscurity of ignorance and the night of barbarism; 
 whose oldest houses only date as of yesterday, and whose 
 highest achievements are the exploits of savages !" 
 
 My friend Aly was not a person to sympathise with my 
 feeUngs on this occasion. From his very first entrance 
 into this dark abode, his mind had misgiven him. Turnin"- 
 as pale as if again at sea, and in a storm, he cried out: 
 ** What can you mean to do among these ugly ruins ? The 
 place is too dreary even for an appointment with a goule." 
 All the time during which I stood considering the various 
 objects that successively attracted my attention, he had 
 continued most impatient to return; and when, after my 
 first round, he saw me sit down composedly on the old 
 broken pillar, there to follow up at leisure the train of my 
 reflections, he fell into complete despair. '* What can 
 
 13* 
 
1% ANASTASIUS. 
 
 this confounded son of a Greek jabberer be mullcring to 
 himself, as if possessed," — I overheard him say, — *' and 
 that in a place where people should keep calling to each 
 other with all their might, in order to frighten away evil 
 spirits?" and after various surmises, it seemed he at last 
 settled it in his mind, that I was brewing some incantation, 
 and going to treat him to a dance of spectres. At this idea 
 his teeth began to chatter; he looked round for a way by 
 which he might escape ; but, after several trials, all equally 
 abortive, he at last convinced himself as well as me that 
 he had not the courage to retrace his steps alone. 
 
 The only thing left for him to do, therefore, was to exert 
 his utmost arts of persuasion, and prevail upon me to bear 
 him company. Ere his fear had risen to its highest pitch, 
 he had ventured for a moment to quit my side. He now be- 
 came so pressing to show me what he had seen on that oc- 
 casion, and was pleased to call the prettiest prospect ima- 
 ginable, that at last I consented to follow him, merely to 
 get rid of his importunities ; but fully expecting to be 
 shown some dunghill, or burying-ground, or other object 
 equally extraordinary and agreeable. My surprise there- 
 fore was great, when, from a projecting bastion, I really 
 beheld a most delightful view of the city's gay and busy 
 suburbs, stretching, with their gardens full of orange and 
 dale trees, along the winding beach. 
 
 *' There now!" cried Aly in a coaxing tone, on per- 
 ceiving the bait to take, '*who in his senses would stay 
 another moment among these black and frightful dungeons 
 — in which all the company I could start consisted of as so- 
 ciable a parly of vipers and of scorpions as one would wish 
 to join — that had the faculty to go and investigate all the 
 innumerable species of delight contained in that knot of 
 litlle snow-while fairy dweUings down below? and here- 
 upon he began to enumerate on his fingers such a won- 
 drous list of all the good things of this world, which might 
 probably be found in the aforesaid habitations, that my 
 
ANASTASIUS. 107 
 
 own moulh, by degrees, watered at the catalogue; and, to 
 Aly's inexpressible satisfaction, I at last took him under my 
 arm, and left the castle to explore tiie breach. 
 -* My curiosity was soon satisfied, but my newly ac- 
 quired taste for travelling only received fresh excitement. 
 From our conversation by the way, Aly had given me a 
 longing desire to visit Egypt, to which country I had now 
 performed more than half the distance from Constantinople ; 
 and the commander of the khirlangistch Jiad raised that 
 desire to the highest pitch, by his description of the ad- 
 vancement which I might hope for in the land of the mam- 
 lukes. "Egypt," he observed, '* always was the cradle 
 of revolutions and the patrimony of strangers; always wel- 
 comed the wanderers who had no predilection for any par- 
 ticular soil, or attachment to any particular home. — At 
 present more than ever," he added, *'it holds out irre- 
 sistible attractions to the bold adventurer, who seeks his 
 fortune in strife and confusion. To external appearances, 
 indeed, the country slumbers in the profoundest peace. 
 No one would guess, on a superficial glance, that the least 
 convulsion threatened to disturb its tranquillity. The ut- 
 most wish of the two parties who divide the supreme sway 
 seems thus far confined to measuring each other's strength, 
 and watching each other's movements with the eye. But 
 this apparent serenity is only the calm which precedes 
 the storm. The various elements, all preparing soon to 
 fall asunder and to assume new combinations, are ready at 
 a moment's warning to burst out into open strife, — un- 
 certain when the trump of war may sound as the signal for 
 battle. Meanwhile each party most eagerly seeks to in- 
 crease the number of its adherents by every new sword's- 
 man, of tried enterprise and courage, disposed to embrace 
 its cause. Under these circumstances a youth, who like 
 you, — Greek by birth, and Mohammedan from choice — is 
 already beforehand half a mamlukc, and handsome, vigor- 
 ous, and warlike, still adds to his ir^kill in martial exercises 
 
11)8 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 the more uncommon qualification of experlness in lan- 
 guages and readiness at his pen, — wields the hollow reed 
 as ably as the heavy spear, and can execute a delicate 
 commission as dexterously as a dangerous mandate, — is a 
 treasure for which all must contend. He need only show 
 himself on the spot, to ensure opposite factions vying 
 which shall, by the most brilhant offer, enlist him in their 
 foremost ranks." 
 
 At this tempting picture, I sighed. The bey guessed 
 my thoughts. *'I see," said he, **what you want, and I 
 can supply it. Suleiman, one of the most distinguished 
 among the present rulers of Egypt, is my particular friend. 
 The numbers of his mamlukes has been extremely reduced 
 by the late destructive plague. He seeks every means by 
 which to recruit his house. For this purpose, his kehaya 
 at Constantinople, knowing the number of ports and 
 islands I would have to visit, gave me an express commis- 
 sion to engage for his patron whatever youth of promise I 
 might find. I have watched you during the voyage. You 
 are resolute, sensible, and, as I deem, not likely to demur 
 at trifles; and, if you like the scheme, I will give you the 
 recommendations to my old friend which these qualities 
 deserve." 
 
 I bowed, expressed my delight at the commander's good 
 opinion, and accepted his offer. Elate at the idea of not 
 only soon seeing fruitful Egypt, but perhaps myself some 
 day shining in its annals, I immediately sought a vessel in 
 which to take my passage, and embarked the same day. 
 
 As the coast of Rhodes receded from my view, my heart 
 beat high with eagerness and with hope. It seemed to 
 me as if thus far I had only been trifling away my existence 
 in contemptible pursuits, and in a contracted sphere. I 
 was now, for the first time, going to take a flight worthy 
 the strength of my opinions. — "Wide views, noble prospects, 
 vast plans of fortune and of fame, all at once, as if by the 
 drawing of a curtain, expanded to my enraptured view ! 
 
 i 
 
ANASTASIUS. VJ9 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The sacoleva which carried Anastasius and his fortunes 
 was first to touch at Castel-Rosso, there to take in fire- 
 wood for Alexandria. The captain seemed to have no ac- 
 quaintance whatever with the coast for which we were 
 hound ; nor could any of his crew boast less ignorance ; 
 hut they all agreed that Providence was great ; and in 
 order to set the greatness of Providence in its fullest light, 
 they always kept as close as possible to a shore set round 
 with hidden reefs, and teeming with avowed pirates. 
 
 On the second day of our departure Castel-Rosso came 
 in sight. We were just going to double the most ad- 
 vanced promontory of the island, and to cast anchor for 
 the night behind its projecting cliffs, when on our last 
 tack there suddenly appeared ahead of us, close in with the 
 shore, a long dark object of suspicious form, though the 
 dusk prevented our discerning its precise nature. It lay 
 on the water as still as a rock, but it bore all the appearance 
 of being filled with life. At this sight our caravokieri grew 
 as pale as a ghost, and all the crew showed equal signs of 
 courage. ** A bad way, this," cried I, '' to meet danger ! 
 The pirates cannot see more of us than we do of them ; 
 let us at least try what a show of resolution may affect." And 
 thereupon I got our whole artillery brought upon deck, 
 and prepared for a warm engagement. The moment we 
 thought ourselves within musket-shot of the enemy I gave 
 the signal for firing. **If the compliment produce no- 
 thing else," thought I, **it will at least make the scoun- 
 drels turn out, and show their strength." Off went ourfirst 
 
'200 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 volley, and after it every eye — expecting immediately to 
 see the hostile boat in the utmost bustle. So far, however, 
 from changing her position, she deigned not even to re- 
 turn our salute. Half surprised and half piqued, we re- 
 peat our lire ? but our second volley is not more noticed 
 than the first. Still more amazed, we gave a third broad- 
 side. Even this makes no impression. But with the seem- 
 ing shyness of the enemy our own bravery rises. We now 
 approach near enough to be within speaking distance, and 
 a fourth lime discharge every gun and swivel into the 
 hostile deck. In short, we continue incessantly firing, 
 without experiencing the smallest retaliation, till, by de- 
 grees, this very impassibility of the enemy causes an alarm 
 of a new species — for we now fancied ourselves under the 
 influence of some spell : we supposed that we beheld no- 
 thing but an unsubstantial vision ; we became convinced 
 that we were fighting only with the phantom of a ship, 
 which presently would either explode or vanish away- — 
 either blow us up in the air, or draw us after it into the 
 fathomless abyss. As however neither happened, and the 
 vessel seemed equally little inclined to rise or to sink, we at 
 last agrfied that the very few men which she contained 
 must all have been killed by our very first broadside. We 
 therefore suspended all further hostilities during the re- 
 mainder of the night, purposing as soon as the dawn ap- 
 peared to remove the dead bodies, and to divide the spoil. 
 The dawn at last did appear, and as soon as it was suffi- 
 ciently advanced to light up the scene, showed to our strain- 
 ing eyes, in the object of the whole night's strenuous 
 fighting, a small rock in the sea, which, from the peculiarity 
 of its shape, actually bears the name of the Galley. We re- 
 gretted all the ball and powder wasted, and agreed not to 
 boast of our intrepidity : but our modesty was, in spite of 
 our caution, put to the blush. The whole island of Caslel- 
 rosso had been alarmed by the incessant firing; every part 
 
ANASTASIUS. 201 
 
 of the shore was lined with spectators ; and the moment we 
 landed, they all crowded round our party, and with loud 
 cheers wished us joy for having silenced the enemy. 
 
 Having laden our wood, we pursued our voyage. It 
 seemed an eternity in duration. Our crew knew no other 
 mode of sailing than right before the wind; and the least 
 cloud that arose made them put into the first inlet they 
 could reach, wholly heedless of the risk of splitting upon a 
 rock, or running aground upon a shoal. Coasting from one 
 headland to another, we slowly crept round every cape or 
 promontory on our way ,* and there scarce exists a single 
 creek, I believe, in or outside the SataHan bay, which we 
 did not successively visit. When the wind increased to 
 what was called a fortuna, the sailors could only think of 
 praying and lighting tapers before the panagia ,* and as soon 
 as fair weather returned, they could only dance and play 
 upon the guitar; nor ever thought of repairing the damage 
 done to the ship, until reminded of it by a fresh storm. 
 Still was the first part of our journey, compared with the 
 latter, the flight of the swallow contrasted with the creep- 
 ing of the tortoise. In the latitude of Damiat, fate seemed 
 to have fixed us to the spot for life; and we thought our- 
 selves doomed never to pass the eastern outlet of the Nile, 
 even with the assistance of some more experienced sailors 
 whom we there got on board. Every inch the feeble breeze 
 enabled us to advance, the strong current as regularly drove 
 us back; so that on our starboard tack we invariably lost 
 all we had gained on the larboard. Day after day at sunrise 
 we had the satisfaction to find ourselves just in the same 
 place from whence we had parted at sunset the evening 
 before. The fatal mouth of the stream seemed to breathe 
 a fascination which no earthly power could overcome ! 
 
 An aerial one at last flew to our assistance. It arose 
 on the fifth day of our vain attempt, in the shape of a sciroc 
 sufficiently strong to cope with the current. Backed by 
 the burning blast, we doubled the point of the Delia in the 
 
202 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 very teeth of the perverse tide, and thus approached the 
 goal. Even before we could discern the sandy shore 
 on which it stands, we beheld the town of Alexandria, 
 crowned with minarets and encircled with date trees. 
 
 In its quality of Grecian property, our vessel cast anchor 
 in the new harbour; the old being reserved for stanch 
 Musselmen keels. Hell itself, as the bourn of a long sea 
 voyage, would have appeared to me a very habitable place ; 
 Alexandria seemed heaven. In its melancholy mounds of 
 barren sand I could only see pleasing swells, and in its dis- 
 mal ruins a picturesque ruggedness. Its inhabitants, ready 
 to assume any hue or form at will, were a sort of human 
 cameleons : but cameleons may afford entertainment by 
 their constant changes. To me the contrast between the 
 liveliness of the Alexandrians and the solemn stupidity of 
 the Turks seemed quite enchanting. As I went to secure 
 my night's lodging at an okkal,* I was every instant ar- 
 rested by their wit and repartee. '*How pleasant it must 
 be to reside here!" said I to myself. "Gay people are 
 always so good-natured?" 
 
 The words had scarcely dropped from my lips, when I 
 heard at some distance a loud and increasing clamour, 
 which I supposed to be that of some rejoicing or festival. 
 Presently appeared an immense crowd of people of every 
 age and description — men, women, and children — rending 
 the air with their shouts. In the midst of the motley 
 assemblage advanced in a separate cluster a chosen band, 
 trailing after them in procession, with louder bowlings than 
 the rest, the city weights and scales. 
 
 *'What means this ceremony?" said I, accosting one of 
 the actors in this novel scene : ** for what purpose are these 
 instruments travelling?" — **For the purpose of gibbeting 
 the chief of the customs, a Syriac Christian, on the very 
 instrument of his malpractices ;" hastily answered the fellow, 
 impatient at the detention. 
 
 " And has the law weighed, and found him wanting?'* — 
 
ANASTASIUS. '^03 
 
 *' How could it help doing so," was the reply, ''when we all 
 demanded his punishment? We insisted on the shar-allah, 
 —the justice of God; and the cadee himself thought us too 
 many not to be in the right. So we are going to execute 
 the sentence." 
 
 Having now carried his courtesy to the utmost stretch, 
 the man bade me adieu, for fear of further questions, and 
 ran after his companions, who already were out of sight. 
 For my part, I contented myself with inwardly praying to 
 Allah that I might be preserved from his justice; and parti- 
 cularly at Alexandria. 
 
 My apartment at the okkal being secured for the night, 
 I went to a native of the place who followed the various 
 trades of ship agent, interpreter, and pilot, in order to obtain 
 from him a conveyance to Raschid.^ In his youth, this 
 bustling personage had served on board Marseilles, Venetian, 
 and Leghorn traders. He spoke with equal fluency the 
 Turkish, the Arabic, the Greek, the Provencal, and the 
 Lingua Franca. On entering his small abode, where he 
 sat with open door in readiness to receive strangers, I found 
 him gravely discussing with a Franciscan monk, over a 
 bottle of rakie,^ the relative merits of islamism and of 
 popery. 
 
 **Hark ye, father," said he, speaking with such a volu- 
 bility of tongue and violence of gesture, that at first I thought 
 him in a tremendous passion, ** I do not mean to pass myself 
 off for the most squeamish of Moslemen. In my long 
 intercourse with infidels (begging your pardon) I have been 
 obliged occasionally to relax a little from the rigour of our 
 practices ; sometimes, when time ran short, to mumble half 
 a prayer instead of a whole one; and where water Avas 
 scarce, to perform my ablutions to the wrist only, instead 
 of to the elbows; nor did I always remember, when a good 
 joint of meat was smoking on the table, and I sharp set in 
 consequence of a long fast, to inquire, before I fell to, whe- 
 ther the beast had been stabbed with a knife or knocked 
 
204 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 down with a hatchet. But, thank God ! I have never been 
 a rank heathen — a kafr. I never, hke you, believed in 
 scores of Gods, nor worshipped idols of wood and brass." 
 
 *' Merciful father," cried the friar — setting down the 
 rakie, abeady in contact with his Hps : — **nor I neither, 
 nor any of us ! How can you say such things ?" 
 
 **HoW can I?" answered the Alexandrian, *'but from 
 having witnessed them with my own eyes ! Whoamongyou, 
 I beg, thinks of celebrating a festival, building a mosque, 
 addressing a prayer, vowing a present, imparting a wish, 
 or expressing a want to any but St. Anthony of Padua, St. 
 Francis of Assisi, St. John, St. James, St. Peter, St. Paul, 
 St. Agnes, St. Catherine, St. Ceciha, or any other of the 
 saints and saintesses, whose interference quite leaves Pro- 
 vidence a cipher, and whose number exceeds that of days 
 set apart to worship them ? In whose name but in that of 
 these officious go-betweens are your oxen, and your sheep, 
 and your poultry, and your very pigs blessed by the priest 
 at the church-door? In whose honour but theirs do you 
 suspend over your altars silver tokens of broken heads and 
 hearts, of children born, and grown people mended? Can 
 your cook so much as bake his meat but by favour of St. 
 Lawrence ? — delighted, it seems, to be reminded of his own 
 broiling on a gridiron ! And as to worshipping wooden 
 images — have I not seen whole shoals of Nazarenes leave 
 the nicest, whitest, little flaxen-headed madonnas which 
 your toy-shops could produce, at home quite neglected, to 
 travel barefoot perhaps five hundred leagues to some old 
 mouldering figure, as ugly as a scarecrow, and as black as 
 a negro ; which strange fancy you will allow could only 
 arise from some peculiar virtue assigned to the latter image; 
 — since how should they otherwise try to extract it, by rub- 
 bing their noddles against its greasy pate?" 
 
 ** As to that, child," replied the friar — taking a fresh sip 
 of hisrakle, and pursing up his mouth like one who Is going 
 to give an unanswerable answer, — " it Is only on the score 
 
ANASTASIUS. 205 
 
 of superior resemblance to the saint that certain images 
 are preferred. All the world knows that the holy Virgin 
 sat for her picture to St. Luke : and we may suppose she 
 wishes to distinguish the originals by some peculiar mark 
 of her divine favour." 
 
 **Well!" exclaimed the Alexandrian, in astonishment, 
 ** if this same virgin had been offered to me as a wife ?" — 
 but again checking himself : *' and pray," added he, *' your 
 other saints, have they also each had his painter?" 
 
 No doubt," replied the Franciscan. **A11 great per- 
 sonages with us sit for their portraits. I myself have sat, 
 both as a Cupid and a friar." 
 
 The factor now got up, and fetching a little parcel, which 
 he gave to the padre : ** There," said he, ** are the St. Do- 
 mingo beans you wanted. They are the very best I could 
 find in the market. You may safely send them to your 
 friends in Christendom, and be sure that, when well roast- 
 ed, like St. Lawrence aforesaid, they will drink them for 
 pure Mokha, and admire how superior they are in flavour 
 to the vile West-India coffee." Upon this, he slapped the 
 father on the back, dismissed him, and asked my business. 
 I had made signs to him before not to break off the discussion, 
 which I thought rather diverting. 
 
 On stating my intention to go to Raschid, he agreed for 
 my passage on board one of the country djerms.^ It was 
 to sail early the next morning ; and at the appointed time 
 I went to secure my birth. 
 
 The boat seemed chiefly loaded with live stock; and by 
 far the noisiest article of that description was a lot of female 
 slaves, selected from among a ship-load lately brought for 
 sale to Alexandria. A sharp gr ego-maestro, which kept 
 blowing in our teeth all day long, and at dusk forced us to 
 anchor before Bekler, enabled me to form some estimate of 
 the value of this cargo. In the small place where we were 
 all huddled pell-mell, the rolling produced by the storm af- 
 forded me every opportunity I could wish for of forming an 
 
206 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 flcqiiainlance wllh such of the ladies as looked most so- 
 ciable; nor did our innocent chit-chat sufTcr any interrup- 
 tion from the watchfulness of their keeper, who, horribly sea- 
 sick, lay speechless in the hold, and never opened his mouth 
 for any purpose at all calculated to interrupt our conver- 
 sation. His charge, inured to the sea by the voyage of the 
 Euxine and the Mediterranean, only laughed at his distress, 
 and, in defiance of winds and waves, chattered away like 
 magpies. A Tcherkassian damsel, whose large black eyes 
 seemed quite determined not to suffer from the concealment 
 of her other charms, chiefly attracted my attention. She 
 rewarded my notice with her utmost confidence, and gave 
 me the rude sketch of her rough adventures. 
 
 ** One evening," said she, ** when I was in bed, and 
 pretended to be asleep, my parents began to talk, as usual, 
 about the trouble I gave them. My mother wished me far 
 away. My father observed nothing was so easy as to fulfil 
 this wish. A Turkish merchant, who used every two or 
 three years to come and collect slaves in our country, had 
 arrived that very day; and assuredly it was fairer that 
 those who had all the expense should have the profit of 
 me, rather than the neighbouring Tartars, who were every 
 day carrying off some of our girls to sell to the Turks. My 
 mother — somewhat fond of contradiction — now changed 
 her tone, and would not hear of parting with her only 
 daughter. But my father, telling her she was always per. 
 verse, offered her an alternative between what she liked 
 better than keeping, and what she disliked worse than 
 losing me — a cask of brandy or a sound cudgelling. She 
 took the spirits, and gave up her child. The next day I 
 was carried to the merchant. After a great deal of hag- 
 o^ling, he bought, or rather accepted me, in exchange for 
 arms, apparel, and sweetmeats. I was stowed on board 
 a small vessel, with a number of other slaves picked up in 
 various parts. Most of them had been sold by their land- 
 lords in payment of rent. The ship proved so leaky that 
 
ANASTASIUS. -207 
 
 wc never expected to reach Stambool. By a miracle, how- 
 ever, we got there; — at least, so I was told: for I never 
 saw any thing of the place, except the large ugly khan in 
 which we were housed. Our owner had u« taught here 
 the various accomplishments requisite for a ready sale — the 
 Mohammedan religion, music, and dancing. Every day 
 customers of all descriptions used to come and cheapen 
 some among us. The price set on me was what few could 
 afford : but my time meanwhile passed comfortably. I 
 had plenty to eat, heaps of fme clothes, and a looking- 
 glass to myself. I should have been quite happy but for 
 the dread of being bought for the grand signer, who, 
 they say, has so many wives, that he does not know what 
 to do with them, and, though as old as Methusalem, yet 
 must have a new one every Christmas. Think of being 
 laid on the shelf at the death of this old spindle-shanks, as 
 useless lumber, in an ancient seraglio with tremendously 
 high walls — there to remain for life^ neither single nor 
 married ! This fate I escaped. The kehaya of Yousoof- 
 bey of Cairo bought me for his master, with some of my 
 companions. We were immediately shipped off in a very 
 comfortable vessel ; hardly ever had a whipping during the 
 whole voyage; and here we are, on the eve, thank God ! 
 of reaching our final destination. To me it promises a 
 paradise. I wish I could say as much in favour of my 
 companions. But, poor things ! they were only, as it 
 were, thrown into the bargain; and I fear will remain all 
 their lives mere drudges." 
 
 This last piece of intelligence, though conveyed in a very 
 low whisper, did not escape the quick ears of the damsels 
 for whom Hamida expressed such unacceptable compassion. 
 I thought it would have occasioned an immediate engage- 
 ment. With one accord the whole party rose up from 
 their mattresses, and, gathering round the frightened 
 Hamida, abused her for telhng such falsehoods— she I a 
 low-bred Tcherkassian, without faith, fat, or manners — of 
 
208 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 Georgians like them, who at home used every day to go to 
 mass, and had as much victuals as ever they wished to cat ! 
 But Hamida's own mettle rose at the base insinuation, and 
 facing her assailants boldly: *' It signifies much, truly," 
 replied she in an ironical tone, ** from what country we 
 come, when none of us will ever see it again; and whether 
 we had much or little of our religion, when we all have 
 renounced it alike ! And as to our fat — which is the most 
 material point — that must be seen to be judged of." 
 
 ** Then, let it," replied all the others in chorus ; *' and 
 trust to us for seeing nothing !" and immediately they all 
 fell upon poor Hamida, forcibly tore open her feridjee, and 
 displayed her bosom. It might not answer the utmost 
 amphtude of Asiatic ideas, but I confess, though I looked 
 hard, I perceived no deficiency. 
 
 Even before this exhibition, the keeper of the ladles had 
 cast sundry savage glances our way. He now contrived, 
 sick as he was, to crawl unperceived among the busy 
 group, and only announced his presence by unexpectedly 
 laying about him with such energy, as not only to separate 
 the combatants, but to send them slinking away to the 
 furthest corner of the hold. He then lay down before 
 them, and thus formed an effectual mediator for the pre- 
 vention of further disputes. 
 
 No one remained on the field of battle except the spec- 
 tators : namely, myself, and a single female, as different 
 from our Circassian as night is from day: an Abyssinian 
 negro woman. Manumitted by her last master, the dusky 
 nymph had nobody to whom she was accountable for her 
 conversation but herself, feared not the interruptions of a 
 keeper's lash, and seemed determined to avail herself to 
 the full of her advantages. She began by informing me, 
 most prolixly, of all her concerns, past, present, and fu- 
 ture. And first, she told me, her stars had looked but 
 coolly upon her. She had been carried to Constantinople 
 hi winter, had suffered much from chilblains, and had been 
 
ANASTASIUS. 200 
 
 married lo a black eunuch. But the husband died, the 
 chilblains healed, the summer came, and lovers began, like 
 bees, to buzz about the black rose. ** Still," continued 
 she, " as I now was rich, I resolved again to quit the 
 cold climate of Constantinople, and gradually to reap- 
 proach the milder temperature of Sennaar. Perhaps, 
 thought I, in my way, at Alexandria, I may chance to find 
 among the Mawgarbees^ some proper husband for my 
 money, to make me amends for my former empty honours. 
 Nothing, however, worthy the acceptance of the widow of 
 Ibrahim-aga offered; and I am now moving onward to 
 Cairo, where, wholly independent of your insipid whites, I 
 am quite sure of suitably matching my own colour, — 
 unless," added she, with a significant glance, ** something 
 very tempting should offer by the Avay." 
 
 That this something actually had oflered, and that every 
 objection to the insipidity of whites had been overcome, I 
 soon felt convinced of by the lady's ceillades. Certain of 
 her own approval, she did not in the least seem to trouble 
 herself about any possible objection on my part; and her 
 advances presently became so marked, that I owed the 
 greatest obligation to the timely interposition of the Boghaz. 
 This formidable sand-bank, which muzzles the mouth of 
 the Nile, was announced at a most critical moment. Im- 
 mediately every other passion yielded to terror. The Cir- 
 cassians screamed, the Turks fainted, and the negress 
 turned as pale as she was able. Even after the peril was 
 surmounted, all thoughts of taking the citadel by storm 
 seemed laid aside, and the siege dwindled into a mere 
 blockade, which lasted till we got to Baschid. 
 
 The abrupt transition from the yellow aridity of Alex- 
 andria to the verdant freshness of Bosetta, rising on the 
 margin of a beautiful river, and embosomed in orange, 
 in sycamore, and date trees, might give a foretaste of 
 Elysium. I spent a whole day in a jesmine arbour, 
 eating bananas, and drinking the juice of the sugar-cane; 
 
 li 
 
•210 ANASTASrUS. 
 
 and after thus having truly lasted the sweets of Raschid, 
 re-embarked on board a maash/ destined to sail up the 
 river, and to land us at Cairo. It resembled Noah's ark; 
 was filled with beasts of every description, and surrounded 
 by an universal flood. As far as the eye could reach, 
 the waters of the Nile snfiered nothing to rise above 
 their surface but the buildings of the towns and villages, 
 looking, on their artificial platforms, as if floating in 
 trays on the liquid plain. Among the strange animals 
 which our barge conveyed across this immense plash, shone 
 conspicuous, from the bright yellow of his glossy skin, a 
 short bloated biped, who, on a head scarce peeping above 
 his shoulders, wore, perfectly poised, a huge flat turban,, 
 which gave the tout-ensemble the complete proportions of 
 a toadstool; and truly, in the eyes of the other natives, 
 this natural production seemed to be very much held in 
 equal estimation with a fungus. An osmanlee of Cairo — a 
 man of unusual information for his country, and of open 
 pleasant manners — seeing the wonder with which I con- 
 templated this figure, whispered me : ** Coobd is the name 
 these people bear, and they trace their descent from the 
 ancient Egyptians ; but they have changed the object of 
 their worship from cats and onions to gold ; and the only 
 hieroglyphics they preserve are those in their scrutoires, 
 which secure to them the exclusive knowledge of the size, 
 produce, and boundaries of all the cultivable tracts in the 
 country. Nor is this, in their hands, a mere speculative 
 and barren science. It ensures them the stewardship of all 
 the property of their Mohammedan masters. More conver- 
 sant in arms than in arithmetic, we cannot dispense with 
 this vermin, though it lives upon our best substance; and 
 every Moslemin of any rank or wealth, from the schaich- 
 el-belled,' who farms the whole territorial contribution of 
 Egypt, to the smallest aga of a village, or subtenant of the 
 schaich-el-belled, has his coobdtic steward or writer, whose 
 accounts he understands just as much as the coobd under- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 211 
 
 stands the language of his own prayers. He only knows 
 that he is cheated, and has no way to help himself." 
 
 Night, meantime, had begun to cast its veil even over the 
 nearest objects, when, on a sudden turn of the river, we 
 all at once beheld at a distance before us a most splendid 
 spectacle. The left bank of the Nile seemed for a consi- 
 derable spaCfe in an entire blaze, and the luminous streak 
 which edged the winding shore, producing by its reflection 
 a parallel line of light in the mirror of the stream, made 
 the whole resemble a riband edged with fire. It glittered 
 more brilliantly from the surrounding darkness. The spot 
 which it skirted resounded Avith the incessant clang of 
 cymbals, of kettle-drums, and other musical instruments; 
 and, as we approached near enough to discern in the fairy 
 spectacle the effects of a most extensive illumination, the 
 shouts and song of innumerable voices met the ear. The 
 place thus distinguished was Mektoobes, famous in all sea- 
 sons for its gaiety, and at this particular period engaged in 
 the festival of its patron schaich, which drew together the 
 population of all the surrounding districts. For almost a 
 mile the quay was lined with barges, so closely wedged that 
 one might walk from deck to deck; while the interior of 
 the town was rendered as light as day by thousands of 
 lamps ; some winding in lofty spirals to the summit of the 
 minarets, others thrown in long festoons from pinnacle to 
 pinnacle, others again expanding in wreaths, in sheaves, and 
 other fanciful forms. As we drew nearer, the eye was not 
 more dazzled by the glare of light than the ear was stunned 
 by the din of instruments. At every corner of a street a 
 different band of musicians played a different tunc, in hopes 
 of drowning all the others in its noise; and in every open 
 space some different troop of singers, dancers, tumblers, 
 sorcerers, or fortune-tellers exhibited their different sorts of 
 feats, with a view to eclipse all the rest. Here a string of 
 awalis^ strained their windpipes in tremulous quavers, until 
 
^V2 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 lliey grew as lioarse as ihe frogs in ihe neighbouring ditches ; 
 and there a knot of ghazie^ distorted their limbs into as 
 uncouth postures as if they had been frogs themselves; and 
 while one portion of our passengers stood watching the 
 tricks of a juggler, whose troop of performers consisted in 
 a basket full of serpents, another portion sat gaping at the 
 feats of a rival mountebank, whose clief-(V oduvH was turn- 
 ing water into blood, and earth into vermin. I speak not 
 of the female charmers, who preferred for the exhibition 
 of their fascinations the darker places, where they excelled 
 in emptying of its last para the closest drawn purse. Of 
 these syrens our poor coobd might give the best account. 
 He had been missing almost from the moment we went 
 ashore, and no one could guess what witchery had conjured 
 him away, until we all got back to our barge. It was there 
 he first reappeared among us; and the first thing he did 
 was to untie his pouch, in order to ascertain the damage it 
 had sustained. A sequin was the utmost he rated it at; 
 and that was just twice as much as, by his own account, 
 the thrifty personage ever had spent on similar aberrations. 
 What was his horror when he found that, by an art 
 exactly contrary to that of the alchymists, the ladies, whose 
 leger-de-main tricks he had been too curiously investigat- 
 ing, had converted all his gold Into base metal. His purse 
 indeed, externally, preserved its full size and weight; but 
 alas, the contents had experienced a sad transmutation ! 
 His gold was all turned into brass ! 
 
 At any other period, the adventures of Mektoobes, and 
 the misfortunes of the coobd, would have furnished mate- 
 rials for conversation till we reached Cairo : but at this 
 moment, the mind of no Egyptian born was sufficiently 
 disengaged for such idle talk. A topic of higher, more 
 universal, and more vital interest engaged every thought, 
 and dwelt on every lip; absorbed the whole mind of man, 
 woman, and child; and was sure, whatever other subject 
 
ANASTASIUS. 213 
 
 mosl foreign from il might accidenlally be started, ulti- 
 mately, by imperceptible sleps, to regain full possession of 
 every receptacle of thought or words ! 
 
 This was the rise of the Nile — the phenomenon on whose 
 measure and degree depended, throughout Egypt, the 
 serious difference between plenty and famine; and whose 
 increase, perceptible inch by inch, and sometimes rapid, 
 sometimes slow, sometimes wholly at a stand, kept, while it 
 lasted, every eye on the stretch, and every mind in a fever. 
 
 In vain, as a stranger not yet erabued with the spirit of the 
 universal subject, I now and then tried to turn the conver- 
 sation into another chaimel. The slimy ducts that carried 
 the muddy waves of the Nile to the furthest limits of the 
 country, were the, only channels which my hearers could 
 contemplate. When I talked of Hassan's expedition to the 
 Morea, a person on my right observed it must have hap- 
 pened the year when the river only rose fifteen cubits; when 
 I hoped to engage the attention of the company by describ- 
 ing the splendours of the sultan's court, a man on my left 
 asked whose office it was to bring him the daily intelligence 
 of the Nile's increase; and when I extolled the beauty of 
 our islands, some one, who till that instant had never 
 opened his lips, sighed to think they had no rivers to rise 
 like the Nile. I now despaired of any other general conver- 
 sation, and, in order to hear the last of the ruling topic, 
 took my osmanlee friend aside, supplicated as a favour that 
 he would first say all that his imagination could suggest 
 concerning the Nile and all its branches, and would then 
 vouchsafe to give me a little sketch of the politics of Egypt. 
 This he readily undertook, and as his information on that 
 subject may render more intelligible my own subsequent 
 adventures in that country, I shall here transfer it to the 
 reader — in substance more than in form — and with such 
 additions and emendations as 1 subsequently derived from 
 my own observation. 
 
2H ANASTASIUS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ** Egypt," said (or said not) my osmanlee, ** after its 
 conquest by Omar, first obeyed a race of Arab sovereigns 
 called kaliphs. To these succeeded, on its occupation by 
 Selah- el-din, a race of Tartar princes denominated sul- 
 tans. 
 
 ** It was the early practice prevailing in every country 
 under Tartar government, to leave the cultivation of the 
 ground to the free-born peasant, and to employ the pri- 
 soner taken in war, and the purchased slave, in domestic 
 and personal services alone. When, however, the Tartar 
 swarms in their southward progress came in contact with 
 black and woolly-haired nations, the destination of their 
 slaves became as changed as their colour. The more pliant 
 and pacific negro, foreign in habits as in looks from his 
 purchaser, was under the name of abd, or domestic slave, 
 confined to household services, and was never kept for de- 
 fence. Admitted to the highest posts in the household, he 
 could attain no advancement in the state. .The more war- 
 like white slave, on the contrary, not unfrequently the 
 neighbour, nay the relation of his master in the country 
 whence both derived their origin, and considered as more 
 able to wield a patron's authority, and more fit to repre- 
 sent his person, was, under the name of mamluke, trained 
 up to arms as well as to attendance. While in his mas- 
 ter's house, he served him not only as his domestic but as 
 his military guard and defender, and when manumitted, he 
 became entitled to aspire to the highest dignities in the army 
 and the slate. The custom of raising mihtary slaves or 
 mamlukcs to eminent employments has prevailed wherever 
 
ANASTASIUS. 215 
 
 throughout Europe, Asia, or Africa, a Tartar dynasty has 
 arisen. Indeed, slaves of this description were employed by 
 Tartar sovereigns as their generals and their ministers, in 
 preference to freemen, whether of the conquered or even of 
 the conquering race. Torn up by the root from their na- 
 tive soil, strangers to that into which they were trans- 
 planted, unconnected with the body at large either of the 
 vanquished or of the vanquishers, deriving their existence, 
 their support, their greatness from their master alone, 
 raised by his will, and at his nod again reduced to their ori- 
 ginal nothingness, they appeared of all descriptions of men 
 the least formidable to a despotic ruler. In their hands 
 the power which an absolute monarch is obliged to dele- 
 gate in all its fulness to each of his ministers down to the 
 last and least, seemed most exempt from the danger of 
 being turned against its author. 
 
 **No device, however, has yet been discovered, by which 
 a single hand can long continue to hold undivided an abso- 
 lute sway over an extensive country. He who must singly 
 withstand the pressure of many, is doomed at last to fall. 
 Thus it fared with Selah-el-din's successors. The mam- 
 lukes intrusted by them with the command of pro- 
 vinces, amended their original insulation by their sub- 
 sequent leagues. They set aside their legitimate sovereign, 
 and established a military government in a republican 
 form. Each of the fourteen provinces of Egypt was go- 
 verned by its own bey. These lesser chiefs used to as- 
 semble in council under a president called schaich-el- 
 belled, or chief of the country. In this divan were 
 enacted by plurality of votes the decrees for the common 
 welfare of all, and each bey presided in his own depart- 
 ment over their due execution. 
 
 "From its first origin, and throughout all its later vicissi- 
 tudes, this republic of beys has been perpetuated by means 
 unexampled to the same extent in any other country, — 
 namely, by an uninterrupted importation of strange slaves, 
 
216 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 transformed by degrees into rulers of Egypt. Not that, as 
 foreigners have sometimes imagined, the constitution of the 
 Egyptian commonwealth prohibited by any positive law na- 
 tives, freemen, and the actual progeny of prior rulers, from 
 participating in the government of the country: not that any 
 express ordination ever reserved the succession to power and 
 the exercise of authority exclusively to strangers and to 
 slaves. Throughout every period of the domination of the 
 beys, instances have existed of individuals who were neither 
 slaves nor strangers, but free-born Mohammedan Turks, 
 nay sons of mamlukes and of beys, being allowed to at- 
 tain the highest employments in the state. Three genera- 
 tions of beys shone in the family of Beloofi; at this mo- 
 ment, Ibrahim, our schaich-el-belled, boasts of the great 
 destinies that await his son Marzook; and at some future 
 day you yourself, who as far as I know were never bought 
 nor sold, may, unless prevented by prior claims, beco.-iie 
 one of our beys. 
 
 '* But a concurrence of circumstances has nearly effected 
 what no law ever expressly decreed. According to our 
 customs, the prolific period of youth is spent by the mam- 
 luke under his patron's roof in forced singleness, and in 
 the society of none but his fellow soldiers. His constitu- 
 tion, more liable to the enervating tendency of the chmate 
 in proportion as it derives from its more bracing native at- 
 mosphere a greaternatural fulness and succulence, is weak- 
 ened, perhaps his very imagination receives a fatal bias, 
 ere manumission allows him to quit his master's house, 
 and to enjoy the comforts of the connubial state. No 
 sooner, indeed, is he gifted with freedom than he seeks a 
 wife, were it only to acquire in the sacredness of the harem 
 a security for his person, and a sanctuary for his property : 
 but even on this occasion his pride and his prejudice lead 
 him lo spurn from his embrace the woman of the country, 
 whose seasoned constitution might counteract the effects 
 of his debilitated system, and suffer him to form an alliance 
 
ANASTASIUS. 217 
 
 only with some female slave of his own nation, on whom 
 the climate of Egypt exerts the same enervating influence. 
 Seldom does any progeny arise from these too well assorted 
 marriages; or, if hlessed with offspring, and such as at- 
 tains maturity, it is in general too degenerate in hody, and 
 too imbecile in mind, to hold and to defend the parental 
 authority against a host of sturdier competitors : and for 
 want of a sufficiency of natural heirs to succeed to their 
 possessions and their power, the rulers of Egypt have, 
 throughout every period of their history, been obliged to 
 seek, in fresh slaves imported from their own native realms, 
 the heirs to their wealth, the successors to their domi- 
 nion. 
 
 "Among these creatures of servitude and devotees to 
 ambition, the Abases, theTcherkassians, and the youths of 
 Odesh<5 and of Gurgistan' are in general the most esteemed, 
 as being the nearest in blood to their patrons, and the most 
 eminent in corporal endowments and warlike accomplish- 
 ments. Renegadoes themselves, their masters make it a 
 rule, more in compliance; with custom than out of respect 
 for religion, to raise no servant to any employment who is 
 not by birth or from choice a Mohammedan. But this 
 condition fulfilled, whatever native of any country north 
 of Egypt is willing to owe his whole existence and advance- 
 ment to his patron, may aspire to all the advantages which 
 an Egyptian grandee can bestow. The bey connects with 
 the artificial relationship between master and slave all the 
 reciprocal duties, nay attaches to it all the reciprocal ap- 
 pellations, that belong to the natural ties of which he Hves 
 bereft: he calls his mamlukes his children, and hears them 
 call him their father. According to the measure of their 
 attachment, their deserts, or their favour in his eyes, he 
 promotes them successively, while yet in bondage, to all 
 the honourable offices in his own household, from that of 
 simple body-guard, to that of hasnadaror treasurer; and, 
 when manumitted, to all the dignities in the state at his 
 
218 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 disposal, from that of single aga, to that of kiaschef,'^ and 
 bey, and schaich-el-belled. During his lifetime he mar- 
 ries them to whatever female relations of his own he can 
 discover, and at his death he leaves them heirs to his wealth 
 and his offices. So much are these adoptive children con- 
 sidered as the natural heirs to all their patron's property, 
 that his very wives, and sisters, and daughters devolve to 
 ibem, according to the date of their creation and the emi- 
 nence of their rank; and the greater the number of such 
 creatures, devoted to his service, defending his person, de- 
 vouring his property, and raised by his patronage to wealth 
 and to dignities, a man in power possesses, the more the 
 lustre reflected from these satellites that move around him 
 swells his own pride, increases his own importance, and 
 extends his own sway. It is by the vast circumference of 
 its base that we estimate the height of the mountain. 
 
 ** Such is in Egypt the inertness of the native, and such 
 the insulation of the country, encompassed on all sides by 
 seas or by deserts, that the domination of the beys, though 
 only continued by slaves, by renegadoes, and by strangers 
 — by men forswearing every tie of country, of blood, of 
 sex, and of religion, and presenting every form of anarchy, 
 civil war, and murder by steel and by poison — yet sub- 
 sisted near two centuries, without being wrested from the 
 feeble hands that held it, either by an indigenous subject, 
 or by a foreign invader. 
 
 ** At last, however, the sway of the mamlukes seemed 
 destined to decline. In the year 923 of thehegyra,Selim, 
 sultan of the Turks, invaded Egypt, conquered the land of 
 the beys, hung their chief, and degraded their body : the 
 former rulers of the country were reduced to the rank of 
 collectors of its revenue. Attached to different provinces, 
 they and their kiaschefs became the farmers of the territo- 
 rial contribution ; while their chief, the schaich-el-belled, 
 was alone fixed at Cairo under the watchful eye of the sul- 
 tan's own visier. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 219 
 
 ** As an intermediate power between the mamlukes and 
 the pasha, the conqueror created a provincial militia. It 
 was destined to support the fmanciai operations of the 
 bevs, and to restrain the political influence of the visier. 
 It is true that these troops swore submission to severe re- 
 gulations. Confined in the citadels of Cairo and of Djirdg^, 
 they were to exercise no trade, lest they should lose their 
 martial spirit, and to possess no land, lest they should ac- 
 quire a local interest. Great privileges, however, made 
 amends for these restrictions; since, in order to render his 
 military force independent of his representative, the sultan 
 allowed its odgiaklees, or chiefs, to enact in their own pri- 
 vate councils the laws necessary for the welfare of their 
 corps. 
 
 ** No human power, however, can be so nicely poised, but 
 that a little excess in some quarter will by degrees deter- 
 mine all further weight to flow to the same side, until the 
 balance be at last whofly destroyed. Stationary in the 
 country, and commanding a formidable force, the chiefs 
 of the militia soon began to resist indiscriminately every 
 order of a pasha liable to constant removals, and the bearer 
 of unsupported mandates : they ended by compelling him 
 to sanction in the name of the sovereign the statutes de- 
 creed in their own. A prisoner in the castle, while suf- 
 fered to remain at Cairo, he no sooner gave the least of- 
 fence than he was dismissed without delay. 
 
 **The beys were held in still more open and degrading 
 subjection : for the schaich-el-belled was made, on days 
 of ceremony, to hold the stirrup to the aga of the jenis- 
 saries. Even the subjects of the Porte at large ex- 
 perienced at the hands of this lawless soldiery the direst 
 oppression. They could only escape its rapacity by enlist- 
 ing in its corps : but in proportion as the candidate for 
 this honour was wealthier, and thus exposed to greater 
 extortions, he obtained less easily the immunity which he 
 
220 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 more urgently wanted. One half of his fortune was ge- 
 nerally the price of his security during his life, and 
 at his death the other half devolved to the regiment in 
 which he was enrolled; nor, if a rich individual had hy 
 some means succeeded to elude while he lived the hurthen- 
 some boon, could his good fortune while he had breath, 
 on his demise avail his heirs. In default of a real engage- 
 ment, a forged contract was soon produced and promptly 
 acted upon. 
 
 *' Thus did the militia of Egypt, in spite of the sultan's 
 edict, soon absorb all its personal property : nor was it long 
 ere, by a still more glaring infraction of their rules, the 
 odgiaklees became possessors of most of the land : — but if 
 their power at first thus gained them inordinate wealth, 
 that wealth again, by a just retribution, served to under- 
 mine their power; and just as the Nile, after rising till it 
 overflows the country " 
 
 At this ominous simile I took fright, put my finger on 
 the narrator's lips, and earnestly entreated that he would 
 tell his tale in a straight-forward manner, without tropes or 
 figures — especially about the Nile. 
 
 He smiled, and thus proceeded : — ** By becoming landed 
 proprietors, the members of the militia had rendered them- 
 selves accountable in one sense to those very beys who 
 were amenable before them in another : but there re- 
 mained no longer an equal security for the discharge of 
 the mutual obligation. While, by the enrolment in their 
 corps of every peaceful citizen disposed to pay the ad- 
 mission fee required, and the discarding of every able sol- 
 dier himself requiring a stipend, the militia was become at 
 once enfeebled at the heart, and unwieldy at its extre- 
 mities, the beys seemed to have regained all the strength 
 which their antagonists had lost : for the mamluke tribe 
 '■ — that indestructible plague of Egypt, that weed always 
 alive, and at every new subversion of a more artificial sys~ 
 
ANASTASIUS. 221 
 
 lam agaia springing up in all its former luxuriance — had, 
 by constant fresh supplies, meanwhile recovered all its 
 vigour. 
 
 ** Thus the different departments of the state, intended by 
 Selim to check each other's pressure, became totally con- 
 founded ; or rather their offices were exchanged, their in- 
 terests reversed, and the supremacy made to flow back into 
 its pristine channels. While the militia insensibly spread 
 over the surface of the land, to attend to its culture, the 
 beys again flocked to Cairo, to resume their cabals : while 
 the odgiaklees had erst given to their creatures the em- 
 ployments of the beys, the beys now gave to their freed- 
 men the rank of odgiaklees : the public revenue, before 
 squandered by the soldiery, now became wasted by the 
 mamlukes ; and what power remained in the hands of 
 the sultan's forces was no longer employed to resist but to 
 protect the sultan's enemies. The spider was left to weave 
 its web in silence over those gilded vaults, which had once 
 re-echoed with the fierce debates of commanders ; and the 
 pasha, who formerly had only feared the power of the 
 militia, now only trembled at the name of the beys. 
 
 ** Scarce however had this revolution been perfected, 
 when the daring Aly, bey and schaich-el-belled, succeeded 
 in wresting its fruits out of the hands of its authors. Re- 
 nouncing his allegiance to the Porte, and contracting an 
 alliance with the Russians, he awed into silence his col- 
 leagues, and reserved every office for his own adoptive 
 children. He sent his son Ismail to sack Damascus, and 
 his son Hassan to pillage Djedda ; while he kept his eldest 
 son Mohammed at home, to bear as he could the whole 
 weight of his favours : and great it was ; — for he honoured 
 him with the hand of his sister, sent for purposely from 
 Georgia; he heaped upon him such riches as to cause 
 him to be surnamed Aboo-dahab, or the father of gold; and 
 he endowed him with sufficient power to create his own de- 
 pendents beys : insomuch, that at last Aboo-dahab, dis- 
 
222 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 abled by his patron from rising any higher, except hy step- 
 ping on his patron's neck, slew him, in order that his work 
 might be completed. 
 
 ** Nor was Aboo-dahab disappointed in this purpose. 
 Named schaich-el-belled by his own beys, and chosen 
 pasha by the grateful Porte, he offered the first example 
 in Egypt, as he did the last, of all the grandeur which the 
 country can bestow, and all the authority which the sultan 
 can give, united in the same person: — but his joy was 
 short ! Intoxicated unto madness by these too copious 
 draughts of successful ambition, his blood began to fer- 
 ment ; his fluids turned to poison ; a raging fever struck 
 his brain; and in the midst of Acre, which he had taken 
 by storm, and delivered up to pillage, one day saw him 
 resplendent with glory, and the next a livid corpse. 
 
 ** No sooner had Aboo-dahab breathed his last, than his 
 mamlukes hastened back to Cairo to divide his spoil. 
 Ibrahim, the eldest bey of his creation, obtained with the 
 place of schalch-el-belled the widow of Aly. Mourad, the 
 second in rank of the beys named by Mohammed, married 
 his patron's own relict. The other beys of Mohammed's 
 recent house, Osman, Mustapha, Suleiman, and the two 
 Ayoobs, took, according to their rank and seniority, what 
 else remained to be divided. 
 
 ** The younger children of Mohammed's ill-requited pa- 
 tron, Ismail and Hassan, who shared not in their eld est bro- 
 ther's ingratitude, had, on Aly's death, fled to Upper Egypt. 
 There they remained quiet during the short period of Aboo- 
 dahab 's reign ; but gained strength by an alliance with 
 two great Arab schaichs; those of Esneh and of Negaddi. 
 Thus reinforced, they determined not to suffer Moham- 
 med's children to supersede the remaining sons of Aly 
 himself, and marched directly to Cairo. Ibrahim, Mou- 
 rad, and their party, had not yet had leisure to prepare 
 for the attack. With all their followers they passed 
 through the citadel, situated on the utmost verge of the 
 
ANASTASIUS. 223 
 
 mount Mokhadem; gained the defiles of that range of 
 mountains which extends along the right Lank of the Nile 
 into Upper Egypt, and there took that station, which their 
 antagonist had just quitted to occupy their own at Cairo. 
 
 ** Ismail, received in the capital with acclamation, and 
 immediately installed as schaich-el-belled by a pasha, 
 prompt to confer the title on whosoever held the place, 
 lost no time in clearing his residence of all lurking leaven 
 of sedition. Two old beys yet breathed, owned by no 
 party still in being, but supposed secretly to favour that of 
 Ibrahim. They had nevertheless, when Ismail entered 
 Cairo, remained in the capital, — either prevented from 
 quitting it by their infirmities, or relying for protection on 
 their age. They were friends, and saw each other fami- 
 liarly. But when Sogeir came to pay his court, Ismail ex- 
 acted, in proof of bis loyalty, the head of Abderahman, 
 and Sogeir bowed submission. In the midst of the cus- 
 tomary reminiscences which formed the conversation of 
 men who had outlived all their contemporaries, Sogeir 
 dropped his chaplet ; Abderahman stooped to pick it up, 
 and Sogeir plunged his dagger into his colleague's side. 
 His feeble hand, however, could not give a home thrust, 
 and Abderahman, intended to be laid prostrate for ever, 
 rose from the blow, and struggled with his adversary. 
 The surrounding mamlukes viewed unmoved two men, 
 seemingly united during half a century in the closest bonds 
 of friendship, contend which should first bereave the other 
 by violence of the few remaining sparks of a life almost 
 extinct — should first draw from the other's heart the few 
 remaining drops of an almost stagnant tide, and should first 
 thrust the other into that grave, on whose brink both were 
 tottering. This feat Sogeir achieved. He then crawled 
 back to the schaich with the head demanded; but, ex- 
 hausted with the fight, fell dead in the act of presenting 
 the prize. 
 
 " Ibrahim and Mourad remained not much longer in 
 
224 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 Upper Egypt ihan Ismail and Hassan had done before Ihcm. 
 With the assistance of the Arab schaichs of Farshoot and 
 of Dendera, they descended from Djirdg6, and demanded 
 readmittance into Cairo. Ismail consented, in hopes of 
 more effectually ending the struggle by treachery. With 
 the concurrence of Ezedlee,the pasha, his antagonists were 
 to be murdered in the citadel, in full divan. Hassan, how- 
 ever, dissatisfied by the small share of power ceded him 
 by Ismail, thought he now had the means for ever to se- 
 cure the gratitude of the adverse party. He warned its 
 leaders of the plot ; and the same night Ibrahim and 
 Mourad, with all their adherents, again evacuated Cairo. 
 As soon as they had passed the gates, they proclaimed all 
 reconciliation wilh Ismail henceforth at an end, and went 
 back to their old post at Djirdg6. Here they fortified 
 themselves, and determined to reduce the capital by 
 famine. All provisions which descended the Nile were 
 intercepted, and Ismail at last found himself obliged by the 
 impending scarcity to collect his few troops, to march 
 southward, and to give his rivals battle. It was Hassan 
 who gave them the victory, by going over to their side in 
 the midst of the combat. Ismail immediately fled back to 
 Cairo. 
 
 **The schaich-el-belled's popularity in the capital had 
 been annihilated by his exactions. Closely pursued, he 
 felt his situation desperate. In haste he loaded his camels 
 with his treasure, abandoned his honours, and crossed the 
 desert as a fugitive. At Gaze he embarked for Stambool, 
 to seek assistance from the Porte. 
 
 ** Aslsmail went out at one gate of the city, Ibrahim and 
 Mourad rushed in at the othsr. Content to resume their 
 former station, they impeded not their enemy's convenient 
 flight. After reinstating themselves in all their oflices, 
 they strengthened their party, and rewarded their ad- 
 herents, by making a considerable promotion of beys and 
 of kiaschefs. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 2-25 
 
 ** Hassan himself gained the least by his defection. This 
 bey, surnamed Djeddawee from the sacking of that city> 
 was among those unfortunate individuals who, with the 
 greatest physical bravery, entirely want moral resolution 
 and steadiness; by their waverings and changes forfeit the 
 confidence of all parties, and to every faction alike appear 
 more desirable in the character of avowed enemies than in 
 that of seeming friends. Whatever sacrifices he might 
 make to the cause he espoused, they were uniformly at- 
 tributed to interested motives; truth from his lips was re- 
 ceived as falsehood, and generosity in his behaviour could 
 only be viewed as cunning. The bare circumstance of his 
 asserting a fact caused it to be discredited, and his being 
 the author of a scheme sufficed for its rejection. Thus 
 situated, he always found the thanks of his associates short 
 of his pretensions, failed not soon to accuse his colleagues 
 of black ingratitude, and scarce had joined a party, when 
 he afresh meditated a change. His most ordinary converse 
 necessarily degenerated into a tissue of dissimulation and 
 fraud which produced no illusion, and his life became a 
 series of intrigues and of cabals which brought him no 
 benefit. 
 
 '* Tired of his complaints, and fearing his fickleness, the 
 sons of Mohammed resolved to stop his reproaches by cut- 
 ting short his career. The Saturday exercises in the place 
 of Roumaili were fixed upon to execute the purpose. 
 
 ** The exercise of the djereed was over. One of Mourad's 
 mamlukes enters the lists for the game of the jar.^ He 
 advances in the circle, takes aim, fires, and misses. A se- 
 cond darts forward, and equally fails. A third now tries 
 in his turn : his ball goes wider still than the former from 
 the pretended mark; but it strikes the real one, — for it 
 grazes the turban of Djeddawee. Every bystander loudly 
 laments the accident. The bey alone saw the intent: he 
 saw his death-warrant signed. Immediately he calls round 
 him his mamlukes, and from their close-pressed circle raises 
 
 I. 1 ;> 
 
226 ANASTASTUS. 
 
 the cry of war and ihe sword of defiance. His suile all 
 draw their sabres : so do Mohammed's children. The 
 games cease ; the fight commences : the few remaining ad- 
 herents of Ismail join the banners of Hassan. 
 
 *' Three entire days did every street of Cairo in turns be- 
 come the field of battle : three entire days did every stone 
 of the capital in turns stream with blood. At last Hassan 
 felt his strength give way, and saw his supporters fall off 
 one by one. On the point of being overwhelmed by his 
 enemy's superior fores, he gathers together a small troop 
 which he still could rely upon, and breaks through the 
 very midst of his assailants. With a speed which nothing 
 could slacken, he gains the vast suburb of Boolak, on the 
 Nile, and there seeks shelter in the house of an old friend, 
 of the Schalch Damanhoorl. The sanctity even of that 
 distant asylum is disregarded, and the approach invested, 
 a few minutes after its gates had received the noble fugitive. 
 
 ** For a while, however, intrenching himself behind the 
 inclosure of his fortress, Hassan gallantly stands the siege, 
 from every window and battlement of the edifice pours 
 down upon Mourad's satellites every species of murderous 
 implement, and makes many a foe atone with his life for 
 the relentless pursuit. But after more than an hour's 
 strenuous defence, he beholds from the top of the building 
 the door burst open, and the entire hostile torrent rush in 
 at once. He now resolves to quit the hopeless contest, 
 and to save himself by flight. Mounting on the terrace of 
 the mansion no longer secure, he thence clambers on the 
 roof of a neighbouring house. From that passes on to the 
 next, and In this manner vaults from terrace to terrace,^ 
 and climbs from roof to roof — sometimes scaling almost 
 inaccessible heights, at others leaping down awful preci- 
 pices, and at others again clearing frightful chasms — till at 
 last he gains the furthermost of the habitations that form 
 a connected cluster. Here he finds his aerial progress 
 stopped: and from the summit of this final promontory 
 
ANASTASIUS. 227 
 
 again Is compelled to descend to the regions below,, and to 
 return to the level of his pursuers. From the terrace he 
 lets himself down into the attics; from these into a lower 
 floor : gains the top of the slairs, runs down a hundred 
 steps, reaches the hall, and opens the entrance door. In 
 the very porch stood sentinel a hostile mamluke of gigantic 
 stature, waiting his arrival to intercept his passage: him 
 he fells with his sabre at a single blow, and mounting the 
 mamluke's own steed, he rides back at full speed to Cairo. 
 But at every turn his antagonists were watching. They 
 soon espy his escape : and in a moment he heard the whole 
 troop again close at his heels. Danger seemed to lend him 
 wings. He reaches Cairo the first — though scarce by the 
 distance of a pistol-shot. Clearing the crowded entrance 
 of the city, and pushing up the main street, he rushes,, as 
 soon as opportunity favours, into the midst of the most po- 
 pulous and busy district; runs up one narrow lane, and 
 down another. As he enters a new division, he causes its 
 gates to be shut behind him, in order to delay the progress 
 of his pursuers. Meeting a string of camels carrying water, 
 he rends open the skins with his dagger, to increase the 
 slippery smoothness of the pavement. Coming up with a 
 file of arabas, conveying a wedding, he tilts over the wag- 
 gons to bar the passage. No throng of human beings, how- 
 ever great, stops his career. His yatagan cuts its way 
 through the thickest cluster of passengers. Overthrowing 
 some, trampling others under foot, he still advances un- 
 slackened in his speed. Every where warning shouts an- 
 nounce his approach ; every where screams of terror pre- 
 cede his rapid steps. At sight of him the horror-struck 
 mob flies in every direction like chafl" before the hurricane; 
 and his wide circuit frequently bringing him back to the 
 same places in which he had appeared before — but each 
 time more pale and ghastly, and covered with blood than 
 before — he at last begins to be viewed as his own ghost, 
 still continuing the flight of the body. It was a stupendous 
 
 15* 
 
228 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 thing to behold a vast capital, successively filled through- 
 out each of its numerous quarters, from one end to the 
 other, -with ever increasing terror and dismay, by the ap- 
 pearance of a single man^ — and that man himself a fugi- 
 tive, only darting by like a meteor; just heard, just seen, 
 and then again disappearing. 
 
 ** Hassan's strength now begins to fail him. His horse is 
 ready to drop. His pursuers — ^who for a while had lost his 
 track — guided by the clamour of the mob at his appearance, 
 again recover the scent. They gain ground upon him so 
 fast, that nothing seems capable any longer of saving him 
 from becoming their victim. 
 
 '* He n©w bethinks himself of one last desperate expedient. 
 The house of his most inveterate enemy — of Ibrahim, the 
 schaich-el-belled — had just risen in sight. He springs from 
 his exhausted steed, no longer able to move, and summon- 
 ing all his remaining strength, runs to this perilous abode, 
 and gains with difficulty its frowning portal. Entering the 
 reluctant gates, he forces his way athwart the bevy of 
 astonished pages, who in vain try to stop the intruder; and 
 makes straight for the holy of holies, for the women's 
 apartment. Pushing away right and left the eunuchs, the 
 slaves, and the guards, stationed to defend the entrance of 
 the gynectcum, he bursts open the prohibited door, advances 
 through the labyrinth of narrow passages, and at last, after 
 many wanderings, reaches the very centre of the sanctuary. 
 
 ** Here, totally exhausted, and faint with fatigue and loss 
 of blood from many a wound inflicted by a distant carbine, 
 Djeddawee at last stops, lays down on the rich carpet his 
 ensanguined sword, and viewing before him that mightiest 
 of her sex, the sister of Aly, the widow of Mohammed, and 
 the wife of Ibrahim — risen from her seat in mute astonish- 
 ment — he throws himself prostrate at her feet, clasps the 
 hem of her embroidered garment, and implores her all- 
 powerful protection. 
 
 **\Vhat could Ash-har do? when a son of her brother. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 229 
 
 and a brother of her first husband, humbled to the dust, im- 
 plored her to save his Hfe ! 
 
 ** She swore to protect him, while he remained in her 
 sight; and in her presence none durst lift his hand against 
 the supplicant. Even Ibrahim her husband consented to 
 respect his haled existence, until he again should go forth 
 from the shadow of his roof. 
 
 ** But Mourad appears! Furious from his numerous disap- 
 pointments and Hassan's hair-breadth escapes, he demands 
 possession of his victim, or threatens to abandon his party. 
 The schaich-el-belled wavers, and at last consents to cast 
 a stain upon his character, in order to satisfy his colleague. 
 In defiance of the laws of hospitality, he insists on Hassan's 
 quitting his habitation, content to receive a safeguard to the 
 frontiers of Egypt. The bey was not in a condition to de- 
 cline the specious offer. Accompanied by a numerous 
 escort, he takes leave and departs. But what is his new 
 dismay, when he learns on the road that his destination is 
 the very town in Arabia, once the scene of his devastations ! 
 To turn him adrift among the injured populace of Djedda 
 was to devote him to a death more cruel than the fate from 
 which he had fled. On the least resistance, however, to the 
 mandate of his enemies, he was to be killed on the spot. He 
 therefore feigned acquiescence, and suffered himself quietly 
 to be conveyed to Suez, and there to be embarked for the 
 harbour of Meccah. At sea he might by surprise have slain 
 a few of his conductors, but in so rash an attempt he must 
 soon have been overpowered by the rest. He devised a 
 better plan. In the darkness of the night he fell upon the 
 reis himself, the moment sleep closed his eyelids; and with 
 his arm round the pilot's throat and his pistol to his heart, 
 he forced him to steer for the African coast, and for the 
 port of Cosseir. There, under favour of a mob, whom the 
 cry of a son of Aly soon collected round the boat, ready 
 for his defence, he disembarked, by forced marches gained 
 Akmim, and from that place plunged into the desert. In 
 
230 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 a few days he reached the tents of his former Arab allies. 
 Under their wing he took shelter: the fame of his wonderful 
 escape spread in all directions :— at last it reached Cairo, 
 and the wreck of his party, remaining in that capital, in- 
 sensibly withdrew, and joined, high up the Nile, its impe- 
 rishable leader. 
 
 *' Ismail, on his arrival at Constantinople, had found the 
 Porte too deeply engaged in war with Austria to involve 
 itself in fresh hostilities with Egypt. Tired of consuming 
 his time in fruitless expectation, and his wealth in unpro- 
 ductive bribes, he at last reimbarked, landed at Dern^, and 
 through the oasis of Sewa rejoined Hassan near the Cata- 
 racts. Either chief had gained too Httle by deserting the 
 other, not to meet his former rival with willing heart half 
 way. Common disappointment for this time riveted the 
 union of the beys. They agreed to consign to oblivion 
 the past, and for the future never more to abandon each 
 other. 
 
 " Thus far," added my osmanlee, ** the engagement has 
 remained inviolate. Three years and more the sturdy ve- 
 terans have continued to live together in undisturbed pos- 
 session of Es-souan, the furthest place in the Said, on this 
 side the falls. Too weak to molest the chiefs at Cairo, and 
 too near the confines of Nubia to fear their molestation, 
 they are watched, but are left quiet. All the land on either 
 side the river, their small district excepted, obeys Ibrahim 
 and Mourad. These chiefs reign uncontrolled at Cairo, 
 and heavy is the yoke which they impose upon the pro- 
 vinces. But it bears alike on every one, and therefore ap- 
 pears less galling than the partial miseries of a civil war. 
 People pray for an oppression which prevents their being 
 torn limb from limb, in the strife of contending parties." 
 
 Here ended the long narration of my Caireen friend, 
 and high time it was. Already rose in sight the vast py- 
 ramids to the right, and the castle of Cairo on our left. 
 Each passenger began to collect his parcels; and scarce 
 
ANASTASIUS. 231 
 
 half an hour more elapsed ere we cast anchor at Boolak, 
 and stepped ashore. Our little party broke up, and every 
 one of its members went his different way. My new friend 
 und myself walked on together to Cairo. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 From the briUiant descriptions given me of the celebrated 
 Masr' — of thb kalish' that runs through its centre, and of 
 the birkets^ that adorn its outskirts — I expected, if not an 
 earthly, at least an aquatic paradise. On first reaching this 
 vaunted city, I saw nothing but filth and ruins on the out- 
 side, and filth and misery within. *' So much !" exclaimed 
 I — thinking of Aly tshawoosh — ** for tratellers' tales!" 
 
 **So, too, said I," echoed my companion the Caireen, 
 somewhat nettled, ** on first entering Stambool." The 
 retort startled me in my turn. ''Heavens and earth!'* 
 was my answer, "would you compare Cairo with Con- 
 stantinople ? Where can you find the least resemblance ? 
 Is it between the vile offensive swamps which here have 
 confounded the river with its banks, and the verdant hills 
 which there hem in the very sea ? between the yellow 
 muddy stream here treasured up for refreshment in sooty 
 pitchers, and the crystal rills there gushing forth from 
 golden fountains ? or finally between the smoke-dried men, 
 tattooed women, and blear-eyed bloated children of this 
 over-grown beggarly place, and our population of patriarchs, 
 ofhouries, and of cherubs? In Constantinople, the very 
 cemeteries of ihe dead look like portions of elysium ; here, 
 the habitations of the living already seem charnel-houses." 
 
 **With us each gem has its foil," observed my friend, 
 drily; "and we admire our beauties the more from the 
 
232 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 relief produced by that very circumstance. Suspend your 
 judgment on our comforts till you see the palaces of our 
 beys." 
 
 This was not to be my destiny immediately. I had ob- 
 served the haughty looks and gorgeous apparel of the 
 meanest of the mamlukes who condescended to mix among 
 the populace; and I wished to avoid the privileged cast, 
 until 1 might vie in my appearance at least wilh its inferior 
 members. I therefore Avas content to sleep the first night 
 at a khan, and the next morning prepared for presenting 
 my letters. Keeping my friend Aly in my mind as my 
 model, I put on my gayest allire, and, when fully equipped 
 for my visit, viewed myself in a looking-glass with such 
 complacency, that I began at last to apprehend the fate of 
 Narcissus, and, for fear of catching the evil eye from my- 
 self, tried to spit in my own face;^ — deeming an extraor- 
 dinary case to require an extraordinary remedy. 
 
 This exploit performed — not without some labour — I 
 sallied forth, feeling quite secure as to what might happen. 
 A fellow in the street, himself totally deprived of eyesight, 
 showed me the way wilh the utmost readiness to Sulei- 
 man's palace. The grandeur of its portal, far from damp- 
 ing my confidence, rather elevated my pride, by promising 
 a theatre worthy of my ambition. Bounding like a ball, 
 I ascended its spacious stairs, paced the long gallery, and 
 entered the hall of audience. Perceiving the bey, seated 
 in the angle of his sofa at the upper end of the room, I 
 boldly advanced — retorting with equally haughty glances 
 the supercilious and scrutinising looks of the gay youths 
 who lined the passage — and, when arrived near their pa- 
 tron, put my hand to ihe ground, to my forehead, and my 
 lips, and presented my credentials with every possible 
 grace. 
 
 Throughout the East, grandees, when first addressed, 
 preserve an impenetrable countenance. Their internal 
 emotions lie concealed under a mask of stone. Thus they 
 
ANASTASIUS. 233 
 
 avoid committing themselves, as they must in some mea- 
 sure he liable to do, were they even to express the reverse 
 of what they feel. Still I fancied I could discern athwart 
 the bey's immoveable features such an impression, pro- 
 duced by my first address, as left me little cause for un- 
 easiness. Once or twice, while one of his eyes affected 
 most diligently to run over the recommendatory lines, I 
 caught the other straying from the paper, and stealing a 
 sly survey of my person, with an air of most encouraging 
 approbation. Having at last — apparently with great toil — 
 completed the perusal of the long epistle, Suleiman laid it 
 by him on the sofa, wiped his face, and bade me welcome. 
 '*My friend Othman," said the bey — moving his little 
 hands in unison with his speech — ''describes you as pos- 
 sessed of valuable talents, and I feel anxious to acquire a 
 claim to your services. Unfortunately," added he in a 
 lower tone, after beckoning' to his attendants to retire out 
 of hearing, '* our mamlukes, with all their excellent qua- 
 lities, are somewhat addicted to idleness, to deceit, and to 
 treachery, and extremely jealous of all whom they look 
 upon as intruders : nor dare we openly brave these little 
 weaknesses, or confer on a stranger what these our adopted 
 children consider as their rightful honours. Indeed, the 
 stranger himself would soon have cause to rue the unavailing 
 favour. I therefore do not immediately give you in my 
 house a definite office. But stay as a guest, a friend, a 
 household counsellor; and in time the thing I wish may be 
 managed. God be praised, you are not at least a native 
 Turk ! Like us, you are an islamite from choice." 
 
 After this little preamble, the bey proceeded to try me on 
 the nature and extent of my acquirements; and, as he was 
 not sorry that his mamlukes should have an opportunity — 
 which occurred but seldom — of witnessing his own vast 
 erudition, he made signs to them to return within hearing 
 distance, during the examination. An Italian missionary 
 had once given him a dictionary, as a book replete with 
 
234 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 short and pithy stories ; and in its sedulous perusal the bey 
 had contrived to pick up a considerable assortment of tech- 
 nical terms of art and science, which he employed as it 
 pleased Providence. Of the things themselves whose ap- 
 pellations he had learnt he seemed to have no more idea 
 than the huge Angora cat which sat purring by his side ; 
 and an elementary chaos of astronomy, tactics, geography, 
 mythology, and medicine, all huddled together at random 
 in his brain, flowed in most picturesque confusion from 
 his lips. Extensive, therefore, as certainly was the general 
 outline of his attainments, it still left me room to fill up a 
 few intervening blanks in such a way as to give a very 
 favourable opinion of my own information, even without 
 presuming so far on its superiority as to tell his highness 
 point blank, for instance, that England lay not contiguous 
 to India, — as he had imagined from their constant war- 
 fare; or that Voltaire had never been Pope of Rome, — as 
 he had inferred from the frequent juxtaposition of these 
 personages in his missionary's anecdotes. With all this 
 forbearance, however, my course of practical education at 
 the arsenal, joined to the speculative topics which I had 
 heard discussed at Pera, still enabled me to pass myself off 
 in the meridian of Cairo for a youth of no common accom- 
 plishments; and at every answer I gave to Suleiman's 
 subtle queries, he failed not to assume a profound look, and, 
 after some little apparent meditation, to exclaim in an em- 
 phatic tone, *' good, very good, excellent, admirable ! In 
 time you will know as much as I do !" The only thing 
 which seemed to give a little offence was, my affirming pe- 
 remptorily that the earth revolved round the sun, and not 
 the sun round the earth. At this bold assertion, so con- 
 trary to my previous caution, the bey looked as if he sus- 
 pected me of a design to play upon his credulity; and I 
 could only get out of the difficulty into which my pride of 
 learning had led me, by assuring him that it was among us 
 a very common belief; which he nevertheless still won- 
 
ANASTASIUS. ^235 
 
 dered that so sensible a fellow, as I seemed to be, should 
 have adopted. 
 
 When satisfied with the exalted idea which he doubted 
 not he had given me of his own learning, Suleiman by de- 
 grees descended to more familiar topics ; and 1 now was 
 surprised in my turn to find a man, so utterly ignorant in 
 matters of general information, at the same time so much 
 at home in all that concerned the immediate interests of 
 his country and station. But, hke many other people, 
 the bey prized his knowledge in proportion to its rarity, 
 and seemed to value most that of which he possessed the 
 least. He threw out all his questions about the politics of 
 the Porte in so careless a manner, and seemed so little to 
 heed my answers, that an indifferent by-stander would 
 have sworn the most vital subjects to Suleiman were just 
 those which weighed the least in his mind. 
 
 Having exhausted every topic of more immediate im- 
 portance to himself, — '* You have been long at Stam- 
 bool," said he at last, **and therefore cannot fail to know 
 all about Franguestan.^ What bone, pray, are those 
 Christian dogs now contending for ? Do they think they 
 possess enough upon the earth; or are they planning some 
 expedition to the moon ? Blind as they be, poor crea- 
 tures ! they bustle about as eagerly at those that can see 1" 
 I assured him that this blindness and this bustle had in- 
 creased to such a degree, that, from one end of Europe to 
 the other, every potentate was actually at the present mo- 
 ment disposing of his neighbour's property, as if it had 
 been his own!^ 
 
 Book-learning and general politics might afford a pretty 
 pastime; but, with a race like the mamlukes, whose chiefs as 
 well as meanest individuals were always required to be on 
 the alert, a«d ready alike for attack, for defence, and for 
 retreat, skill in the exercise of the carbine, the pistol, and 
 the sabre were more essential, — indeed, were indispensable 
 qualifications in every canrlidale for preferment. In re- 
 
236 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 spect of these military accomplishments also Othman-bey 
 had in his letter mentioned me with praise; but I per- 
 ceived in Suleiman a conviction that the same human 
 being could not possess talents so opposite and so varied. 
 When therefore I begged permission to join in the martial 
 sports of his mamlukes, appointed for the next day, he 
 strongly tried to dissuade me, lest I should only expose 
 my w^ant of skill; but my perseverance conquered. He at 
 last consented, though evidently concerned at my obsti- 
 nacy, and pitying my rashness. Not so his young mam- 
 lukes ! They yveve delighted with anticipations of the 
 sorry figure which the stranger was expected to make; 
 and significant glances circulated round every part of the 
 room. The morrow was to be a day of merriment. 
 
 At the appointed hour on that morrow I went to the 
 bey's palace, and found the whole household assembled 
 in the court-yard, ready to sally forth. We soon marched 
 out in grand procession; but when I inquired whither we 
 were going, not a creature knew. The beys are too fear- 
 ful to trust their followers with so important a secret. Not 
 until the whole party is turned adrift in the fields does the 
 serrah, or domestic charged with the camp apparatus, re- 
 ceive intelligence of the destined halting-place. Off he 
 then sets, on his dromedary, to make his preparations : the 
 rest follow with loud clamour; and when the place of des- 
 tination is reached, the mamlukes immediately dispose 
 themselves in a spacious ring round the ground. 
 
 The Roobbet-el-baue proved to be the spot selected; 
 and I suspected the bey of a secret wish to verify his fore- 
 bodings, when I understood it to be the most trying ground 
 about Cairo for martial exercises. In order to judge how 
 it lay, and to study the mode of play of the mamlukes, I 
 hung back at first, as if not daring to enter the lists with 
 men so distinguished for their skill and address : but of 
 course, the less alacrity I showed, the more I was pressed 
 to expose myself. '* The youngsters knew, it was in sheer 
 
ANASTASIUS. 237 
 
 compassion upon their inferiority, that I did not choose to 
 come forward. But my backwardness would not serve me : 
 I stood engaged, and my modesty must be put to the 
 blush." 
 
 As if only reluctantly urged on by these ironical obser- 
 vations, I at last, in seeming trepidation, snatched up a 
 djereed. In order to render my incapacity the more pal- 
 pable, the most indifferent performer of the set was pitted 
 against me. Off went my adversary's staff I and after it 
 every eye. Spite of my indifferent steed, I avoided the 
 blow, and the harmless stick only raised a cloud of dust. 
 All wondered at my escape. In my turn I flung the 
 wooden weapon, but not with similar effect. It reached its 
 destination, and most unequivocally delivered its errand. 
 The astonishment of the spectators redoubled, and my an- 
 tagonist, dismounted, limped in rage out of the circle. 
 The rest of his companions now began to suspect that it 
 was not a tyro's task to contend with the new comer. 
 The more skilful players took their turn. They had little 
 better success : and the first exclamations of surprise gra- 
 dually subsided in speechless disappointment and dismay. 
 Every voice was hushed, and every lip bleeding with bites 
 of vexation. 
 
 I had the good fortune to show equal dexterity in the 
 use of the pistol and the sabre. The jar flew in pieces, 
 and the felt' was cut through and through. In the 
 Roobbet-el-haue at Cairo I thus first reaped the fruits 
 of the exercises performed in the Oc-meidan of Con- 
 stantinople, and the dejection of spirits which led me to 
 the one prepared the way for the triumph which I obtained 
 in the other. So high rose in an instant my reputation, 
 that the bey himself proposed to try his hand against me. 
 I had heard him described as an indifferent performer. I 
 could have no doubt that, equal as my skill appeared to that 
 of Suleiman's ablest mamlukes, I had little to fear from 
 their master. Yet did every person present seem to re- 
 
238 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 vive at ihc bare proposal of the match. ''How is this?" 
 thought I : — but a moment's reflection gave me the clue to 
 the phenomenon. "Ah rogues!" I inwardly exclaimed 
 — ^on penetrating the new drift of my friends — *'to see me 
 victorious is now precisely what you wish for, in order that 
 I may irretrievably lose the favour of the bey. But take 
 leave of your hopes ! Selim not only knows when to play 
 well, but also when to play ill;" and in fact, I took such 
 uncommon pains for this prudent purpose, that, on quitting 
 the field, Suleiman pronounced me by far the best player 
 next to himself he knew in Cairo, and the one he liked 
 most to engage with; and, on returning home, took me 
 definitively into his service. Fearful, however, of putting 
 me at once on the footing of the favoured cast, he placed 
 me for the present among his scratches.^ My salary was 
 trifling; but who, among the foUowers of beys of Egypt, 
 depended upon his wages for his emolument ? 
 
 Suleiman possessed, in addition to the numerous mam- 
 luke sprigs ingrafted upon the family tree, one male and 
 sundry female suckers, directly sprung from the original 
 stock. To his female ofl*spring Suleiman seemed attached : 
 the male shoot no one could accuse him of spoiling, at least 
 by excess of fondness. He considered the bey-zad6 as a 
 perfect cipher. Seldom he deigned to inquire after his 
 health : never to demand his presence. " What interest," 
 would he say, *' can I take in a plant on which all culture 
 is thrown away? Why cherish a reed, too feeble to sup- 
 port my increasing age? What I lay out on a conceited 
 idiot, who forgets his deficiencies only to remember his 
 birth, I lay out to utter loss : I even expend it withoiit 
 reaping empty thanks ! Are not then my gifts more wisely 
 bestowed on men whom I cherish for their intrinsic merit, 
 and who reward me with their gratitude?" To this mode 
 of reasoning I, for one, could not possibly object. 
 
 Various were the sorts of merit which, in the eyes of 
 my patron, took precedence of kindred. Valour, capacity. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 23» 
 
 zeal, each obtained their share of superior esteem: hut the 
 quaHty rated above all others was a pair of ruddy cheeks. 
 Among many other instances of their paramount influence, 
 a young fellow from Odesch^, remarkable for his stupidity 
 and peevishness, had just superseded in the bey's favour, 
 and in the place of tchibookdjee,^ a Georgian, esteemed 
 for his good qualities by all his companions : and that, for 
 no other earthly reason which any one could discover, ex- 
 cept that his face looked like a ripe Damascus peach, 
 Suleiman himself saw nothing singular in this fancy. 
 "People," he said, '*value a tulip, a shawl, a ruby, a 
 canary-bird, a horse, for the brightness of their hue : they 
 dress up their domestics in the gaudiest colours ! Why 
 then should they not be as particular about their faces ? 
 and choose their attendants by the same rule as their 
 flower-pots — since both alike are destined to furnish their 
 chamber? For my part, it is my delight, when I cast my 
 eyes around, to view a long row of handsome busts; and I 
 think I may be permitted to be as fastidious about the hue 
 of my pages as my neighbour Ayoob is about that of his 
 pipe-sticks !" 
 
 Fortunately, the new comer possessed not in his com- 
 plexion wherewithal to make any very valuable addition to 
 Suleiman's collection of youthful colours, as it must have 
 kept me at home much oftener than I liked, for fear of 
 disturbing the set. So far from my hues being any longer 
 of a pure and primitive description, they were rather be- 
 come what painters might call neutral tints, and such as 
 could not, by their absence, leave the smallest sensible gap 
 in the bey's prismatic scale. Scarce a day therefore passed 
 without my allowing myself — in company with some of the 
 younger mamlukes of our house — time to visit Maallim'^ 
 Ibrahim, Maallim Yacoob, JVIaaUim Yoossef, or some other 
 of the Maallims, or writers of the coobdlic persuasion, who 
 lived round the lake Yusbekieh". They assisted us in 
 keeping up some of our good old Christian customs ; for 
 
240 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 they never would let us depart without reviving our spirits 
 with a few glasses of rakie : ** In order," they said, ** to keep 
 out of our stom-achs all the water that surrounded us." 
 This good purpose, however, they sometimes overshot; for 
 one evening my companion and myself took so copious a 
 dose of the antidote, that on returning home we no longer 
 could distinguish the path from the canal that ran along- 
 side of it, and so fell into the ditch, which was full to the 
 brink. My companiou at first pulled me in, and I after- 
 wards pulled him out; and he felt so thankful for this trifltng 
 compliment, that from that moment we became sworn 
 friends. Some of the other mamlukes, indeed, wished to 
 sow the seeds of discord between us; but in vain they tried 
 to damp the ardour of an attachment begun in a ditch. 
 
 Rashooan was my comrade's name : Gurgistan his coun- 
 try. He possessed in an eminent degree all the qualities 
 in which mamlukes excel. Equally active and vigorous, 
 he could break the most uuruly horse; leaped a ditch (when 
 sober) with the agility of a deer; brought his steed to a 
 dead stand in the midst of the swiftest race; and wielded 
 with equal dexterity the scimitar, the musket, and the 
 pistol. 
 
 One day I found him describing in glowing terms to a 
 knot of his companions the glories of his native soil. Its 
 flowers, fruits, verdure, streamlets, men, women — its very 
 tobacco-stoppers — were, according to his account, positively 
 of a different nature from those of every other country ; 
 and could he but once more behold this land of wonders, 
 he would resign his breath contented ! **I did not know, 
 Rashooan," said I, when the party separated, **that you 
 so grievously regretted your native country." *' Nor I 
 neither," was his answer; — **and between ourselves, I 
 pray to God every morning that I may never see it again. 
 A sad exchange for fine horses, rich caparisons, costly 
 armour, sumptuous apparel, Egyptian grooms, and negro 
 slaves, indeed, would be that of a life of mere hardships and 
 
ANASTASIUS. .>4I 
 
 poverty; — and for what purpose? Only to find myself 
 forgotten by my parents, and recognised by nobody but a 
 landlord who would sell me again, as he sold me before ! 
 I have lost my relish for simplicity, and am weaned from 
 mother nature. But my imagination got the better, just 
 now, of my sober senses, and besides it is not amiss, now 
 and then, to remind these pert coxcombs that they are only 
 savages, and that I am a Georgian." 
 
 Scarce had Rashooan uttered these words, when two or 
 three of Suleiman's younger mamlukes came running to 
 us, and addressing my friend, said in an animated tone : 
 ** Either something very good, or very bad, is hanging over 
 your head. We have left Othman kiaschef closeted with 
 the bey, and you seem to be the sole theme of their dis- 
 course. Both repeated your name frequently, and with 
 considerable vehemence." '* Ah !" answered Rashooan, ** if 
 any thing extraordinary awaits me, it is sure to be bad. I 
 never was fortunate myself, nor ever brought good fortune 
 to others ! When a boy I was sent among the Kabardahs. 
 Kind people ! My host adopted me as his child, his wife 
 sealed the act with the milk from her own breast, and his 
 sons swore to treat me as a brother. What was the con- 
 sequence ? Tartars carried me off, my adopted kinsmen 
 fell in my defence, and I was sold to the Turks. I now am 
 a slave by habit as well as from necessity, and no longer 
 wish to be free : the chance therefore is that I am doomed 
 to have my liberty." 
 
 Other mamlukes now brought Rashooan word that his 
 presence was commanded. Sighing he went, and in about 
 half an hour he returned to us with a countenance clouded 
 by sadness; '*Selim," said he, "I leave you: for ever I 
 leave the house of the noble Suleiman !" 
 
 ** What motive," cried I, ** can induce the bey to part 
 with a favourite?" 
 
 " Listen," answered Rashooan : '* Othman kiaschef had 
 an elder brother in Georgia, settled at a distant place. The 
 1. i(i 
 
242 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 kiaschef has just discovered that I am that brothers son. 
 He has consequently requested of Suleiman to purchase 
 me. But, as you may suppose, our patron did not think 
 himself warranted by any circumstance, however singular, 
 to listen to the proposal. * Such a disgrace,' cried he, ' as 
 that of bartering my mamluke for money, shall lie neither 
 on his head nor on mine. Suleiman may inflict death on 
 an undutiful son, but his enemies shall never say he ex- 
 changed him for gold !' 
 
 '* Othman upon this looked exceedingly dejected, and 
 Suleiman for- awhile seemed rather to enjoy his distress. 
 At last he proceeded thus; 'Since, however, Rashooan is 
 your nephew, God forbid I should keep him from his uncle's 
 longing arms. Receive the young man as my gift, and let 
 the donor ever remain near your heart.' 
 
 "Othman," pursued the Georgian, **would fain have 
 excused himself from accepting me in the burthensome 
 form of a present; but, unable to obtain his nephew on any 
 other terms, he submits. I therefore leave you ; I leave 
 all that is dear to me ! Torn in my childhood from my 
 natural friends, I now in my youth am wrested from all my 
 adoptive brethren. But the will of God be done !" 
 
 We accompanied Rashooan back to the palace, where 
 he took an affectionate leave of his patron and his friends. 
 AH regretted the young mamluke sincerely, and Suleiman 
 himself appeared greatly moved. Little did he foresee what 
 luck his gift one day would bring him ! 
 
 The removal of Rashooan left me fewer inducements for 
 rambhng, and this was fortunate; for every day the bey 
 could less endure my absence. I was his cyclopaedia, and 
 whatever puzzled his sagacious brain — whether a paragraph 
 on Egypt in an old Vienna gazette, or the site of Cairo in 
 a worn-out Nurnberg map; whether the arranging of a mi- 
 croscope presented by a traveller, or the telling of the 
 weather by a barometer extorted from a jew; whether the 
 construction of a barge, or the design of a keoschk — all 
 
ANASTASIUS. 213 
 
 was referred to me, as to llie oracle in chief: so that many 
 a time, when there occurred what seemed inexplicable rid- 
 dles to mamluke intellects, I could only escape my part of 
 OEdipus by my insufficient proficiency in the language of 
 the Egyptian sphynx; and my ignorance of the Arabic saved 
 my credit for information on many other subjects. The 
 bey, however, recommended me to the tuition of a schaich, 
 bred in the college of El-Azhar,'^ not doubting that, when 
 once taught all the refinements of the Caireen idiom, I 
 should no longer be at a loss for an answer on any topic 
 whatsoever. He thought me a positive abyss of science; 
 and in truth it would have been difficult to discover on 
 what foundation bottomed my knowledge. Whenever I 
 feared that its want of solid basis might become pal- 
 paUe, I diverted the bey's attention by some piece of 
 flattery. Not that I ever condescended to perform so in- 
 ferior an office in the endless departments of adulation, as 
 that of administering to Suleiman his daily dose of crude 
 unmodified incense, which, in common with alf other gran- 
 dees, he had from long and inveterate habit come to regard 
 — Uke his daily pill of opium — as an absolute necessary to 
 his constitution; and therefore took as a thing he could not 
 well dispense with, but no longer either derived much ex- 
 hilaration from, or felt much gratitude for. The task of 
 cramming him with this insipid sort of panegyric I left to 
 the vulgar herd of attendants. Mine was the nicer office of 
 stimulating the appetite, and of heightening the flavour of 
 the draught, through means of that little previous ferment- 
 ation which gives spirit to the flattest beverage. I there- 
 fore usually began by putting my patron, by some point- 
 blank contradiction, into a violent rage. To yield after- 
 wards to the force and perspicuity of his arguments was a 
 species of adulation perfectly irresistible: it gave my patron 
 all the pleasure of a complete surprise, and me all the ap- 
 pearance of a sturdy sincerity ! 
 
 Such pains to please deserved a recompense, and the 
 
 ,. 10 * . 
 
244 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 reward was liberally bestowed; but in a mode nearly as 
 circuitous as that in which it had been earned. Suleiman 
 naturally abhorred a direct gift: what he usually granted to 
 his favourites was an opportunity of grinding other fa- 
 vourites, already provided for, — or of laying under contri- 
 bution some dependent or client. He would send me, for 
 instance, to inform some rich jew proleg6 that he had been 
 thinking of him all day, or some wealthy christian trades- 
 man that he had been dreaming of him all night; and truly 
 I had never before experienced such a solid way of think- 
 ing, or such golden dreams ! As an additional favour, he 
 introduced me to all his most distinguished colleagues; par- 
 ticularly to Ibrahim-bey Sogeir, to Mustapha-bey Skande- 
 rani, and to Ayoob-bey the great., This latter was pleased 
 to express great regret that the commander of the kir- 
 langitsch should not have addressed me, at my outset, to 
 himself. 
 
 On first entering Suleiman's house, I had found the envy 
 of his mamlukes entirely centred in the tchibookdjee. 
 It was hard to digest so marked a preference shown a native 
 of Odesch6, whatever might be the colour of his cheeks. 
 But when I, who was not even a purchased slave, became 
 the bey's right hand, only for practising a few foreign jug- 
 gling tricks — as they were politely termed — even the fa- 
 vourite was thought aggrieved, and began to be pitied. 
 Accustomed to dissimulation, he however preserved with 
 me an exterior of civility, tempered only by a few cutting 
 remarks, so expressed as to seem to arise from sheer kind- 
 ness; until a favourable opportunity at last ollered of letting 
 loose upon me all his long suppressed malice. 
 
 Suleiman had been rather too eager one day in exhibiting 
 his prowess at the djereed. Over-heated with an exercise 
 too violent for his age, he returned home greatly indisposed. 
 His illness soon became so violent a fever that his life was 
 thought in danger; and his hakem inordinary, at his slender 
 wit's soon reached ends, no longer knew what to do. All 
 
ANASTASIUS. 245 
 
 his mamlukes stood aghast round their patron, expecting 
 every hour to he his last. I was looking on with the rest, 
 when all at once it occurred to me that I need not remain 
 an idle spectator. Eugenius, my French instructor at Pera , 
 whose strong mind lodged in but a weakly sort of a body, 
 had on occasions derived relief from an English powder, 
 which he always kept himself provided with. Of this pa- 
 nacea he had at parting given me a few papers, as a valuable 
 present. But Anastasius in health never remembered that 
 Anastasius might fall ill, and the medicine was abandoned 
 to whoever chose to try its efficacy: an occurrence the more 
 frequent, as the result of the experiment always was fa- 
 vourable. It however now struck me that, possibly, among 
 my clothes, there might be some powders left which might 
 save the bey's life, and make my own fortune. 
 
 Full of this idea, I broke through the circle, burst out of 
 the room, and ran, with a throbbing heart, to my own 
 chamber to look for the medicine. But where to find it I 
 knew not. Every corner of my box was ransacked, every 
 hole of my room was searched, every article of my apparel 
 was turned over fifty times, without my being able to dis- 
 cover the least symptom of the tiny blue papers for which 
 I was hunting. At last I gave over the search, considered 
 the case as hopeless, and went down stairs again, to resume 
 my forlorn station in the sick chamber, where even during 
 my short absence matters were grown worse. Scarce had 
 I entered it, than I recollected that in tumbling over my 
 wardrobe I had perceived the blade of an old rusty handjar 
 — a keepsake from Aly — thrust half way out of the sheath, 
 and had met with some resistance on trying to push it home. 
 In the flurry of my spirits, I had only curst the rusty wea- 
 pon, but, on recurring to the circumstance, a glimpse of 
 hope flashed upon me. Aly had taken one of my powders 
 after his sea-sickness, and the handjar in question had been 
 his acknowledgment for the relief obtained. I ran back to 
 my chamber, probed the scabbard to the bottom, and, 
 
216 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 from the inmost core of the implement of death, drew forth 
 the last dose of oiy restorative of life and health — probably 
 thus untidily stowed away in some thoughtless moment. 
 Wrapping up the precious medicine in an embreidered 
 handkerchief, I ran down again to the bey; gave him— for 
 fear the simple truth should sound too homely in his ears 
 — a pompous account of the singular and superhuman per- 
 sonage to whom I owed the gift; expatiated on the incal- 
 culable rarity and wonderful powers of the medicine itself; 
 and ended by imploring him to take perhaps the last dose 
 of this powder of life existing on the whole terraqueous 
 globe ! 
 
 Most ready was my patron to try its efficacy; but I had 
 seen him swallow other medicine of less vital importance 
 with an ill grace, and spit out three good quarters and a 
 half. Fearful lest he should serve in the same manner what 
 f considered his sole remaining chance of existence, I went 
 for some palatable vehicle, in which to secure a safe transit 
 to the powder. 
 
 Though scarcely absent two minutes, I found, on my 
 return, the face of affairs entirely changed. The tchi- 
 bookdjee had employed the short period of my absence to 
 insinuate that the medicine probably was a poison, and the 
 giver a rogue. Of late, I had been much with Ayoob-bey. 
 Ayoob indeed was Suleiman's most intimate friend ! But 
 what were mamluke friendships ? And my evident con- 
 fusion, my wildness, and my running in and out, clearly 
 bespoke a guilty mind. When, full of exultation and hope, 
 I offered the draught, the bey pushed it aside, and, without 
 giving any reason, said he would take no more physic. 
 This declaration was in itself sufficiently stunning; but 
 much of the mischief it implied might depend upon its par- 
 ticular author I cast my eye leisurely round the mamluke 
 
 circle : the tchibookdjee looked away; I guessed the truth, 
 and trembled. 
 
 It now became necessary to insure my own safety. I 
 
ANASTASIUS. 247 
 
 therefore said with firmness : "This powder has some other 
 virtues beside that of expelling fever : it exposes calumny. 
 Since my patron rejects its healing powers, let it at least 
 bear witness to his Selim's heart; — and may God forgive 
 the unfaithful servant who suffers the waste of what might 
 have saved his master's life I'* 
 
 Saying this, I carried the cup to my lips. My speech had 
 restored to the bey his former confidence. With all the 
 eagerness which his debility permitted, he interposed his 
 trembling hand between the rim and my mouth, wrested 
 from me the draught, and, whispering to the tchibookdjee 
 in a faltering accent, **he cannot be a poisoner," at one 
 gulp poured down his throat the whole contents. 
 
 In my eagerness to do good I certainly had not sufficiently 
 proportioned the dose to the weakness of the patient. 
 Instead of finding relief, he felt greater oppression ; and 
 soon his constitution appeared utterly unable to struggle 
 with the energy of the medicine. The mamlukes, upon 
 this, renewed all their former surmises, and spoke their sen- 
 timents so loudly in the bey's hearing, that they seemed 
 quite determined to justify their imputations, cost what it 
 might, and, in default of real poison, to kill their patron 
 through the fear of it. My life seemed to hang by a thread ! 
 Had I dared, I should have mounted my horse, and rode 
 away without waiting the issue; but I saw myself watched 
 on all sides, and I knew that on the smallest attempt to 
 make my escape I must be cut down on the spot. Mean- 
 time a death-like paleness overspread the bey's counte- 
 nance : his features became fixed, and his breath ceased to 
 be perceptible. This was the critical moment. I gazed on 
 his countenance like one whose own life depended on its 
 changes. At last a slight dew broke out upon his forehead : 
 ■ — plentiful relief soon followed. The system threw off the 
 weight which oppressed it, and the fever abated ! From that 
 instant the bey's illness took a favourable turn. Every hour 
 showed an improvement on the preceding; and in a short 
 
248 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 time after, being to all appearance in the agony of death, 
 Suleiman was on his legs again as well as ever; while — as 
 had been predicted at the fanar — I fell upon mine at last, 
 and stood proclaimed the saver of the bey's life. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 On the occasion of his recovery from the first alarming 
 illness which he had yet experienced, Suleiman took with its 
 vanquisher a less circuitous mode than usual of showing 
 his gratitude. He made me at once, by a direct grant, mul- 
 tezim or proprietor of a cluster of villages nearDjarrah; and 
 Selim-aga thus became a man of substance. But this favour 
 inflamed to such a degree the jealousy and murmurings of 
 the bey's mamlukes, that he would at last, I believe, gladly 
 have seen me in the condition from which I rescued him, 
 and that without the benefit of Eugenius's powders. An 
 urgejQt summons into his presence was the consequence. 
 The moment I appeared; **Selim," he cried, **you pre- 
 scribed the other day for me : I must now prescribe for 
 you !' 
 
 I thanked my patron, and assured him that the pleasure 
 of seeing his health restored had put mine beyond the reach 
 of accident. 
 
 ** You mistake," resumed the bey. '* I see by your face 
 that you are ill — very ill, indeed ! The air of Cairo dis- 
 agrees with you. Take my advice, and change it imme- 
 diately for that of the healthier province in which your pro- 
 perty lies." 
 
 It was something to find that I was not expected to 
 swallow a positive dose, which I feared might cure all my 
 
ANASTASIUS. 249 
 
 ailments too effectually. Still I considered the prescription 
 as indicating something critical in my case, and exclaimed : 
 ** Say at once, sir, that I have lost your favour ; say at once 
 that you banish me your presence; say that my enemies 
 have prevailed !" 
 
 **To prove you mistaken," replied the bey, **to prove 
 that I lose not so soon all sense of gratitude, I add to my 
 former gift a new one ; I name you ca'imakam' of Saman- 
 hood. It is a delightful place, and your residence in your 
 own district will season you to the climate. On your re- 
 turn, you will appear less a stranger among us." 
 
 From some Hps, *' I advise," implies "I command." My 
 only business, therefore, was to go where bidden, as soon as 
 invested with the insignia of my office. 
 
 Meanwhile, behold me now become Selim-caimakamI 
 and by the indefeasible privilege of always rising one step 
 at least above one's real rank, giving myself by anticipation 
 all the airs of Selim-kiaschef. Not a single rayah of the in- 
 ferior sort had the misfortune to meet me in the street, 
 whom my mokhadam"* forced not to jump from off his long- 
 eared steed, and humbly to salute me in the mire. The 
 great fat Frank merchants, indeed, showed themselves as 
 yet more firm in their seats, and these I could thus far only 
 indulge in the pleasure of bespattering from head to foot, 
 en passant, while I promised myself ampler satisfaction on 
 their persons at some later period. These were the follies 
 of my youth; — and would that they had been the worst for 
 which my riper years have had to blush ! 
 
 Suleiman's regular bazirghian^ was the merchant, on 
 whom chiefly devolved the honour of fitting me out for my 
 lieutenancy. I chose at his shop broad-cloths, shawls, silks, 
 muslins, armour, etc. sufficient for the equipage of a bey. 
 These I paid for in orders on my villages; and as the term 
 of payment was distant, so was the price of the goods pro- 
 portionably high. My indignation, therefore, exceeded all 
 
250 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 bounds, when, alarmed at my increasing requisitions, the 
 wary trader at last swore — with great apparent concern — 
 that he had not a strip left of the articles I wanted. A piece 
 of information so little expected put me under the disa- 
 greeable necessity of secretly watching the entrance of some 
 customer of more established credit into Zoorab's shop, 
 when, gliding in after the new visitor, and finding the whole 
 counter covered with the choicest specimens of the very 
 goods which I had in vain demanded, I congratulated the 
 merchant on his seasonable supply, swept away the whole 
 assortment, and resold what I could spare from my own 
 private use. 
 
 Spite of Suleiman's impatience to see me gone, I was 
 determined to witness at Cairo the opening of the Kalish. 
 Rather than lose that festivity I chose to sprain my ancle, 
 and limped to the show. Among the valuable articles which 
 I had bought to do honour to my government, shone pre- 
 eminent a fine samoor^ pelisse. This costly fur I was dying 
 to display at the fete; and caught a cold on purpose to wrap 
 myself in it in the midst of the dog-days : nor did I stir a 
 step except in my pelisse. The very mob raved of its 
 beauty; and one youth in particular eyed it with such in- 
 tense adoration, that, unable to possess himself of the whole, 
 he cut off the left sleeve while it swung at my back; and 
 bore the important appendage away as a relic. It was mor- 
 tifying to learn my loss from some persons behind me, in the 
 very midst of my happiness. The sleeve indeed might be 
 replaced, but the pelisse could no longer be worn that day, 
 and with a deep sigh I sent it home. Scarce, however, had 
 its mangled body reached my door, than after it v/alked in 
 the severed limb. Dropped, in the confusion of the place, 
 by the thief, the precious fragment had been picked up by 
 an honest fellow, who by the greatest good luck happened 
 to be a tailor into the bargain, and offered to wield his 
 needle with such diligence, as in a trice to enable the signor 
 
ANASTASIUS. 251 
 
 caiinakam to resume his robe of state. The honest fellow's 
 services were accepted : the cloak was given him, and he 
 retired to work in a little hack chamber. 
 
 Unluckily this room — besides a door — also had a win- 
 dow; and, having come in at the one, my friend chose, for 
 variety, to go out at the other. On my looking in to hasten 
 the business, tailor, cloak, and sleeve had disappeared to- 
 gether, nor have they ever since been heard of. I applied 
 to the schaich or chief of the robbers at Cairo, who, for a 
 certain consideration, undertakes to restore stolen goods; 
 and during the sultriest season of the year had every day 
 fifty pehsses of cat and rabbit skin brought me to examine, 
 but not one of samoor! 
 
 Spite of my loss I proceeded on my journey. Accord- 
 ing to the custom of the country, I was accompanied by 
 some of the fellahs^ of my own estate, to serve me as a sort 
 of hostages for the good behaviour of my remaining serfs; 
 and, in addition to these, had, by way of retinue, four 
 black slaves for the service of my person, three hawarees 
 or Barbaresque horsemen for the protection of my vassals, 
 half a dozen kawasses^ to clear my way of canaille, and 
 four or five sais, or grooms, to take care of my stud. This 
 latter consisted, besides the steeds we mounted, of three 
 or four fine led horses for show, as many mules for use, 
 and a dromedary for flight, should circumstances render a 
 retrograde movement expedient. As to asses for incognito 
 expeditions, they were, thank God! to be found at every 
 turn. This httle assortment of bipeds and quadrupeds — 
 extended on as long a line as possible — formed a very re- 
 spectable procession, and quite sufficient to make passengers 
 inquire, and have an opportunity of learning, that it was 
 Selim-caimakam on his way to his government. 
 
 I began my journey by land, and, spite of the humble 
 entreaties of the schaichs and shehoods' of the different 
 places where I halted, preferred pitching my tents in the 
 open air to lodging in the close and miserable hovels of the 
 
252 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 towns and villages ; but I took care that the inhabitants 
 should lose nothing by the great man keeping aloof; and 
 consoled them by sending for as much provision of every 
 sort as I could manage to consume or carry. The schaich- 
 el-belled of each district is obliged to supply the public of- 
 ficers on their route at the expense of the district; in con- 
 sequence of which excellent regulation, I should never have 
 given up the more economical way of travelling by land, 
 for the more expensive conveyance by water, had not some 
 of the kiaschefs on my way been most inconveniently en- 
 gaged in hostility with the neighbouring Arabs. This ren- 
 dered part of the road insecure ; and as I had but an inade- 
 quate force, I resolved, after three or four days' march 
 along the banks of the Nile, to contend with its adverse 
 current; myself in a light khandgea,^ which went on be- 
 fore, and the bulk of my equipage in a larger and heavier 
 boat behind. 
 
 In consequence of the adventure of my pelisse, I had 
 conceived the erroneous notion that the thieves of Cairo 
 far excelled in skill those of the provinces. This opinion, 
 so injurious to the latter, maturer experience enabled me 
 to correct. One evening, advancing with a fresh breeze 
 pretty rapidly against the stream, our ears were suddenly 
 struck by the noise of a heavy body, plumping into the 
 waves; and inexpressible was my surprise and concern 
 when, running to the stern of the boat, I beheld this body 
 to be that of my best mare ; and when I saw the faithless 
 Noorshah, whom I thought I had left tied fast by the legs, 
 swimming away to the land with all her might. Unable to 
 guess the cause of this strange freak, I did all in my power 
 
 to entice the beast back. In vain ! As if bewitched, the 
 
 more she heard me call the faster she swam ; so that at last 
 I gave orders to tack and row after the fugitive with all pos- 
 sible speed. Noorshah, however, reached the bank about 
 fifty yards in advance of her old master, and no sooner had 
 she touched the shore, than out came the secret, in the 
 
ANASTASIUS. 253 
 
 shape of a thief, who, to my inexpressible horror, started 
 up from behind the animal, cut the strings that confined 
 its legs, pressed its loins with his own bandy shanks, and 
 scampered off. By diving all the way, the scoundrel had 
 contrived to reach the boat unpercelved, had crept in by 
 favour of the dusk, had slipped under the mare, and, by 
 raising his back under her belly, had tilted her over into 
 the water; when, confined as were her extremities, it be- 
 came an easy task to push her to the land. Unfortunately, 
 the boasted speed of the animal put out of question all 
 chance of successful pursuit; and Noorshah was placed in 
 my memory, with the pelisse, among the things that had 
 been. 
 
 At Mamfloot I again quitted the khandgea. Only five or 
 six days' journey now separated me from my new district, 
 which bordered upon the province of Djirdg6 ; and the road 
 bore a good character. 
 
 On the third morning of my progress, however, I began 
 to doubt its claims. All the inhabitants, young and old, 
 of the first village we passed through were under arms; some 
 carrying clubs, others stones, and the most distinguished a 
 rusty sword or a worn-out matchlock. The enemy against 
 whom they marched, drawn out in the most martial array 
 on the brow of an eminence hard by, were the inhabitants 
 of the next village; and, inquiring into the cause of hosti- 
 lities, all the information I could get was that nobody knew 
 the date of its first beginning. The origin of the hereditary 
 animosity between the two district s lay concealed in the 
 obscurity of ages; but its virulence remained not the less 
 unimpaired : — it had been laudably kept up by as many 
 subsequent injuries and retaliations as other business per- 
 mitted; and to my great edification I understood that, 
 however completely the first cause of the enmity might be 
 forgotten, it was only the more implacable on that account. 
 
 Though gratified by so praiseworthy a spirit, I judged 
 nevertheless that it might admit of some modification, and 
 
251 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 look the liberty to represent that, even supposing the happi 
 iiess of the community to be quite beyond enduring, I still 
 thought that certain regular drawbacks— such as contri- 
 butions to the sultan, taxes imposed by the beys, provisions 
 claimed by travelling officers like myself, exactions of 
 avaricious landlords, depredations committed by wandering 
 Arabs, and yearly encroachments of the sand on the cul- 
 tivable soil, together with the incidental circumstances of 
 locusts, plague, imperfect irrigation, mortahty, and famine 
 — might, upon the whole, quaHfy it sufficiently, without 
 the gratuitous addition of civil warfare and bloodshed be- 
 tween neighbours, begun without a cause, and carried on 
 without an object ! 
 
 This civil remonstrance, I rejoiced to find, made a great 
 impression. Not a single objection was raised, and my 
 speech — frequently interrupted by cries of, •* Hslen! listen I" 
 — seemed to obtain universal approbation. The auditors 
 thanked me humbly for my good advice : when I departed, 
 they remained for a considerable time immoveable on the 
 spot, and only after I and mine were quite out of sight, 
 they proceeded on, and gave their enemies (as I have since 
 understood) the bloodiest battle on record in their annals. 
 
 After nearly four weeks spent on the road, I found my- 
 self at last, to my great satisfaction, approaching the con- 
 clusion of my tedious journey. In the midst of a deep 
 reverie, I was suddenly aroused by the loud shouts of my 
 suite, at the sight of my capital. Already dehghted with 
 these welcome sounds, I expected to be soon still more so 
 by the appearance of my subjects, drawn out in due state 
 to meet their new governor, with drums beating and colours 
 flying. **How long they must have been watching my 
 arrival!" thought I, and spurred my horse on, straining 
 both eyes and ears to discover some distant stir; but no 
 symptom of bustle being yet discernible, I again slackened 
 my pace, in order to give leisure for the procession to ad- 
 vance. Vain considcralencss ! I might proceed as slow as 
 
ANASTASIUS. 255 
 
 I pleased; not a creature appeared, early or lale, to wel- 
 come my arrival; and I had to enter my capital unhonoured 
 with the smallest notice. Matters mended not even as I 
 penetrated deeper into the town. Every street or lane 
 which I successively entered looked peculiarly forlorn. 
 Every door and window was as empty as if the city had 
 been visited by the plague ; and the inhabitants^ so far from 
 impeding my passage by their congratulations, seemed, on 
 the contrary, to have all fled from their homes at my ap- 
 proach. Inconceivably mortified, I fell into a state of such 
 complete abstraction, that — no longer minding what I was 
 about — I crossed my capital (which, to say the truth, was not 
 among the largest) through and through, and again issued 
 forth at the opposite extremity from that at which I had en- 
 tered, so as to leave my destined residencewholly behind me, 
 and to continue on in full march toward the Said. In fact, I 
 would have proceeded in this way to the very end of the 
 world, had not all at once my ears been assailed by a pro- 
 digious clamour, raised a hundred yards or two in my rear. 
 It was that of no less than all the schaichs, shehoods, and 
 notables of the place collected, who, seeing me thus con- 
 temptuously turn my back upon my new subjects, and run 
 away from my government, were in full cry at my heels, 
 to stop my alarming progress. Unfortunately, the discord 
 of their shouts had the contrary effect from that which they 
 intended. Imagining it in my abstraction to be some fray 
 in which I had no concern, I only spurred my horse on the 
 faster, and the more pertinaciously the procession pursued 
 me, the harder I galloped : until one of my own suite, who 
 had learnt the truth, at last got me to hear him, and rec- 
 tified my mistake. My subjects, poor creatures I had only 
 appeared remiss from an excess of loyalty. Apprised that 
 1 drew near, they had, early in the morning, taken their 
 station where they expected me to enter their city : — to- 
 tally forgetting a bad pass in the road, which compelled me 
 to make a circuit, and thereby obliged my subjects to run 
 
256 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 after their governor, instead of advancing in due stale to 
 meet him face to face. Matters now were soon brought to 
 an amicable understanding, and I turned back without any 
 other ill consequence arising from the mistake, except that 
 of the whole procession — governor and governed — entering 
 the town the wrong end foremost. 
 
 It had been sheer modesty in me not to expect a capital 
 at least equal to Raschid or to Fooah. When, there- 
 fore, on looking round, I saw how, little the real dimen- 
 sions of my residence agreed with those assigned to it in 
 my imagination, my first impulse was to accuse Suleiman 
 of having treated me with disrespect. Time only inspired 
 me with more reasonable sentiments ;^ — time only taught me 
 that mine was a situation not of amusement but of profit : 
 but by degrees my docile intellect became so thoroughly 
 imbued with this principle, that, through dint of unabating 
 diligence, I was at last able to tell to a fraction of a para 
 what each feddan of ground might yield, and each head of 
 man or beast thereto belonging be chargeable for, whether 
 to the multezim, the lieutenant, the governor, or the miri. 9 
 
 After these severer studies, letting leases, imposing con- 
 tributions, levying fines, receiving presents, and inflicting 
 penalties were only my pastimes. Indeed, as the Egyptian 
 fellah makes it a matter of conscience never to pay his rent 
 until compelled by main force, and wears the stripes he 
 has incurred in his resistance as badges of honour, my 
 financial operations sometimes even afforded me a fair field 
 for the exercise of my warlike propensities : not but what 
 my genius — even in its fullest exertions in that line — still 
 shrunk into absolute insignificance before that of my coobd- 
 tic writer, who, with a salary of six medeens a day, and a 
 large family to maintain, had become by mere saving as 
 rich as a sultan's seraf. It is true, that whenever he drew 
 a para out of his vest, it was as if he tore his vci^y vitals 
 out of his bosom. Once, indeed, I tried to throw some 
 light upon the intricacies of his accounts, but those of the 
 
ANASTASIUS. 257 
 
 labyrinth of Crete would have been less perplexing. When 
 I complained of the easy honesty of this worthy personage 
 to my confidential servant, I found little sympathy. Scyed 
 shrugged up his shoulders; owned tlyit certain things might 
 be tiresome — but they were the regular practice. If the 
 coobd cheated the multezim, did not the multezim in the 
 same way cheat the caimakam, and the caimakam the 
 kiaschef, and the kiaschef the bey, and the bey the schaich- 
 el-belled, and the schaich-el-belled the pasha, and the pasha 
 the Porle, and the Porte the sultan? who, he was very sure, 
 cheated Allah himself, when he assumed the title of Kaliph 
 of the Faithful. 
 
 The only thing 1 could see through tolerably were the 
 decisions of the cadee, which I sometimes went to witness 
 at the mekkiem6. In Egypt, as elsewhere, the conjugal 
 union seemed to be in all its various stages the most uni- 
 versal source of discordj and subject of litigation. One 
 day there appeared a fair one, entitled thus far only to the 
 blushing honours of a bride, who, on being conducted in 
 state to her bridegroom, had been refused admittance, and 
 had found herself compelled to return as she went. Ano- 
 ther day came a wife regularly installed. She, poor wo- 
 man ! had been dispossessed less openly, but of rights al- 
 ready exercised, and now claimed her long unpaid dues 
 with arrears of interest : and on another occasion in walked 
 a mourning widow, who, still as much in love with her 
 dead husband as while he was alive, only demanded the 
 empty gratification of nightly visiting his grave, unimpeded 
 by her churlish relations. She was pretty; her grief af- 
 fected me, and once or twice I went to the scene of her 
 affliction, to mix my tears with hers. 
 
 In Europe, the law, they say, demands a long appren- 
 ticeship: it is not so among Mohammedans. The koran 
 and its commentaries decide every case, from a point of 
 faith to a right of gutter, in a very few seconds. The form 
 of trial is simple. Every man pleads his own cause; and 
 
 1. 17 
 
258 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 wonderful is the readiness of the Egyptians in finding answers 
 to every interrogatory, excuses for every action, witnesses 
 to every fact, and sureties for every engagement. I re- 
 member a poor fellow, who, called upon for his respondents, 
 and having none on earth, had recourse to heaven. Imam- 
 Aly was the one he chose : nor dared the other contracting 
 party, albeit somewhat startled, both at the distance of the 
 saint's abode, and at the difficulty of enforcing his appear- 
 ance, refuse so respectable a security. 
 
 My stay was long enough in my lieutenantcy to find that 
 peculiar subject of discourse the most interesting, which I 
 had once thought the most tiresome; I mean, the rise of 
 the Nile. By degrees I could think of no other. Yet was 
 it this season a source of no very cheering contemplation. 
 The river, as if in a trance, displayed such unusual tar- 
 diness in rising, that soon every district trembled lest its 
 waters shou'ld fail of attaining the requisite height. Nothing 
 was heard but lamentations and complaints. One came to 
 tell me of canals which not a drop of moisture reached; 
 another, of such as had been drained prematurely of their 
 insufficient contents. Here the legal period for cutting a 
 dam had been wholly disregarded ; there a single field had 
 been made to engross the supply of a whole district : every 
 where it seemed as if the dread of a scarcity had made man 
 exert his utmost ingenuity to render a famine unavoidable, 
 
 I now became haunted by the phantom of drought, the 
 most dreary that stalks over Egypt's thirsty plains. My 
 thoughts by day, andmy dreams by night, equally presented 
 to me its ever extending, blasting form, followed by the 
 whole train of its frightful offspring : unirrigated tracts, fields 
 remaining fallow, insufficient crops, farmers unable to pay 
 their contributions, peasants abandoning their villages, 
 whole troops of fellahs leaving their possessions and their 
 homes to till the land of the stranger, impositions to remit, 
 short rents to receive for the bey ; and the caimakam alone 
 held accountable for all the deficiencies of nature, and all 
 
ANASTASIUS. 259 
 
 the waywardness of man. Oh ! how earnestly did I now pray 
 for some lucky incident, which might release me from my 
 stewardship and responsibility I But of such a piece of good 
 fortune I entertained no hopes. 
 
 It however came, and when it came, it failed of its pro- 
 mised pleasure. One morning, as I sat puzzling over some 
 of my writer's explanations, in walked a smooth-spoken 
 gentleman, who, followed by a whole body of less engaging 
 satellites, in a civil tone informed me that he came to take 
 my place, and, lest I should doubt his word, handed me 
 an injunction from the bey to return forthvyith to Cairo. 
 This unlooked-for recall produced such a revolution in my 
 sentiments, that I now would gladly have given just as 
 much to retain, as I would have done the instant before to 
 get rid of my trust. It is true, that to my concern for what 
 I left was to be added my apprehension of what I might 
 find. So sudden a removal, so little accounted for, savoured 
 of a disgrace. I doubted not but my enemies had improved 
 my absence to undermine my favour. The tchibookdjee 
 was evidently at the bottom of the whole affair; and, as I 
 had already vowed the insidious pipe-bearer an eternal 
 hatred, I could now only add the vow of a speedy revenge. 
 
 Absorbed in my meditations on the best mode of executing 
 what, but for the consequences, was feasible a thousand 
 ways, I one day, on my homeward journey, rode on so fast 
 as to get entirely out of sight of my suite, when suddenly I 
 found myself breast to breast with a troop of Bedoween 
 Arabs, whose low dusky tents, pitched behind a sand-hill, 
 had remained concealed from my view, till I almost stumbled 
 over their inclosure. The same instant the chief of the 
 tribe, followed by half a dozen of its ragged members, ad- 
 vanced upon me with couched spears, demanding either a 
 hundred sequins for my passage, or all I possessed. Neither 
 of these proposals suited me; but my retinue amounted not 
 to one-fourth of that of the Arabs, and it seemed quite cer- 
 
 17 * 
 
260 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 tain that if it came to blows we must have the worst of 
 the fray : wherefore, without advancing, but without either 
 answering the summons, I turned round to the foremost 
 men of mv escort, who by this time had approached within 
 reach, and bid them fill a basket with ball and cartridge. 
 This ammunition 1 sent to the Bedoweens ; telling them at 
 the same time that it was the only coin in which I paid im- 
 positions: but, if not content with the quantity, they might, 
 I added, as soon as my army came up, have more of it, 
 and that sent by the speediest conveyance possible. This 
 rhodomonta4p took effect. The schaich received the gift 
 with thanks, fdled the basket in return with super-excellent 
 dates, and bade me pass on, with the salutation of peace. 
 This civility I most readily returned; nor waited until my 
 army should be in sight, to hurry with all possible speed 
 out of that of the Arabs. 
 
 Brooding all the way to Cairo over the cause of my recall, 
 I could scarce avoid, on my entrance into the capital, 
 reading in every countenance the confirmation of my dis- 
 grace. This idea made me conceal my own features in my 
 shawl, till I reached the palace. There, meeting at the 
 sate an old and confidential comrade, I save vent for the 
 first time to my apprehensions, and by way of obtaining, 
 without asking it, more explicit information respecting the 
 manceuvres of the tchibookdjee, cried out, '*I was come 
 to look after Osman."— *' Godforbid !"was the only answer 
 I received. 
 
 But these few words, with the addition of an ominous 
 smile, sufficed to complete the subversion of my senses. — 
 I rushed up stairs, flew into the bey's apartment, and hardly 
 allowing myself time to perform a respectful salutation : 
 ** Sir," cried I, in scarce articulate sounds, '*Osman, I 
 know, will never cease his machinations, until he has en- 
 tirely ruined me in your esteem I" 
 
 '*If so," coolly answered the bey, *' your knowledge far 
 
ANASTASIUS. 261 
 
 exceeds in its reach even what I imagined; nor did I think 
 poor Osman still continued to disturb your repose, after 
 being himself laid at rest for ever." 
 
 *'How!" cried I — more bewildered than before — ** is 
 Osman dead?" **Andwhat else," replied the bey, '*do you 
 think could have made me send for you in such haste ? 
 What but the means of now conferring upon you without 
 
 any obstacle but you are too much agitated to listen. 
 
 I must wait till to-morrow to unfold my designs. Mean- 
 while, go, and compose yourself." 
 
 I went, but whether I obeyed the sequel of the injunction, 
 need scarcely be told. My imagination, always ardent 
 enough, had been set in a complete blaze; and, burning 
 with impatience to learn my new destinies, I only felt my 
 agitation changed in its object, without being in the least 
 diminished in its intensity. The whole night my brains 
 were kept on the stretch to clothe into some definite shape 
 the bey's vague and desultory hints; and in my anxious 
 wish for the day that was to clear up the mystery, I began 
 to think night had overslept herself, and the morning, preg- 
 nant with my future fate, would never arrive. 
 
 At last it duly shone upon the world, and the summons 
 to my patron's chamber greeted my impatient ear. Left 
 with him in much-portending tete-h tete, he looked at me, 
 smiled to see the eagerness depicted in my countenance, 
 hemmed twice or thrice for no purpose but to increase the 
 fever of my spirits, and, having asked me some trifling 
 questions, which I answered without well knowing what 
 they were — at last began his discourse. 
 
262 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 *'Selim," said Suleiman, in all the solemnity of a set 
 speech, *' you have seen our two leaders, and seldom, I 
 should think, can have observed two personages more 
 unlike both in mind and in body. The short spare form, 
 the mild countenance, the insinuating address, the cautious 
 calculating turn of the schaich-el-belled could not find a 
 greater contrast than in the ferocious features, the colossal 
 frame, the voice of thunder, the violent temper, the fear- 
 lessness of danger, the impatience of control, and the pro- 
 digality of disposition of his blustering colleague. Little of 
 union might be expected between qualities so dissimilar : 
 and, in fact, the public at large, which sees Ibrahim ever 
 prefer artifice to force and negotiation to war, while Mourad 
 openly professes to hold in his sword his only instrument of 
 persuasion, regards these two chiefs as constantly on the 
 eve of a rupture, and about to hoist the standard of inter- 
 minable enmity. But we who observe more closely, have 
 lost all hopes on that head. — We can only, when Ibrahim 
 and Mourad affect to be at variance, view in their reciprocal 
 strictures upon each other studied sallies carefully rehearsed 
 beforehand by the performers, with the view to mask their 
 schemes, and to mislead their rivals. Each appreciates in 
 his heart at its true value that difference of disposition from 
 the other, which gives him in his associate precisely all he 
 wants in himself, and makes Mourad cut asunder the knot 
 which Ibrahim cannot untie, as it again enables Ibrahim to 
 cure by his management the wounds which Mourad has 
 inflicted by his rashness. Thus it is that the dissimilar 
 equalities of the two chiefs— like the gold and the steel of a 
 
ANASTASIUS. 263 
 
 Damascus blade— only form a closer amalgam, and leave 
 less hopes of those chasms and fissures in their union, at 
 which competitors insinuate themselves to divide a party, 
 to drive its members asunder, and to rise on its ruins ! 
 
 **Some of us therefore — Ibrahim-bey Sogeir, Osman- 
 bey Tcherkavi, Mustapha-bey Skanderani, Ayoob-bey the 
 lesser, and myself — have at last agreed upon uniting our 
 strength, in order to bring these all-grasping leaders to a 
 more equal division of the spoil ; and even Ayoob-bey Kebir, 
 Youssoof-bey, and Ismail-bey Sogeir, though they still 
 seem to waver, only do so in order that they may sell their 
 co-operation at a higher price. Their irresolute and doubtful 
 conduct, however, would have made us put off the execution 
 of our design until it had had time to acquire greater con- 
 sistency, did not the present juncture offer advantages 
 which perhaps may never hereafter recur. Ismail and 
 Hassan, after their long sleep at Es-souaii, are at last roused, 
 and prepare for a descent to Cairo. Aware how little our 
 assistance is to be depended on, should the capital be made 
 the field of battle, the leaders have thought it advisable to 
 hush the storm, if possible, in its very cradle, and Mourad 
 is going to march to the Said, while Ibrahim stays to awe us 
 at Cairo. Thus separated from his colleague, and deprived 
 of half his strength, the schaich-el-belled must, if attacked 
 with vigour, yield to our united force : and in order to be 
 in readiness for the day of trial, we are all busy in recalling 
 with the least possible show our adherents from the different 
 provinces. This made me summon you from your govern- 
 ment, with that abruptness from which you drew such 
 unfounded conclusions. You now know the great secret 
 for which your presence was wanted; and all that I have to 
 add is the strongest recommendation that it may never pass 
 your lips." 
 
 Here my patron — rising from his seat — marked the end 
 of his discourse. The conclusion fell somewhat short of 
 my expectations. Great undoubtedly to one like me was 
 
264 ANASTASiUS. 
 
 the satisfaction of learning that all the world was going to 
 unsheath sword and dagger; but still I had looked forward 
 to the disclosure of some more directly personal advantage. 
 It however occurred to me that whatever new favour Sulei- 
 man might destine his servant was probably deferred to a 
 later conference, on very purpose lest it should appear the 
 consequence only of his necessities; which circumstance 
 being made due allowance for, I humbly thanked him for 
 his expenditure of breath, made every requisilfe profession 
 of attachment, fidelity, and zeal, and respectfully retired. 
 
 A slave of Ayoob's had been waiting for my appearance 
 near the gate of the palace. The moment I went forth he 
 came up to me, and, rather in a mysterious manner, 
 whispered an invitation to his master's palace, which I 
 obeyed with alacrity. 
 
 As soon as Ayoob saw me: ** Signer Caimakam," cried 
 he, in his eager way, wholly unlike that of his brethren — 
 true volcanos wrapt in snow, ** a most extraordinary occur- 
 rence has happened. It is still a secret to all, save the 
 parties concerned ; and you are the first stranger destined 
 to learn the wonderful event 1 
 
 ** You know," continued he, after a short pause to fetch 
 breath, **that since I cannot have my mamlukes of my own 
 blood, I at least spare neither money nor pains to have 
 them of my own country — my beloved Gurgistan, Doomed 
 to live and to die in this distant region, whoever comes 
 from the land of my birth seems to me a relation. Not 
 many days ago, ray harem was enriched with a new bud 
 reared in the parent soil. In order to save the maiden from 
 the rapacity of her landlord, her friends were going to place 
 her under the protection of a husband, at the tender age of 
 eleven : but already they had deferred their purpose too 
 long. Her wedding-day was fixed, when an armed troop 
 swept the district, and made her a slave ere she was become 
 a wife. 
 
 ** Brought hither to adorn my garden, this lovely rose of 
 
ANASTASIUS. 265 
 
 the East became my favourite flower : yet had I the for- 
 bearance, ere with eager hand I placed it in my bosom, to 
 observe our sacred custom, — to inquire on what stem it 
 had grown, and what walls had sheUered its infancy from 
 the rough blasts of heaven, and the rude touch of man? 
 Sehm — would you believe it ? In my slave I found a sister ! 
 
 ** The virgin blushing before me was my own father's 
 daughter; was a young and solitary shoot, which, long 
 after the elder branches had been severed from the parent 
 stock, seemed springing up for the sole purpose of shading, 
 with fresh and tender foliage, its bare and withering lop. 
 For the first time during my twenty years' sojourn in Egypt 
 I heard the voice of kindred, and felt the ties of blood. 
 
 ** But what is this to you? Listen ! and you shall hear." 
 
 Here Ayoob gave me nearly the same sketch of the state 
 of affairs and of the views of the party as Suleiman had 
 done before: except that he spoke of himself as more de- 
 cided in his sentiments than he had been represented by 
 my patron. I began to fear that I had twice in one day 
 been inveigled by a hope of personal advantage into listen- 
 ing to a long detail of other people's concerns. But mark 
 the sequel ! 
 
 *'At a moment so critical," continued Ayoob, **I na- 
 turally feel anxious to surround myself wilh men, who to 
 such bravery as depends not on the fumes of hashish ^ add 
 such intelligence and skill as may render that courage use- 
 ful. Of men of ibis description, small, alas ! is the number; 
 but you are one, and I may now freely urge your devoting 
 your future existence to my house, since it affords me — 
 God be praised! — the means of rewarding your services. 
 
 *' The husband my sister lost in Gurgistan we must find 
 for her at Cairo : yet what man is there among my own 
 mamlukes, worthy of the honour of so great an alliance, 
 and able at the same time to requite it by undivided atten- 
 tion? The elder individuals of my household are already 
 established, and the younger have not yet accomplished 
 
366 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 their probation. To you, therefore, I offer Zelidah's youth- 
 ful hand; to you, who may become my own support as 
 well as my sister's solace ! Let me however add, that this 
 proposal would never have passed my lips while Suleiman 
 your old patron continued faithful to his promise; but since, 
 for what reason I know not, he resigns his claims upon 
 a faithful servant, I may, without scruple, offer you all I 
 can bestow,- — an alliance with my blood, a share in my 
 honours, and a home in my house." 
 
 At this overture, I felt utterly confounded. It filled 
 me with pleasure, but at the same time with anxiety. I 
 knew not how to choose between the brilliant offer which 
 came unexpectedly, and the expected favours as yet un- 
 bestowed. I dared not hope that Suleiman's thus far un- 
 disclosed designs would ever gratify my ambition beyond 
 Ayoob's avowed intentions; but then again, I saw no means 
 of attaching myself to Ayoob, without setting at nought 
 the debt of gratitude, and the duties of the allegiance which 
 I owed to Suleiman. In this dilemma between the certain 
 and the promised boon, I magnanimously determined to 
 make the proposals of the strange bey, in the first instance, 
 instrumental only in bringing to the test the munificence 
 of my own patron, — reserving their final acceptance or re- 
 fusal for a later period; and, in a speech brimful of those 
 high-flown nothings called thanks, begged Ayoob's permis- 
 sion to ask Suleiman's consent, ere I changed my allegiance : 
 observing, that so far from my favour at home being on the 
 decline, it stood higher than ever; and, in order lo confirm 
 this assertion, representing by a little transposition of the 
 future to the past, those honours which I still expected, as 
 already come to pass, and only for political purposes kept 
 as yet unpublished. 
 
 Ayoob seemed not much to relish the idea of having his 
 splendid offers only accepted conditionally, or his libe- 
 rality submitted to the discussion of a rival; and swore by 
 his beard he thought it very strange : but seeing me in- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 267 
 
 flexible on this point, **Then go," said he at last, *• since 
 you will be so obstinate; but remind Suleiman, that if he 
 stops the current of my intended bounty, his own should 
 make you unbounded amends; and above all, stay not long. 
 An hour is the utmost I can bcdr to be left, with my richest 
 gifts thus hanging unaccepted on my hands." 
 
 I promised to return in much less time; and flew home 
 as on the wings of lightning, to communicate to my patron 
 the substance of the interview with his colleague. On 
 hearing of Ayoob's oiTers, Suleiman reddened, and seemed 
 offended. **By the head of our holy prophet," he cried,, 
 in a tone of bitterness, *' my brother the Georgian uses me 
 ill : but these are times in which we must hush our resent- 
 ments, and this Ayoob knows. You, Selim, I cannot 
 blame : the offers of my insidious colleague took you by 
 surprise, and you could not stop your ears. I however 
 feel happy that, ere my rival made his proposal, I hinted 
 the new favours with which I myself purposed to crown 
 your zeal. You might otherwise suspect me of only acting 
 from the fear of being out-bidden. Now mark me. My 
 oldest kiaschef, Mooktar, is married, as you know, to my 
 first-born daughter. My second kiaschef to her sister next 
 in age. My other children, already sent forth into the 
 world, are provided for in different ways adequate to their 
 deserts. Thank God ! I have been able to make all my 
 freedmen lords. My haznadar,^ first in rank of those still 
 under my roof, I cannot yet afford to part with, and I do 
 not wish to conceal from you, that, had Osman lived, his 
 name would have graced the nuptial song, sung in honour 
 of my youngest girl. But Providence has called him away, 
 and none of his comrades are yet entitled to an alliance with 
 their patron's blood. I may therefore indulge the sug- 
 gestions of my heart, by giving you my only remaining 
 daughter. It is true, the man she marries must hold a 
 high station : but this also I confer. I name you kiaschef. 
 Remember, however, that as my favours are great, so will 
 
268 '^^ ANASTASIUS. 
 
 your duties be arduous — Of our intended plan of insurrec- 
 tion, the success may depend in a great measure upon your 
 devotion, your skill, and your activity !" 
 
 To this hour I value rank : it is reverenced by fools ; and 
 fools form the major number. In the first aspirings of 
 youth, so vast an accession of honours as that offered me 
 by Suleiman almost overpowered my senses. It scarce left 
 me able to make my patron the proper acknowledgment for 
 his liberality, ere I retired out of his sight, to give vent to 
 my emotions. 
 
 '*I shall then see myself a kiaschef!" exclaimed I aloud , 
 whirling round like a top, in an ecstasy of joy: *' I shall 
 then, every time I stir out, behold dancing before me those 
 dear damasked spears which I so often have coveted ! I 
 shall appear abroad only with a handsome retinue, and at 
 home possess my own separate estabhshment and harem ! 
 No longer a mere graft on a strange tree, I shall cast my 
 own roots in the soil, and on my own independent stem 
 bear my own separate fruits. This chin of mine shall 
 henceforth cease to be kept close mown, and shall put forth 
 unrestrained its most luxuriant crops !"^ And immediately, 
 with the anxiety of the husbandman, eager to ascertain 
 whether in his field the budding blade comes up close and 
 strong, I ran to a glass to see whether my broad jaw pro- 
 mised to bear a thick and handsome beard; already began 
 to coax and to perfume, by anticipation, the still sleek un- 
 clothed skin; traced in imagination the symmetric outline 
 of its future jetty fringe, and wondered how the new ap- 
 pendage would become the remainder of my manly fea- 
 tures ! 
 
 My raptures lasted some time, ere I remembered that I 
 had promised Ayoob an immediate answer; and as soon 
 as my memory returned, my imagination began to wander; 
 — I became suddenly seized with a romantic fit. The sub- 
 stantial advantages were nearly balanced in the rival offers; 
 but as honour threw its additional weight into the scale of 
 
ANASTASIUS. 269 
 
 my patron, I took it into my foolish head that beauty must 
 preponderate in that of Ayoob. In short, I persuaded my- 
 self that Zelidah — by birth a Georgian, and by condition 
 a slave — must be as superior in personal charms to Kha- 
 didg6, a daughter of Egypt and a descendant of rulers, as 
 4he fairest lily is to the dusky bulrush ,- and determined, 
 at every risk, to see Ayoob's sister ere I decided. 
 
 A Jewess of my acquaintance was the chief purveyor of 
 female finery for Ayoob's harem. I went straight to this 
 useful person, and made her instantly collect some of the 
 richest stuffs she could find : then put on the blue shift and 
 chequered veil of the Egyptian women of the lower order; 
 and, in Sarah's unassuming suite, loaded with all her 
 heaviest packages, proceeded to Ayoob's palace — now and 
 then sharply reproved by the way, for my long strides and 
 strapping gait. 
 
 Zelidah, when we arrived, was unfortunately in the bath, 
 and Signora Sarah had to wait. In order to be less con- 
 spicuous the while, I squatted myself down on the floor, in 
 the darkest part of the room. Even this had too much 
 light to conceal me from Ayoob, who, whether informed 
 of the entrance of a suspicious figure, or from some other 
 cause, himself unexpectedly made his appearance, as if to 
 see his sister. The moment his eye fell upon the bundle 
 into which I had transformed my person, his countenance 
 changed, his brow became contracted, and he rushed out 
 again, muttering to himself some words of ungracious im- 
 port, and not at all complimentary to souiebody's mother. ^ 
 At this ill-boding symptom, the Jewess turned pale, and 
 striking her breast — **I have brought," cried she, *' the 
 thing I should not, and have left behind what I meant to 
 have brought ! Go, Dalla ,* run home, fetch the tissue we 
 were talking of, and return not without it." 
 
 Scarce had the words been uttered, when heavy foot- 
 steps were heard to approach the place. Active as she was, 
 Dalla had but just time to make her escape, and to reach 
 
270 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 the outer gate without hinderance. Running home as fast 
 as possible,! cast off my disguise, and immediately hasten- 
 ed back to Ayoob, in my proper form and character. 
 
 With many apologies for the unavoidable delay, I now 
 solemnly declined the bey's offers, but in terms full of re- 
 gret, of gratitude, and of protestations. The answer was 
 in the same strain, though, as I thought, delivered some- 
 what coolly, and in a ruffled manner : and I afterwards un- 
 derstood from the Jewess, who had bravely remained at her 
 post, that in less than half a minute after I had made my 
 exit, Ayoob reappeared in the harem, followed by a host 
 of black eunuchs, and looking blacker than any of his suite. 
 He again cast round an inquiring eye ; and in seeming dis- 
 appointment asked what was become of the Egyptian wo- 
 man. Sarah told off-hand some just possible story, and, 
 expressing a shrewd doubt of her servant's finding the stuff 
 she wanted, went home herself, too happy at encountering 
 no impediment. Thus ended my courtship with the fair 
 Zelidah ! 
 
 The instant Suleiman's intentions in my behalf became 
 known, the greatest discontent showed itself among his 
 mamlukes. ** Their patron," they asserted, *' had no right 
 to give his daughters to any but mamlukes, or to make 
 mamlukes any but purchased slaves. Othman-bey Aboo- 
 se'if and Achmet-bey el Sukari, Turks by nature, and beys 
 by the favour of Ibrahim kehaya, though precedents, were 
 not examples. The oftener such abuses occurred, the 
 more they ought to be resisted." At last, losing my tem- 
 per at these repeated murmurings, I went hot with passion 
 to complain to my patron. **Sir," cried I, '* your mam- 
 lukes judge me unworthy of your favours. Permit me to 
 make them repent of their insolence — equally insulting to 
 yourself and to your servant, — or suffer me to renounce 
 your kindness, and bid Egypt farewell." 
 
 At these words the bey only stared full in my face, and 
 set up a loud laugh; but perceiving that I joined not in his 
 
ANASTASIUS. g7! 
 
 mirth, and continued immoveably grave, he too, by de- 
 grees, dropped his assumed gaiety, and in a serious tone 
 replied, ''If, Selim, you really feel desirous to leave me,. 
 go ! Why should I detain your person, when I cannot pre- 
 vent the estrangement of your mind? But," continued he, 
 raising his voice till it sounded like thunder, while he darted 
 looks fierce as lightning round the mamluke circle, **I 
 acknowledge not yet my slaves as my masters. Let them 
 harmlessly sharpen with kohl^ the soft glances of their 
 eyes, but let them repress the more offensive sallies of their 
 tongues. Too soon may the voice of this presumptuous 
 cast cease to be heard in Cairo ! Too soon may we be too 
 happy to replenish our thinning ranks with men, not worthy 
 to wield the sword of him, whom these young fools abuse 1'* 
 
 This speech — supported by a letter from Suleiman's ke- 
 haya at Constantinople, read aloud to the bystanders, in 
 which the trusty agent actually complained that the slave 
 market was empty, that the Russian she-emperor had, out 
 of mere spite, made the padishah^ renounce the living tri- 
 bute, yearly claimed from the Crimea ,* and that it was 
 feared the whole world meant soon to be at peace — gave 
 me some comfort, and my enemies more discretion. 
 
 My marriage being fixed, the wedding-day was soon an- 
 nounced. Meanwhile, every hour intervening seemed an 
 age. I longed to possess a wife who, if she could not be 
 an object of love, must be an earnest of promotion; and I 
 was dying to have in a harem of my own a sanctuary, where, 
 even though my person should be proscribed, my wealth 
 still must remain inviolate, and my dear sequins undis- 
 turbed ! 
 
 All things being ready for my nuptials, the ceremony 
 began. My bride was conducted to the balh in slate, lest 
 the world should remain in ignorance of her cleanliness. 
 Properly steamed, jointed, and pumiced, she next went 
 through the labours of a toilet so exquisite, that on its com- 
 pletion not one among her beauties remained nature's own. 
 
272 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 Several hours were employed in twisting her hair into the 
 semblance of whipcord; in adding two hundred and fifty 
 false plaits to the hundred and fifty which grew from her 
 head ; and in forming the joint mass into an edifice so pon- 
 derous, that a second head, merely for use, would have been 
 very acceptable. A pair of eyebrows, sufficiently notable 
 in themselves, were only dismissed the artificer's hands 
 after being shaped into two exact semicircles; and a pair 
 of eyes, expressive enough v/ithout foreign assistance, were 
 not deemed to possess all their requisite powers, until 
 framed in two black cases ofsurmeh. ' Henna, ^ the sym- 
 bol of joy, and already most profusely lavished upon the 
 epistles which communicated my marriage to my patron's 
 numerous clients, but bestowed in still greater profusion on 
 my bride's own plump and lustrous person, made it emu- 
 late the colour which I suppose Isis displayed, when 
 doomed to roam through Egypt's plains in the undignified 
 shape of a red cow. After all these pains taken for the sake 
 of beauty, the lady was, on the score of modesty, wrap- 
 ped up in so many veils impervious to the eye, as scarce to 
 escape suffocation; but the most celebrated awalis of the 
 capital took care to inform the assistants, in their epithala- 
 miums, of the vastness of the charms and of the splendour 
 of the jewels, which were not allowed to gratify their sight. 
 
 I do not know how, at the nuptial feast, with the pros- 
 pect of all these attractions before me, and in the midst of 
 all the bustle of the dance, all the din of music, and all the 
 glare of the lights, I insensibly fell into a reverie, com- 
 posed of at least as many gloomy as cheerful thoughts ; 
 but so it was I 
 
 ** Here," said my wandering mind, ** am I, the youngest 
 son of a petty drogueman, in an island of the Archipelago; 
 I, at one time fallen so much beneath the level of my own 
 legitimate pretensions, as in vain to seek the situation of a 
 menial, become the master of a host of slaves, the son to 
 a bey of Egypt, and the governor of a province : — in other 
 
ANASTASIUS. 273 
 
 words, already occupying a station far beyond what once 
 my most sanguine dreams durst have promised me ; and 
 yet regarding that elevation only as a stepping-stone to a 
 station infinitely more exalted — to that of bey; nay, who 
 knows — of schaich-el-belled itself! 
 
 " But by what a series of toils, and sacrifices, and perils 
 I may be doomed to purchase these honours, who also can 
 tell ? Alas ! do I not, on the very threshold of a career, 
 strewed with as many thorns as roses, begin by yielding up 
 my person perhaps to an unseemly female, and my free- 
 dom to a domestic tyrant? For well I know the condition 
 of marrying a patron's daughter ! And what labours, 
 what snares, what treachery may be the offspring of this 
 splendid union, may accompany every step in the road of 
 my advancement, I know not yet. But the die is cast; 
 and I must wait the issue of the game !" 
 
 A shake, prolonged by the chief of the singing damsels 
 with the most consummate skill through every note of the 
 gamut, until it drew forth a thunder of applause or taibs 
 which lasted full five minutes, roused me from ray un- 
 seasonable meditations, and brought back my mind to 
 where sat my body. A pretty alm6,9 presenting her tam- 
 boureen for my liberality, completed the reconveyance of 
 my thoughts into the proper channel. I now became im- 
 patient for the moment that was to disclose to my sight the 
 partner of my future life, and in this disposition obeyed 
 with eagerness the damsel who, delivering me from these 
 tiresome amusements , summoned me away from the noisy 
 hall of mirth to the silent sanctuary of Hymen. With awe 
 and anxiety I passed its threshold, and was ushered into 
 the presence of her, on whose qualities of person and of 
 mind must depend so great a portion of my future fate. 
 The mysterious veil which till then had concealed her — 
 face, form, and all — from my inquisitive eye, fell at my 
 feet; and I saw 
 
 **What?" — wonders, perhaps, the curious reader. "An 
 I. 18 
 
274 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 angel of light, sent froni the highest heavens, on purpose 
 to make my earthly dwelling a paradise ?" 
 
 *«0h no! that would have been too unreasonable an ad- 
 dition to my good fortune. " 
 
 *' An ugly little monster, then; sufficient, were this earth 
 a heaven, to convert it into a hell ? — A being calculated to 
 stamp on each endearment all the merit of martyrdom?" 
 
 Alas ! is it then decreed that the human mind must al- 
 ways, from one extreme run straight into the other? like 
 the ball whose recoil is ever proportioned to the violence 
 which projects it I And are there not a sufficient number 
 of individuals in the world neither handsome nor ugly ? 
 
 Of my spouse, at least, I do not know what else could have 
 been said, with due adherence to truth. Her face was 
 neither of a description to excite, in defiance of reason, a 
 very extravagant passion ; nor yet of a species to damp, in 
 despite of duty, a more legitimate ardour. Like other 
 plants kept carefully secluded from the beneficial aspect of 
 the sun, this prisoner of the harem certainly had a sickly 
 palHd hue. Bounded by its sable locks, her wan colourless 
 face might aptly be compared to the moon, surrounded by 
 dark conglomerate clouds : but then again, from the midst 
 of this unvaried hue, her large languishing black eyes shot 
 forth glances like lightning in a lurid sky; and, as virtue is 
 its own reward, the assurances of unbounded devotion 
 which my situation called for tarried not to diffuse over 
 Rhadidg^'s countenance some of that animation which 
 alone seemed wanting to class her, if not with the Helenas, 
 and the Gleopatras of two thousand years ago, at least with 
 the prettiest of the mongrel race, which at present grace 
 the land of Egypt. 
 
 But ere, from the hour when I first beheld my spouse, 
 the sun had completed a single one of its daily revolutions, 
 not a doubt remained on my mind, that I had obtained, 
 instead of a mistress, a master. I had only changed my 
 allegiance from the lather to the daughter, and from a lord's 
 
ANASTASIUS. 279 
 
 dependant was become a lady's slave. Nor was even the 
 general rule, applicable to whatever mamluke married his 
 patron's offspring, modified by the peculiar disposition of 
 the Lady Khadidg^. Quite the reverse ! Within a most 
 delicate frame the young lady concealed a most unbending 
 mind. The least breath of air seemed capable of annihi- 
 lating her person, but no breath of man had any power to 
 influence her will. Already in the first coyness of the 
 bride there lurked more of pride than of timidity; and in 
 the subsequent altered conduct of the wife, there shone 
 forth an exaction of dues, rather than a surrender of affec- 
 tions. Jealousy, indeed, Rhadidge felt, and in all its force ; 
 but it was of that contracted sort which fears the loss of a 
 tangible property, rather than that of a mental tenure; 
 of that sort which in a man rests at ease, when he has locked 
 up his wife. As Khadidg^ could not, consistent with cus- 
 tom, in the same way lock up her husband, she took care 
 not only to let me have no female retinue of my own, but 
 to keep concealed from my view all the nymphs of iier own 
 suite, who might divert my feelings from their legitimate 
 current. The instant my footsteps were heard near the 
 gynecaeum, all its inmates short of sixty used to hide them- 
 selves, or fly, leaving me with my lady in awful tete-k-tete. 
 Inone instance, indeed, theanxiety of the attendants to obey 
 their instructions defeated its own purpose. A young and 
 pretty slave, unable to get awa^ in time, took the desperate 
 resolution of creeping under a clothes-basket, in the very 
 middle of the room through which I had to pass. In the 
 dark I fell headlong over the awkwardly placed utensil, 
 and in my rage grasped with such violence the bundle 
 which had caused my downfall, that, ere I recognised its 
 nature, my ever watchful spouse found her fair slave in my 
 arms. In vain I pleaded ignorance of what I thus had 
 grasped. The pretty Zuleika— never more beheld— seemed 
 to have dissolved in air. 
 
 **And Anastasius, the impatient of control," here ex- 
 
276 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 claims no doubt my reader, *• submitted tamely to such 
 egregious tyranny !" 
 
 Alas ! already had the climate of Egypt begun to exert 
 over my energies its enervating influence ; already had I 
 imbibed all the languor with which its humid exhalations 
 by degrees affect foreigners : already v^^as I, in point of 
 listlessuess and apathy, a perfect match for my indolent 
 helpmate. While she lay all day long motionless on her 
 sofa at one end of the house, I lay all day long, equally 
 motionless, in my recess at the other end; and if she could 
 scarce accomplish the labour of clapping her hands'*" for a 
 slave, to hold a rose or jessamine up to her nose, I could 
 hardly go through the exertion of calling an attendant to 
 sprinkle some fragrant essence over my beard. Hour after 
 hour I used to sit, inaccessible to visitors, in a sort of 
 Irellised bird-cage suspended over the kalish, puffing clouds 
 of perfume through a pipe cooled in rose water, and 
 deeming an anteree thin as a cobweb too heavy clothing 
 for my delicate person. 
 
 I felt the more anxious to enjoy the moments of repose 
 still within my reach, as I considered the days of toil to be 
 at hand. The rumour of Ismail and Hassan's impending 
 descent acquired new strength every day; and the pre- 
 parations of Mourad for a southward march every day 
 became more active. But the whole was a bubble, and it 
 burst at last. Misunderstandings arose between the exiles 
 in the Said, and the Arab schaichs on whose alliance they 
 depended. The quarrel rose at last to such a height, that 
 theBedoween troops, already with the beys, again retired 
 into the desert. The expedition to Cairo, therefore, was 
 given up ; and with the plot fell the counter-plot. On all 
 sides affairs seemed to assume, for a season at least, an 
 aspect more calm and serene. 
 
 Meanwhile I had secured my kiascheflik as well as my 
 spouse; and finding that for some time to come no personal 
 service would be required, I felt it incumbent upon me to 
 
' FANASTASIUS. 277 
 
 act like other governors, who annually visit their provinces, 
 and spend a few weeks in the agreeable occupation of in- 
 specting the morals and regulating the expenditure of their 
 subjects. For the purpose of appearing in my government 
 with proper eclat, I mortgaged one year's income of my 
 estate, took an affectionate leave of my patron, sighed with 
 my wife over the duties of my station, and set out to riot 
 in the luxury of receiving presents and imposing avaniahs. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 According to custom, I journeyed slowly. The tent 
 from which I set out in the morning was, by my more 
 diligent attendants, pitched before my arrival, where I had 
 settled to stop in the evening. Frequently, during my 
 march, I assumed some disguise. Sometimes it was that 
 of a travelling Syrian, sometimes of a Barbaresque, and 
 sometimes of an Arab, enveloped in his abbah.' Thus, 
 fearless of observation, and aloof from my suite, I amused 
 myself in prowling about the country, and peeping into 
 the peasants' hovels. My servants, indeed, discouraged 
 this mode of travelling : they never ceased to express their 
 uneasiness at their lord's thus exposing his precious person ; 
 but the more good reasons they gave for my staying with 
 my retinue, the further I extended my rambles. I wanted 
 to see all that passed; and if the master's eye be the best, 
 th^ master's garb I knew to be the worst for making dis- 
 coveries. My trouble seldom went unrewarded. In one 
 place the village schaichs, mistaking me for the kiaschef's 
 caterer, offered bribes of Aittened fowls, to make me swear 
 
278 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 by the Prophet to an absolute famine. In another, the 
 town- folks, investing me with the office of the great man's 
 steward, promised me ten paras in the piastre on whatever 
 sums I disbursed for his account ; and in a third, where I 
 passed for an entire stranger to the travelHng officer, they 
 proposed a joint concern in plundering his equipage. Here 
 an Arab, who was abusing a fellah for preferring the ser- 
 vice of the mamluke to the freedom of the desert, appealed 
 to me as to a brother Arab for the justice of his reproach; 
 and there a peasant, who was describing to a townsman 
 the rapacity of the kiaschef's people, referred to me as to 
 a fellow peasant, for the truth of his assertion. 
 
 One day in my solitary rambles I met on its way to the 
 river a family of villagers, consisting of three generations 
 and upwards; for, besides grandfather, father, and sons, 
 several of the daughters seemed burthened with more than 
 the babes which they bore on their backs. An ihram in 
 rags, an old mat torn to pieces, and an assortment of 
 pitchers worthy of an antiquarian's collection, were the 
 travelling relics of the deserted home. A few head of con- 
 sumptive cattle formed the van of the procession, and a 
 plough all in pieces closed its rear. 
 
 *' Whence come you, good people ?" cried I; addressing 
 the patriarch of the family. — ''From the Feyoom," was 
 his answer. 
 
 "And you leave the native soil to seek the bread of 
 strangers ?" 
 
 **Soon I shall be called away, and my son will not be 
 able to redeem his inheritance. Must he wait to be driven 
 from the land his father tilled ?" 
 
 ** Whence arises your distress ?" 
 
 "From God and man, in conjunction. Every year the 
 waters of the Nile make less way in our kalish; and c^ry 
 year the sands of the desert creep further over our fields. 
 Egypt's soil, instead of crops, will soon only bear corpses ! 
 V>m we then fly too soon ?" 
 
ANASTASIUS. 279 
 
 *' And let those that stay behind Lear the burthen of the 
 absent ?" 
 
 ** Those we leave to-day would have left us to-morrow.'* 
 
 **Who is your lord?" 
 
 **Even that we scarce can tell. One day it is the sul- 
 tan, in whose name we are taxed; another, the beys who 
 are employed to tax us, or the delegates of those beys 
 throughout all their numberless subdivisions and stages ; 
 another, the multezim or owner who accounts with the 
 beys; another, the Arab schaich who rents the land of the 
 owner. All call themselves our masters, while we can pay 
 them tribute; all deny their being so, when we want their 
 protection !'' 
 
 My retinue now came in sight — **Hark ye,'* added I, 
 therefore, in haste, ** servants should not betray servants; 
 but here come the masters. Take this, therefore, and go;'* 
 and hereupon I gave the party to the amount of a piastre, 
 begging they might not huzza, lest the lord should hear the 
 noise. 
 
 Scarce had I, at the ensuing halting-place, sat down to 
 my welcome supper, when in burst a fellah, dragging by 
 the sleeve another of the same class. ** This rogue," said 
 the first, **is the man who last year stole your lordship's 
 mare.'* Of course the heavy charge was most solemnly 
 denied; but not minding what I considered as a thing of 
 course, ** Scoundrel," said I to the accused, **had you 
 been content at least with only taking my black mare ; — 
 but to rob me of my white one!" *'The white one!" ex- 
 claimed the man — **As Allah is my witness, I never once 
 came near her." '*No more you did," was my reply, 
 "for there she stands : but the black one you stole, I find ; 
 and for her you shall swing." 
 
 I was still exulting in my ingenuity, when, passing by a 
 Latin hospice on the out-skirls of the town, my ear was 
 assailed by most piteous groans; and looking through a 
 latticed window, I discerned their cause in the shape of a 
 
280 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 Jlagellation, which a lusty friar was inflicting with his 
 knotty girdle, not on his own sturdy back, but on the much 
 less able shoulders of a little yellow coobd, whom he forc- 
 ibly held down on the ground, before him. Doubting the 
 efficacy of this mode of instilling a doctrine, I interposed, 
 and inquired of the missionary the reason of this paternal 
 correction. 
 
 * * While we distrib uted rice , " replied the friar, * * this fellow 
 chose to become a catholic; now that supplies grow scarce, 
 and that we hardly have enough for ourselves, he brings me 
 back his chaplet, and has the face to cry, * no pilaff, no 
 pope! 
 
 The conduct of the little coobd I certainly could not 
 approve; but it reminded me of my own toward Padre Am- 
 brogio. I conceived a fellow-feeling for the defenceless suf- 
 ferer, and released him from the clutches of his ghostly 
 corrector. Thus I amused myself with acting the knight- 
 errant; and, in my own mind, became another Antar. 
 
 Knight-errantry, however, was entirely set aside as soon 
 as I reached the pale of my own jurisdiction; — though 
 perhaps it might there have been exerted to the best pur- 
 pose. Nothing could give me a more indifferent opinion of 
 the condition of my vassals than the first hovel within my 
 domain which I entered. In the mud of the door-way lay 
 weltering — affected in various degrees with the rheum that 
 was to end in total blindness— five or six bloated brats, 
 quite naked, and fighting for a bit of mouldy millet cake, 
 of the size of my little finger. Further on in the cabin sat, 
 over a heap of buffalo's dung, and quite enveloped in its 
 offensive smoke, a female spectre, mother of these gaunt 
 abortions, who, on seeing a stranger, tore off the only rag 
 which protected her body, to use it as a cover to her face; 
 and at the most distant extremity of the hovel stood the 
 head of the dismal family, burying the single bag of rice left 
 for its support in the earth that formed the floor. One 
 more spade-full, thrown over the store, would have com- 
 
ANASTASIUS. '-^Sl 
 
 pleted its concealment, when I made my appearance. At 
 the awful sight of a mamluke the spade dropped out of the 
 peasant's hands, and the rag he called his turban rose a full 
 inch from his head. 
 
 **Be composed, my friend," cried I; *'it is not the 
 enemy that is coming, it is your own governor." 
 
 *^41as!" replied the man, *'will not the kiaschef devour 
 my rice— and can the Bedoween do more? But since you 
 have seen the heap, take half, and mention not the other, 
 or we must all perish !" 
 
 **Gome," rejoined I, **for once keep the whole; but 
 when my writer calls for my tribute, remember I know 
 your hiding-place, and think not your honour engaged in 
 letting yourself be cut in stripes, ere you pay the rent you 
 owe." 
 
 At these words I departed; leaving the fellah motionless 
 with xistonishment at having seen his kiaschef, without pay- 
 ing for the sight. 
 
 ** And this, then," thought I, '*is the land which its in- 
 fatuated natives think the finest on the surface of the earth; 
 where they would rather die of want, than live in plenty 
 elsewhere. That it has a hidden charm, I needs must be- 
 hove, since all obey its attraction; but where the spell lies 
 I cannot yet discover. I am now in the very heart of that 
 Feyoom so famous for its roses, and all that yet has struck 
 my senses is the smell of its cow-dung!" 
 
 Arrived at the place of my residence, I immediately set 
 about receiving with all proper dignity the homage and the 
 presents of my subjects. My writer took special care that 
 none of my vassals should have to complain of my forget- 
 fulness. To each he sent a summons to welcome their lord; 
 and his invitations were addressed not only to the sta- 
 tionary tillers of the soil, but also to the Arab schaichs, 
 who occasionally here and there rented a district. The li- 
 berality of these latter on this occasion exhibited various 
 shades of difference. The iir^t of my Bedawce- tenants. 
 
288 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 who attended my summons gave me, over and above the 
 tribute due, two camels, a dromedary, and fifty fat sheep, 
 with fleeces white as snow. *• This begins well," thought I. 
 The second produced for my acceptance a present of a dif- 
 ferent hue; — two jolly Abyssinian damsels as black as jet : 
 observing **that even ivory looked insipid, unless con- 
 trasted with ebony." — The third only presented his land- 
 lord with a lean steed ; but then the very four-footed animal 
 was of noble blood, and its pedigree so long, that it would 
 have reached to Cairo. *' Even this is not much amiss," 
 said I to myself. A fourth Arab chief now made his ap- 
 pearance, who gave me not a single para beyond the sti- 
 pulated rent; and to him I only grew somewhat reconciled, 
 when there came a fifth, who raised such a commotion, 
 that I would willingly have remitted all he owed me, and 
 have added a handsome consideration into the bargain, to 
 see a hundred leagues of imperviable desert separate our 
 respective jurisdictions. 
 
 I had left the Lady Rhadidg^, my wife, fully occupied in 
 collecting every species of amulet and charm, and recom 
 mending herself to the eflicacy of every form of devout 
 orison and practice in vogue either among Moslemen or 
 Christians, for the purpose of getting rid, on my return, of 
 the perverse slimness of her waist : but, excepting the 
 doubts I might entertain as to the result of these pious en- 
 deavours, I felt with regard to my faithful spouse in the 
 most happy security; when, unexpectedly, an express ar- 
 rived from Cairo, with the sad tidings that she had not only 
 been seized with a sudden illness, but was actually consi- 
 dered as in imminent danger. As, however, the sapient 
 Moslem Esculapius, called in on the occasion, had decided 
 upon the case without seeing the patient, on the shallow 
 evidence of a mere bit of silk thread tied round her wrist, 
 I chose not implicitly to trust to his report, and imme- 
 diately set oft' myself with all speed for the capital ; re- 
 solved that some Frank physician should, if possible, cure 
 
ANASTASIUS. 288 
 
 my wife, even at the risk of seeing her; and only puzzled 
 how to bring about, in the very teeth of islamism, so des- 
 perate a measure. 
 
 Alas ! it was written that I myself should behold my 
 Khadidg6 no more. Just before the last stage of my jour- 
 ney, the breath of life had forsaken her youthful frame for 
 ever. My speed only brought me home in time to hear 
 the dismal bowlings that were raised on her decease. At 
 my first alighting in the court-yard of the house of mourning, 
 a fresh peal of wooUiah-woos, louder than any former, went 
 forth from every window, by way of an appropriate greet- 
 ing, and, without much preparation, gave me the first 
 notice of my heavy loss. I was next dragged by force of 
 arms to the place where lay an insensible corpse, she whom 
 my last parting look had left elate in all the pride of youth, 
 of health, and of power. Dazzling tissues hung suspended 
 from the bier, plates of gold encircled the coffin, and flowers 
 of every hue, filling the air with their fragrance, embow- 
 ered the glittering chest, as if to mock, or to render more 
 dismal, by the contrast of their gaudiness, the foul corruption 
 already busy within. ''0 Rhadidge," cried I at the ap- 
 paUing sight, " too soon has thy tale been told : too soon hast 
 thou glided by like a noon-day shadow; too soon has the 
 rough wind of death swept away the just expanding blos- 
 som of thy existence !" and was hereupon going to perform 
 some demonstration of respectful regret : but already the 
 attendants had begun to chide me, that I thus rudely kept 
 the black and blue angels of the tomb waiting for their new 
 guest. I therefore let the funeral proceed without further 
 interruption, lest Azrail and his host should render me 
 accountable for the delay. 
 
 My myrtles now faded — my only remaining shade now 
 depending on the mournful cypress, I went and deposited 
 my grief at Suleiman's feel. A good deal afllicted himself, 
 he yet preserved his wonted placidity of manner, and as- 
 sured nie that his sentiments in my behalf would ever remain 
 
284 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 unchanged. I thanked him for saying so; but felt that I 
 had lost the surest pledge to his favour, and was tempted to 
 apply the Greek saying : ''Welcome this misfortune, so it 
 come but single!" 
 
 A mamluke seldom finds much leisure for mourning. 
 Scarce had I composed myself for the purpose, when my 
 retirement was invaded by a rumour that the expedition 
 against the beys of Upper Egypt, a few months before unex- 
 pectedly abandoned, had been as unexpectedly resumed. 
 It soon was followed by a strange report that Mourad had 
 actually set out on his march for Es-souan. This event 
 would only have afforded us a subject for rejoicing, had not 
 the Signor Mourad — whether with the view of reserving 
 for his own adherents all the profits of the campaign, or in 
 the idea of leaving Ibrahim provided in his absence with 
 sufficient means of defence — contented himself with only 
 taking on this occasion his own troops, instead of collect- 
 ing all those at Cairo which belonged to his party; whence 
 the schaich-el-belled retained a larger force at his disposal 
 than was desirable for the success of our plan. Still, de- 
 spairing of a more favourable opportunity, we determined to 
 put the scheme forthwith into execution ; and a meeting o f 
 all the principal confederates was convened at Ayoob's pa- 
 lace, to determine upon the best mode of proceeding. 
 
 When it came to my turn to give my opinion, I proposed 
 rushing at once with all our host upon the schaich-el-belled, 
 surprising him in his palace, ere any assistance could reach 
 him from the citadel, and running every hazard in order to 
 secure his person. No hint whatever was to be given him 
 of the least dissatisfaction lurking in our breasts ; above all, 
 no proposal of any sort was to be made, nor any step to be 
 taken that could put the wily chief in any way upon his 
 guard, ere this purpose was accomplished. When once 
 fairly in our power, Ibrahim must submit to whatever 
 terms, and grant whatever securities, we chose to prescribe. 
 
 Several of the party, and among others Suleiman, my pa- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 285 
 
 tron, felt the expediency of this decisive conduct, and sup- 
 ported my proposal with all their influence; but Ayooh as 
 strenuously opposed it. He would not hear of proceeding, 
 as he called it, to the last extremities with the head of the 
 corps, till less galling measures had been tried; and when 
 I reproached him with faint-he artcdness, he looked signi- 
 ficantly, first at me, then at the further corner of the room, 
 and at last cried out in an angry tone, '*that at least he 
 never yet had fled from any place in women's clothes." 
 
 Encouraged by the sentiments of this leading personage, 
 some of the lesser members of our party now in their turn 
 opposed my scheme with all the resolution of cowardice; 
 and the boldest measure which could obtain the assent of 
 the majority was that of marching out of Cairo, collecting 
 all our forces in the Roobbet-el-haue, and from our camp 
 sending Ibrahim the option of compliance with our terms, 
 or immediate and interminable warfare. On this poor and 
 spiritless conclusion of the meeting, Suleiman in his wrath 
 rent his garment, I shrugged up my shoulders, and the few 
 that had common sense considered our affairs, as lost. 
 
 According to the plan resolved upon, as soon as Mourad 
 was supposed to be sufficiently advanced on his way to the 
 Said, we bravely rushed out of the capital, pitched our camp 
 under the city walls, and deputed Saleh, the ablest of Ayoob's 
 kiaschefs, to lay before Ibrahim our long list of grievances. 
 On the first blush of the business, the schaich-el-belled 
 appeared more frightened and more disposed to grant re- 
 dress than I durst have hoped. He seemed ready to accede 
 to any terms ; and only wanted, he assured us, clearly to 
 understand what were our wishes. Those who had insisted 
 on gentle measures now looked all exultation. In the 
 course of the negotiation, it is true, their confidence in 
 their sagacity abated a little. The first panic of the chief 
 seemed gradually to subside : he showed symptoms of re- 
 turning resolution; and contrived to make the affair drag 
 on a long while after the period fixed for his decisive an- 
 
286 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 swer, ere he came to a conclusion. At length, however, he 
 ao-reed to our demands; the treaty was put into writing, and 
 emissaries went out in every direction to collect such of the 
 schaich-el-helled's creatures as were to be our securities. 
 AVe only waited for the hostages, triumphantly to enter the 
 city, and take possession of the government. 
 
 All at once a most appalling report spread through the 
 camp ! While we were quietly drawn up under one extre- 
 mity of the city, Mourad, it was said, had with all his 
 forces re-entered its precincts at the other. Informed on 
 his march of our insurrection — which perhaps its only ob- 
 ject had been to bring to a premature disclosure— he had 
 redescended the left bank of the river, crossed over at 
 Diizeh, and resumed his post at Cairo, ere the enormous 
 circuit of that city had permitted our receiving the least in- 
 timation of his precipitate return ; and the very messenger 
 who was to have brought us the pledges for the fulfilment 
 of the treaty brought the first authentic intelhgence that all 
 negotiation was at an end ! **Tell my friends outside the 
 gates," were the last w^rds addressed to this personage by 
 Ibrahim, **thal since they have taken the trouble to quit 
 Cairo of their own accord, they have nothing to do now but 
 to make the best of their way to Upper Egypt. Mourad, 
 my colleague, is less enduring than I am." 
 
 We looked aghast; but followed the schaich-el-belled's 
 advice. Raising our camp without a moment's delay, we 
 glided in haste behind mount Mokhadem, and during four 
 days marched without interruption along the back of the 
 rugged ridge of which it forms the extremity. Then cross- 
 ing its uneven width, we on the fifth morning gained the 
 river. This too we passed, and soon, on its western bank, 
 reached the town of Minieh. 
 
 Here we fixed our head-quarters. Our position afforded 
 us every convenience for what was next in our wishes to 
 ruling at Cairo — namely, starving the capital by intercept- 
 ing its supplies. To contribute to this laudable purpose as 
 
ANASTASIUS. 287 
 
 effectually as possible, I stationed my own little troop in 
 the vicinity of Ash-Moonin, where I had opportunities of 
 making good captures, and of manifesting a laudable im- 
 partiality. The times in truth admitted not of nice distinc- 
 tions between friends and foes : besides which there lurked 
 about me — I know not why — a presentiment that my so- 
 journ in Egypt was drawing to a close. I therefore deter- 
 mined to make the most of my time while I staid. Summer 
 insects sting sharpest in autumn, when they begin to grow 
 weak. 
 
 Still it was my study that the Httle offerings of my friends 
 should appear the sole result of their own liberality. Re- 
 ceiving intelligence one day that a rich coobd of Cairo was 
 to be on the road, I took special care to greet him on his 
 passage. **I knew your intention, my worthy friend," 
 said I, ** of travelling this way with all your money and 
 jewels; and for old friendship's sake immediately scoured 
 the country, that you might meet with no extortion.'' 
 Davood was all thanks. *'Set bounds to your gratitude," 
 resumed I. **The two hundred sequins you destine me 
 for my trouble I positively will not take. All I can consent 
 to is to accept a hundred." Davood began to remonstrate. 
 "No words," cried I, **but the sequins; for the robbers 
 still are near !" So thought Davood, and paid the money. 
 
288 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Hunger, they say, drives the wolf out of the forest : it 
 certainly in the year eighty-four drove the schaich-el-belled 
 out of Cairo — but with a full determination to clear the 
 banks of the Nile, of which we entirely impeded the navi- 
 gation. Some surprise, indeed, was created by thus seeing 
 the two leaders exchange offices and characters : for while 
 Ibrahim sallied forth in warlike trim to attack the enemy, 
 Mourad remained in the capital a tranquil spectator of the 
 fray. The conclusion, however, showed that for once 
 Mourad had foiled Ibrahim with his own weapons. During 
 the march of the schaich-el-belled, his colleague negotiated 
 so successfully with the sultan's pasha, that he induced the 
 visier to invest two of his mamlukes — Osman kiaschef sur- 
 named Tamboordji, and Mohammed kiaschef called the Elfi 
 — with the rank of beys. 
 
 This proceeding of Mourad's appeared so suspicious to 
 Ibrahim, that he began to fear lest his colleague might be 
 meditating the same game which he himself had played 
 before; and having drawn him out of Cairo, might shut its 
 gates against his re-entrance, as he had shut them against 
 ours. He therefore changed his plan, or at least seemed to 
 do so; and made this occurrence the pretext for sparing us 
 the battle which he probably never had intended to give. 
 
 Instead of waging savage war, he proposed terms of 
 peace. Our leaders judged it prudent to meet his advances ; 
 and in October of the same year Ibrahim reinstated our 
 whole party in Cairo. 
 
 Mourad now in his turn suddenly marched out : but we 
 at first heeded not much his pellishness, it being far from 
 
 I 
 
ANASTASIUS. 28'J 
 
 a rare occurrence for the rulers of Egypt to agree most ami- 
 caLly upon a rupture. The apparently impending hostih- 
 ties ajDford each party a pretence for imposing on its ad- 
 herents and cHents extraordinary contributions; and when 
 the last para for the warlike preparations is paid, lo and 
 behold! the world is gladdened with the news of a recon- 
 ciliation. 
 
 On this occasion, however, Mourad protracted the show 
 of warfare somewhat longer than usual; and indeed acted 
 his part with such truth of imitation, as almost to impress 
 us with the idea of the reality : for not only he actually 
 retired into the Said, but there continued with such earnest- 
 ness the task which we had undertaken of destroying the 
 supplies of the capital in their very sources, that Ibrahim 
 at last began to think the joke too serious, and, in order to 
 appease his rival, again sent us fresh notice to quit the 
 capital. It was unpleasant to be thus bandied to and fro ; 
 but at this juncture braving Ibrahim would have been 
 braving the whole force in the citadel, ready to move at his 
 command. Thus deprived of every hope of successful 
 resistance, we agreed to obey; but only with the view of 
 executing a scheme proposed many times, and as often re- 
 jected, of coalescing in the Said with Ismail and Hassan. 
 
 I was at my own home when the resolution of our beys 
 to quit Cairo reached me. Immediately on receivino- it I 
 collected all that was most valuable in my harem, and, 
 while the beasts oT burthen were loading, walked over the 
 various apartments of my abode, as one who bestows a 
 last look on friends he leaves for ever. ** Happen what 
 may," exclaimed I, *'here I have at least enjoyed a few 
 moments of ease and quiet, the existence of which fate has 
 no power to expunge from the records of time ! Should, 
 while I live, no other hours of repose fall to my lot, my 
 mind will revert to these with a grateful recollection !" All 
 now being ready, I joined my patron, and with the rest 
 of our party marched out of the city. 
 
 1. 19 
 
290 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 In the full confidence that Ihrahim must make the peace- 
 offering required of him, Mourad had redescended from 
 the said along the eastern hanks of the Nile, and had re- 
 turned to the vicinity of Cairo. From the heights of the 
 mokhadem he Saw our troop wind along the plain. He had 
 the vantage ground, and thought the moment propitious 
 for exterminating our hostile hody at a hlow. 
 
 To rush down the hill with all his force, and spring upon 
 us like a Hon on an unsuspecting prey, was the work of an 
 instant. Fortunately his superior numbers were exhausted 
 by a long march, while our fewer men were all fresh. We 
 therefore received the first shock of his onset without giv- 
 ing way, and a bloody combat immediately ensued. 
 
 As usual, the mamlukes of each different house at first 
 remained in close order round their chiefs; and I there- 
 fore fought next my patron, till, wounded in the shoulder, 
 he was carried to the rear; when I acquired greater lati- 
 tude of movements. Spying in the thickest of the fight a 
 son of Osman — my oldest, bitterest enemy — I took aim at 
 him while firing his carbine, and lodged a ball in his side, 
 which made him bite the dust. One of Elfi's harebrained 
 children instantly sprung forward to revenge Mahmood's 
 death, and made a thrust at his slayer. Him also a stroke 
 of my yatagan sent reefing out of the field. He scarce had 
 gone fifty yards, ere he fainted and fell. Another myr- 
 midon of Mourad's now advanced : Assad was his name. 
 Proud of his size and strength, he used to boast of victory 
 before he fought; and in order to give greater splendour 
 to his triumph, prefaced his assault with the most insulting 
 language. The clash of swords soon followed; and here 
 again proved mine the better blade : my adversary's sabre 
 was shivered in his hand, and his huge person unhorsed. 
 Maddened by his previous taunts, I was going to despatch 
 him as he lay in the dust; but he begged mercy so meanly, 
 that for very contempt I forbore to take his life. Scarce 
 had I turned my head to cdllto my people, when the mis- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 291 
 
 creant fired atmc with deliberate aim ! The ball grazed my 
 cheek. I now dismounted to pierce the scoundrel's heart; 
 but in the very act of lifting my poniard, a bullet struck 
 my hand, and paralysed my fingers. I dropped my hand- 
 jar; and Assad — tearing himself away — darted afresh amid 
 the combatants, and soon slunk out of sight. 
 
 Grievously disappointed, I vaulted back into my saddle, 
 but, from the uselessness of my left hand, was unable either 
 to hold my reins or to wield my fire-arms. Soon, there- 
 fore, my horse, unsupported by his rider, and sorely wound- 
 ed, came down. Thrown off and lamed by the fall, I was 
 obliged for some time to ward olF a hostile mamluke with 
 one knee to the ground. While in this posture my yata- 
 gan feebly parried his repeated blows, another of his party 
 spurred on his courser to trample me to death. The more 
 generous steed refused to obey his rider, and my own horse, 
 exhausted with loss of blood, falling dead by my side, now 
 served me as a rampart. Yet still must I in my helpless 
 state soon have been despatched, but for one of my own 
 mamlukes, who dashed through the adverse current, and 
 came to my assistance. Shot by him in the loins, my ad- 
 versary was pulled olFhis horse, and I mounted in his stead. 
 I could however only hold my reins with my teeth, and 
 guide my new courser with my sword, while, raging with 
 the thirst of vengeance, I flew from rank to rank, to seek 
 the traitor Assad. 
 
 Already had impending darkness begun to bafile every 
 act of personal animosity, and only permit random blows 
 and general slaughter. My search, therefore, was fruitless. 
 Ere yet, however, the closing night had wholly dropped 
 its sable curtain, a colossal form, soaring like the spirit of 
 evil, caught my searching eye. Instantly I threw myself 
 down, stooped close to the ground, penetrated through the 
 surrounding phalanx, and, while the haughty chief was 
 giving a signal, struck at his face one single furious blow. 
 A second must, from the unavoidable retort of all around 
 
 19* 
 
'292 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 him, have wrought my own death. Quick as h'ghtning, 
 therefore, I made my escape : while a long protracted shout 
 of terror announced t© all his men that Mourad was 
 wounded. — His hated blood, drawn by me, formed the last 
 event of the expiring battle. 
 
 Our principal apprehension had been ail along lest Ibra- 
 him, apprised of the engagement, should sally forth and sup- 
 port his colleague with the troops from the citadel. Pro- 
 bably he wished not to render his rival's success too 
 complete; and Mourad himself, now having had enough of 
 fighting, no longer opposed our retreat. He entered the 
 city, while we, gathering up our most distinguished dead, 
 to be consigned to earth wherever the safety of the living 
 permitted, continued our march uninterruptedly all night. 
 Suleiman, who suffered much from his wound, was car- 
 ried in a litter, and I, with my hand in a sling and my leg 
 bandaged up, figured on a jaded hack. I regretted the 
 richly caparisoned steed of my enemy Assad, which I for 
 one moment had regarded as mine; I still more grievously 
 regretted the home-thrust of my dagger, which I hoped to 
 have made his : but my successful aim at Mourad himself, 
 the ugly gash imprinted on his rugged jaw, and the streams 
 of blood gushing from his hateful face, though sights which 
 I had not had leisure to enjoy in the reality, were a rich 
 treat for my imagination ! 
 
 Several years had elapsed between the first combat I 
 witnessed, and this last engagement. In both I was allowed 
 to have shown some valour; but how different were the 
 sentiments which, on these different occasions, nerved my 
 arm and directed my blow ! In the fight against the Ar- 
 naoots I only obeyed a vague desire to gain applause, — I 
 was only driven on by the youthful ferment of my blood. 
 I fought the foe, as I would have hunted the beast of prey, 
 from mere wantonness : no personal rancour envenomed 
 the wounds I dealt at random. Here, on the contrary, 
 every feehng of personal interest, animosity, and revenge 
 
ANASTASIUS. 293 
 
 directed my aim, and dwelt on my blows. After hewing 
 down my enemy, 1 greedily watched his fall, and contem- 
 plated my dairger thrust up to the hilt in his wound : my 
 soul seemed to thirst after his blood as after a refreshing 
 stream; and, when the hot spring gushed from Mourad's 
 own swelling veins, I could have dared death itself to riot 
 in the crimson tide ! 
 
 Just at the period when the animosity between the in- 
 surgents and the chiefs of Cairo was at its height; when 
 both parties had sealed their enmity with their blood; when 
 all chance of reconciliation seemed for ever at an end, arose 
 that never-faihng healer of internal feuds, the fear of an 
 external enemy. A report, bearing the stamp of undoubted 
 authority, suddenly spread itself through Cairo, that Has- 
 san was making immense preparations at Constantinople 
 for reinstating Ismail. Immediately the terrified leaders 
 sent after our fugitive troop proposals of mutual forgive- 
 ness. The bearers, intrusted with no le^s credentials than 
 Mourad's own ring and chaplet, reached us the sixth day of 
 our march, in the midst of the mountains. The sole indis- 
 pensable condition of the reconcihation which they offered 
 was a sacrifice of a few of our beys' trustiest followers, 
 whose spoil was wanted to feed the rapacity of their own 
 mamlukes. It is true, the interests of these very adherents 
 had been the ostensible pretext of the rupture : but they 
 were readily given up as a peace-offering, when deemed 
 the only obstacle to renewed harmony. 
 
 Among the appointments to be ceded was mine. Sulei- 
 man indeed proposed a commutation; but whether Mou- 
 rad knew the author of his wound, or from whatever other 
 cause, he would hear of no exchange. My father-in-law 
 therefore ended, hke other politicians, by yielding to cir- 
 cumstances. He declared himself unable alone to resist 
 the importunities of all the other beys, and I was sum- 
 moned to give up my possessions. Thus were realised th^ 
 effects which I apprehended from the loss of my wife. 
 
294 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 My patron had only yielded, he said, lo superior force; 
 I thought it fair to follow his example. When therefore 
 the storm burst forth, I gathered together my trustiest fol- 
 lowers, and, instead of returning to Cairo, and expressing 
 my readiness to he stripped — as I was expected in deference 
 to higher interests to do — struck across the country, passed 
 the river, and reached my kiascheflik. There, intrenched 
 in the best manner I was able, I bade my antagonists take 
 into their own hands the trouble of turning me out. 
 
 During a whole month they seemed averse from the task, 
 until at last I thought myself forgotten ; but on the fifth 
 week after my arrival I received intelligence that my suc- 
 cessor was coming. A force so very superior to what I 
 could muster accompanied this personage, that I gave up, 
 the kiascheflik for lost, and only resolved to make the new 
 kiaschef pay a handsome admission fee. Collecting all my 
 cash, jewels, and other valuables, I loaded with them half 
 a dozen camels and dromedaries, freed my slaves, gave 
 away my fixtures, and, followed by my small troop of faith- 
 ful mamlukes, posted myself in ambush a few leagues from 
 the town, in a place where I knew that the enemy must 
 pass. It was an elevated plain, advantageously situated for 
 my purpose. In front rose a hillock covered with ruined 
 koobbehs,^ cactus hedges, and date trees, which screened 
 us completely, while behind lay an open country, and a 
 kahsh, with a bridge of boats and boards, which secured 
 our retreat. 
 
 After a whole night of tedious expectation, we heard at 
 the early dawn the tramp of horsemen, and presently the 
 enemy came in sight. By his loose and straggling order 
 of march, it appeared evident that no suspicion was enter- 
 tained of our design. Soon the troop approached so near 
 our masked battery, that every individual of the party 
 might easily be recognised. Heavens ! how my heart 
 bounded when, in the chief— in him who came to dispossess 
 me— I beheld the identical Assad who had sought my life. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 21)5 
 
 as my reward for saving his own. I immediately made a 
 signal lo my followers to leave to myself the soothing task 
 of just revenge; took the best aim I was able, and fired. 
 A general discharge instantaneously followed : but I had 
 the inexpressible satisfaction of seeing Assad fall first, 
 though several of his troop soon bit the dust around him. 
 The remainder, unable to guess the force of their invisible 
 assailants, immediately took flight, and dispersed in all 
 directions. 
 
 Save the place which my men occupied, there was not 
 a spot in sight where the fugitives could halt and rally. 
 The rout of those that remained sound, therefore, enabled 
 me to approach the wounded. Assad, though weltering 
 in his blood, was still alive : but already the angel of death 
 flapped his dark wings over the traitor's brow. Hearing 
 footsteps advance, he made an effort to raise his head, pro- 
 bably in hopes of approaching succour ; but beholding, 
 but recognising only me, he felt that nd hopes remained, 
 and gave a groan of despair. Life was flowing out so fast, 
 that I had only to stand still — my arms folded in each 
 other — and with a steadfast eye to watch its departure. 
 One instant I saw my vanquished foe, agitated by a convul- 
 sive tremor, open his eyes, and dart at me a glance of im- 
 potent rage : but soon he averted them again, then gnashed 
 his teeth, clenched his fist, and expired. 
 
 Wishing for nothing more now than I could obtain, I 
 only sought the speediest retreat, fell back in all haste, 
 and got to the westward of the beaten track, into the 
 boundless desert. Several of my camels were intercepted 
 by the Arabs, and my men suffered much from missing a 
 well : but falling in soon after with the Nubian caravan, our 
 distress was relieved, though at the expense of half my re- 
 maining treasure. At last, after performing a prodigious 
 circuit, during which we experienced incredible hardships, 
 we contrived to reach Es-souan, and joined the exiled 
 beys, Ismad and Hassan, 
 
296 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 Never had the insurgents, even when acthig in most 
 open hostility to the chiefs of Cairo, formed a common 
 cause with the party in the Said. Too deeply rooted a 
 jealousy divide the houses of Mohammed and of Aly. The 
 first and only attempt at an union of interests was that 
 which followed the battle of the mokhadera, and was foiled 
 by the reconciliation of which I became the victim. At en- 
 mity now with every party in the capital, I was well re- 
 ceived by the beys of Upper Egypt. I confirmed to them 
 the welcome inteUigence of the capitan- pasha's prepara- 
 tions, and engaged soon to return with Ismail to Cairo. 
 Meantime, apprehending that I might, in spite of ap- 
 pearances, be deemed a spy only upon the ex-schaich-el- 
 belled, I made over to him my few remaining mamlukes, 
 and, rid of this burthen, determined to withdraw from 
 Egypt, until the grand admiral should actually be on his 
 way. Having, however, still some goods and valuables, I 
 kept my design a secret, lest my kind friends should make 
 my property a keepsake. After a few short rambles, to 
 wean them by degrees from the pleasure of seeing me, I 
 at last undertook a longer flight. On a fine starlight night, 
 of which there is no lack near the Cataracts, accompanied 
 only by two trusty servants, mounted like myself on drome- 
 daries, we slipped away, and again plunged in the desert. 
 
 By a forced march I reached Gieneh. Its kiaschef had 
 been formerly my friend, and what deserves to be recorded, 
 still showed himself my well-wisher. He gave me letters 
 for his Heutenant at Aidab, I travelled across the sands to 
 this seaport, by the Franks called Cosseir; and found its 
 road full of zaims^ from Djedda, freighted for Suez, but 
 which had lost the season. One of them I engaged to carry 
 me across the Red Sea ; and bidding Egypt's plagues as 
 well as blessings — its mud and misery, as well as its per- 
 fumed rice and purple dates, its golden grapes and azure 
 nileh^ — a long and reluctant adieu, with heavy heart cm- 
 barked, 
 
ANASTASIUS. 297 
 
 The vessel was wretched, and the passage stormy ; but 
 after expecting to founder on every coral reef in our way, 
 we at last providentially ran safe into Djedda harbour. On 
 pressing the Arab shore, after perils so vast and various, I 
 could not help exclaiming : ** My native land has renounced 
 me: the country of my adoption has cast me off: be thou, 
 strange soil, the wanderer's less fickle friend!" 
 
 1 had left a storm gathering in Egypt, of which I since 
 have thanked God I witnessed not the bursting. Already 
 previous to my departure, the consequence of the scarcity 
 had begun to appear partially in many places : but it was 
 only after I left the country that the famine attained its 
 full force ; and such was, in spite of every expedient of 
 human wisdom or appeal to divine mercy, the progressive 
 fury of the dreadful scourge, that at last the schaichs, and 
 other regular ministers o-f worship— supposing the Deity to 
 have become deaf to their entreaties, or incensed at their 
 presumption — no longer ventured themselves to implore 
 offended Heaven, but henceforth only addressed the Al- 
 mighty through the voices of tender infants ; in hopes that, 
 though pleased with the sufferings of corrupt man. Provi- 
 dence might still pity the pangs of untainted childhood, 
 and grant to the innocent prayers of babes what it denied 
 to the agonising cry of their expiring parents. Led 
 by the imams to the tops of the highest minarets, little 
 creatures from five to ten years of age there raised to 
 heaven their pure hands and timid looks; and while all the 
 countless myriads of Cairo, collected round the foot of these 
 lofty structures, observed a profound and mournful silence, 
 the feeble voice of spotless infancy was alone heard to lisp 
 from their summits entreaties for divine mercy. Nor did 
 even these feeble supplicants continue to implore a ferti- 
 lity, which no longer could save the thousands of starving 
 wretches, already in the fangs of death. They only beg- 
 ged that a general pestilence might speedily deliver them 
 
298 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 from their lingering and painful agony : and when, from 
 the gilded spires, throughout every district of the immense 
 Masr, thousands of infantine voices went forth at the same 
 instant to implore the same sad boon, the whole vast po- 
 pulation below, in hoarse and half-extinguished sounds, 
 jointly answered, ** So be it !" 
 
 So humble a petition was not offered up in vain : the 
 plague followed the scarcity, and the contagion completed 
 what the famine had begun. The human form was swept 
 away from the surface of the land, like the shadows of dark- 
 ness which the dawn puts to flight. Towns, and villages, 
 and hamlets innumerable were bereft of their tenants to a 
 man. The living became too few to bury the dead. Their 
 own houses remained their cemeteries. Where long strings 
 of coffins at first had issued forth, not a solitary funeral 
 any longer appeared. Hundreds of families, who had fled 
 from famine to Syria, were overtaken by the plague 
 in the midst of their journey, and with their dead 
 bodies marked their route through the desert. Egypt, 
 smitten by the twofold visitation, almost ceased to appear 
 inhabited ; and both plagues at last disappeared, for want 
 of further victims to slay. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 290 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 I WAS near the Holy City, and had all my lime at my 
 disposal. Could it be better employed than in seizing so 
 favourable an opportunity of acquiring — without the trou- 
 ble of a journey on purpose — the title and the prerogatives 
 ofahadjee?^ I therefore determined to perform, in its 
 utmost strictness, the pilgrimage imposed on all true be- 
 lievers; and no sooner had set foot on the shore of Djedda, 
 than I immediately proceeded onwards, and soon arrived 
 at Mekkah, where I achieved in solitude my first round of 
 devotions at the kaaba.^ It is true that, as on this globe 
 at least the hoHest places are not always the most agreeable, 
 I tarried not in this epitome of paradise beyond the time 
 prescribed by the law, but hied with equal expedition back 
 to Djedda. This, however, was only to wait in that seaport 
 until the Coorban bayram^ should bring together at Mekkah 
 the whole body of hadjees, when I purposed to revisit the 
 corner-stone of islamism, and to perform under its shadow 
 rites more solemn and more pubhc. 
 
 Even in the busier seaport of Djedda itself, it must be 
 owned, my pursuits scarce soared above the amusements o^ 
 a paltry colFee-house, where I went every morning to smoke 
 my pipe, drink my cup of kishr,^ and play my game of 
 chess with a famous hand from Surat; always hoping — but 
 in vain ! — to retaliate my adversary's infallible checkmate. 
 These harmless pastimes were varied, alternately by a turn 
 on the quay, to see the unlading of goods and monsters 
 from the Red Sea, and by the tales of a poor schaich of the 
 neighbourhood, who possessed the true art of breaking off 
 his stofy in the midst of the most interesting occurrence, 
 
300 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 leaving his audience all agape till he resumed his narrative, 
 and never dismissing his hero, or winding up his plot. 
 
 An accidental renconlre with an inhabitant of Djedda, 
 Sidi Malek, for whom I had recovered at Cairo some pro- 
 perty purloined by Hassan's people on their ^isit to his city, 
 promised me a little change of pastime. Our first meeting 
 was in the bazaar. *'I knew," exclaimed Malek on seeing 
 me, " that this would be a day of rejoicing ! The word 
 'Allah,' heard the first thing in the morning, never fails to 
 bring good fortune. I shall not, however, think mine com- 
 plete until you leave your okkal, and take up your abode 
 under my roof." So easy a mode of making my friend 
 happy, my conscience suffered me not to decline. I col- 
 lected my chattels, and followed Malek to his habitation. 
 
 My acceptance of the sidi's hospitalities, however, soon 
 turned out a greater burthen than I had suspected. Ac- 
 cording to Derwish — the star-gazer at Constantinople, whom 
 I left meditating how to undermine the aqueduct — the most 
 distinguished among the heavenly bodies alone troubled 
 their pates about the fate of man : but in the opinion of 
 Malek, every stone, beast, and plant on the surface of the 
 earth, presumed most unwarrantably to meddle with our 
 destiny. Nothing animated or inanimate could be named, 
 which exerted not over our being a mysterious influence. 
 From every occurrence, however trivial, some omen might 
 be extracted, if one only knew the way; and that way my 
 friend Malek was determined to find out, cost what it might. 
 Not that, in the course of his research, he ever dreamt of 
 looking for such connexions between cause and effect as 
 must arise from the intrinsic nature of things, and the pal- 
 pable relationships between the productions of this globe. 
 Such a course would have been derogatory to the dignity 
 of his pursuit. His science only admitted what was totally 
 out of the course of nature, and beyond the reach of human 
 understanding. The occult virtues which Malek sought 
 in objects were always precisely those which common 
 
ANASTASIUS. 301 
 
 sense would never have j^ucssed at. Every secret agency 
 was to have in it a something savouring of a prodigy, which 
 chance alone could disclose. Accordingly, the less found- 
 ation there appeared for a helief, the more strenuous the 
 advocate it found in Malek; and while he looked upon men 
 of real science — astronomers, physicians, and mathema- 
 ticians — as paltry geniuses, who could not penetrate heyond 
 the surface of things, he considered soothsayers, jugglers, 
 and conjurers, as the only men of real and profound talents. 
 To Aristotle and Galen he would probably have given but 
 an indifferent reception; — to the most arrant fortune-teller 
 his door was open day and night. His house seemed a sort 
 of asylum for all decayed mountebanks. One party, out 
 of gratitude for his kindness, recommended another : and 
 though, where astrology interfered not, rather a strict Mo- 
 hammedan, Sidi Malek immediately made a favourite of 
 every dirty Jew, Gentile, or Christian, who had the least 
 pretensions to occult knowledge. ** Because weak man 
 happens to err in one particular, can he be right in no 
 other?" Malek used to ask; and on the strength of this 
 truth, he believed every lie, and trusted every impostor. 
 
 While merely theoretical, this system might have been 
 entertaining enough, but reduced into practice, it rendered 
 Malek's society very irksome. His own conversation was 
 incoherent, mysterious, and often unintelligible; and he 
 took it much amiss when his friends wished to converse on 
 what they understood. On the least appearance of incre- 
 dulity with respect to his favourite tenets his passion knew 
 no bounds. Always on the watch for every chance word 
 or gesture that might be construed into a prognostic either 
 good or bad, he was constantly floating between idle hopes 
 and silly fears, and conceived the strangest predilections or 
 the most unfounded antipathies. My nose unfortunately 
 had a curve which promised uncommon capabihties for as- 
 trology, if but properly cultivated, and Malek determined 
 
302 ANASTASIUS, 
 
 that SO happy a disposition should no longer lie fallow, for 
 want of any pains which he could bestow. 
 
 The sidi's stationary oracle was a soothsayer of esta- 
 blished repute, residing in one of the remotest suburbs of 
 Diedda, and who seldom condescended to go from home, 
 but waited to be worshipped in his own cave or temple. 
 For the sake of peace, I promised not to neglect the op- 
 portunity of being enlightened, and only bargained to find 
 my own way to this celebrated personage, the odour of 
 whose fame, I was told, extended all the world over. It 
 might be so; — for it affected me almost to suffocation on 
 entering his den: — a sanctuary which, to say the truth, 
 smelt more of things below than of the stars above. I 
 groped on, nevertheless, with the most undaunted bravery, 
 till I reached the furthest end of the unsavoury abode. 
 
 There the wizard sat in all his state. A stuffed croco- 
 dile canopied his head; a serpent's skin of large dimensions 
 was spread under his feet, and an old clothes-chest af- 
 forded support to the parts between. Potent charms and 
 powerful spells entirely covered the wall. They had their 
 names written over them for the information of the be- 
 holder; and hair of unborn dives ,^ heart of maiden vipers, 
 liver of the bird roc,^ fat of dromedary's hunch, and blad- 
 ders filled with the wind simoom,' were among the least 
 rare and curious. Of the wizard's own features so little 
 was discernible, that I almost doubted whether he had any. 
 An immense pair of spectacles filled up the whole space 
 between his cloak and turban. These spectacles veered 
 incessantly, like a weathercock, from left to right, and 
 from right to left, between a celestial globe robbed of half 
 its constellations by the worms, and a Venice almanack 
 despoiled of half its pages by the wear and tear of fingers. 
 Before the astrologer lay expanded his table of nativities. 
 
 Opposite the master shone — but only with a reflected 
 light—his little apprentice, crouched, like a marmoset, on 
 
ANASTASIUS. 303 
 
 a low Stool. The round sparkling face of this youth — 
 immoveably fixed on the face of his principal — seemed to 
 watch all his gestures ; and never did he stir from his sta- 
 tion, except to hand him his compasses, to turn his globe, 
 or to pick up his spectacles, which for want of the proper 
 support from underneath came off every moment. After 
 each of these evolutions the little imp immediately ran back 
 to his pedestal, and resumed his immoveable attitude till the 
 next call for his activity. So complete a silence was 
 maintained all the time on both sides, that one would have 
 sworn every motion of this pantomime must have been 
 preconcerted. 
 
 Fearful of disturbing the influence of some planet, or 
 confusing the calculations of some nativity, I myself re- 
 mained a while silent and motionless at the entrance of the 
 sanctuary; but finding that I might stay there till dooms- 
 day if I waited for an invitation to advance, I at last grew 
 impatient, marched up to the wizard, put my mouth to his 
 ear, and roared out as loud I could: **I suppose I am ad- 
 dressing the learned Schaich Aly." 
 
 Upon this the astrologer gave a start, like one suddenly 
 roused from some profound meditation, turned his head 
 slowly round, as if moving by clock-work, and after first 
 leisurely surveying me several times from head to foot, and 
 again from foot to head, at last said, in a snuffling but em- 
 phatic tone — drawling every word, in order to make what 
 in itself was not short longer still : — '* If you mean the ce- 
 lebrated Schaich Abou Salech, Ibn-Mohammed, Ibn-Aly e! 
 Djeddawee el Schafei,^ schaich of the flowery mosque, and 
 the cream of the astrologers of the age, who holds familiar 
 converse with the stars, and to whom the moon herself 
 imparts all her secrets, I am he !" 
 
 *'And if you should happen to want the best-beloved of 
 the pupils of this luminary of the world, the young bud of 
 the science of which he is the full-blown pride, the nascent 
 
304 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 dawn of his meridian splendour," added, from his pedestal, 
 the worshipful apprentice, — ** I am he!" 
 
 **Hail," answered I, **to the full-blown pride of astro- 
 logy, and hail to its nascent bud ! May they be pleased to 
 inform me what I am, whence I come, whither I am going, 
 and whether or not I may hope to recover what I have 
 lately lost?" 
 
 "Young man," replied the wizard, **you lump together 
 a heap of questions, each of which, singly, would take a 
 twelvemonth to answer at length. Besides, it is not in 
 my own person that I disclose such matters. You cannot 
 be ignorant that the voice of prophecy has ceased with the 
 holy one ofMekkah. I am but the humble interpreter of 
 the stars. It is true," added he, lest this exordium should 
 deter me from giving him my custom, " that my vast know- 
 ledge of the celestial oracles which glitter in the firmament 
 enables me to understand their language as clearly as my 
 mother tongue; and that I thence know to a tittle all that 
 was, and is, and is to be. I may therefore, forthwith, if 
 you please, ascertain from the chance opening of the holy 
 book in what way the heavenly bodies choose, on this oc- 
 casion, to be addressed." 
 
 I agreed. The doctor performed his ablutions, and the 
 dawn of his meridian splendour shook the dust from off his 
 o-own. Thus cleansed, at least externally, he mumbled a 
 prayer or two, and then with great solemnity opened the 
 koran. 
 
 ** Child," said he, after having inspected the page dis- 
 played before him, ** the admirable and important chapter 
 on which Providence has willed the eye of its servant to 
 fall treats of the balance W6zn.9 This proves incon- 
 testably — but, ere I proceed further, what do you mean 
 to pay me ?" 
 
 "Two piastres," was my answer; thinking this a liberal 
 remuneration. Not so the wizard: the most grievous of 
 
ANASTASIUS. 305 
 
 insults could not have put him into a greater rage. ** Two 
 piastres!" exclaimed he; **why, in the quietest of limes, 
 and when a man's fortune might almost be told him blind- 
 fold, this would scarce have been an aspre each adventure; 
 and now that the world is all turned topsy lurvy, that men 
 do not know whether they stand on their heads or their heels ; 
 now that women wage war, kings turn philosophers , and 
 high priests stroll about the country; now that the grand 
 lama of Tibet takes a turn to Pekin, and the pope of Pvome 
 travels post to Vienna — to offer such a fee ! insolent, ab- 
 surd, preposterous!" 
 
 I let the astrologer's passion cool a little first, and then 
 resumed the negotiation. After a good deal of altercation, 
 it ended in Ibn-Mohammed, Ibn-Aly el Schafei undertaking 
 to reveal my destiny in two days, for the important sum of 
 as many sequins. 
 
 At the appointed time I returned, but found not Schaich 
 Aly, as before, in solitary meditation. He stood surrounded 
 by a whole circle of customers, and was abusing one poor 
 fellow so tremendously as to terrify all the rest, and make 
 them tremble lest their own fortunes should fare the worse 
 for the incident. ** Wretch!" he cried; — **to apply to 
 me for charms to rid your house of vermin; as if I was in 
 league with vipers and with scorpions ! Go to the wander- 
 ing santons that ply in the cross-ways, and presume not 
 again to appear in the presence of one whom the very skies 
 treat with deference." 
 
 The frightened peasant retired, and the remainder of the 
 party received the devout and wonderful sentences, which 
 only required being kept carefully sealed up, to procure 
 the bearer every species of bliss. 
 
 The levee thus despatched, the wizard turned to me : 
 **I have completed your business," cried he, handing me 
 a dirty scrawl. ** But it has been with incredible toil. I 
 cannot conceive what you have done to the stars. At the 
 bare mention of your name they all began to laugh. It has 
 
 I. 20 
 
306 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 cost me a whole night's labour to bring them to their senses. 
 Instead of two sequins, I ought to have two dozen." 
 
 '*Not one single aspre," replied I, glancing over the 
 paper, and then throwing it in the wizard's face. '* The 
 beginning informs me that I shall certainly die young, pro- 
 vided I do not grow old, and cannot fail to marry, unless 
 I die single; and as to the end, it has no meaning at all !" 
 
 '*It has a great deal of meaning," replied the now in- 
 furiated star-gazer — grinning like an afrite;'** *' for it means 
 that you certainly will be hanged." 
 
 **It then also means," replied I, *' that I need not pay a 
 farthing; for, if I am not hanged, you have written a parcel 
 of lies undeserving of a fee; and, if I am equally to swing 
 whether I pay or not, I may as well save my money, and 
 give you a drubbing to boot." So saying, I laid on; and 
 the young bud of science, who tried to protect his master, 
 came in for his share of my bounty. All intercourse with 
 the constellations now being broken off, I walked away, 
 alternately threatened with the justice of the stars, and 
 with that of the cadee. 
 
 My behaviour to his pet astrologer made Malek think 
 somewhat less favourably of my docility, and our friend- 
 ship, hereupon, cooled a little. Fortunately, the season of 
 the festivals was at hand, and I returned to Mekkah, to wit- 
 ness the arrival of the pilgrims. 
 
 At Cairo I had viewed the departure of the caravan from 
 the Birket-el-hadj," as a species of public rejoicing. The 
 whole of the night which preceded the raising of the tents, 
 the camp, resplendent with the light of millions of lamps, 
 and re-echoing with the sound of thousands of musical in- 
 struments, seemed the special abode of mirth and pleasure; 
 and the ensuing morning the pilgrims, fresh, gay, full of 
 ardour, and prancing along the road, looked like a proces- 
 sion of the elect going to take possession of Paradise. 
 
 Alas, how different was the appearance of this same ca- 
 ravan, after a long and fatiguing march across the desert. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 307 
 
 on ils arrival at Mekkah ! Wan, pale, worn out with fa 
 tigue and thirst, incrusted with a thick coat of dust and 
 perspiration, the hadjees who composed it seemed scarce 
 able to crawl to the place of their destination. The end of 
 their journey looked like that of their earthly existence; 
 or rather, one might have fancied their bodies already 
 smitten by the spirit of the desert, and their ghosts come 
 disembodied to accompHsh their vow. 
 
 Among the arrivals were some of my Egyptian friends ; 
 but their sufferings had so altered them, that they were 
 "obliged to syllable their names ere I could bring their per- 
 sons to my recollection. One had almost lost his eyesight, 
 another scarce preserved a remnant of his before slender 
 intellect, and a third was, in consequence of constant alarms, 
 become subject to such spasmodic movements, that he be- 
 lieved himself obliged to hold his head fast by the ears, 
 lest it should veer on his body like a weathercock. 
 
 The holy house of Mekkah offers nearJy the same dif- 
 ference from that of Loretto which the Moslim character 
 does from that of the Franks. Every body knows the 
 Santa Casa to be a whirligig sort of thing, which, in its 
 roving disposition, changed its abod^ half a dozen times 
 before it could finally settle. The Kaaba, on the contrary, 
 is a steady, demure sort of an edifice, which, from the day 
 the angels placed it where it stands, never manifested the 
 least inclination to move. Accordingly, even Mohammed 
 dared not meddle with its well established reputation. It 
 stood its ground most firmly in spite of his reform, and to this 
 day remains the chief object of the worship of his followers. 
 
 Seven times I walked round the holy pile in full proces- 
 sion, and seven times kissed the black stone, which the an- 
 gel Gabriel brought from Paradise (I did not inquire why), 
 to figure in its south-west corner. I next went to the valley 
 of Menah to renounce Satan and his works, by flinging a 
 pebble over my left shoulder; nor did I fail to fill a pitcher 
 with the brackish water of the well Zemzem, to quench the 
 
308 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ihlrst of the soul. But what I prized beyond all other 
 things were the parings of the besom that had swept the ta- 
 bernacle, which I purchased from the shereef of Mekkah''^ 
 to cleanse the impurities of the heart, and which, if mine 
 were not all wiped away in consequence, failed of doing its 
 duty. 
 
 My spiritual concerns thus attended to, I turned to my 
 temporal affairs, and made an exchange of some of the pro- 
 perty which I brought from Egypt, for other and more suit- 
 able articles; for be it known that the festivals of the holy 
 house end in a fair, held in the innumerable tents which 
 surround it like a zone, and bring together merchants and 
 goods from the most opposite extremities of the old hemis- 
 phere — very properly making even the worship of Mammon 
 lend its support to the temple of the Lord. 
 
 From Mekkah I proceeded with the whole body of the 
 pilgrims to Medinah, a place somewhat less holy, though 
 infinitely more agreeable. There (still intent on deeds of 
 holiness) I bargained for a little bit of the fringe which had 
 adorned the prophet's tomb ; but found the unconscionable 
 vender ask a price Avhich I scarce would have given for 
 Mohammed's own two front teeth, enshrined in the sultan's 
 chapel at Constantinople. Fringeless, therefore, I went on 
 to Damascus, with the principal division of the caravan, 
 headed by the celebrated miscreant Djezzar,^^ pasha of 
 Acre. 
 
 No extraordinary events signalised that year the home- 
 ward journey of the had) ;^^ for I reckon not as such the 
 hundreds of camels that died every day of fatigue on the 
 road, to the great annoyance of the Schaich of Sardieh, who 
 furnished them, and to the great delight of his loyal sub- 
 jects, who cut them up and ate them ; and still less do I 
 reckon as such the thousands of pilgrims that gave up the 
 ghost from the same cause, to the annoyance, I fear, of no 
 one but themselves, and to the unspeakable satisfaction of 
 the conducting pasha, to whom their property devolves. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 309 
 
 For my own part, as I observed mortalityto be, somehow, 
 rifest among the richest pilgrims, and was still possessed 
 myself of some valuable luggage, I continued during the 
 whole of the journey particularly careful of my health. I 
 ^te no made-dishes, knowing them lobe heating; and ab- 
 stained from brewed beverage, as apt to attack the bowels; 
 but preferred the simplest fare, however coarse, and drank 
 plain water, though ever so muddy. By means of this re- 
 gimen I escaped — thank God ! — all the bad effects of the 
 journey. A more difficult task than that of avoiding the 
 consequence of the climate was, in my opinion, that of 
 eluding the overpowering attentions of the Bosniac guard^^ 
 of the emir-hadj. These gentlemen were paid for pro- 
 tecting the property of the pilgrims, and it is but doing 
 them justice to say, that they could scarcely have acted 
 otherwise than they did, if it had been their own. A deli- 
 bash ^^ of the pasha's in particular used to show such so- 
 licitude about my equipage, that not one article of it would 
 have escaped his vigilance or been suffered to remain out 
 of his keeping, had I not early in the business bethought 
 myself of recommending to him, as more worthy his at- 
 tention, the luggage of a wealthy Turkish merchant, which, 
 much heavier than mine, required more being lightened by 
 an experienced hand. 
 
 The only one of my companions whom I trusted was a 
 Cypriote. Like myself, a Greek by birth, he had like me 
 embraced islamism from choice: but with this difference, 
 that love led the way to my apostacy, and revenge to that 
 of my new associate. He had turned Mohammedan for the 
 sole purpose of being qualified to return to another Mo- 
 hammedan, without breach of etiquette, the favour of the 
 bastinado. No sooner was he admitted into the bosom of 
 islamism, than he ran to discharge the debt; and paid it 
 with such ample interest, that his creditor was never heard 
 to utter a single syllable of complaint. To do penance for 
 
310 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 this petulance as he pretended — or rather to withdraw from 
 the scene of this achievement, as I heheve — he undertook 
 the pilgrimage. From Cyprus he embarked for Jaffa, from 
 Jaffa crossed over to Suez, and at Suez took shipping with 
 a flotilla of hadjees bound for Djedda. ** Huddled together 
 so thick," said he, ** that we found not room to lie down, 
 in boats so rotten that we expected to split on every coral 
 reef, I never expected to reach land again; and do not know 
 whether I owe my being saved from a watery grave to Mo- 
 hammed or to the Virgin; as, for fear of a mistake, I ad- 
 dressed my prayers to both. This, however, I do know 
 most positively, that, having got once on land again, I 
 mean, please God! never more to trust myself on the 
 water. I have conceived such a horror of that element, 
 that Mohammedan, and, what is more, hadjee as I now 
 am, I can scarce prevail upon myself to drink a drop of any 
 thing but wine pure unmixed." 
 
 My friepd Mahmood, however, was destined more justly 
 to appreciate the comforts of travelling on dry land, when 
 a three weeks' journey across the sands of Arabia had 
 killed off with fatigue and heat about a fourth of our ca- 
 ravan. Almost become transparent with loss of flesh, he 
 now swore he would rather a thousand times be swallowed 
 up at once by a wave, than be mummified by inches. 
 
 On entering the pashalikofDamascus, the scene changed 
 completely. Each league, as we advanced, now brought 
 some improvement in our condition. First came to meet 
 us the supply of fresh provisions from Trabloos ; next the 
 convoy from Palestine; and when, soon after, we entered 
 the fertile plains of Hauran, I felt as if ushered at once from 
 .the burning bowels of hell into the flowery fields of Ely- 
 sium. Indeed, on first beholding from a small eminence, 
 after a month's wearisome march through sands almost red- 
 hot, the glassy pool of Mardin, encircled by its verdant 
 banks, such was the fit of hydro— not phobia — but mania 
 
ANASTASIUS. 311 
 
 which came upon me, ihat, had I been within reach of the 
 lovely puddle, I would have plunged into it headlong — 
 dress, armour, and all I 
 
 The privations of a pilgrimage are not necessary to 
 render Damascus a true paradise. Groves of orange and 
 plum trees imbosom its walls, limpid fountains sparkle in 
 all its habitations; and so much did its beauties, animate 
 and inanimate, its exquisite confectionary, audits cool and 
 sparkling sherbets, delight my eye and palate, that I pur- 
 posed making it my abode until I should hear further of 
 the high admiral's motions. Purified by my pilgrimage. I 
 thought I could afford to run up a new score of little pec- 
 cadilloes; and though, in the course of three weeks, I saw 
 the forty thousand hadjees with whom I had entered Da- 
 mascus again disappear almost to a man, I still continued 
 vvithout the smallest intention of stirring, until I found that 
 I had reckoned without my host — I mean without Djezzar, 
 the eternal pasha. 
 
 One Friday morning, after my devotions, just as I stepped 
 out of the mosque, my eye happened to be caught by one 
 of those celestial beings, found in large cities, who, anti- 
 cipating the office of the houris of Paradise, have no ob- 
 jection to cast a ray of bliss on the existence of mortal man. 
 Unfortunately, my eagerness to pursue this ffitting form of 
 brightness made me overlook some nearer but less attrac- 
 tive objects which stood in my way. Foremost among 
 these happened to be a little man, who, walking up the 
 steps of the mosque just as I rushed down, was so much 
 below my line of sight, directed straight-forward, that I 
 only perceived his proximity by the violence with which I 
 came in contact with his person, and occasioned his down- 
 fall. I should more properly have said, his fear of a down- 
 fall; since I had the address to catch him in my arms, and 
 to twirl him round like a top, so as to break the force of 
 the shock, and only to lay him neatly down on his seat 
 
S12 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 upon the steps, without haviog received the smallest in- 
 jury. 
 
 Great as was my hurry, I felt loth to proceed till I had 
 looked round to see whom I had thus involuntarily helped 
 to a seat. I found it to be a personage dressed indeed after 
 the Turkish fashion, but evidently, from the very Chris- 
 tianlike manner in which his Mohammedan apparel was 
 huddled on, a Frank in disguise. In short, I had run foul 
 of an inquisitive traveller, who, come to have a sly peep at 
 a mosque, noted in the empire for the care with which it 
 is kept sacred from the intrusion of infidels, certainly ex- 
 pected not his curiosity to meet with so providential a pu- 
 nishment. 
 
 I always piqued myself upon my good-breeding, espe- 
 cially to strangers, who might report of me in Franguestan. 
 For which reason I turned back, and laying hold of the 
 short person of the traveller in the readiest way for right- 
 ing it — namely, by the ample folds of his nether man — I 
 lifted him up hke an oil-jar, and so set him on end again; 
 at the same time reversing his aspect for the benefit of his 
 curiosity, and turning his face towards the entrance of the 
 mosque which he was come to view. 
 
 I do not know by what strange bias in his mind, to be 
 pushed down should have appeared to him a misfortune 
 patiently to be endured, while to be set on his legs again 
 was taken for an indignity, which called for every expres- 
 sion of the utmost resentment — but so it was; and, instead 
 of thanks, I got nothing for my pains but abuse, the more 
 galling, since my courtesy had made me lose sight of the 
 fair object of my pursuit. It is true that, as strong pas- 
 sion is inimical to disguise, my traveller had, in his wrath, 
 resorted to his native tongue — the German ; but I had 
 heard enough of that language with the Swedish baron at 
 Pera to understand every term of commendation bestowed 
 upon me on this trying occasion. I therefore ran back, in 
 
ANASTASIUS. 31$ 
 
 order to undo what I had obtained so little gratitude for 
 doing, and again gently laid the angry traveller down in 
 the very place from which I had raised him; at the same 
 time begging his pardon for having presumed to rectify his 
 position. 
 
 There is, or was, at Damascus a Latin hospice, tolerated 
 by the pasha, solely, I believe, for the sake of one of its 
 friars. Padre Giacomo, a great favourite with Djezzar for 
 reasons connected by the Damascenes with the magic art. 
 This friar had accompanied our stranger in his rambles 
 through the city, as cicerone; but had prudently kept aloof 
 while the bolder traveller made his attempt upon the 
 mosque. However, witnessing from afar the last act of my 
 intercourse with his guest, he took it into his thick skull 
 that I was ill-treating him, and in consequence came up, and 
 began, on the strength of his influence with the pasha, to 
 abuse me in his turn; — not, however, hke his more consi- 
 derate friend, in an outlandish language, in which his im- 
 pertinence might have passed ofFfor civility, but in very in- 
 telligible Arabic, and to the great edification of all the by- 
 standers. 
 
 In the midst of Damascus this was not to be borne : 
 '*See," cried I, therefore, to the mob, *' what it is to have 
 an old woman for a sultan, who grants firmans^' to Chris- 
 tian dogs," (my politeness had by this time given way a 
 little) *'to come and spy, disguised in our own dress, the 
 nakedness of our land; in order that their crals '^ may 
 know how to conquer it. — But glory be to the prophet, and 
 down with the yaoors !" 
 
 "Yes, down with the yaoors; and let us go and drown 
 them," answered the ready mob. 
 
 This proposal even exceeded my wishes. But I had 
 once saved a Jew from a watery grave, and I thought I 
 might have equal success with a brace of Christians. ** No, 
 no," cried I, therefore; **the Arabs would think that in- 
 hospitable. Let us only disable these infidels from pass- 
 
314 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ing themselves off for Mussulmen, by stripping them of 
 their mustachios and beard. They will look as ridiculous 
 again when shaved as they would do merely drowned." 
 So thought the mob. My friends consequently were taken 
 to the nearest barber, seated, lathered, shaved, and dis- 
 missed. 
 
 But the bristles of the capuchin's beard were fated to 
 become thorns in my side. The pasha took up the affair. 
 He could neither bear to be without his friend the friar, nor 
 to see him in his presence with a beardless chin. I very 
 soon got hints of the unwholesomeness of the Damascus air; 
 and of all the physicians in the world I wished least for 
 Djezzar to be my phlebotomist. Having picked up a good 
 number of the country sword-blades, remarkable for their 
 line temper, I resolved to convert my steel into gold in the 
 capital. There also I should be more in the way of watch- 
 ing the grand admiral's motions ; and I doubted not that an 
 ex-kiaschef, hostile to Ibrahim and Mourad, would easily 
 obtain rank in the sultan's army. I therefore packed up 
 my little property, and the very evening after the warning 
 slept at Salieh. 
 
 The next morning I proceeded with a caravan to Tra- 
 bloos, and there embarked for Stambool on board a vessel 
 from Alexandria. The cargo consisted of black slaves. 
 The richest article was a httle negro, who had been fur- 
 nished with his passport for the harem by an old coobd in 
 the Said, purveyor to my patron Suleiman. Though the 
 only one of twenty who had escaped aHve,poor little blackie 
 looked very unhappy. To console him, 1 used to prognos- 
 ticate his becoming some day kislar-aga ; when he would 
 have all the beauties of the seraglio under his command ! 
 "Alas!" answered he, **of what use will it be to me?" 
 '' Of what use?" I replied, " why to whip them, to be sure ; 
 and so to vent your spleen I" 
 
ANASTASIUS. 313 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 A CERTAIN number of years had now elapsed since I left 
 Mavroyeni; and changes more marked than even those 
 which time effects had since that period taken place in my 
 circumstances. I was not only from a boy become a man, 
 but from a Greek a Mohammedan, and from a person of 
 no note whatever an individual who had fdled no incon- 
 siderable character in the world's varied drama. I had 
 acted a part both in negotiation and in warfare. I no 
 longer either thought myself an inferior to the drogueman 
 of the arsenal, or stood in need of his. protection. It was 
 doubtless for the latter reason that, when arrived at Con 
 stantinople, I no longer felt any hesitation to call at his 
 door. Little acquainted, however, with the revolutions 
 which might have happened in a place so fertile in storms 
 as the fanar, I thought it prudent, ere I ventured upon my 
 visit, to collect some information respecting my old patron ; 
 lest, seeking his abode too abruptly, I should be conducted 
 to a burying-ground or a dungeon. 
 
 ** Friend," answered the old messmate to whom I ad- 
 dressed my inquiries, '* Mavroyeni is no longer to be found 
 at the arsenal." 
 
 ' ' I understand," replied I — and motioned with my hand, 
 as if to say, ** he is shortened by the part above the neck." 
 
 ** Not yet," resumed my informer, **but in a fair way 
 of being so. He is at present hospodar of Valachia." 
 
 ** Hospodar of Valachia !" exclaimed I, starting back at 
 least three paces. *'What! Nicolas Mavroyeni — a mere 
 man of the islands, a rank taooshan ! Has he then at last 
 been able to insinuate himself into the fairest of the two 
 
316 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 Greek provinces; and that in the very teeth of every Ipsil- 
 andi,Morosi, Callimacki, andSouzzo whom the fanar could 
 muster to oppose his intrusion ?" 
 
 **He has," rejoined Notara. ** After having been, dur- 
 ing fifteen years and upwards, regularly threatened every 
 day at the terzhaneh by the grand admiral with being 
 kicked out of office, he has only left the place of drogueman 
 of the fleet, to step into the very highest situation which a 
 Greek can attain in the Turkish empire: and that without 
 any stipulation for the purchase of the principality, without 
 any restriction or engagement as to the persons he was to 
 promote. Fettered by no clause or limitation whatsoever, 
 he has distanced all his rivals, and swept away the whole 
 stake single-handed." 
 
 I begged my friend to inform me how this miracle had 
 been accomplished. 
 
 *' You must remember," replied he, ** that Russia never 
 acted with more hostility towards Turkey than after the 
 peace. But the Muscovites were governed by a man in 
 petticoats, and we, ruled by old women in turbans. Haleel- 
 hameed visier, and after him Shaheen-aly visier, seemed 
 determined to abide every insult of the northern virago. 
 At last, however, the interview between Joseph and Ca- 
 therine opened the sultan's eyes. Abd-ool-hameed felt 
 that his sacrifices would not preserve peace, and must di- 
 minish the chance of a successful war. He dismissed the 
 pacific Shaheen, and looked about for a more enterprising 
 and warlike visier. The only one in the whole empire 
 that could be found to suit his views was Youssoof, the 
 water-carrier of Smyrna, the caleondjee of the fleet, the 
 counsellor and right hand of the capitan-pasha, the defender 
 of the Boghaz against the Russians, the moohasseel of the 
 Morea, and finally the supreme visier of the Othoman 
 empire. 
 
 * * Youssoof in his turn felt the necessity of confiding the 
 government of a province so important and so much exposed 
 
ANASTASlUS. 317 
 
 as Valachia to none but a man of resolution and bravery. 
 Such an one was not to be found among the merchant- 
 princes of the fanar : but such an one he knew his old 
 comrade, in the service of the capitan-pasha, Mavroyeni, to 
 be. He therefore proposed him. In vain did all the fa- 
 nariotes for once cordially unite to prevent your old mas- 
 ter's nomination. In vain did they put forward their tool, 
 Petracki, the seralT^ of the mint. This zealous agent might 
 spend more money to prevent an election to a principality 
 than ever had been wasted to obtain one : it availed no- 
 thing. Mavroyeni was invested; and when, in the act of 
 receiving at the hands of the supreme visier the marks of 
 his dignity, he begged, as the single favour which was want- 
 ing to complete his bliss, the head of the seraff, that boon 
 also was granted. On going out of the audience chamber 
 — by way of a delicate attention — Petracki's bleeding head 
 was made to roll at his feet. 
 
 ** Mavroyeni is now gone in the fulness of his glory to 
 take possession of his principality. Perhaps, however, what 
 he regarded as the last testimonial of his elevation may 
 prove the first stept to his downfall. It is secretly whis- 
 pered that the late sultan, Mustapha, had confided several 
 millions of piastres to Petracki for the use of his son Selim, 
 during the reign of Abd-ool-hameed his brother. This 
 deposit is necessarily involved in the general fate of the 
 seraff's confiscated property. But Selim some day must 
 come to the throne, and he will not fail to remember the 
 loss he sustained through Mavroyeni." 
 
 On hearing all this, my first impulse was to pay the 
 patron of my youth a visit in his principality; but my second 
 thoughts presented my stake in Egypt as the one most 
 worthy following up. However, the capitan-pasha being as 
 yet far from ready for his expedition, I determined, in the 
 meantime, to indulge in the supreme pleasure of the Italians 
 — the far niente. 
 
 At Chios, an intimacy had long subsisted between my 
 
318 • ANASTASIUS. 
 
 father and another Greek merchant, by name Mavrocordalo. 
 His extraction was honourable; friends traced his pedigree 
 to a younger branch of the imperial Palaeologi : history al- 
 lowed him the latter and more certain honour of being re- 
 lated to several of the princes of Valachia — the first of 
 whom, invested by the Porte, bore the same name. He 
 was a man of most respectable character; nay, while bur- 
 thened with so numerous a family, that the most rigorous 
 parsimony could only ensure to each of its members a very 
 moderate provision, he eVen enjoyed the reputation of beijig 
 particularly liberal, and seemed contented when the ex- 
 penses of the twelvemonth did not exceed the comings-in 
 of the year. But, strange to tell! no sooner had he 
 through a fatal contagion lost all his children save one, in 
 whom consequently was to centre his whole inheritance, 
 than a total revolution took place in his conduct. The 
 possibility of leaving this only heir extremely opulent now 
 for the first time seizing hold of his imagination, gave it a 
 new bias, and bred a desire for riches, before uufelt. He 
 who while in moderate circumstances had been generous 
 to a proverb, now all at once, when he saw his hoard ac- 
 cumulate, became saving, retrenched many of the innocent 
 luxuries in which he formerly indulged, and began to toil 
 for the acquirement of superfluous wealth with a devotion 
 often before sharply censured by himself, while he only 
 possessed a sufficiency. Still, however, he was never 
 suspected of increasing his gains by dishonourable means, 
 nor could he be accused of sordid avarice. He might be 
 said to live below his income, but he ranked not among 
 those imbecile misers who, during their lifetime, starve the 
 very heir whom they destine at their death to revel in their 
 riches. No expense was spared for the education of Spi- 
 ridion ; and even for the pleasures of this beloved son 
 Mavrocordato would often outstep his own notions of 
 discretion. 
 The intimacy between Mavrocordato and my father had 
 
ANASTASIUS. 319 
 
 produced an habitual intcrcouse between Spiridion and my- 
 self. It could not be called friendship; it was scarce even 
 entitled to the appellation of companionship; for there 
 existed between us a difference of two years — a prodigious 
 one at our age, — and sufficient fo make me look upon 
 the son of Mavrocordato as by no means fit to join in 
 my youthful sports. Our connexion might be described 
 as composed of protectorship on my part, and of deference 
 on that of Spiridion. I led him in my train, spoke to him 
 in a tone of authority, and gave myself the airs of his tutor. 
 The fag of the party when I associated with boys of my own 
 standing, my proteg6 was only allowed to contribute to my 
 pastimes when I found myself destitute of other resource. 
 But, flattered by being admitted in any form, under my 
 auspices, to the diversions of my older playmates, Spiridion 
 asked not for more, contemplated me with sentiments of 
 veneration, felt honoured by my commands, and executed 
 all my high behests with a zeal and promptitude savouring 
 of perfect devotion. To employ in my concerns any other 
 boy but him was on my part a sign of displeasure, and to 
 himself a subject of mortification. It was he who, when- 
 ever we went out on a marauding expedition, was sent 
 forward as a scout to explore the ground; who, when we 
 stripped an orchard, kept watch till we had secured the 
 booty; and who, whatever exploit we engaged in, generally 
 paid the penalty while we carried off the fruits. But the 
 sulTcrlngs which he earned in our service he ever bore most 
 manfully, and his firmness in submitting to any punishment 
 rather than betray our confidence was truly heroic. In 
 return, I always sustained my part as his protector, defended 
 him against every other boy, allowed none of my comrades 
 to assume over him the least authority, and would have 
 made any one who in my presence had presumed to correct 
 my little Spirro long remember the castigalion which would 
 have followed such an offence. 
 
 Still, however, spite of the public countenance with 
 
320 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 which I honoured Mavrocordato*s son, the father would 
 not have grieved to have seen us less together. For a time 
 he kept us as much asunder as his own frequent intercourse 
 with my own sire would permit : but an event took place, 
 which, in the midst of all Mavrocordato's attempts to dis- 
 solve it, riveted our friendship more closely than ever. 
 
 I had headed a large troop of my companions in a swim- 
 ming party, when one of the lesser boys spying some way off 
 a small boat upon the beach, set it afloat, dragged Splri- 
 dion in after him, and rowed out to a considerable dis- 
 tance. Suddenly there arose a violent squall. The truants 
 grew frightened, they lost their presence of mind, misma- 
 naged the oarSi and overset the boat. Much fatigued with 
 a good hour's splashing in the water, I had just finished 
 putting on my clothes, when an universal shout of terror 
 made me raise my eyes, and see the two children struggling 
 with the waves ! 
 
 Spiridion's companion was a tolerable swimmer, and ra- 
 pidly approached the beach. No one felt the least alarm 
 for him ; but Spiridion himself, only supported by the oar 
 to which he clung, seemed on the point of sinking. Al- 
 ready encumbered with my clothes, I called out to my still 
 naked companions to jump in and save my charge. ** Who 
 dares?" was the only universal answer. 
 
 Dressed as I was, I now resolved to have recourse only 
 to my own exertions, plunged into the sea, swam to Spi- 
 ridion, and succeeded In throwing to him one end of my 
 sash, while I held the other fast between my teeth. Sup- 
 porting the child in this way, I tried to regain the beach. 
 It was still a good way off, when some of my comrades, 
 seeing me appear faint, and overwhelmed with my load, at 
 last took courage, and threw themselves into the water to 
 swim to my assistance. But I had got too far unassisted 
 to accept of their tardy succour, and resolved to achieve 
 the task alone, or perish in the attempt. Collecting all 
 my remaining strength, I pushed away my officious play- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 331 
 
 mates, and invoking my protecting saints, strained every 
 still obedient nerve for a final exertion. It exceeded my 
 powers ; — held back by the weight of Spiridion, I felt my- 
 self going down. In this situation, was I, by a persever- 
 ance which could do my friend no good, to share his un- 
 timely end ? or, by yielding to the suggestions of prudence, 
 at least to save my own hfe ? — Reason, I suppose, would 
 have said, ** Save yourself." 
 
 Luckily, the dilemma never struck me. I had fully re- 
 signed myself to death, when an enormous billow, which 
 only seemed advancing to swallow us up, left me upon a 
 shoal barely covered at low water, of which I had no know- 
 ledge. With one arm I clung to the rock, while with the 
 other I now grasped my poor Spirro. Thus we remained 
 afloat, until a boat, which just before had put off to meet 
 me, reached the reef, took us in, and brought us on shore. 
 
 Mavrocordato happened to walk with my father on the 
 quay when the accident took place. Apprised of his son's 
 danger, he had arrived in sight half frantic with terror, 
 just as, floundering on the waves, 1 threw out my sash to 
 Spiridion. lie had gone through all the agonies of every 
 subsequent crisis, until he saw us safely landed on the 
 beach. Immediately he ran or rather flew to the spot, and 
 even before he noticed his child clasped me convulsively in 
 his arms, as the preserver both of the son and the father. 
 
 These expressions died away on my ear. Exhausted 
 with fatigue, I had fainted, and lay for half an hour bereft 
 of all perception. But on recovering my senses I still found 
 Mavrocordato by my side, ministering to my relief, while 
 poor Spirro was drenching my cold features with his tears. 
 As soon as his father saw me sufficiently collected, he re- 
 sumed his boundless thanks, only interrupting them to lay 
 on his son a most positive injunction ever to treat me as a 
 brother; and in the face of all around, and of heaven itself, 
 he took a solemn engagement, strengthened by every most 
 sacred oath, henceforth to consider me as his other child. 
 
 I. 21 
 
3t« ANASTASIUS. 
 
 '* Happen what may, Anastasius," he cried, sobbing with 
 emotion, " rest secure that I shall never abandon you; that 
 in me you will always find a second father:" and indeed, 
 from that day Mavrocordato seemed to have no second ob- 
 ject of solicitude (his son always remaining the first) except 
 to palhate my frequent offences. Many a time he redeemed 
 my sins with the sums which he would have denied to his own 
 legitimate gratifications ; and, had ho been at home, when 
 the ripening effects of my imprudent conduct made me be- 
 come a voluntary exile, I might not perhaps have fled, as [ 
 did, from my natural parent and from my adoptive sire. 
 
 Since my abandonment of home I had lost sight of Mav- 
 rocordato and his son. When I wanted assistance most at 
 Constantinople, and might have benefited most by their 
 kind offices, Mavrocordato happened to begone on business 
 to Triesle or to Vienna, I did not know which; and just 
 before I went to Chios, he had entirely quitted that island 
 — a theatre too confined for his extending concerns — and 
 had come to settle at Stambool. 
 
 In a capital of that description the love of riches soon be- 
 gets the love of sway. Mavrocordato, who before only 
 wished to leave his son distinguished for wealth, now as- 
 pired at beholding him eminent in rank and dignity. In 
 short, he aimed at nothing less than seeing him some day 
 bey of Valachia or Moldavia, as several of his namesakes 
 had been before him ; and all his endeavours now tended 
 to forming the requisite connexions at the fanar. Unfor- 
 tunately he had not the lungs which ambition requires. 
 Accustomed to inhale the pure mountain air of Chios, he 
 found the confined atmosphere of the capital agree ill with 
 his health. Accordingly, while he only retained at Con- 
 stantinople a small recess for business, he bought in the 
 country, close to the beautiful village of Kandilly, the villa 
 of a proscribed visier for his permanent residence. It was 
 there that, in one of my excursions, chance again threw me 
 in the way of my adoptive father. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 323 
 
 There were iwo tilings in this rencontre which surprised 
 me, and to many will appear incredible : the first was, that 
 Mavrocordato had not toiled like a galley-slave for his son, 
 while a boy, only that he might fall out with him the more 
 outrageously when he was grown a man; the other, that 
 he did not consider, because nine or ten years had elapsed 
 since I saved that son's life, the natural term of a fa- 
 ther's gratitude as wholly expired : nor did he even think 
 that all the promises made to a Christian must fall away on 
 the misguided wretch becoming a Mohammedan. When 
 indeed Mavrocordato learnt that, for reasons good or bad, 
 I had changed my religion, he looked a little dismayed ; 
 but soon recovering: ^'^ The will of God," he cried, *'be 
 done !" and inviled me not the less to his mansion as cor- 
 dially as if I could publicly have pledged him in the wine 
 of his own growing. Perhaps a person who, in my situa- 
 tion, could raise himself to rank, and had found means to 
 save money, might not, to a mind of Mavrocordato's pru- 
 dent cast, appear after all wholly destitute of some laud- 
 able points. At least my host received me as if he had 
 thought so; and the very day of our meeting wrote to my 
 father, to acquaint him with his rencontre, his pleasure, and 
 his grief. 
 
 Many letters between Stanibool and Chios, 1 suspect, 
 are intercepted by the Tritons and the Nereids, curious to 
 know what passes above water; but Mavrocordato's epistle 
 was left by these submarine gossips to take its course. 
 There even came as speedy an answer to it as the diligence 
 of man could indite, or the breath of a favourably disposed 
 servant of Eolus waft to its destination. My host was con- 
 jured in the truly paternal epistle, by every tie of ancient 
 friendship, and every motive of religion, to spare no pains 
 in recalling a stray sheep into the way of salvation. A post- 
 script, longer by half a page than the letter, stated that, 
 should my abjuration of my errors compel me to quit the 
 Turkish dominions, my wants would be amply provided 
 
 21 ^ 
 
3-24 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 for ill whatever nearest part of Christendom I might make 
 my abode. These assurances moved me to tears. ** Blessed 
 be my aged parent !" cried I — '* When permitted by those 
 that surround him, he still feels anxious for the welfare of 
 his Anastasius!" '*And so do your brothers," whispered to 
 me Spiridion. '*They had rather even that you should 
 return to your faith than that you should revisit your island. 
 So at least they write." — At this speech a dark cloud again 
 overcast the transient sunshine of my heart. 
 
 As to Mavrocordato, he inquired not into the motives, 
 he only considered the merits of the request. At all times 
 he had been religiously inclined : but he had extended the 
 sphere of his devotion, since he had contracted that of his 
 liberality. He gave more to God as he gave less to man; 
 — no doubt expecting the stake in heaven to bear the higher 
 interest. The arduous and delicate commission intrusted to 
 his prudence he undertook, not as a mere act of duty to- 
 ward a friend, but as an eilectual means of working his own 
 eternal bHss. Had he been offered the nursing of a visier's 
 estate, instead of the rekindling of a taooshan's extinguished 
 faith, he could not have engaged with more zeal in the bu- 
 siness. I believe he would even have paid me to become 
 once more a Christian, had I been in want of money : but, 
 finding that all I required was good advice, he determined 
 not to spare so cheap a drug, and only considered how he 
 might administer most plentifully the unwelcome potion. 
 Cunningly, therefore, he bethought himself of making his 
 solicitude for my temporal concerns the means of advancing 
 his spiritual aim; and actually offered to manage my pro- 
 perly for me to the best advantage, free both from com- 
 mission and from brokerage ! The thing was in itself worth 
 accepting, be what they might the conditions annexed to 
 it. I left my casket in Mavrocordato's custody, empowered 
 him to dispose of its contents to the greatest profit, and 
 even accepted, at his urgent request, of an apartment 
 under his own roof. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 3^5 
 
 Still he at first only ventured upon the performance of 
 the task, to which all this was preparatory, with a very 
 tender hand. He feared to excite my impatience of control, 
 or my jealousy of independence, and carefully ahstained 
 from all that might savour of the tone of a pedagogue, or 
 the authority of a parent. My well-bred host contented 
 himself with throwing out, when opportunities offered, such 
 delicate hints and such round-about insinuations, as left it 
 easy at my pleasure either to avoid their hitting, to take 
 off their point, or to let their whole weight fall unnoticed 
 beside me. 
 
 At last, however, Mavrocordato began to find out that 
 lliis overcautious way of proceeding did not advance his 
 purpose. Accordingly, he resolved upon a more open and 
 undisguised mode of attack. He now on all occasions en- 
 larged upon the reprehensibleness of my conduct, and the 
 danger of my evil courses; constantly represented me as 
 standing on the very brink of perdition, and never met me, 
 at home or abroad, without significantly shaking his head, 
 littering a deep groan, and inflicting upon me so vehement 
 a lecture, that, whatever he might say, I could never think 
 myself obhged to submit to the penalty of listening. This 
 new method, therefore, succeeded still worse than the 
 former. Instead of not heeding ray host, I now carefully 
 avoided his company. Though still nominally an inmate 
 in his house at Randilly, I was oftener to be found at the 
 furthest end of Constantinople : and, always out in the 
 morning before he came from his office, and seldom re- 
 turned at night ere he retired to bed, it was but on very 
 extraordinary occasions that I indulged him with the sight 
 of his very discreet guest. 
 
 A third plan of operations was then resorted to. In the 
 idea that the son, from less disparity of age, and greater 
 means of watching my behaviour, might succeed in the 
 scheme in which his father had failed, Mavrocordato now 
 committed the whole labour of my conversion to Spiridion 
 
326 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 This, undoubtedly, evinced a thorough confidence in ihc 
 steadiness of the youth. Even spotless purity might risk, 
 unless composed of very hard and impenetrable stuff, to 
 contract in the office of cleansing such extreme moral foul- 
 ness as mine a few unavoidable stains. 
 
 Independent even of the danger to which the purpose of 
 the father exposed the son* perhaps the son was the person 
 most unfit to forward the design of the father, I do not 
 mean on the score of insufficient interest in my welfare. 
 Far from it I — In the exuberance of life's early spring, 
 friendship strikes root too deeply in the soul, and entwines 
 itself too closely round every fibre of the heart, to be en- 
 feebled or broken by the vicissitudes of later life. The in- 
 timacies of that happy epoch, as they precede, also survive 
 all the more interested connexions of a maturer age ; and 
 Spiridion's early devotion to the companion of his child- 
 hood had not only kindled up anew, but again glowed in his 
 breast with all its pristine ardour. Spite of my manifold 
 failings, he loved me at Constantinople as he had done at 
 Chios : but the scope of his understanding, so greatly ex- 
 ceeding that of his father's, prevented his wishes for my 
 weal from being exclusively directed to the single narrow 
 point, in which centred all the views of iho latter. If he 
 more than emulated Mavrocordato in his sohcitude to see 
 me renounce my old sins, he was far from feeling equal 
 anxiety for my abjuring my new worship. 
 
 Spiridion had received from nature an expansive mind. 
 It had resisted all the contracting powers of a Greek edu- 
 cation. In vain might its glance be obstructed by the 
 opaque blinds of ignorance, its flights impeded by the leaden 
 trammels of prejudice : it could sec through the one, and 
 soar above the other. As greater efforts were made to hem 
 in on all sides his powerful faculties, they seemed only to 
 derive superior strength from their concentration, and to 
 break with more irresistible force through their insufficient 
 barriers. While, with all his canvas spread to ihc breeze of 
 
ANASTASIUS. 327 
 
 ihe passing hour, the father sailed down the muddy tide of 
 the fanar, the son would retire to his closet, there to im- 
 bibe long draughts of wisdom at the pure spring of philo- 
 sophy; and as, in a society where literary discourse is 
 despised or prohibited, men do not peruse books merely to 
 quote sentences, he found more leisure to ruminate upon 
 his reading, and to digest his volumes. Hence his under- 
 standing rose far above the level of his age and country : 
 for in those days modern Greece had not yet attained that 
 miraculous emancipation from the bondage of error and 
 superstition, so vauntingly set forth, I am told, by the P — *s 
 and the K — 's of the present enlightened period; and in the 
 more than Cimmerian darkness which surrounded him, 
 Spiridion was almost the only person I could have named, 
 with whom morality weighed more than dogma, and who 
 attached greater importance to inward goodness than to 
 outward practices. 
 
 His behaviour and his exhortations wore the stamp of 
 this peculiar frame of mind. He did not indeed say in ex- 
 plicit terms, * 'Those articles of faith, those forms of worship, 
 which affect not the heart, and influence not the conduct, 
 are of little importance;" — the deference he bore his father 
 forbade such a speech : but, while he more faintly urged, 
 and only in the tone of an irksome task, an ostentatious 
 abjuration of islamism, which might only rid the mosque 
 of a bad Moslemin, in order to throw a worse Christian back 
 upon the church;— while he deprecated with all his might 
 the scandalous spectacle of a man running backward and 
 forward between Mekkah and Jerusalem, between the cross 
 and the kaaba — sometimes kneeling to the one, and some- 
 limes prostrate before the other — while he ventured to be- 
 lieve that even a good Moslemin might still enter heaven, 
 though with different credentials and at a different gate, he 
 insisted, with all the strength of his faculties, and all the 
 warmth of his heart, upon those 'moral duties commanded 
 by the koran as well as by the gospel; he admiUcd of no 
 
328 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 mode of compounding for those actions on which depend 
 not only our own happiness, but the good or evil condition 
 of our fellow-creatures ; he ceased not to depict with all his 
 eloquence, and to urge with all his rhetoric, the beauty of 
 rectitude and the wisdom of goodness; nay, he spoke of the 
 charm which purity of mind and dignity of manners throw 
 over our sublunary existence with such earnestness and 
 such unction, as if he wished me to adopt them not from 
 cold conviction but from positive taste, and to regard my- 
 self as sacrificing my terrestrial happiness, not in adopting 
 but in rejecting the restraints of decorum and of principle. 
 Whether with some real foundation for his opinion, or only 
 from the partial medium of friendship and of gratitude 
 through which he viewed my character, he often would say 
 he observed in me a singular and romantic turn of mind, 
 capable of becoming as enthusiastic in the cause of virtue 
 as it had been unrestrained in the career of vice. He be- 
 lieved that the same energy and boldness which, while 
 wasted in fostering my evil passions, had made me seek 
 distinction in all that was profligate and base, when em- 
 ployed to resist their sway, might render me pre-eminent 
 in all that was exalted and noble; and he therefore felt all 
 that eagerness for enlisting me in the cause of moral ex- 
 cellence which was natural to one, who, himself wholly 
 devoted to its charms, wished to extend its empire by pro- 
 curing it a powerful new champion. It is true, the pro- 
 digious change in my disposition, from the extreme of ill to 
 the extreme of good, was a transformation which Spiridion 
 rightly considered as attainable only through immense ef- 
 forts; and he regarded the victory over my thus far un- 
 governable temper, the triumph over my hitherto irre- 
 sistible passions, as an achievement no less arduous than 
 it was desirable; but that very circumstance, by rendering 
 the success as glorious to the conqueror as it was beneficial 
 to the conquered, added a new stimulus to my friend's 
 exertions in my behalf. It made him feel a pride on his 
 
ANASTASIUS. 329 
 
 own account, as he felt an interest on mine, in the accom- 
 plishment of the task he had set himself: for he too was of 
 an ambitious mind, and more desirous of success in pro- 
 portion as success was more difficult. 
 
 The zeal which he felt from the first outset in his under- 
 taking still grew as he advanced in his labours — as the 
 very obstacles which he met with forced him to devote his 
 lime, his attention, and his powers more exclusively to his 
 favourite purpose — as, by keeping his mind more stead- 
 fastly fixed upon this single object, he weaned it more en- 
 tirely from all other pursuits; as, in short, by the pains al- 
 ready bestowed, he felt more committed not to cast them 
 away in a pusillanimous dereliction of his plan, ere he 
 reaped fruits worthy of his perseverance; and he toiled 
 with indefatigable zeal, until at last all his other views and 
 occupations yielded to that of my sole amendment; until 
 he devoted to my reformation alone all the facullics of his 
 understandino;, and all the ener2:ies of his heart; until he 
 no longer seemed placed by Providence on this globe for 
 any other purpose but that of making me a worthy member 
 of society; and until — almost working himself up, in his 
 honest enthusiasm, into a belief that he had been appointed 
 by the Almighty as my guardian angel — he held himself 
 responsible to his Creator and to his conscience for my 
 conduct, and bound by the very gifts he possessed to 
 devote his whole existence to the purpose of making mine 
 a blessing. To see me wise, to see me happy, and that 
 tbrough his exertions; nay, to sacrifice, if necessary, his 
 own repose and felicity on this globe to mine, became the 
 only bliss Spiridlon aspired to on this earth ! Indeed, so 
 fully had he identified his fate with mine, or rather, so 
 entirely had he reduced himself to the rank of the mere 
 instrument of my salvation — not indeed by mere faith or 
 even insulated deeds of goodness, but by an entire reform- 
 ation of my conduct — that, had the irrevocable decrees 
 of fate destined one of us only to be accepted among the 
 
830 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 host of heaven, I verily beHeve he would, with all his ar- 
 dour for excellence, have submitted to stoop to the bitter 
 fruits of sin, in order that Anastasius might not be the one 
 discarded from the realms of bliss eternal ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 With a temper such as mine, Spiridion was perhaps, in 
 spite of all his zeal — and I may add, all his abilities — the 
 person worst calculated, not only to succeed in the more 
 contracted purpose of his father, but even in his own more 
 extensive and more liberal desiga ; not only to obtain from 
 me a public and ostentatious return to my faith, but even 
 a more private, though more sincere, relinquishment of 
 my failings. 
 
 For in trulh, up to the moment when my young friend 
 undertook my reformation, what was I ? A being of mere 
 instinct; a child over which the cravings of the sense 
 still reigned uncontrolled; and which, like all children, 
 still acknowledged no subjection save to superior strength ; 
 still could be made to obey the voice of reason, or even the 
 dictates of caution, by no other means but those of phy- 
 sical compulsion; still must, as it were, have his submis- 
 sion to the rules of society and the requisites of the esta- 
 blished order rendered a habit through dint offeree, ere 
 it could become an act of choice ; but who, while thus 
 still weak in intellect, wholly matured nevertheless in bo- 
 dily might, nay, possessing with the mental imbecility of 
 childhood more than the ordinary corporeal endowments 
 of grown-up man, required to find even more than the or- 
 dinary gifts of body in olhcj surrounding individuals, ere 
 
ANASTASIUS. 331 
 
 he could be awed into an external allegiance to social in- 
 stitutions; and though he might, like other children, in 
 some degree be allured to good by the mere imitative bias 
 implanted in our natures, was only disposed to make those 
 members of society th^ models of his conduct, who had 
 begun by making themselves the masters of his imagination, 
 and to take counsel where he felt a previous deference for 
 the person of the counsellor. 
 
 And thus far, alas ! such had been the example and the 
 conduct of my chief associates as only to increase my natural 
 aversion from the shackles of civilisation, and my repug- 
 nance to the mere approach of those who bore them with 
 meekness. Gregarious indeed, though not sociable, I 
 loved not positively to prowl in solitary majesty through 
 the unreclaimed wilds of nature; I felt that some species of 
 companionship was unavoidable, even for the mere pur- 
 pose of assuaging the cravings of the sense; but, like the 
 rude tenants of the forest not yet themselves lured into sub- 
 jection by civilised man, I only loved to herd with other 
 beings equally wild, indocile, and unbridled; I shunned 
 every fellow-creature already entrapped in the snares of 
 society; and could only bear to appear linked by choice 
 with such as, ever prone like myself to deride every symp- 
 tom of order, and to despise every outward show of de- 
 cency, were not less anxiously avoided by the sober and 
 steady part of the community than the untamed lion or 
 the unbroken colt. Call it effrontery or bashfulness, te- 
 merity or cowardice, I only felt at ease, only thought my- 
 self safe as it were from the infection of contented slavery, 
 with men who bade defiance alike to the precepts of mo 
 rality and the injunctions of the law; and the more an in 
 dividual showed himself broken into a ready compliance 
 with all the requisites of social institutions, and fearful to 
 outstep any of the rules founded on mere opinion, the 
 more I dreaded and avoided him on that very scote as a 
 dangerous person, a coufcderalc in lh«'". great plot against 
 
332 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 ray natural righls and liberties, and a rancorous though 
 secret enemy, who only coaxed and caressed in order to 
 betray me to his associates, and to throw with more cer- 
 tainty the fatal noose round my neck. 
 
 Add to this that, still wholly averse from the most dis- 
 tant thoughts of quitting islamism, still elate with all the 
 pride of the turban, I shrunk from the idea of appearing 
 guided in any degree by one not like myself of the privileged 
 cast, and would sooner have seemed to take lesson or ex- 
 ample from a Turkish beggar than from a Greek archon. 
 
 Now, of the qualifications which a disposition, such as 
 that of the worthy individual here depicted, required in his 
 ghostly director, who possessed fewer, and, on the contrary, 
 of the attributes which must disqualify their owner for the 
 office of guiding a pupil of that description, who reckoned 
 more than my friend Spiridion ? Even in point of person 
 he wanted some of the conditions most indispensable to the 
 success of his undertaking. His figure was elegantly mould- 
 ed, indeed, but, far from possessing the size and strength 
 requisite either to support or to repress insolence, it was 
 rather under-sized; and the son of Mavrocordato appeared 
 by my side like the willow by the side of the cedar. Again : 
 his features were in as perfect a symmetry as Grecian blood 
 could bestow; but his countenance, unarmed with that 
 daring look which daunts the brazen stare of audacity and 
 defiance, habitually only expressed gentleness , nay timidity : 
 and if bursts of indignation or of rapture would sometimes 
 impart to it an air so commanding and so lofty as to awe 
 any being still under the influence of mind, its purely intel- 
 lectual power must nevertheless remain unacknowledged, 
 where, as in most of my associates, all was mere unmixed 
 matter. His manners too were elegant and refined: but 
 the more they breathed that elevation anddignity calculated 
 to charm a well-educated circle, the less they partook of 
 that coarse and vulgar assurance necessary to please men 
 of blunted feelings and a vitiated taste. Reserved instead 
 
ANASTASIUS. 383 
 
 of forward, he never had a chance of making the force of 
 reason silence the force of lungs; and too proud to be con- 
 ceited, too conscious of his worth to announce his claims 
 to notice, he was only, by people apt greatly to presume 
 upon nothing, and unable to understand a behaviour whol- 
 ly different, praised, if at all, for discreet and becoming 
 humility. 
 
 The sombre livery of Christianity too, by rendering my 
 friend a dark spot — almost a positive blemish — in the bril- 
 liant circles of islamism, increased tenfold every difficulty 
 of his arduous task : for while his modest exterior could not 
 prevent me, who knew his inward excellence, from fearing 
 his watchful eye, and feeling restrained by his observing 
 presence, it emboldened low-bred wretches to treat him 
 with a rudeness, the pain of which I shared. Hence, though 
 I could not but venerate Spiridion's character, I mostly felt 
 averse to his company, and, so far from meeting the ad- 
 vances of the too unexceptionable youth, discouraged his 
 assiduity. Sometimes, when he pressed me to make him 
 my associate and my confident, I used only to answer 
 jestingly, and say : ** How can I possibly live with you, or 
 introduce you to those with whom I live — you, who have 
 not one idea in common with them; whose very language 
 seems a different idiom, as unintelligible to them as theirs 
 is to you ; who stare at every unguarded expression, shrink 
 from every spirited proposal, and groan at every bolder 
 frolick : who stay at the door where others walk in, keep 
 watch where others slumber, and have the folly to be 
 wise where others have the wisdom to court folly !" At 
 other times I spoke more seriously, and warned the youth 
 in sober earnest against wasting his valuable gifts in the 
 fruitless attempt to reform one too long owned by sin to 
 shake oft' the allegiance. ** How can you, Spiridlon," would 
 I ask, '' with your excellent understanding, expect any good 
 from a wretch so thoroughly broken into every species of 
 evil, so suppled by long practice into every form of vice. 
 
334 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 SO loose in all his mental hinges, so dislocated in all his 
 moral joints, that all his inclinations turn with equal facility 
 toward wrong as toward right? The very transcendancy oi" 
 your merit, my all good, all perfect friend, leaves you a far 
 less chance of instilling in my corrupt mind the smallest par- 
 ticle of righteousness than might have nefallen a person of 
 inferior worth, less proudly soaring above my own level, and 
 whom I could have met halfway. You and I are too far 
 asunder in the scale of beings ever to come in contact together 
 cither in this world or the next/' And hereupon, in ord^r 
 to prove my assertion by illustrations taken from facts, and 
 toenjoy Spiridion's surprise andhorror, I would commence 
 the braggadocio of vice, and give my friend such details of 
 my iniquity as made him raise meekly to heaven his dark 
 expressive eyes; till, unable any longer to bear the re- 
 volting tale, he would start up, run tome, put his hand on 
 my lips, and supplicate me to spare at least him, if not 
 myself. 
 
 It was not long, however, before even Spiridion felt that 
 nothing was so inimical to the success of his scheme as a 
 forbidding fastidiousness, lie therefore tried to repress his 
 too evident disgust at the lone and manner of my habitual 
 associates, and to bring himself (in appearance at least) 
 more nearly down to their level. In short, he gave up his 
 refined pursuits and his regular habits, for the honour of 
 holding in my esteem the same rank with a set of bluster- 
 ing profligates. Upon the sublime principle of seducing 
 me to virtue, he became the patient witness of all my vices. 
 He followed me to those temples where Aphrodite wears 
 no veil, in order to preach to me decency; and more than 
 once, in the orgies at which he assisted, narrowly escaped 
 being the reeling victim to his own laudable fervour for 
 opening my eyes to the loathsomeness of intoxication. 
 
 Even this effected not the wished-for purpose. Liber- 
 tinism, as well as refinement, requires its apprenticeship. 
 It is not the allainment of a single day, and sits as awk- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 335 
 
 wardly on the wearer as faslidiousness, where — only stimu- 
 lated by the lips — it flows not from the heart. Wherever 
 Spiridion foHowed in my train, he failed alike to catch the 
 spirit of the place and the tone of the company. His best 
 attempts at extravagance only looked like demureness run 
 mad; and if his endeavours to set my gayer friends at their 
 ease had any effect at all, it was only that of making them, 
 whilst he was by, as cons^trained as himself. The moment 
 his name was announced, every countenance fell and every 
 lip was sealed up. Adieu from that moment to all that 
 lightness of heart, all that flow of spirits, without which 
 vice itself, only pursued with the dulness of a task, loses 
 its seductive gloss, and, for want of a brilliant exterior to 
 dazzle the eye, shows all its inward foulness. Instead of 
 rendering my associates pleased with him, Spiridion only 
 contrived to put them out of conceit with themselves. The 
 genuine sons of mirth and revelry dreaded the intrusion of 
 this false brother. Abashed at the mere sight of one to 
 whose manners they were strangers, and to whose be- 
 haviour they had no clue, they insensibly felt in his com- 
 pany — without themselves knowing why — their assurance 
 and boldness degenerate into a subdued and humble man- 
 ner. Not but that they strove to resist the novel influence. 
 Fearful lest in his presence they should appear to have lost 
 their wonted tone, they even talked louder than usual, 
 were wittier, made more jests, ironically wished me joy of 
 my new friend, and complained of his repartee as too much 
 for their dulness : but aside and by stealth, they frowned 
 at me for having brought an extinguisher among their jovial 
 troop; and I myself wished from the bottom of my heart 
 that Spiridion had remained a complete saint, rather than 
 that he should have become half a sinner, for no purpose 
 but to spoil all the sport of genuine honest rakes ! 
 
 But wliat of all this ! — Be a man ever so sturdy a hater 
 of all that is good and wise, stifl, if fated day after day to 
 witness in another the most unabaling solicitude for his re- 
 
386 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 formation, the most untiring efforts to allure him to virtue; 
 and these endeavours proceeding, not from interested mo- 
 tives, nor even from a wish to display superiority, but solely 
 from a desire the most ardent to procure his lasting welfare : 
 if, above all, forced to own that the symptoms of this soli- 
 citude, never shown in intrusive advice, irksome reproof, 
 and acrimonious censure, only appear in the keenest watch- 
 fulness, the gentlest persuasion, the most exulting looks at 
 each instance of success, and the most evident dejection at 
 every failure in the benevolent attempt, so as not even to 
 leave him a pretence to feign anger and to fly from his mo- 
 nitor — he must have in his composition materials even more 
 compact than mine to remain wholly impenetrable to so 
 flattering a testimonial, lurking under reproof itself; and 
 to feel no wish, however transient, that it should cost him 
 less to reward with an amendment in his manners so deep 
 a devotion: — he will in spite of himself repay such con- 
 stant sacrifices, at least by something more than cold and 
 unprolific gratitude. 
 
 It is true, no person, wont to combine cause and effect, 
 could expect that, in a vortex of unceasing dissipation, and 
 attracted by the voice of every siren, my heart, volatile by 
 nature, and by constant friction somewhat blunted in its 
 feelings, should return with equal intensity Spiridion's af- 
 fection. My regard necessarily must have intermittances, 
 display fits and starts, and be interrupted by intervals of 
 forgetfulness, nay of coolness. In the pursuit of pleasure 
 I would shun the sight of the young Greek; in the intoxi- 
 cation of enjoyment I would neglect his society; in the 
 phrensy of passion I would hide myself from his view as 
 from that of an unwelcome monitor : but still did his daily 
 converse here and there drop a seed of tenderness and com- 
 punction in my bosom; and this seed — often unheeded at 
 first, and resembling the corn which, in order to germinate, 
 must for a while be screened from the rays of that sun, 
 indispensable to its subsequent development — failed not to 
 
ANASTASIUS. n? 
 
 spring up, when his immediate presence no longer ob- 
 structed the more general survey of his noble conduct and 
 beneficent precepts* In the midst of the raillery at Spi- 
 ridion's expense, with which I tried to keep up the uncon- 
 cern and independence of my mind, I conceived for him a 
 real and deep-rooted attachment ; and though we rarely 
 associated together in my hours of joy, the moment I felt 
 the least grief or disappointment— the moment the faith- 
 lessness of a mistress, the treachery of a companion, or the 
 superciliousness of a grandee, cast the least cloud over my 
 happiness — I darted past all my ephemeral friends, to pour 
 my feelings and my sorrows into the bosom of their sole 
 legitimate depositary. From his lips alone I expected the 
 balm of consolation; and though long and distant were my 
 flights, still would I ever ultimately return to Spiridion's 
 arms, as the stork from the furthermost region of theglobe 
 returns constant to her wonted nest. 
 
 My growing regard for Spiridion, and.my admiration of 
 his worth, awoke in my breast the first cry of conscience, 
 and the first rising of shame. In the presence of my friend 
 I would sometimes repress the rashness of my temper, and 
 regret the violence of my passions. I blushed for the vices 
 in which I had formerly exulted. For the first time in my 
 life I took pains to excuse my errors, and laid down plans 
 for rooting out my ill-propensities. I went so far as actually 
 to meditate a general reform; nor did I at any time put 
 off the execution to a very distant period. If I carried not 
 immediately my good intentions into effect, if inveterate 
 habit frequently made me relapse into my evil doings, still 
 did I no longer find in the commission that zest, that unal- 
 loyed pleasure which used to attend them. I felt the bit- 
 terness of remorse follow the sweets of indulgence. So 
 great was the revolution in my sentiments, that it often 
 made me contemplate with envy the calm dignity of Spi- 
 ridion's life and occupations, which before I had treated 
 
 1. 22 
 
338 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 with contempt. Looking over him, when he would hurry 
 the completion of some nohle work, or lay by the pursuit 
 of some Interesting study, in compliance with my eagerness 
 for some low or trivial pastime, I often could not help re- 
 pining at the difference of our disposition. "Ah," said I, 
 "Spiridion; why was it not my fate to be brought up like 
 you ! — In me, too, nature had implanted many a rich and 
 varied germ. Cultivation might have made them expand 
 into all that was useful and beautiful. Fragrant blossoms 
 might have been grafted on my stock full of vigour and sap; 
 luxurious fruits might have adorned my branches; but, 
 alas ! I was born in a desert, I grew up remote from the 
 sunshine of civilisation, and I put forth only wild and 
 fruitless boughs, distorted by ceaseless storms, and casting 
 wide around them a drear and deadly shade !" 
 
 Nor was this all ! Whenever Spiridion parted from me 
 to go into the presence of his God, to prostrate himself 
 before his Maker, and to listen with devout attention to the 
 loud hymns sung in praise of his Saviour; whenever, in con- 
 junction with all his assembled countrymen, he addressed, 
 through the mediation of holy ministers, his supplications 
 to Heaven according to the forms of his forefathers, and in 
 that language which once had been mine; whenever, in his 
 doubts and perplexities, he derived comfort from perform- 
 ing the awful signs of his creed, and attending the sacred 
 rites of his ancient religion,! panted to follow him to the 
 place of my old worship, to kneel down by his side before 
 the holy doors' of the sanctuary, and to join in his ardent 
 and heartfelt devotions at the altar of Christ. I repined at 
 the solace he was receiving, and of which I had deprived 
 myself; regrelled that change which only permitted me 
 an open, a public, and a solemn approach to my Creator 
 and my Judge, in a strange house, under a spurious garb, 
 and in an idiom not my own; loathed the Moslem rites, 
 which, converting every act of devotion I panted to perform 
 
ANASTASIUS. :i;JO 
 
 into a solemn mammery, bereft my appeal of its earnest- 
 ness, my prayers of their unction, and my worship of its 
 sanctity; and secretly vowed — should I not be able im- 
 mediately to re-enter the pale of the church I had aban- 
 doned — at least some day before my death to compel the 
 holy gates to open to my supplications, and again to admit 
 within the dread precincts — now closed against the rene- 
 gade — my sighs of shame, of contrition, and of penitence ! 
 Thus did the gentle timidity of Spiridion end by making 
 a deep impression on my obdurate heart, and resemble the 
 frequent falling drop, which by slow degrees hollows out 
 the hardest stone. That empire over my will, which the 
 young Greek never would have obtained had he attempted 
 to assume the least authority, he, by an almost unreserved 
 submission to my own caprice, now for many an hour held 
 undisputed. 
 
 It is however true, that the utmost actual amendment in 
 my ways still remained prodigiously shoTt of ibe quantity 
 requisite to compose a particularly valuable member of so- 
 ciety. The effect of Spiridion's exhortations rarely went 
 beyond good resolutions : seldom did they ripen into actual 
 realities, at least of such a nature as to claim peculiar praise. 
 The occasions on which I expressed the strongest deter- 
 mination to become a new being were often those on which 
 I relapsed into some old sin more deeply than before. The 
 very contrition, however, which followed the misdeed, was 
 already in one who before gloried in evil a great step to- 
 wards good ; and the power in Spiridion to produce that feel- 
 ing, the sign of a vast hold obtained over my wayward soul. 
 How great, however, was the toil, how constant the watch, 
 ing of my friend to retain that feeble sway over my furious 
 passions, which he had with such labour acquired ! What 
 unceasing terror he felt lest my perverse instinct should 
 again recover its noxious preponderance over my still weak 
 and giddy reason ! How he trembled for fear of seeing me, 
 like a young tiger half-tamed, resume, at the faintest scent 
 
340 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 of blood or glimpse of the forest, all my sanguinary yearn- 
 ings and all my roving inclinations — break my fetters, re- 
 cover my ferocity, and forfeit all the fruits of my tedious 
 education I 
 
 And but too often still were all his sinister forebodings 
 on the point of being realised. But too often still would I 
 sigh at the remembrance of those days, when no monitor 
 from within checked the freedom of my will and actions; 
 when, if the voice of pleasure called, or the spur of instinct 
 urged, no second thought, no extraneous consideration 
 held me back ; when, above all, no subsequent reflection, 
 no dread of reproof embittered the image of the joys I had 
 snatched from the fleeting wing of time, and had made 
 mine ere age advanced to scare away their very shadow. 
 Often still would I say to myself — '* Because a little Greek, 
 who is neither my relation nor my master, happens to owe 
 to me his life, is he entitled to rob me of my liberty; or 
 because his mind is by nature's own ordination. so regulated 
 as without eflbrt or sacrifice to pursue a steady course, 
 must my soul, which that same nature has been pleased to 
 render fiery, impetuous, and without rule or measure, be, 
 through dint of the utmost violence, forced into the same 
 even pace?" Often, from feelings of contrition for my of- 
 fences, I relapsed Inlo feelings of indignation at the shackles 
 imposed upon my will. Railing at Spiridion for thwart- 
 ing my inclinations, and at myself for submitting to his 
 yoke, I only saw in the influence which he had gained over 
 my mind an usurpation, and in the restraint he put upon 
 my passions a tyranny. The fear I felt of his reproaches, 
 and the care I took to avoid his displeasure, no longer 
 seemed to me aught but a wanton surrender of my rightful 
 independence, a disgraceful prostration of my freedom, 
 which made me weep with anguish, or rather gnash my 
 teeth for very rage. ** Is it I — is it Anastasius," I exclaimed, 
 '*who suflers the silly and minute forms of society, like 
 the small but numerous threads and meshes of a net, to 
 
ANASTASIUS. 341 
 
 confine every limb, and to impede every motion? Is it I 
 who have lost all free agency, and like a puppet can only 
 obey the pleasure of another?" And at these mortifying 
 thoughts shame burned in my cheek, and anger sal quiver- 
 ing on my lips. 
 
 I then resolved to tear asunder my slight yet heavy 
 trammels, to assert my ancient freedom, and afresh to 
 roam at liberty. The passions, long restrained, again 
 broke loose wilh tenfold fury; and the act, intended to 
 manifest my recovered liberty, was always some extrava- 
 gance, far exceeding the most outrageous of my former 
 follies. 
 
 My friend, on these occasions, seemed lost in despair. 
 Breathless, except when now and then a deep sigh forced 
 its way from his inmost soul — like the slow bubble, which 
 rises from the very bottom of the seemingly motionless 
 pool — he hung his head in gloomy silence, while, proud of 
 my feat, and like the steed turned loose in the meadow, I 
 snorted, shook my mane, and looked round with taunting 
 eye,* until, after a certain time, the effervescence of my 
 blood again subsiding, I returned to a sense of my folly, 
 felt contrition for my excesses, and blushed at my bravado. 
 Then again I execrated my ungovernable temper, beat in 
 anguish my throbbing breast, convulsively grasped my 
 friend's retiring hand, and, by confessing how little I de- 
 served it, in the end obtained his forgiveness. Spiridion, 
 who the moment before had renounced all hopes of my 
 reform, now again began with fresh ardour to toil at his 
 chimera. 
 
 The father's less pertinacious dream had meanwhile 
 wholly subsided. Spiridion might still expect some day to 
 bring me to the path of virtue; Mavrocordato clearly saw 
 that he was not the person destined to lead me back to the 
 porch of the church. He almost began to think it possible, 
 that instead of his son's reclaiming me to Christianity, I 
 might end by seducing his son to Mohammedanism. At 
 
34-2 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 any rate, he now deemed a familiar intercourse with a 
 personage of my description as equally injurious to the 
 sober habits of his family, and to the commercial credit of 
 his house. He first endeavoured to intimate this new opi- 
 nion to me by a studied coolness and reserve, totally dif- 
 ferent from his former cordiality. Unluckily, as I never 
 had courted his favour, I heeded not his change of manner, 
 nor considered the caprice of the sire as a reason for with- 
 drawing my countenance from the unoffending son. Mavro- 
 cordato therefore was at last obliged to be more explicit. 
 
 I had one evening made myself rather conspicuous at 
 Kandilly. The next morning, as I was sitting with Spiri- 
 dion, in walked his father, who had staid from his office 
 on purpose. He inquired very civilly after my health, 
 hoped I had not caught cold, and then apprised me, in 
 terms polite but peremptory, that his occupations no longer 
 permitted him to manage my property, nor his views to 
 cultivate my society; returned me the remains of my de- 
 posit, which my frequent draughts had greatly reduced: 
 presented me with an exquisitely penned abstract of my 
 account, which he begged me to approve at my leisure ; 
 recommended to me to seek more complying friends and a 
 more convenient lodging; and, taking his leave, wished 
 me all manner of happiness. 
 
 However politely Mavrocordato's compliment might be 
 turned as to the form, I could not help thinking it very rude 
 as to the matter. His behaviour seemed to me both unfair 
 and unhandsome. In fact, was I the one that had made the 
 first advances to this purse-proud merchant? or had he, 
 on the contrary, first sought of me a renewal of intimacy? 
 He might have left me alone if he had chosen. I asked 
 not of him any attention — I expected not any civility : I 
 should have been perfectly contented if the accidental 
 meeting had ended, as it had begun, in the market-place. 
 But to invite me to his house, to press upon me his hospi- 
 talities, to admit of no denial to his sohcitations ! — and all 
 
ANASTASIUS. 313 
 
 this only in order that he might end ihe farce by turning 
 me out of his surly door, at which I hardly ever had cared 
 to present myself; and that without the least preparation 
 or warning! — It was what I could not brook, and what I 
 promised myself some day to resent. Meantime, I de- 
 termined not to trespass another instant on the forbearance 
 of one so anxious to recall his bounty, and, spite of all Spi- 
 ridion's entreaties that I should at least stay the night, and 
 all his endeavours to convince me that his father could not 
 mean things as I understood them, I walked out :— nor 
 did I, until launched into the very middle of the street, 
 stop to consider how I was to dispose of my person and my 
 casket. Then, indeed, I felt a little at a loss, and could 
 have liked to walk in again. But this my pride forbade. 
 I had not ruminated half a minute before I wondered 
 how I could have felt any embarrassment at all. Within 
 a stone's throw of Mavrocordato lived the fittest person to 
 succeed him as depositary of my fortune and director of 
 my actions : namely, his most rancorous enemy; an Arme- 
 nian, and a cashier, who hated him with all the cordiality 
 of one whose commercial schemes had been less successful 
 than his own. There was no species of mischief which 
 the envious Aidin had not attempted to do his more fortu- 
 nate or more skilful neighbour. First, he had endeavoured 
 to ruin him by representing his wealth as a mere fabrication. 
 Unable to succeed this way, he took the contrary method, 
 accused him of being too wealthy, and laid snares, no 
 longer against his credit, but against his life, by tracing his 
 opulence to a treasure of a beheaded visier, found con- 
 cealed in his garden. But he was fated to be foiled alike 
 in his most opposite attempts at mischief. For when, in 
 order to circumstantiate his evidence, he showed the of- 
 ficers of the fisc the place in the Greek's garden, where 
 from his window he had with his own eyes seen him 
 dig out the ponderous chests, filled with gold and jewels, 
 something more ponderous was found still unrcmovcd; 
 
344 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 namely, such an immense and continuous stratum of solid 
 rock, as, without being great mineralogists, the very mi- 
 nisters of the haznd judged to have lain there undisturbed 
 since the flood. 
 
 Now the personage who had been at all these pains to 
 stamp himself a rogue was the one whom I sagaciously se- 
 lected for the depositary of my money : — nor shone my 
 judgment less conspicuously in disposing of my person. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 My worldly affairs thus prudently arranged, I attended 
 to my spiritual concerns, and, to compensate for not eating 
 caviar during the Greek lent, fasted with all becoming re- 
 gularity during the Turkish ramadan. Every one knows 
 how trying that month is to the temper of the stanch Mo- 
 hammedan. As long as the sun lingers above the horizon 
 he dares not refresh himself with the least morsel of food, 
 the least drop of liquor, or even the least whiff of tobacco. 
 His whole occupation consists in counting his beads, and in 
 contemplating the slow moving hand of his time-piece, until 
 the moment when the luminary of the world is pleased to 
 release him from his abstinence, by withdrawing its irksome 
 orb from his sight. Sufficiently disagreeable as the month 
 of the ramadan might appear for every purpose of salvation, 
 even when it falls in winter, its unwelcome intrusion seems 
 absolutely invented for the destruction of the Moslemin 
 species, when the precession of the lunar months brings it 
 round to the longest and hottest days of summer. It is 
 then that the Christian, rising from a plenteous meal, if he 
 has common prudence, avoids all intercourse whatever with 
 
ANASTASIUS. 345 
 
 the fasting Turk, whose devoul stomach, void of all but 
 sourness and bile, grumbles loudly over each chance-medley 
 of the sort as over malice prepense, rises in anger at the 
 supposed insult, and vents its acrimony in bitter invec- 
 tives. 
 
 Sometimes a demure Moslemin may be seen looking 
 anxiously round on all sides, to ascertain that he is not 
 watched. The moment he thinks himself unobserved, he 
 turns the corner of some of the Christian streets of Pera or 
 Galata, and ascends the infidel hill.' Led on, as it were, by 
 mere listlessness from one turn to another, the gentleman 
 still advances, till perverse chance brings him just opposite 
 a confectioner's or a pastry-cook's shop. From sheer ab- 
 sence of mind he indeed steps in, but he buys nothing. 
 Allah forbid ! He only from pure curiosity examines the 
 various eatables laid out on the counter. He handles, he 
 weighs them, he asks their names, their price, and their 
 ingredients. What is this? What do you call that? Where 
 does that other come from ? What huge raisins these are ! 
 Thus discoursing to while away time, he by little and little 
 reaches the inner extremity of the shop ; and, finding him- 
 self at the entrance of the recess, in which by mere ac- 
 cident happens to have been set out — as if in readiness for 
 some expected visitor — a choice collection of all that can 
 recruit an exhausted stomach, he enters it from mere 
 thoughtlessness, and without the least intention. Without 
 the least intention also, the pastry-cook, the moment he 
 sees his customer slink into the dainty closet, turns upon 
 him the key of the door, and slips it into his pocket. Per- 
 haps, he even goes out on a message, and half an hour or 
 so elapses ere he remembers his unaccountable act of for- 
 getfulness. He however at last recollects his prisoner, who 
 all the while would have made a furious outcry, but has ab- 
 stained, lest he should unjustly be suspected of having gone 
 in for the purpose of lasting the forbidden fruit. The 
 Greek unlocks the door with every expression of apology 
 
316 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 and regret; the Turk walks out in high dudgeon, severely 
 rebukes the vender of cakes, and returns home weaker with 
 inanition than ever. But when the pastry-cook looks into 
 his recess, to put things in order, he finds, by a wonderful 
 piece of magic, the pies condensed into piastres, and the 
 sugar-plums transformed into sequins. 
 
 I suppose my new banker suspected me of sometimes 
 dealing in this unlawful sorcery, and wished to destroy the 
 transmutations in their very source. He disappeared with 
 my casket. On the twentieth day of the ramadan I found 
 myself with a tremendous appetite, five sequins in my 
 pocket, and not a farthing elsewhere. 
 
 Ever since my final exit from Mavrocordato's house, Spi- 
 ridion had kept completely aloof from me, and I had not 
 once seen my till then inseparable friend. That he was a 
 dutiful son, I knew; that he would not openly fly in the face 
 of his father, I had expected; but I was not prepared to 
 find that, where his friend was concerned, he would con- 
 form to his parent's orders with such rigid punctuality. It 
 mortified me ; and, as prompt as ever to value things only 
 when forbidden, I now began to long for the youth's com- 
 pany: *' After all, how preferable," thought I, ** was his 
 society to any other ! What information he possessed, 
 what knowledge he imparted ! How full of resource was 
 his mind, and of variety his conversation ! How different 
 from the empty rattle of men whose ideas never moved out 
 of a single narrow circle, and whose efforts at jocoseness 
 absolutely sickened with repetition. How many more acute 
 observations on life at large he used to make, who only 
 seemed to view its storms and whirlwinds from a remote 
 estuary, than those who sailed down its fullest tide. The 
 very reflection of his excellence cast a lustre upon those 
 who were placed within its influence. They felt greater 
 self-esteem from being in his company;" — and I could not 
 forgive myself for so wantonly forfeiting what was so va- 
 luable in itself, and yet so wiHingly bestowed ! 
 
ANASTASIUS. 347 
 
 Still, if even prior to the loss of all that I possessed I 
 had felt too proud to seek one who shunned me, it may 
 well be supposed that since that event I should more than 
 ever spurn all attempts at renewing the intercourse. How- 
 ever great might be my distress, I would rather have thrown 
 myself upon the generosity of an absolute stranger than 
 upon the kindness of a forgetful friend. 
 
 Whatever I might have imagined, such a friend the son 
 of Mavrocordato was not born to be. Two days had scarce 
 elapsed since the retreat of the Armenian, when, as I lay 
 despondingly on my couch, who should I see standing be- 
 side me, like a cheering vision, but my still true Spiridion! 
 The disappearance of the banker had soon been published, 
 and amply commented upon, in the commercial world, 
 Spiridion knew my little property to be in his hands. He 
 had immediately inquired into my circumstances, and, ap- 
 prised of my ruin, had come to my relief. 
 
 His pecuniary offers he found me unwilling to accept. 
 *' Your friendship, Spiridion," cried I, '*is dearer to me 
 than ever; but away with your purse ! It offends my eyes. 
 I love you too well to become your debtor." 
 
 ** Selim," replied the son of Mavrocordato, *' if that which 
 affection bestows demands a return of gratitude, believe me, 
 it is too late to escape the irksome burthen. You are al- 
 ready too deeply in my debt for all the anxiety you have 
 cost me. In the scale in which your reformation has out- 
 weighed all consideration of my own repose, in which your 
 welfare has preponderated over all my worldly interests, a 
 handful of paltry gold is but a speck of dust — an atom void 
 of weight I" 
 
 I felt the truth of this speech, bade my foolish pride be 
 silent, and accepted the money. ** This gift," exclaimed 
 I — clasping the purse with both hands, and placing it next 
 my heart — *'will enable me to prove that your friendship 
 has not been thrown away; that the seeds you toiled to 
 sow, though slow to rise, have sprung up at last : their fruits 
 
3i8 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 will soon appear. Henceforth, Spiridion, I tear from my 
 tosom every root of evil : henceforth I renounce all the 
 pleasures of vice; henceforth I become a new man, thy 
 boast, thy credit, and thy glory !" 
 
 These words, the first of the sort which my friend had 
 ever heard me utter, sounded in his ears like music from 
 heaven. Tears of emotion started from his eyes ; he em- 
 braced me with convulsive rapture. What more could he 
 wish for? His long-sought triumph was complete; and, 
 like men on the morrow of a victory, which terminates a 
 toilsome war, we had only to sit down and discuss at leisure 
 the new plan of life, suitable to my new resolutions. Upon 
 this we enlarged as upon a delightful dream— soon to be 
 realised, till, fearing to stay longer, Spiridion at last rose 
 to tear himself away from me. 
 
 Evening was stealing on, and darkness beginning to let 
 loose all the hounds of hell that shunned the light of day. 
 It was scarce safe for Spiridion to return home without 
 some escort. ' * Stay, Spirro," said I ; * ' this once let me be 
 permitted to accompany you. Even your father, just now, 
 I am sure, would wish to know me by your side." — Spiri- 
 dion consented. 
 
 Our way lay by a cofTee-house, the favourite resort of 
 those against whom more domestic doors were shut. On 
 the threshold stood lounging a boy — the son of a capidjee^ 
 of the Porte — with whom I had already once or twice had 
 a tiff. Achmet was his name, insolence his profession. 
 His behaviour had made him thepestof thewholeneighbour- 
 hood. As soon as he spied us: "What," cried he, *Mhe 
 old inseparables again risen from the dead ! See how the 
 hound lugs the hog by the ears !" At these insulting words 
 I felt the blood rush in my face ; rage convulsed my whole 
 body : I grasped my handjar; but at the same instant the 
 remembrance of my recent promise to my friend flashed 
 across my mind; and, smothering my indignation, I silently 
 hurried on. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 219 
 
 Spiridion, who had turned pale with anticipation of the 
 consequences that might arise from so grievous an insult, 
 observed the struggle in my bosom : *' Anastasius," said he, 
 " I see all, and I thank you. But suffer me to pursue my 
 way alone. In the land where my ancestors held the 
 sceptre, I am become thy reproach.'* 
 
 ** What, Spiridion," replied I, *' when you come to save 
 me, I leave you in danger I I leave you exposed to the insult 
 of the bigot, and the blows of the ruffian ? Never !" — And 
 spite of my friend's entreaties, I continued by his side 
 until his own door opened to afford him safety. I then 
 pressed his hand, bade him farewell, and returned my own 
 way. 
 
 The lateness of the hour quickened my pace. In the 
 most lonely part of the road I overtook Achmet, likewise 
 on his way home — and passed, without seeming to notice 
 him, by the swaggering coxcomb. 
 
 His sagacity had construed into fear tny preceding en- 
 durance. Accordingly, his insolence only derived fresh 
 increase from this conduct. ** Coward," exclaimed he, 
 **you run too fast for me to take the pains of pursuing 
 you : but I depute this messenger to give you my errand;" 
 and on my looking round to see what he meant, I felt a 
 huge stone graze my ear. But for the motion of turning 
 round my head, it must have broken my jaw. 
 
 Human patience could endure no longer. I faced the 
 ruffian. Each lifted his hand, but mine was the dagger 
 which went first to the heart. My antagonist fell without 
 a groan. I paused a while — but he had ceased to breathe ! 
 Raising the lifeless body, I threw it over a wall into an ad- 
 joining cemetery, and walked off. 
 
 No mortal had beheld the conflict; but the prior provo- 
 cation had had all Kandilly for its witness. What the 
 darkness of the night a while concealed, the dawn of the 
 next day could not fail to bring to light ; and lo no one but 
 
350 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 me would the deed be imputed. Aehmet indeed was 
 abhorred, but his parents were respected. HaTing there- 
 fore much to apprehend from the law, and little means to 
 purchase justice, I determined not to try which would carry 
 ihe day. 
 
 Still, however, before I abandoned for ever the vicinity 
 of my only friend, I determined to see him once more. 
 By another way I ran back to his house. For the first time 
 since his door had been shut against me, I knocked. He 
 recognised my hand. It was the signal I used to give, 
 when, coming in late from my evening rambles, I feared 
 to disturb his father. He himself opened to me. 
 
 **Spiridion," said I, ** but an hour ago, I pledged all I 
 could pledge to make you witness in me an entire reforma* 
 tion. Alas, it is no longer time ! I only return so soon to 
 bid you adieu for ever. Forget me; forget a wretch whom 
 his ill fate pursues : and thank heaven that you thus are rid 
 of one on whom misfortune has set its special mark !" 
 
 I then told him what had happened; mentioned where I 
 meant to go; and imploring the Almighty to shower on my 
 tender, my last, my only friend, his choicest blessings, 
 once more pressed to my arms the companion of my child- 
 hood, and broke away. 
 
 But little time was requisite to deliver over the few arti- 
 cles I left behind me into the care of my hostess, to saddle 
 my horse, and to ride to Iskiudar.^ There I crossed the 
 channel, entered Constantinople just at the dawn of day, 
 and traversing its long and still empty streets from end to 
 end, went out again at the gate of Andrinople, across field 
 and common gained the western road, and about the middle 
 of the day reached the town of Rodosto. 
 
 In this out of the way place I thought myself safe, at 
 least for a few hours; and feeling much fatigued, went to a 
 kind of coffee-house, asked for a private room, and lay 
 down on the floor to take a little rest. I had scarce begun 
 
ANASTASIUS. 351 
 
 to doze, when I was suddenly roused by a loud knocking, 
 and by a sort of rumour immediately ensuing, of which I 
 seemed the object. 
 
 I listened, though without gelling up, and for some time 
 could only confusedly make out inquiries on one side, and 
 answers on the other. At last one sentence distinctly 
 struck my ear, uttered by some one of the party within — 
 ** He is up stairs and alone :" it sufficed for my information. 
 Nothing could be more evident than that my exploit had 
 been discovered, and my footsteps traced. The only thing 
 now left for me to do was to sell my devoted life as dear as 
 possible. Already was* the posse hurrying up stairs, and 
 approaching my door. I drew my yatagan, and cried out 
 with all my might, ** Whoever enters, dies !" — but such 
 was the noise outside, that my threat remained unheard : 
 at least it was not heeded. The door burst open : in rushed 
 my pursuer, and down fell my sword — upon my own Spi- 
 ridion ! 
 
 The sight of my friend had not been able entirely to stop 
 my uplifted arm ; but it broke the force of the blow. The 
 weapon fell innocuous, and Spiridion, at first quite breath- 
 less, and unable to utter a syllable, by degrees recovered 
 his breath, sat down, and spoke as follows : 
 
 *< You are surprised, Anastasius, to see me again : but 
 listen. When last night, after your departure, I lay down 
 — amazed at what had happened — to reflect upon your 
 conduct andmy duties, I persuaded myself that, among those 
 contending in my breast, the more recent obligations con- 
 tracted towards a friend ought to yield to the prior claims 
 of the parent; and confirmed myself the more in this idea, 
 as all my wishes leaned the other way. The struggle indeed 
 between inclination and reason was long and fierce; but at 
 last I began to conceive a hope that the impulse to follow 
 you,atfirst almost irresistible, had been entirely conquered. 
 In vain, however, I sought repose — in vain tried to close 
 my eyes in sleep ! My mind found no rest, and a feeling of 
 
35'2 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 inexjiressible anguish Invaded my body. While I lay, op- 
 pressed by an insuflerable weight, but unable to stir and 
 throw it ofF, my door gently opened, and, without the least 
 noise, a form glided in, which approached my bedside. It 
 was that of my departed mother — of her whom I loved, and 
 lost the first ! 
 
 *^ * My son,' it said — looking sternly in my face, and 
 with an air of settled melancholy, which thrilled me to the 
 heart — * vows of gratitude are recorded by angels, and only 
 demons blot them out. He who at this moment — breaking 
 the solemn silence of the night — with his horse's heavy hoof 
 shakes the ground over my head, Saved thy life at the risk 
 of his own, in days that seem forgotten. For the more 
 daring act of saving it a second time, a second time his own 
 is threatened — not by nature, but by man. In return for 
 his first deeds of love, my son, thy very father already made 
 thee promise to regard him as a brother; and thou wouldestj 
 now that their sum is doubled, leave that brother to perish, 
 as a lonely, friendless outcast!' 
 
 **IIere the dread shade ceased to speak. But much as 
 I tried to answer, I had not the power. My jaw was of stone, 
 and my tongue cleaved to my palate. The vision disap- 
 peared. A loud clap like thunder shook to dust my ima- 
 ginary fetters; I started up — and obeyed the voice from 
 heaven." 
 
 Spiridion said no more. I looked at him in astonishment. 
 *' Is it you," I cried, **my friend ! — you, till now so inac- 
 cessible to every form of superstition, — that canst mistake 
 the dream of an agitated mind , or the night-mare of a suffering 
 frame, for a voice from above ? Ah ! ere you give way to 
 such delusions, reflect but one moment on what may be the 
 consequence. Consider who you are, and what destinies 
 await you. Remember that on you depends the happiness 
 of an affectionate parent, and the preservation of a noble 
 family ; that for you are reserved the respect of dependants, 
 the wealth of relations, and the honours of the world : think 
 
ANASTASIUS. 353 
 
 that I, on the contrary, am a wretch, ruined in fortune and 
 in fame, rejected long ago by his friends and family, now 
 renounced by his fellow-citizens, and proscribed by the 
 laws of his country : then say yourself that between us no 
 further society can subsist, no common interests can be 
 maintained; that far from offering to follow my fate, it is 
 your business to fly from my society as from a pestilence, 
 and to avoid the contagion of my breath, which must at 
 last involve all who remain within its reach. I myself could 
 not allow you to barter your advantages against my wretch- 
 edness ; could not permit the sufferings of my friend to in- 
 crease the sins already on my head : I myself must implore 
 you to remember your now grieving father, and to forget 
 for ever the lost, the miserable Anastasius." 
 
 *' Cruel friend!" replied Spiridion, '* talk not to me of 
 the world. Was I ever elate with its blandishments, or soli- 
 citous for its distinctions? My father, indeed but who 
 
 more earnestly than he urged at all times my prior duty to 
 my God? Who oftener dwelt upon the paramount sacred- 
 ness of the engagements contracted with heaven ? Let then 
 the vision I beheld have been real, or have arisen only 
 within my own heated brain ; still has it spoken what I must 
 accomplish; still dare I not desert my brother. Since then 
 heaven wills you to go, I must not stay behind. Under 
 Hassan's banners my friend purposes afresh in Egypt to 
 pursue the path of fame. Well! with him I may go; 
 with him I too may run the race of glory ! We shall fight 
 side by side. Perhaps I may some day save your life, as 
 you once saved mine. Perhaps, vouchsafed the bliss to 
 shed my blood for my friend, I may die on his bosom the 
 death of the brave ! — or if Providence should guard us both, 
 should permit both to live — triumphant with thee, I shall 
 with thee return, and with thine lay my laurels at my exult- 
 ing father's feet 1 Does not Mavrocordato himself, prizing 
 his son's elevation beyond that son's existence, destine me 
 I. 23 
 
i54 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 lo those high ollices, whose approach is over daggers, and 
 whose end is the how-string? Thus already inured to dan- 
 ger ere I enter my career, already armed with martial re- 
 nown ere I encounter my rivals, I shall with greater confi- 
 dence commence the struggle, and with greater vigour con- 
 lend for the prize — sought by a father's ambition under a 
 son's borrowed name !" 
 
 **No, Spiridion," answered I, "it shall not be! In 
 accompanying me, thou goest not to renown : thou goest 
 only lo disgrace, perhaps to perdition. Thou assumest'tho 
 appearance of my accomplice. Thou coverest with dis- 
 honour a thus far spotless name. Thanks to my conduct, 
 I am alone in the world ; I belong to no one but myself; 1 
 am a twig torn from its stem, that strikes no root, and bears 
 no blossom. My existence goes for nothing in the sum of 
 earthly things : my lonely fate involves no other destiny ! 
 The weed of my sterile existence any one may pluck up, 
 may tear, may cast upon a dunghill — and no loss be felt, 
 no regret expressed, no cognisance taken of the deed ; no 
 tear, save by thee, shed over my remains, nor any flower, 
 save by thee, planted on my lonely grave ! Of what im- 
 portance is it where I may wander, or what may become 
 of me ? But thou, to plunge headlong from the summit of 
 earthly blessings into the abyss in which I already lie pros- 
 trate; thou, to mix thy fair name with the foulness of 
 mine..., no, no, it cannot, it shall not be !" 
 
 Here the young Greek's tone and manner changed at 
 once entirely. *' Anastasius," cried he, with a rage so con 
 centrated that it almost looked like calmness; *'you may 
 spurn me from your side, you may proceed without me : 
 
 but mark the consequence I return to Constantinople, I 
 
 go before the judge, and, in the face of ihe whole public, 
 I proclaim myself what I am — the murderer of Achmet!" 
 
 It now became evident that emotion and fatigue, acting 
 on a susceptible frame and a mind always exalted, had 
 
ANASTASIUS. 355 
 
 produced in Spiridion that degree of excitement which 
 rendered further opposition dangerous. I thought it best 
 for the present to give way; bowed, and submitted. 
 
 On my first arrival at Rodosto, I had desired my horse 
 might be sold for me, and a boat hired to continue my 
 journey. In their excessive zeal for my service, the good 
 people of the house had parted with my steed for half his 
 value, and had taken a barge at double the usual fare : but it 
 was not a time to mind minute miscalculations. The boat- 
 men were waiting; I stepped in, and Spiridion followed. 
 Before the sun had set, the wind, in conjunction with the 
 current, carried us out of the boghaz into the open sea. 
 
 Just as we launched into the wide basin of the Archi- 
 pelago, the sun's brilliant disc was majestically dropping 
 behind the distant peaks of Athos, whose gigantic and in- 
 sulated mass, alone dimly beheld soaring above the silver 
 wave, looked like the huge spirit of the deep, emerged from 
 its dark caverns to survey its domain. With the last de- 
 parting rays of the orb of day also died away the breeze, 
 leaving the liquid plain as smooth as a mirror. 
 
 The monotonous stroke of the oar, falling upon the 
 waters in slow and steady cadence, now remained the only 
 sound which broke the universal silence, and insensibly 
 its solemn and regular return disposed me to ruminate on 
 my portion of life already wound off. 
 
 **How whimsical a thing," thought I, *• is man's immu- 
 table destiny ! How variously seem contrasted its most 
 proximate vicissitudes, and yet how intimately are linked 
 its furthest incidents : by how many anterior minute and 
 hidden agencies is often irresistibly produced the last and 
 sole ostensible cause of the weightiest events ! How en- 
 tirely is the will that seems spontaneously to urge us on an 
 unavoidable offspring of circumstances wholly independent 
 of that will, since they are prior to the very existence of 
 the being whom it sways I A fair form arises in Damascus; 
 and this form, just caught by my eye from a distance as it 
 
 23* 
 
35{> 
 
 ANASTASTUS. 
 
 flits away — this form, never before or since belield, makes 
 me throw down a Frank on the step of the mosque, crop a 
 friar's beard in a barber's shop, seek refuge from the go- 
 vernor of a province in the vortex of the capital, incur in 
 protecting an old friend the insolence of a stranger, rid the 
 world of a ruffian for threatening my own life, and again 
 abandon Stambool to fly ... . God only yet knows to what 
 remote part of this ill-conditioned globe ! 
 
 ** How fearfully above all blood begets blood ! Had I not 
 many years before slain a Greek under the walls of the ca- 
 pital, I should not have spilled mamluke blood under the 
 battlements of Cairo, nor, by a recoil as distant as the first 
 impulse, again have shed Turkish blood in Constantinople's 
 suburbs. 
 
 **But stay : — in this filiation of slaughter was I entirely 
 passive? Had my own temper no share in the sanguinary 
 parentage? Did not the untowardness of my own disposi- 
 tion give fertility to otherwise barren circumstances? If at 
 one time I durst have owned a friend, at another could 
 have pardoned an enemy, at a third have held \h the 
 contempt which he deserved a silly coxcomb ; had not the 
 treble generation of murders been stifled in the birth? the 
 causes that brought them forth remained childless? and 
 the black offspring wasted away in the vast womb of 
 time? 
 
 *'True, indeed ! — But that /f, the indispensable condition 
 of the more favourable alternative; what prevented ils 
 growing into a reality ? What mixed up with my temper 
 those fiery, those combustible ingredients, always ready to 
 explode, to silence my reason, and to raise my hand ere 
 my mind could check the blow ? — was it myself? Certainly 
 not; for if, at my outset in Hfe, the option had been given 
 me, how gladly would I have received, instead of a bias to 
 evil and its bitter fruits, an inclination to good, and its 
 beneficial consequences ! 
 
 **But to whom," I exclaimed inwardly, ''is such an 
 
ANASTASIUS. 857 
 
 option granted? In whom does not the incHnation pre- 
 ponderate either on the side of good or evil, only accord- 
 ing to the examples beheld, the lessons taught, the cir- 
 cumstances experienced, the very constitution inherited 
 from parents, and the elements imbibed from climate and 
 from food, prior to the first dawn of individual volition? 
 However prone man may be to think himself endowed 
 with free agency, as soon as his actions correspond with 
 his own wishes; however much he may forget that those 
 very wishes are not free ; however much he may regard 
 his will as spontaneous, from its being often so nicely 
 poised between agencies so numerous, so complex, so mi- 
 nute, so intimately connected with every most distant 
 prior circumstance, that it yields irresistibly to impulses of 
 which the precise period, and place, and boundary, and 
 existence even cannot be definitely recognised : it is not the 
 less true that — unpossessed of the smallest component par- 
 ticle of body or of intellect, of will or of knowledge, of 
 sensation or of thought, which, if his Maker be really the 
 sole creator, upholder, and mover of the universe, is not an 
 emanation from, a part of that very Maker; incapable of 
 performing the most trifling or conceiving the most tran- 
 sient desire, which, if there be a single first cause of all 
 sensible effects, does not proceed originally from the ex- 
 press will of that first cause alone ; liable to no temptation 
 of which the first seeds have not been sown by that first 
 cause itself; and fraught by that first cause alone with the 
 strength which resists, or the weakness which yields to 
 their blandishments — man is, from his first breath unto his 
 last, as wholly passive an instrument in the hands of Provi 
 dence as the insentient plant, or the unorganised mineral; 
 conforms as fully to the irresistible decrees of heaven in 
 doing what is blamed, as in performing what is praised; 
 becomes guilty of as flagrant an act of rebellion to his ruler 
 in attempting to dccHne the task of evil as that of good set 
 down for him; or rather —where he most fancies he rebels 
 
358 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 against, still most implicitly obeys that ceaseless ruler; and 
 leaves heaven itself as exclusively accountable for the mis- 
 chiefs of the moral world as it is for those of the mere phy- 
 sical creation,— for the destruction caused by conquerors 
 and statesmen, as for the havock produced by earthquakes, 
 floods, hurricanes, famine, and pestilence. To eat and be 
 eaten by each other is the business assigned us here below 
 by our Maker himself: and, much as I may regret the 
 greatness of my appetite, how can I more restrain it tban 
 the wolf or the vulture ?" 
 
 At this somewhat disheartening period of my reasoning, 
 a new light flashed suddenly upon me. It struck my sub- 
 lime intellect that, if Omnipotence had not merely per- 
 mitted, but had itself positively ordained, on this transient 
 globe of wailing, good to be still mixed with evil, produc- 
 tion with destruction, knowledge with error, and happiness 
 with suffering, this ordination was only a more palpable 
 effect of Almighty goodness than any other apparently 
 more desirable disposition could have been : — that so far 
 from this temporary conflict of interests and passions being 
 decreed for the cruel purpose of punishing the man who 
 yields to temptations which need not have assailed him, it 
 was in reality only with the benevolent design of teaching 
 creatures, all destined for ultimate felicity, through the 
 means of some intervening sufferings, that which a state 
 perfect from the beginning could not have taught, — name- 
 ly, the eternal difference between evil and good, igno- 
 rance and knowledge, misery and happiness : in order that 
 they might thus, through the unceasing comparison of their 
 opposite effects, more forcibly feel, when attained, the inef- 
 fable bliss of that new existence, where good is to be freed 
 from evil, and joy to reign without the alloy of pain. 
 
 But man will never be satisfied: — for even in this ar- 
 rangement (liberal as it seemed upon the whole) I still per- 
 ceived a clause at which to cavil. I still thought that those 
 ill- fated wretches, selected, as it were, fromtheir very birth. 
 
ANASTASIUS. rJS 
 
 and wholly without their consent, for the purpose of serv- 
 ing through the mischiefs they were doomed to perform* 
 and the miseries they were destined to suffer, as examples, 
 as warnings, as foils to the rest of mankind, might have 
 reason to complain of partiality in the decrees of Provi- 
 dence, at least during its present temporary dispensations ; 
 unless, indeed, as seemed fair, these unfortunate evil- 
 doers in this world were to he made adequate amends in 
 the next, by an additional share of rewards and of glory. 
 But, as I was not at all sure of such a compensation being 
 intended; as, on the contrary, I almost feared that there 
 might still be in store for these unfortunates, even here- 
 after, a sort of fiery process, for the sole purpose of puri- 
 fying and bringing them to the precise standard of perfec- 
 tion, requisite to associate with the elect by right of birth, 
 I began to feel wroth at being myself (as I suspected) 
 among these pitiable wretches, forced to perform all man 
 ner of mischief for the general benefit; repined at the morti- 
 fying part allotted to me on this vilely got-up stage, and 
 Avholly lost what little patience I thus far had evinced in 
 following up my cue. In short, I determined no longer to 
 forfeit the certain for the uncertain, but immediately to 
 throw off my compulsory character, and, whatever pu- 
 nishment I might incur for my disobedience, forthwith to 
 become a very pattern of virtue, in spite of heaven itself! 
 
 But, alas ! I found there is no contending with the powers 
 above : I soon discovered that the scheme which I was 
 meditating is more easily planned than executed. Spiri- 
 dion, whom till that moment I had looked upon as my 
 good demon, as the angel appointed to guard me from evil, 
 was in reality the spirit destined to scare me from good. 
 Perceiving the strong labour in my mind, he set aside his 
 usual caution, and, in the mistaken idea of availing himself 
 of the propitious moment, commenced so dark a picture 
 of my vices ere my virtuous resolves were well matured, 
 that my self-love — that infernal and ever watchful sprite— 
 
SCO ANASTASIUS. 
 
 suddenly felt alarmed, flapped its raven wings, and took 
 the field. At once the current of the salutary reflections 
 spontaneously sprung up in my breast became totally stop- 
 ped, by the fear lest my companion might think me subdued 
 by a sense of my forlorn situation. Angrily interrupting 
 his lecture — **I agreed," cried I, *'to the society of a 
 friend, not to the admonitions of a preceptor. It is unfair 
 to get me into a small boat out at sea, in order to pursue 
 me with lectures from which I cannot escape I" 
 
 This sally^ though it made Spiridion smile, still left me 
 ruffled; and a little after, when my friend, after spreading 
 out our little provision, looked for a knife to divide it, 
 I offered him my handjar, still crimsoned with Achmet's 
 frothy blood. He said nothing, and only turned away his 
 head: but as he leaned over the side of the boat, I saw 
 big round tears drop into the waves. Night, meanwhUe, 
 had stolen on, and our little silent skiff, filled with mourn- 
 ing, and encompassed by darkness, looked like the barge 
 which carries to the regions of wailing the souls of the 
 damned. 
 
 The hours of darkness passed without further discourse ; 
 but early in the morning Spiridion, thinking me more 
 calm, ventured on what he called another appeal to my 
 reason. The very word deprived me of what hltle I had 
 left. *' Appeal to my affections," exclaimed I: *'bid me 
 do one thing or leave another for the love I bear you, but 
 talk not to me of reason. I hold the cursed gift in ab- 
 horrence. It is the source of all our errors, the mother of 
 all our mischiefs. The brute, who has only instinct to 
 guide him, is sure to -act right: but human beings, with 
 their miserable reason, are always acting wrong, and 
 acting wrong through the persuasions of that reason itself. 
 For, if they are liable to evil passions of which brutes have 
 no conception; if they experience avarice, and ambition, 
 and pride — those feelings most fertile in crimes and in 
 havoc among the human species — to what do they owe this 
 
ANASTASIUS. 361 
 
 unfortunate distinction, but to the impulse of a reasoning 
 faculty which happens to mistake its way ! And if they 
 have been able to accomplish mischief beyond what brutes 
 could have imagined; if they have succeeded, for instance, 
 to double on this globe, through such inventions as printing, 
 cookery, and gunpowder, the three evils of infidelity, dis- 
 ease, and premature dissolution, what again have they to 
 thank for the advantage but their inestimable reason ? It 
 is no doubt in mercy to the human species, that, of all its 
 baneful faculties, that of reason, on which it prides itself 
 most, should have been made to develope the last, and to 
 slumber the oftenest." 
 
 ** I suppose, then," said Spiridion, **it is only for fear of 
 appearing too reasonable that you, who do not think your- 
 self accountable to heaven, and, indeed, are not over nice 
 how you act by your neighbour, yet make your neighbour 
 pay so dearly for any injury he may attempt to do you?" 
 
 '* Listen," replied I, with becoming gravity. *' As to the 
 duties between manandman, if my life or happiness depend 
 upon the bread, or money, or jewel which happens without 
 my consent to be in my neighbour's hands, assuredly I do 
 not see why I should so far prefer his interests to my own 
 as to leave them there, if I can do better for myself. Upon 
 the same principle I defend against my neighbours what 1 
 already have gotten ; and, as I ward off impending injuries, 
 so I retaliate injuries received, in order to prevent a repeti- 
 tion; but in all this I feel no ill-humour towards my neigh- 
 bour, allow him a complete reciprocity of rights against my- 
 self, and, though I should even occasionally find It neces- 
 sary to kill, in order to settle whose right shall prevail, 1 
 presume not to blame, and think myself not entitled to 
 punish." 
 
 '* Indeed!" cried Spiridion archly; "and when would 
 you, pray, first think chastisement lawful?" 
 
 **As soon," answered I, "as, by an express, or even 
 lacit, but acknowledged agreement between certain indivi- 
 
36*2 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 duals, each had ceded to the rest his natural indefinite 
 right over their persons and properties, in return for other 
 definite concessions at once more restricted and more 
 advantageous; and had voluntarily submitted to certain 
 penalties on infringing this agreement." 
 
 ** Well said !" exclaimed my friend; **you have described 
 the social compact — the source of every law, the cement 
 of every stale; and since you not only have acknowledged 
 its sacredness but subscribed to its terms, by claiming its 
 support both as subject and as ruler, what more have you 
 to do but henceforth to abide, while this empire subsists, 
 by all its stipulations?" 
 
 Here I rubbed my eyes, "Am I alive," cried I, ** and 
 awake; and do I hear a Greek, and under the yoke of the 
 Turks, talk of a social compact — of an agreement intended 
 for mutual benefit, support, and protection, as of a thing 
 actually subsisting; as of a thing that should regulate his 
 conduct to his masters ? Ah ! had I only discovered the 
 faintest trace of any such agreement between Christianity 
 and islamism, and had I found, in those for whose security 
 it was framed, the least disposition to enforce its terms and to 
 resist its infraction, who would have been more proud than 
 myself of remaining a Greek, of standing by my oppressed 
 countrymen, and of maintaining the glorious struggle to the 
 last drop of my blood ! But it was because in these realms 
 the contract,^ if ever it existed, had been perverted, or 
 rather had been torn, rent asunder, cast away ! because my 
 countrymen , as if fascinated by the despot's crooked ci- 
 pher, bad in their own hearts preferred implicit submission 
 to the restoration of an obliterated text, and, not content 
 with themselves going quietly to slaughter, when I claimed 
 their defence, only bade me do likewise, that, no longer 
 either benefited or bound by the broken engagement, I left 
 the community from which 1 in vain expected support for 
 that from which I hoped for ejl'eclual protection, — until, 
 iHjually disgusted with the brutal stupidity of the rulers as 
 
ANASTASIUS. 363 
 
 with the servile apathy of the ruled, and seeing in every 
 system, whether of conquered or of conquerors, equal dis- 
 organisation and ruin, I at last resolved to resume my rights 
 of nature, and the primeval slate of warfare against all worth 
 attacking !" 
 
 Here Spiridion looked, or pretended to look, as if he 
 thought he might be among those entitled to that distinction, 
 and would now gladly have rid me of his company if he 
 could. That being impossible, he vouchsafed to answer 
 me. **Men," he cried, '*so violently enamoured of their 
 natural liberty, or rather license, should at once remove 
 themselves from the pale of civil society; nor disturb those 
 who are satisfied with what tkey disapprove." 
 
 "Spiridion," I replied, '*that is easily said; but is it as 
 easily done ? Far as that society has spread its insidious 
 snares, has it so much as left a single small spot on earth, 
 where those yet unborn, who should dislike its partial regula- 
 tions, may find room to retire to the enjoyment of their birth- 
 right? Or, if there be any such asylum remaining in the 
 wilds ofTartary or the wastes of America, has not society, at 
 any rate, so monopolised all the means of disentangling one- 
 self from its mazes, as to render the gaining these blissful 
 abodes next to impossible? Must we not possess land cara- 
 vans, or vessels, licences, and passports, even to fly to the 
 loneliness of the desert, together with a strength of body and 
 of mind, of which the social institutions take care to deprive 
 us ere we suspect their dangerous power ? They cut our 
 claws, they clip our wings, and then they cry out with a 
 smile of derision : **poor pinioned eagle, fly if thou list !" 
 The man who is not •wealthy can only escape from society 
 through the gales of death. Nor does he every where, I 
 am told, dare to approach even these boldly and honestly. 
 He must, in some countries, smuggle himself out of the 
 world by stealth, and embark for his journey under false 
 colours, lest his body be made accountable for the roving 
 disposition of his soul!" 
 
364 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 Ill this sort of conversation did we while away our lime 
 in the boat. I knew that some of my arguments could not 
 Lear minute scrutiny; but I felt less solicitous to seek the 
 shortest road to truth, as it must abridge our discussions, 
 and leave us to all the irksomeness of a passage, which 
 grew more tedious in proportion as our sentiments became 
 less discordant. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 After a coasting voyage of three or four days, some 
 •ominous appearances in the sky made us veer about, and 
 enter that most beautiful of harbours, Port Calon6, on the 
 island of Mitylene, where the olive tree, growing almost 
 out of the sea, again dips its boughs in the tide which laves 
 its roots. '*Had it not been written," exclaimed I, as we 
 stepped ashore, '* that this brain of mine should be stewing 
 under a huge turban, instead of freely venting its super- 
 fluous heat from under a slight scull-cap, what a fine op- 
 portunity there would now be, midway as we are between 
 Ihe three hundred rich friars of Nea-Moni,' and the three 
 thousand poor friars of Agios-Oros, to turn thrifty myseli', 
 and exchange the thoughtless prodigality of the sinner, who 
 stakes eternal happiness against a few years of jollity, for 
 the calculating conduct of the saint, who inflicts upon 
 himself just enough of privation and 'torture in this life to 
 purchase a perpetuity of bliss hereafter! Or again, had it 
 been written that you should wear the turban at, well as 
 myself, how profitably we might spend our lime in this 
 boat, slashing our arms and legs, in order to mix our blood, 
 and ever after to be bound to each other both in body and 
 soul, and sure of a companion in hell as in heaven ! But I 
 
ANASTASIUS. - 26!i 
 
 wrap my brains in muslin, and you in sheep-skin : and so 
 our souls must, whelher they choose or not, after their 
 emancipation, go miles asunder; and while they remain in 
 this earthly bondage we have nothing to do, since we 
 cannot pass our lives rowing through the Archipelago, but 
 to consider how we may dispose of our persons to the best 
 advantage, or, at least, where we may convey them with 
 the smallest inconvenience." 
 
 ** Ail this," said Spiridion, **I suppose you are already 
 fully determined upon, in your own mind?" 
 
 *'I am," was my reply; **but still I want your advice. 
 You must know, that, in my humble opinion, this eternal 
 capitan-pasha, whom I am for ever talking of and wailing 
 for, may be longer going to his new harvest-field than my 
 poor old father to his last home; and therefore, as we are 
 approaching my native island, and the attraction begins to 
 operate, I should like, wind and weather serving, with so 
 many sins on my head and so many enemies at my heels, 
 to crave my sire's last forgiveness and blessing. It would 
 lighten my burthen, and strengthen my soul, which sickens, 
 and wants such a cordial." 
 
 My motives for visiting the fior dl levante'^ silenced all 
 Spiridion's objections to going where he himself still had so 
 many connexions. We agreed to cross the mountains 
 which separated us from the town of Mitylene, and there 
 to hire a swifter vessel for the remainder of our journey. 
 Like Orestes, I was to wander about from place to place, 
 trying to expiate my guilt; while Spiridion, my Pylades, 
 had nothing to do but to watch me, in easel went mad. 
 
 Arrived in the city and on the quay, the first figure that 
 struck me was a person, like myself going to embark, of 
 whose features my mind seemed to retain a faint remi- 
 niscence. On closer examination, I found the gentleman 
 to be an inhabitant of my native town; upon which I ac- 
 costed him, and inquired the news of Chios. Eight or nine, 
 years had altered my features considerably more than his, 
 
0,06 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 of which the already long fixed wrinkles had only acquired 
 a liltle more depth and sharpness. He therefore answered 
 me as a stranger. His account was not the less minute; but 
 throughout the whole narrative not a syllable was men- 
 tioned of the only thing I cared about, namely, my own 
 family, which somehow I had expected would have figured 
 foremost. At last, losing all patience : **And Dimitri 
 Sotiri," said I, ''what may he be doing at this time?" 
 
 **You come from distant parts, sir," answered the gen- 
 tleman, smiling agreeably; ** otherwise you would know 
 that Signor Sotiri has been dead this fortnight. I myself 
 attended the funeral, and a noble one it was; more 
 sweetmeats consumed than at half a dozen weddings ! But 
 you turn pale, sir ! Is any thing the matter with you?" 
 
 ** Nothing, nothing," cried I, trying to contain myself, 
 '*but a little giddiness to which I am subject ;" and laying 
 hold of a post for my support : **Who," resumed I, 
 ** carried the body?" 
 
 •* His two sons, of course." 
 
 ** There was a third." 
 
 *'Ay, so there was; and though absent in person, 
 present enough in name. Sotiri talked of no one else 
 during his illness." 
 
 '*What was it he said ?" 
 
 **Why, faith! that is what nobody can tell. Constan- 
 tine and his brother maintained it was all raving." 
 
 '* Has that third brother been heard of?" 
 
 ** Troth I people talk differently. Some say he is a great 
 man — a bey of Egypt; others, a positive beggar at Con- 
 stantinople. An acquaintance of mine, a man who seldom 
 speaks any thing but the truth, swears he met him the 
 other day in one of the streets of Galata, all in rags, and 
 absolutely begging charity. My friend was going to give 
 it in the shape of good advice, but the spark said that was 
 not what he wanted, and turned away. As to his brothers, 
 ihey report all that is bad of him. Their father never 
 
ANASTASIUS. 367 
 
 could silence iheir tongues; and though it is likely enougli 
 that all they say is true, yet every body cries * shame' to 
 hear people talk in that way of their own blood. It is 
 what should be left to strangers. With the mischief they 
 have made, it may be as much as his life is worth for Signor 
 Anastasius — or Selim, as they call him — to show his face 
 among us. The Turks' fingers itch to throw the first stone 
 at him, as much as those of the Christians : although they 
 say he is a hadjee, and has been to Mekkah. But none 
 need fear his trying to come to Chios. I'll lay my life on 
 it he is dead long ago J" 
 
 *• No," exclaimed I — as if suddenly awaking from a deep 
 trance, and grasping the affrighted talker by the wrist; — 
 **he is not I and since you are going to Chios, and may be 
 glad to carry a piece of news, tell them Anastasius slill 
 lives ; tell them they soon shall see him ; and tell them he 
 comes to resent his wrongs, and to claim his rightful pro- 
 perty." 
 
 Spiridion, alarmed at this sally, interrupted the conver- 
 sation. Taking the Chiole by the left hand, while I slill 
 held him tight by the other, he pointed to his boatmen, 
 who were making signs of impatience at his delay. No- 
 thing he wished for so much himself as to be gone. Disen- 
 tangling his hands hastily from our grasp, he gave us an 
 awkward half- strangled salutation, and sped to his barge. 
 
 As soon as he was out of hearing : "Is this," said Spiri- 
 dion, shaking his head, **the way in which a son should 
 mourn for his father?" 
 
 I could only stammer out, * * My brothers, my brothers !" 
 Spiridion let the first emotion pass; and when he saw 
 me more composed, spoke as follows:- 
 
 "I see, Anastasius, you slill meditate some outrage; of 
 what nature I know not, nor wish to hear. But of this I 
 think it right to apprise you : if, impressed with a sensti 
 of all the forbearance you stand in need of yourself, you 
 
368 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 show equal lenity to your kindred ; if, forgetting every in- 
 jury, you only appear among them to speak words of peace ; 
 if, ahove all, you renounce every advantage bestowed by 
 the partial laws of islamism, you have my friendship for 
 ever : I bind my fate to yours, until the hour of death. 
 But if, on the contrary, you only return to your country to 
 insult the ashes of your father, to devour the little substance 
 of your brothers, and to justify the disgrace stamped in 
 your birth-place on your name, I stay here, I leave you to 
 run your race of shame alone, and I abandon for ever all 
 solicitude about your welfare !" 
 
 **Spiridion," answered I, *'you know that covetousness 
 is not the vice of my heart; but do you blame just resent- 
 ment? Do you wish calumny to remain unpunished?" 
 
 ** And are you then so irreproachable," asked the son of 
 Mavrocordato, *' as to leave so much room for injustice in 
 the reports concerning you, and to render every unfavour- 
 able representation of your proceedings an unbearable ca- 
 lumny? But be that as it may, promise to do what I ask, 
 or be content to see me withdraw on the spot from the pain 
 of witnessing your future errors, and the disgrace of sharing 
 in your yet unborn crimes." 
 
 **I will not," replied I, '*bind myself by a promise. I 
 should appear to have taken the engagement, unmindful of 
 its weight; and only to fulfil reluctantly an irksome task, 
 because I had unguardedly pledged my word to perform it. 
 I wish at least to acquire all the merit of acting right, by 
 retaining the power of acting wrong. Only go with me as 
 far as Chios. When there, should my behaviour offend 
 those whose notions of justice differ from my own, it may 
 not still be too late to leave me." 
 
 **Then once more go we on !" cried my friend, in a tone 
 half confident, half fearful; '* once more be the day yours ; 
 but beware 1" 
 
 I now si re wed ashes on my turban, took the gloss of 
 
ANASTASIUS. 369 
 
 newness off my glittering vest, and put on the signs of 
 mourning. After this we engaged another boat, and in a 
 short time reached our destination. 
 
 There was no necessity in Chios to announce my arrival. 
 On my very first landing I found every minor topic eclipsed 
 by the more important subject of my speedy coming. Al- 
 ready had my brothers found means to stir up the whole 
 town against the renegade: already was every inhabitant 
 up in arms, to prevent him from reducing his nearest 
 kindred to beggary. So loud was the cry of defiance, that, 
 on stepping ashore, I found it expedient to go straight to 
 the mekkiem^. Safe in the hall of justice, I had my bro- 
 thers summoned. 
 
 Spiridipn did not know what to think of my proceeding. 
 Questioned by his anxious looks, I made signs for him to 
 remain silent; but though he unclosed not his lips, it was 
 easy to see his heart trembled between hope and fear. 
 
 For my part, without giving the least hint of my inten- 
 tions, without noticing the crowd collected to survey my 
 person and to watch my behaviour, without satisfying the 
 curiosity or correcting the errors of the bystanders — who 
 aloud, at my very elbow, imparted to each other their sur- 
 mises — I stood haughty, unmoved and silent, waiting the 
 appearance of my worthy pair of brothers. 
 
 At last they made their entrance ; and never certainly 
 did men take less trouble to conceal the ill-humour they 
 felt at seeing an unexpected relation. Without deigning 
 to address me even in the words of anger, they went and 
 took their station on one side of the hall, while I stood on 
 the opposite side. There— pale, sullen, dejected, and now 
 and then casting upon me a louring look of mingled rage 
 and despair — they awaited, without uttering a word, the 
 legal injunction to surrender the paternal estate. 
 
 I own that for some time I enjoyed their dismay. It 
 was the only pleasure which they could afford me. Having 
 indulged in it till its zest evaporated, I at last broke the 
 
370 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 long protracted general silence. ** My brothers," said I, 
 *' you are aware of my clainas upon you ; and you likewise 
 are conscious of your conduct to me. In your own minds, 
 therefore, you dare not cherish the smallest particle of 
 hope, that I should surrender in your favour any portion 
 of my right. Yet what you dare not expect, I, of my own 
 accord, perform. I here publicly relinquish my privilege. 
 Take each your third of the paternal property ; and only 
 leave me that portion which would have belonged to me as 
 a Christian, and which I can but ill spare. That done, 
 mourn for your sins, and repent of your injustice." 
 
 To describe the effect which these words produced on 
 the audience would be impossible. Those who before con- 
 sidered me as a devil incarnate, now of course regarded me 
 as an angel from heaven. The hall resounded with loud 
 applause. Nothing was heard but praises of my generosity ; 
 and my brothers themselves, stunned by so unexpected a 
 turn in their situation, were reluctantly forced to join in 
 the general cry. They thanked me, but in such a way as 
 made it doubtful whether they more rejoiced at recovering 
 their property, or more regretted retracting their abuse. 
 
 I took no notice of their coolness, but, leaving the mek- 
 kiem^, went straight to the paternal house. My progress 
 looked like a triumphal march : all that had witnessed my 
 behaviour in the hall of justice, and all whom we met on 
 the way, joined the procession. Having reached the steps 
 of the mansion, I turned round and saluted the company. 
 In its turn the assembly honoured me with fresh cheers, 
 intermixed with a few observations on my brothers, which 
 at least showed that they were not overlooked. I expressed 
 my unmixed gratitude, both in my own name and in theirs; 
 and retired to a private chamber, where I was glad to sit 
 down and rest my wearied mind. 
 
 While every one else had been loud in praise of my con- 
 duct, the son of Mavrocordato alone had not uttered a 
 syllable. As soon as we were by ourselves, he threw his 
 
ANASTASIUS. 37 1 
 
 arms round my neck, and attempted to speak : hut In vain I 
 His emotion was too great for utterance. He could only 
 gaze on me with overflowing eyes. To see his Anastasius, 
 who thus far had caused him nothing but anguish, had 
 afforded him no employment but to conceal his errors, .ill 
 at once become the theme of universal admiration; to find 
 his friendship thus justified, his perseverance thus rewarded 
 — what a moment for his feelings ! Even while speechless 
 for want of breath, his exulting look seemed to say, ** Well, 
 my friend, are you sorry or ashamed now that you fol- 
 lowed my advice ?" 
 
 If, however, Spiridion's first thoughts were for his friend, 
 his second were for his father. Till that moment, a more 
 urgent subject of anxiety had occupied his mind. This 
 being set at rest, he took up the other. ** Ah, my tender 
 parent," exclaimed he, " why cannot you witness my suc- 
 cess, or rather your own ! For I act in your name; I but 
 accomplish your vows. Alas! while I triumph, you still 
 remain In anguish. Yet shall you not suffer longer than a 
 grateful son can help." 
 
 Hereupon, he proposed to go out, and inquire for the 
 means of sending a letter. Already he had despatched a 
 few lines from Rodosto, to make his father easy respecting 
 his disappearance. On my agreeing to the thing, we went 
 forth. As we crossed the esplanade of the castle, I per- 
 ceived a dark cloud gather on my friend's brow. His eyes 
 seemed to dart out of his head, and to remain riveted on 
 the quay. I turned mine the same way, but saw nothing 
 to account for Spiridion's perturbation. At last, changing 
 colour and pressing my arm : ** We are traced," he cried; 
 *'see Marco coming towards us!" This person was his 
 father's steward— an old and confidential servant. *'Let 
 us go," rejoined he, **and meet him. I have done nothing 
 for which I ought to blush." 
 
 Marco saw his young master advancing. He pressed on 
 
 2i * 
 
372 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 his feeble steps, and with a respectful salutation presented 
 a letter which he took out of his bosom. 
 
 Spiridion, with a trembling hand, broke the seal, and 
 read : then paused, ruminated, and read all over again. At 
 last, trying to speak with more composure than he felt: 
 ** Your instructions, Marco," said he, ** were to trace me, 
 to follow me, and to hand me this letter. Your commission 
 is performed. I have in a great measure answered my 
 father, by anticipation, from Rodosto : what remains I shall 
 go and complete. I now am able to convey the welcome 
 information that the adopted brother whom he committed 
 to my care is become worthy of his kindness, and, like me, 
 only wants his prayers and his blessings." 
 
 **Sir," answered Marco, in a firm but respectful tone, 
 **my instructions went further than you state. I am bearer 
 of letters to the despots,^ the bishops, and the proestis of 
 our different islands. They import that I am to see you 
 safe home. But even had I not received express orders to 
 that purpose, could I find the courage to reappear before 
 your worthy parent, unaccompanied by the son for whom 
 he grieves ? Ah, sir — ah, my dear young master ! — already, 
 from the anguish he has suffered, his precious life hangs by 
 a mere thread. Seeing me return alone would certainly 
 break his heart!" 
 
 "Hark ye, Marco," replied Spiridion, pacing backward 
 and forward in an agitation which almost bordered upon 
 phrensy : **my father gave me a charge which he cannot 
 recall at will. It was witnessed by heaven, and was re- 
 corded by angels! In conformity with his solemn com- 
 mands, and in compliance with my sacred promise, I have 
 toiled at my task. God knows I have not spared myself. 
 But on the eve of completion, I cannot, must not, give up 
 my work unfinished. On my head would lie, to the end of 
 time, the sins of a brother unreclaimed. If therefore you 
 urge me no further, but quietly return to Kandilly, I pledge 
 
ANASTASIUS. 373 
 
 my honour, nay, if you AVish it, I take a solemn oath, that 
 all on my part shall end to my father's ultimate satisfaction. 
 If you refuse me, the soul I stand accountable for shall not 
 be lost alone; two shall plunge together into ruin everlast- 
 ing. I run to the first mosque, and, whatever be the con- 
 sequence, may it fall upon your head !" 
 
 "Sir," replied Marco, ** I grieve at this issue of my 
 commission; but the will of God be done I Many years have 
 I lived under your kind roof, many an hour have I had you 
 in my arms, as an infant, as a child, as a boy. From the 
 day on which you first lisped the feelings of your affeclion- 
 ate heart, to that on which you left your home, never have 
 I known your promise fail. The word of Spiridion always 
 was that of truth I I therefore submit. I return alone; yet 
 may I hope you will deign to let me carry to your father a 
 few lines of comfort from your own beloved hands ? " 
 
 Spiridion, in running home to comply with the request, 
 only performed what he iiad already promised. I, mean- 
 while, remained alone with Marco, and availed myself of the 
 opportunity to question him respecting the reports of Kan- 
 dilly. They were more satisfactory than I could have hoped. 
 
 When, on the morning after my departure, the son of 
 the capidjee was found, already taking his last sleep in the 
 proper place, the public cemetery, no one suspected me 
 of being the universal benefactor who had introduced him 
 lo the silent, sedate sort of company, in which he for the 
 first time spent the night : inasmuch as he was notorious 
 for his outrageous conduct, and, at the time I met him, had 
 several other quarrels on his hands, much more public 
 than the one for which he deservedly suffered: but every 
 body agreed that whoever had taken the trouble of ridding 
 the neighbourhood of the nuisance rather deserved thanks 
 than blame. As to my disappearance, a sufficient cause for 
 it was charitably found in the very natural wish of a needy 
 adventurer to fleece a wealthy heir. 
 
 These particulars left me an opening lo return to Con- 
 
374 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 slantinople whenever I liked. I ran to relate llieoi to Spi- 
 ridion, ere he concluded his letter; and they relieved his 
 mind completely. He pledged himself soon to bring back 
 to his father two sons instead of one ; and, on this assurance, 
 old Marco took his leave. I proceeded to settle with my 
 brothers respecting the succession. 
 
 Had I quietly stepped into an undisputed property, and 
 found nothing to do but to mourn to my heart's content for 
 the loss of a parent, I would have fulfilled with the utmost 
 punctuahty all the observances of grief. Sadness really 
 possessed my soul, and I had constantly before my eyes my 
 poor father, in his illness wishing to see his Anastasius, to 
 forgive him, and to die in his arms — and perhaps, in his 
 last moments, and when I would have gone to the world's 
 end for his blessing, pierced to the heart by exaggerated 
 accounts of my unfeeling and incorrigible profligacy. But, 
 if mere business accords but ill with sorrow, nothing is so 
 sure to drive melancholy away altogether as strife and 
 bickerings; and my brothers were much too considerate 
 not to aflbrd me every distraction of this sort which they 
 could think of. Theirs was a malice which no kindness of 
 mine could assuage, nor no forgiveness blunt; and the mo- 
 ment my formal renunciation of their portions made them 
 conceive all cause either for hope or fear on my score at 
 an end, their ill-concealed hatred broke out again in all its 
 pristine virulence. They not only cavilled about every 
 most trifling article of the property, they even tried to 
 deprive of every degree of merit the act by which it was 
 restored to them : — they roundly asserted that I had only 
 been influenced by pusillanimity, and had only sacrificed 
 a part to make sure of the remainder. Constantine was 
 the Coryphaeus in every invective, as well as the leader in 
 every altercation. Eustathius, more indolent, contented 
 himself with giving his unlimited approbation to whatever 
 his brother (and that meant Constantine alone) thought 
 proper to do. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 375 
 
 Thus were all the ancient wounds, inflicted upon me in 
 my former visit to Chios, afresh torn open, and made to 
 fester. Spiridion tried in vain to interpose. He only got 
 for his trouble taunts from his antagonists, and reproaches 
 from me. **Why had he meddled at all? — why had he 
 made it a point with me to behave kindly to unnatural 
 brothers, whose injustice, but for his interference, would 
 have met with its deserts ?'* 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding my murmurings, did I to a 
 certain degree restrain myself; not from any real mode- 
 ration, but from the wish that my assumed forbearance 
 might encourage my adversaries to so extreme a pitch of 
 ill conduct, as to render its provocations evident to all the 
 world, and to justify any step prompted by my legitimate 
 resentment. Nor did this period seem far distant^ Whether 
 from an idea that they had daunted me by their haughty 
 tone, or from an absolute intoxication of brutality, they by 
 degrees cast away all pretensions to decency. The more 
 I forced myself to appear calm and composed, the more 
 they increased in the grossness of their insults. 
 
 All wondered at my patience; all beheld me with ad- 
 miration. When my brothers allowed themselves every 
 license of language, almost every latitude of gesture, all 
 stared to see me content myself with turning up my eyes to 
 heaven like a saint cast among savages. Even those least 
 acquainted with my irascible temper cited me on this oc- 
 casion as a perfect model of meekness and forbearance. He 
 alone, who, with unwearied vigilance, watched each change 
 of my countenance, and could penetrate each emotion of 
 my heart, was not to be deceived. One day, when Con- 
 stantino even exceeded his usual insolence, and I my cus- 
 tomary forbearance, I caught him expressing, by an almost 
 imperceptible shake of the head, his distrust of my tran- 
 quillity. His suspicions were spoken too intelligibly for me 
 to pass over. **What do you fear?" cried I, as soon as 
 my brothers were out of hearing. "Do you not see me 
 
376 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 laugh at their meanness ?" ** Ah !" reph'ed Splridion, fetch- 
 ing a deep sigh : **you may laugh with your lips; hut 
 laughter reaches not your eyes, and fell resentment rankles 
 in your heart." 
 
 My friend was right. Suppressed anger had already 
 curdled my hlood, and clogged the whole circulation of my 
 humours. Ere yet he had done speaking, a sudden shiver- 
 ing rushed through my frame, my teeth began to chatter, 
 and my limbs to shake. In an instant all my strength 
 seemed to forsake me. 
 
 Since my sojourn at Chios, I had resumed my old tra- 
 velling custom of carrying my pistols, duly loaded, in my 
 belt. Many in Turkey always wear them thus, when out 
 of the capital. As they now impeded my breathing, I took 
 them out, and laid them on the sofa. Scarce was I disen- 
 cumbered of my weapons, when my knees began to tremble ; 
 a dark curtain seemed to drop over my eyes — and I fell 
 senseless on the couch. 
 
 I continued some time bereft of all perception. On its 
 return I found myself stretched out at full length where I 
 had fallen, with all the accompaniments of one duly con- 
 victed of a decided and lasting illness. A regular physician 
 of the place was feeling my pulse, and going to pronounce 
 on my case ; and as my first return to my senses was marked 
 by a fierce struggle with my Esculapius, I was at once 
 judged to be in a violent delirium, and in imminent danger. 
 Sentence was pronounced accordingly, and every internal 
 medicine and every external application prescribed, which 
 could torture the human body and stomach. All the by- 
 standers conceived me to be in the agonies of death, and 
 civilly expressed their regret at the short stay I made among 
 them. 
 
 To myself these poHtenesses seemed premature. The 
 sudden transitions from heat to cold, the suppressed per- 
 spiration, the fatigue of body, and the anxiety of mind 
 during the journey, were quite sufficient, in my own opi- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 377 
 
 nion, to bring on a strong paroxysm of fever, without 
 death being the necessary consequence. I however deemed 
 it expedient to assent to all the doctor said, in order that 
 he might say no more. It afforded Spiridion an excuse 
 for turning out the company, and procuring me a little quiet. 
 He alone stayed to nurse me. 
 
 ** What a pity," muttered I to myself, when I thought 
 no one heard me, **that that last dose of the English 
 powders of mine should have been wasted in Egypt on that 
 traitor my father-in-law !*' Spiridion lost not a syllable of 
 the soliloquy. '* There are foreign vessels in the harbour," 
 he cried: — ** possibly they may have some;" and he imme- 
 diately ran out to inquire. 
 
 Meanwhile my brothers had received from the visitors 
 departed the agreeable intelligence of my being at the last 
 gasp. They hastened up to me, eager with curiosity and 
 hope; and finding my door ajar and unguarded, slipped in 
 with the least possible noise. I however had discerned 
 their steps on the stairs, and immediately, before they en- 
 tered the room, assumed the appearance of one in the act 
 of resigning his last breath. Constantino was the first to 
 approach. On tiptoe he came to my bedside, in order to 
 ascertain whether his joy was well founded, ere he gave it 
 full scope. With that laudable view he examined me most 
 minutely from head to foot, raised and let fall my arms and 
 legs, moved his hand before my eyes, put his ear to my 
 mouth, first addressed me in a low whisper, then audibly, 
 then shouting with all his might, as if he suspected I might 
 not be in earnest. 
 
 Most manfully did I stand the whole ordeal. Nothing 
 could make me wince or move a muscle; and my affec- 
 tionate brother at last acquired the grateful conviction, 
 that, if not quite dead yet, I had at least already lost all 
 perception, and could not fait soon to depart for ever. He 
 no longer delayed conveying the agreeable intelligence to 
 the discreet Eustathius, who, the hindmost on all other oc- 
 
378 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 casions, on this also had not ventured beyond the door, 
 and there stood, in breathless expectation, waiting the 
 result of the scrutiny; and perhaps also watching the con- 
 dition of the outposts. 
 
 **Stathi," said Gonstantine, with a sort of subdued ex- 
 ultation; ** there is some warmth still about him — but 
 depend upon it he cannot last!" 
 
 **Ahl" exclaimed the wary Stathi, shaking his head, 
 ** worse than he, I fear, have recovered!" and he fetched 
 a deep sigh at the thought. 
 
 *'True," answered Gonstantine; ''and as we are alone, 
 and have every presumption in our favour, why not make 
 sure work, and crush the snake at once !" And so saying, 
 he laid his hands on my throat, and attempted to strangle 
 me. 
 
 This was doing things in a grand style ! — not stopping at 
 half measures. I conceived for my brother a veneration 
 unfelt before; almost thought it a pity to interrupt him in 
 his spirited proceeding, and would have let the farce go on, 
 could I, at its conclusion, have revived at my own pleasure. 
 That not being the case, I was reluctantly forced to notice 
 the intended favour, and, weak as I felt, to defend myself 
 as well as I could against my two stout assailants ; for Stathi 
 too had now advanced to lend a hand : and it was evident, 
 that having once begun, they would not, if they could any 
 way help it, leave their noble work unfinished. 
 
 My fire-arms lay concealed, but within reach. With one 
 hand I seized Gonstantine's wrist, and with the other a pistol : 
 *' Ah, brother ! ah, fiend !" I cried — and fired. 
 
 Never yet had I missed my aim, even when I held not 
 my prey in my grasp. But at my first sign of life Gonstan- 
 tine had started, and, content to leave his jubbee in my 
 possession, had disengaged his person. My hand, besides, 
 trembled with the effects of the fever — perhaps even with 
 some instinctive sense of the dire office it was performing, 
 and—the miscreant only received the ball in his shoulder. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 379 
 
 Uttering a dreadful yell, he made a spring at the door, 
 and darted out. Ere I could find my other pistol, Eusta- 
 thius too had made good his retreat. Both were out of 
 sight in an instant, hut not out of hearing. My earshore 
 witness to Stathi's tumbling down stairs with such violence 
 and outcry, as to make me entertain hopes that neither of 
 them had entirely escaped the merited retribution. 
 
 As soon as, after a few dying murmurs, all was again 
 hushed in silence — *'Now," thought I, "for the tete-k-tete 
 with Spiridion ! According to custom, he will lay the whole 
 blame on me. He will deem my good brothers' intentions 
 all very wise and proper ; will see much sound reason in them , 
 and will not be content, I suppose, until I go to them with 
 a halter round my neck, beg pardon for my impatience in 
 stopping their proceedings, and humbly supplicate them to 
 put their design into execution !" 
 
 Meanwhile, the report of the pistols had a second time 
 collected the whole neighbourhood round my door. But, 
 if pronounced delirious before, I now was supposed to be 
 under the influence of a phrensy so outrageous, that no 
 one durst step across my threshold. The curious contented 
 themselves with forming a blockade outside the room, each 
 holding himself in readiness to fall back, and to shove his 
 neighbour in his place, should I make an unexpected sally. 
 
 This state of things continued till Spiridion's return. 
 His expedition had been unsuccessful. When he appeared, 
 so many officious friends sprung forward to explain what 
 had happened in his absence, that it would have been ut- 
 terly impossible for him to understand a single word of the 
 matter, supposing even that the relaters themselves had 
 known the truth. But my brothers, to whom they were 
 indebted for all their information, had, in their hurry, 
 dropped the trifling circumstance of their attempt upon 
 my life, in which the aff'alr began. Despairing, therefore, 
 to make any thing of the confused and contradictory ac- 
 counts with which he was stunned, Spiridion at last pushed 
 
380 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 aside the crowd, and, to the utter astonishment of all, 
 entered my room undaunted and alone ! 
 
 He found me seated on the sofa, with my face in my 
 hands, and my elbows on my knees, overwhelmed more 
 with disappointment than with shame, and incapable either 
 of raising my eyes or unclosing my lips. Thus I remained 
 wholly unmindful of his entrance, until, after contemplating 
 me some time in silent earnestness, he at last took a seat 
 beside me, and spoke. 
 
 "Selim," said he, ** am I to believe these people? Are 
 you really out of your mind; or are you rather, as I ap- 
 prehend, perfectly in your senses?" 
 
 ** In my perfect senses," answered I, with all the com- 
 posure of which I was master. — **My hand was raised to 
 punish demons. This time they have escaped— but what 
 is not yet, may be !" 
 
 •'Never, never," cried he, ** while I have life. — ^Rather 
 than that you should hurt your brothers, my breast shall 
 interpose." 
 
 **Then through your breast," I exclaimed, "must I strike 
 them." 
 
 Spiridion here rose : ** Anastasius," said he, calmly, 
 **I feel but little wish to live: not, however, at thy hands 
 must I receive my death-blow ! My bosom may be pierced 
 by thy speech, but let it remain sacred from thy sword. 
 The world must not have it to say that thou couldst plunge 
 thy dagger into the heart of thy friend. The crime would 
 be as idle as it would appear heinous. If my presence be 
 a burthen to thee, say but the word, and I go." 
 
 *' I never desired you to stay," cried I, in a sullen tone. 
 
 ** Very well," rejoined Spiridion. **You speak plain. 
 Yet ere I act accordingly, once more, and for the last time, 
 I appeal from Anastasius blinded by passion to Anastasius 
 restored to his reason. In an hour hence I return and 
 repeat the same question. If the answer be the same — 
 then farewell, and for ever I" 
 
ANASTASIUS. 381 
 
 At these words Spiridion went out, and tranquilllsed the 
 gentlemen drawn up in the passage, with respect to nay 
 situation. On my friend's assurances they all rushed in, 
 and teazed me with so many questions, and with so much 
 advice, that they almost made me lose the little wits I had 
 left. Their annoyance still lasted, when, at the expiration 
 of the hour, Spiridion returned. Without seeking it, he 
 had gained so universal a sway by his dignified demeanour, 
 that at his desire all retired. The room being cleared of 
 strangers, he took me by the hand, and finding that the 
 symptoms of bodily disorder had subsided, he looked sternly 
 in my face, and spoke thus : 
 
 **This, Anastasius, is at last the moment which must 
 decide my resolution. The solemn vow is irrevocably 
 spoken ; and, according to what you now answer, I may 
 stay, or I must leave you for ever. Do you swear by all 
 that is holy to renounce your impious revenge, or do you 
 prefer to be released from my society ?^ — If the last, utter 
 not, I beseech you, the ungracious word. Only withdraw 
 your hand.'* 
 
 Undoubtedly this would have been the moment tho- 
 roughly to explain the nature of the recent conflict with 
 my brothers, of which my friend knew but half, and of 
 which that half more than doubled my guilt. Not aware 
 that my own life had been attempted first, and ignorant 
 that I acted in my own defence, Spiridion considered my 
 illness as a pretence, or, at any rate, my firing as a preme- 
 ditated scheme. It would have been easy to have removed 
 his error. — Had not my bare word sufilced, Constantine's 
 torn garment would have borne witness to the struggle. 
 But after my solemn promise at Mitylene, I considered the 
 bare suspicion as so injurious to my honour, that my of- 
 fended pride forbade my undeceiving my friend, or clearing 
 my character. I pulled away my hand, and Spiridion 
 walked out.— Yet God knows that I did not wish to lose 
 him ! 
 
382 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 As soon as he had left me, I paced up and downlhe room 
 with a hurried step. After a few turns I went out to fetch 
 breath on the quay. An hour's air and exercise changed 
 the current of my ideas. I felt regret for my obstinacy, 
 and fear of its consequences. With the utmost speed I ran 
 home, and up to Spiridion's chamber. 
 
 He was closing his portmanteau. The things about the 
 floor had disappeared. All looked empty, orderly, and de- 
 solate. 
 
 ** AVhat means this ?" cried I, affecting more surprise 
 than I felt. 
 
 ** Only," replied Spiridion, *'that what I said, I do." 
 
 **Ah, my friend, my real brother," exclaimed J, *' do 
 you then, in sad earnest, purpose to leave me? Cursed 
 be my tongue, which uttered what my heart had no share 
 in; and cursed be my hand, which confirmed the untruths 
 of my tongue !" 
 
 " Anastasius," now said Spiridion, seating himself upon 
 his little bundle, ** fancy not your last words and actions 
 to have been the sole and primary cause of a long formed 
 and long resisted resolution. Its origin dates far higher. 
 The unkind speeches and gestures of this day only gave the 
 final impulse. 
 
 **From children we were brothers in love. When you 
 rescued me from death, the day that all our companions 
 stood palsied by fear, gratitude only riveted affection's 
 prior links— and duty, I hoped, had rendered them indis- 
 soluble, when my father himself named you his second son. 
 Many years his commands of fraternal kindness to his Spi- 
 ridion's preserver remained without fruit — you yourself 
 best know how. Yet was the deep-rooted attachment of 
 childhood never replaced by more recent friendships ; and 
 when I again beheld you at Constantinople, my feelings for 
 my Anastaslus still preserved all their freshness unfaded. 
 Evil inclinations of no ordinary magnitude, indeed, I saw 
 mixed with your belter qualities : but I thought that, if 
 
ANASTASIUS. 383 
 
 freed from their alloy, your virtue too would eclipse or- 
 dinary virtue; and I imagined that an unbounded devotion 
 might enable me to become the instrument of so noble a 
 reformation. I undertook the task. I resolved to save 
 from perdition your soul, as you had saved my body; and 
 I prayed the Almighty to bless the undertaking. Some re- 
 turn on myself also, some selfish feeHngs, perhaps, were 
 mixed with my wishes for your welfare. I could not help 
 fancying that, regenerated through me, you would become 
 my support and my consolation in the irksome race I am 
 destined to run; that in your turn, you might assist me in 
 the struggles and dangers that strew the rugged path, 
 through which I am destined to journey to my fate. In 
 short, I hoped that, each blessed in the other, we should 
 toil through life together ; and that, when shone forth our 
 last day, whichever of us was summoned the first, should 
 only die in the other's loved arms. Great as were the pains 
 you took to expose my presumption^ and to dispel my 
 foolish dream — long did my soul firmly cling to its fond 
 chimera; long did my heart hug its foolish vision, as a 
 thing too substantial and too precious to part with ! 
 
 *'But there are lights that even strike the blind. Re- 
 luctantly, though irresistibly, I have at last been forced to 
 see that no arguments, no persuasion, no labour of mine 
 have power to control the passions which enslave you; and 
 that, however I may strive, I still must leave you ungo- 
 vernable, and you still must leave me wretched as before. 
 Much as I tried to avert my eyes from the fatal truth, I 
 have at last yielded to the painful conviction that, sooner or 
 later, we still must be separated for ever; and that, by 
 trying to put off the evil day, by struggling for a short and 
 transient respite, I can only at last drink the parting cup 
 with greater bitterness. I therefore submit to the decrees of 
 Heaven : I bow to the will of Providence in flying from thee, 
 as I erst hoped to fulfil its behests by following thy footsteps. 
 In sadness I go; but I go, and for ever ! Far from thee I 
 
384 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 henceforlh shall live ; and far from thee it will be my fate to 
 die ! Yet, Selim, thou art young still. What the anxious 
 warnings of friendship could not perform, the leaden hand 
 of time may achieve. It may allay the ferment of thy pas- 
 sions, clear away the impurities of thy heart, and, though 
 I shall not witness the blissful change, still make thee great 
 and virtuous. This happy consummation God in his good- 
 ness grant !" 
 
 **Ah, Spiridion," cried I, clasping my friend in my 
 arms, **you cannot, you shall not leave me thus!" But 
 he, fearing his own weakness, in order to render a relapse 
 impossible, ** On my head be God's eternal curse, be that 
 of my aged father!" cried he, *'if I do not immediately 
 return to my paternal roof!" 
 
 I now felt all remonstrance to be fruitless. ''You are 
 right," replied I. *'The game could not go on between 
 us. The stakes were not even. Loaded with the gifts of 
 Providence, and accountable to your fellow-creatures for 
 their use, you may not squander your ample means on a 
 barren soil, nor seek ruin with a reprobate whom you can- 
 not save. Yet, if once Anastasius did possess your love, 
 and still returns all your affection; if that wretch, that 
 reprobate, in the midst of all his errors never ceased to 
 reverence your virtues ; if his spirit, undaunted by all else, 
 stooped to you, and worshipped you alone — oh, Spiridion, 
 listen! At present, when, bereft of all hope, indeed weaned 
 of all wish, to hear a sentence repealed on which depends 
 your peace, he for ever renounces the happiness of your 
 society, nay urges you himself to fly his baneful presence, 
 at least grant his last and only request; grant what he, who 
 never yet humbled himself before mortal man, implores of 
 you on his bended knee : tell him — lay this unction to his 
 sickening soul to know — that you do not hold him in utter 
 detestation ; that on leaving him, to return no more, you 
 at least feel a pang : and when, all earthly things gone by 
 like unsubstantial shadows, comes the day of your reward 
 
ANASTASIUS. 385 
 
 in heaven for the good deeds done on this earth; when, 
 before the throne of Mercy, arrayed in all your worth, you 
 receive your well-earned meed of ineffable joy, cast back 
 one look of pity on the wretch who, overwhelmed by the 
 weight of his guilt, sinks irretrievably while you rise to 
 glory. Speak for him to your Maker one poor word of 
 intercession : and suppHcate that he may not fall so low in 
 the abyss of wretchedness, but that from an immeasurable 
 distance he still may behold, and be consoled by your 
 bliss !" 
 
 ** Here, or hereafter," cried Spiridion, ** if I forget you, 
 may Heaven forsake me !" — and bending down his head, 
 he wept aloud. 
 
 After some time he rose up, and wiping away his tears : 
 "I have," said he, *' signed an engagement to endure 
 through eternity: now, in your turn, make me a promise 
 to hold good only for a short space of time." 
 
 **Any promise you please," I answered. 
 
 ** What a temptation that !" rejoined my friend. ^ — '*But 
 I shall not abuse your confidence. I shall not ask what 
 you cannot perform. It was only a trifling favour which 
 I wanted for the mutual mitigation of pain. Take this 
 watch," he added, giving me the one he wore; **and 
 count just twenty minutes ere you stir from this spot." — 
 Saying which, he took up his parcel, and walked to the 
 door. I tried to remonstrate and to stop him; but, gently 
 pushing me aside : "you have promised," he cried, and 
 instantly disappeared. 
 
 I ran after my friend as far as my pledged honour would 
 permit — to the threshold of my room, and there called him 
 back with loud and repeated cries : but in vain 1 Spell- 
 bound by my promise, I stood motionless on the utmost 
 verge of my apartment, with ears stretched out to catch 
 each fleeting sound, and eyes riveted on the hands of my 
 watch-i At first I perceived some commotion, some distant 
 
 1. 25 
 
3S(J ANASTASIUS. 
 
 bustle in the house, some running backward and forward; 
 but very soon all these noises sunk away in a dreary and 
 lasting silence. Yet were there several long minutes want- 
 ing of the point marked on the inexorable dial for my re- 
 lease. Each of these appeared an entire age, composed 
 of many lesser periods of endless duration, and all the 
 time I kept my eyes straining on the figures, as if my 
 bare look could quicken by its motion the impulse of the 
 hand. At last they approached the goal, gHded over the 
 last second, and attained the long wished-for term ! — I now 
 dart forward like an arrow; I run, I leap, I fly; first, 
 through the house, from room to room; next, on finding 
 all deserted within, out into the street, and lastly to the 
 quay. 
 
 There I perceive nothing but an indifferent and gaping 
 crowd, which my eyes in vain interrogate, and which gives 
 me no satisfactory answer. Wherever I look, no Spiridion 
 appears ! 
 
 Fearfully I at last cast my eye on the wave; and, after 
 an anxious search among the shipping in the road, spy, al- 
 ready far away, a small caick, which, with stress of sails 
 and oars, seems steering towards Tchesm6. A young man, 
 I was told, for whom the caick lay waiting, had been seen 
 to step in, with his face wrapped in his shawl; and imme- 
 diately the boat was pushed off, and cleft the billows with 
 such speed, as already to appear little more than a mere 
 speck. 
 
 The young man was Spiridion, and my first impulse, to 
 go after him. I called for another barge; but while it 
 was preparing, soberer thoughts drove away my first design. 
 
 Why in fact follow a friend determined (o fly from me ! 
 Was not his purpose irrevocably fixed? Went he not 
 back to his father and his home? Was he not right in 
 doing so ? Did not the happiness of his life depend upon 
 this measure ? Was I to impede his progress, or to increase 
 
ANASTASIUS. 387 
 
 his parting pangs, and that from a mere selfish feeling? 
 For what now could he gain, by aught that I could say or 
 do? 
 
 Immediately! gave up the short-Hved project, and having 
 paid for the trouble I occasioned, walked away, and sought 
 on the beach a more retired spot, in which to vent my 
 sorrows. Distracted by so many opposite feelings that I 
 scarce seemed to feel at all, I threw myself on the ground, 
 and moistened with my tears the sand on which I lay. 
 ''All now," cried I, **is to me at an end; my abode is be- 
 come a desert, my life a scene of solitude, my very existence 
 a blot in the creation !" — and hereupon I struck my breast, 
 until, exhausted by my grief, I grew somewhat more quiet, 
 and began my song of sorrow. 
 
 In the midst of my melancholy ditty I remembered that, 
 together with his watch, Spiridion had slipped into my 
 hands a pocket-book, which, not knowing what to do with, 
 i had thrust into my bosom. I now pulled out the toy. It 
 might contain some farewell token — some last and sacred 
 behesL 
 
 A few words had indeed been written on one of the leaves, 
 but had been rubbed out again. The only uncancelled do- 
 cument I could find, and to which the case seemed intended 
 as a vehicle, was a loose slip of paper, an order to the bearer 
 — but to what amount I know not; for, without looking at 
 the figures, I tore the draft to pieces, and scattered the 
 useless fragments in the wind. No sooner, however, had I 
 done so, than I regretted my precipitation. The sum was 
 nothing! I never meant to claim it; but the last signature 
 of my friend in my behalf— what to me could be equally 
 precious? As of many other things, however, of that also 
 I first felt the value when too late ! Already had the surf 
 washed away the last remnant of the paper. 
 
 I now pressed to my lips the empty book. "Last re- 
 membrance," exclaimed I, "of a friend for ever lost, be 
 thou my sole unceasing companion. Lie ever next my 
 
 25* 
 
388 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 heart. Continue its a^gis against all evil passions. Preserve 
 me henceforth, not from grief, but from sin !" 
 
 This said, I started up, and left the lonely spot : but as I 
 returned among the bustling throng, my sadness increased. 
 AVhy did I tarry any longer in my native land? How could 
 I face my countrymen, abandoned as i was by my friend? 
 ** Ah !" cried I, **since I have him no more to guide and 
 to support me, let me fly from Chios, as from the place of 
 my shame. Let me seek refuge in Egypt, at Algiers, in 
 France — or wherever else men acquire fame by destroying 
 each other ! There let me forget the silenced voice of 
 friendship, in the savage cry of war and the shout of de- 
 fiance ; there pass my days in strife, there conquer, or 
 there die !" 
 
 Conformably to this resolution, I determined not to stay 
 for the completion of the settlement with which bad com- 
 menced my worst misfortune, but left my full powers with 
 a friend, or, in other words, sold my birth-right to a 
 schemer, for an immediate sum. The same act rid me of 
 my troubles, and began those of my brothers : — a circum- 
 stance which they probably only learnt after my departure, 
 as in consequence of their ill-fated attempt both kept their 
 beds; not entirely from choice, however — Constantine 
 having got a broken arm in the conflict, and Euslathius a 
 dislocated hip. These were the only incidents which 
 soothed my disappointment. 
 
 As for me, I took my passage to Cyprus, where I thought 
 I might join the Turkish fleet in its way to Egypt; and, in 
 the act of embarking, called down upon my head the ut- 
 most wrath of heaven, if ever I set foot in my native land 
 again. 
 
 Spiridion, by the way of Smyrna, speedily reached his 
 home, and his father's longing arms. Whether from 
 fatigue or from mere disappointment, he fell into a state of 
 languor, which long threatened a fatal termination. Bui; 
 lime and corporeal debility at last blunted the sting of 
 
ANASTASIUS. 889 
 
 B>ental suflering. Insensibly health returned, and with, 
 health a calm hilarity. The youth then resumed, never 
 more to abandon it, the regular mode of life which only for 
 my sake had been interrupted. In good time he married 
 a young lady of noble blood and distinguished beauty, and 
 became the happy father of a lovely family. 
 
 Mavrocordato, as observed before, had destined his son 
 to run the perilous race of ambition ; and had he never 
 known what it was to fear the loss of that darling son, would 
 with difficulty have been diverted from his vain-glorious 
 purpose. But while Spiridion's fate hung suspended be- 
 tween life and death, his father too strongly felt the blessing 
 of his existence, and the value of his happiness, any longer 
 to stake them against perilous honours, difficult to attain, 
 and unsubstantial when possessed. His desires became 
 sobered, and his views less aspiring: he determined to 
 prefer the certainty of his son's bliss to tjie probable misery 
 of his grandeur; and vowed, so heaven but left him his 
 child, never more to abuse a father's authority, by goading 
 him on to dangerous distinctions. Mavrocordato thus for- 
 feited, indeed, the advantage of boasting, like the Giccas, 
 the Callimackis, and others, ffcat their nearest of kin had 
 been bow-stringed on a throne; — but this misfortune he 
 bore with becoming resignation. As to Spiridion, content 
 i;o move in the sphere of a wealthy merchant, he employed 
 his daily growing riches in diffusing around him happi- 
 ness and prosperity. His life resembled the course of a 
 majestic stream, whose deep but tranquil waters, wind- 
 ing their ample way through fertile plains and flowery 
 meads, as they advance still receive from new rills fresh 
 increase, while at each step also they bestow more pro- 
 fusely all the fruits of industry and all the blessings of 
 plenty. 
 
 Far different was the similitude borne bv uiv roving ex- 
 istence. Seeking my fortune in strife, not in harmony; 
 
390 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 making havoc, not culture, the meanvS of my support; 
 and engaged, not in the steady pursuit of a regular pro- 
 fession, but in a wild wandering flight from one career to 
 another; sometimes prosperous, and oftener unfortunate : 
 now in unavailing plenty, and now again in pinching want, 
 I at best resembled the blustering mountain torrent, which, 
 only acquiring might and substance during the war of the 
 elements, as soon as their contest ends, again subsides in a 
 mean rill; in times of serenity shows no trace of its pas- 
 sage, save in the havoc of darker days brought to light; 
 and so far from diffusing in its fulness more benefits than 
 in its penury, only effects greater mischief as it receives 
 ampler supplies. While still near its source in the upper 
 regions of the globe, this ill-favoured offspring of the clouds, 
 hurried over fell and precipice, only presents a succession 
 of fierce struggles, furious falls, and impracticable shallows ; 
 when further advanced In its impetuous career, and rushing 
 with tremendous roar into the fertile plain below, it seems 
 indeed determined to seek a full recompense for all former 
 restraints; — it disregards all rights, destroys all property, 
 and levelling fence and boundary, annihilates crops, habit- 
 ations, and life; but, throu^out the whole of its wild un- 
 certain progress, from where it first bubbles up near the 
 sky, to where it finally plunges into the vast abyss of the 
 deep, it equally remains a curse to the regions it pervades ! 
 
ANASTASIUS. 3!)1 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 The paroxysm of fever which seized mc at Chios had, in 
 ihe hurry of the strange and multifarious events to which 
 it gave rise, been entirely forgotten. I was therefore sur^ 
 prised when, on board the ship, a second more violent at- 
 tack came on ; and was still more mortified when it ap- 
 peared that, so far from being allowed to drop the acquaint- 
 ance, I had thenceforth to consider the unwelcome intruder 
 as my regular guest. Its visits were repeated with most 
 irksome punctuality every third day, during the whole of 
 the passage; and this passage seemed to have no end. 
 
 Oh! how long appeared those sleepless nights, in which 
 I felt no change of motion in the ship but what was caused 
 by its rolling from side to side, or pitching from end to 
 end : in which every object suspended round my narrow 
 berth — my clothes, my lamp, my person, and the very 
 shadow they cast on the wainscot — never ceased exhibit- 
 ing the same monotonous see-saw motion, which found its 
 equally monotonous response in the periodical creaking 
 of the hulk, straining of the mast, swaying of the yards, 
 and flapping of the sails and tackle. How slowly ap- 
 proached those mornings which were neither announced 
 by the crowing of the cock, nor hailed by the twittering of 
 the swallow; and whose dead and universal silence was 
 only broken by our own harsh discord, added lo that of the 
 howling winds and roaring waves ! How often I anxiously 
 looked out at my narrow loop-hole, to see whether the 
 stars had yet lost their quivering radiance, and whether the 
 horizon yet reddened with the approaching dawn ! My 
 mind suffered with my body ; and, during those tedious 
 
392 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 hours, the depression of disease made me survey with deep 
 contrition the errors of days past, and form sincere reso- 
 lutions for my future life. They lasted with unremitting 
 continuance — until health and strength returned. 
 
 This happened at Cyprus. That island which gives 
 agues to so many, cured my tertian completely; or perhaps 
 only transferred it to some other luckless wight, most op- 
 portunely in the way to catch the disorder, on its getting 
 tired of its former incumbent. I was, however, only just 
 convalescent, and had scarce left my bed, when, from the 
 heights above Larneca, Hassan's armament was descried 
 five or six leagues out at sea, in full sail for Egypt. That 
 fleet which I had so long expected now cleft the wave al- 
 most under my eyes, without its proximity enabling me to 
 join the nearest vessel of the squadron. 
 
 Fortunately I had another string to my bow: — but ere I 
 proceed to tell by which way I returned to the land of the 
 mamlukes, I must premise a few words concerning what 
 happened there after my departure. 
 
 I have already mentioned, I think, that in Aly-bey's 
 time an alliance had been proposed between Petersburg 
 and Cairo. This project the autocratrix of all the Russias 
 failed not to resume, as soon as she saw Ibrahim and 
 Mourad infirm possession of the supreme authority. Her 
 wish was to obtain from ihe beys the port of Alexandria ; 
 an object of the greatest importance to her future mari- 
 time operations against the Turks. In return, she offered 
 to afford these turbulent leaders every assistance ip shak- 
 ing off the yoke of the sultan ; and the Russian consul- 
 general at Alexandria, Thonus by name, was intrusted 
 with the negotiation. He had the facility of correspond- 
 ing with the rulers of Cairo through the medium of a per- 
 sonage, once a Russian subject, but then a renegade, a 
 mamluke, and a bey, under the appellation of Khassim. 
 On the other hand, he found indissolubly united against 
 him. the consuls of the other European powers in Egypt, 
 
ANASTASIUS. 303 
 
 who, whether friendly to the Porte or not, were aH alike 
 hostile to the plan of giving up to the Russians so import- 
 ant a harbour as Alexandria. Thonus undertook to de- 
 feat their opposition by the simple expedient of removing 
 their persons. A petty quarrel had arisen between Mourad 
 and the commercial diplomatists, respecting some trifling 
 repairs to the Latin hospice at Alexandria. This slight 
 spark of misunderstanding the crafty Livonian contrived 
 to fan into so furious a blaze, that the consuls no longer 
 thought themselves safe on land, and determined to take 
 refuge at sea. Their intention was to sail in a body to 
 Constantinople; and this design, sedulously fostered by 
 Thonus — who suffered not the fears of his friends to relax 
 — would soon have been fulfilled to that gentleman's ut- 
 most wish, had net Ibrahim, alarmed at the consequences 
 of the dispute, sent a messenger to efface by his concessions 
 the outrages of his colleague. Already were the consuls 
 on board, and in the act of weighing anchor, when, stopped 
 by this trusty agent, the exulting Thonus had the mortifi- 
 cation to see them return on shore and resume their situa- 
 tions. 
 
 Ibrahim's conciliatory measures, however, came too late 
 to prevent the Interference of the Porte. On the first 
 blush of the business, the consuls, apprehensive of violence 
 on the part of the beys, had despatched an express to Con- 
 stantinople, to lay their complaints before the sultan ; and 
 Abd-ool-hameed had determined to resent the insult of- 
 fered by the rulers of Egypt to the strangers under his 
 special protection. In an exemplary manner. Had it suited 
 the convenience of the Porte to remain at peace with its 
 vassals, the representatives of all the potentates of Europe, 
 flogged round Mourad's hall, would have obtained no other 
 redress than an exhortation to mutual forgiveness of in- 
 juries; but the divan wished to humble I lie rebellious beys, 
 and it therefore expressed the utmost readiness to resent 
 their behaviour to the high offended personages. In vain 
 
394 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 did these worthy individuals themselves, as soon as lliey 
 no longer entertained any apprehension for the safety of 
 their persons, try to undo what they had done, and to pre- 
 vent a rupture injurious to their interests. In vain did 
 they v^ffite to assure the ministers that they had been pre- 
 mature in their fright, and had forgiven their enemies, hkc 
 true Christians as they were : — Hassan capitan-pasha, who 
 was a Turk, and moreover had never yet found, in his 
 varied expeditions, an opportunity of exploring the fertile 
 plains of Egypt, expected too plentiful a harvest, if not of 
 kurels, at least of piastres from this business, to let the 
 quarrel be hushed up; and, under Abd-ool-hameed, the 
 wishes of this favourite were law. The divan, therefore, 
 in answer to the pacific protestations of the consuls, only 
 observed that they were much too lenient, that the offence 
 could not be overlooked^ and that they must have satis- 
 faction whether they chose or not; and hereupon pro- 
 claimed the beys outlaws, and ordered an armament to be 
 fitted out against them. 
 
 A show of negotiation had, however, been kept up, and 
 had to a certain degree succeeded in lulling asleep the 
 apprehensions of the mamlukes, when, on the sixth of July, 
 1786, the squadron which I had beheld with longing eyes 
 from the coast of Cyprus appeared before Alexandria. It 
 consisted of six ships of the line, four frigates, some gun-* 
 boats, and forty or fifty kirlangitshes, and other small craft 
 capable of going up the river to Cairo. These vessels 
 carried six hundred chosen Arnaoots from the interior of 
 Epims, as brave as well armed, and about five thousand 
 raw recruits from every corner of the Archipelago, possess- 
 ed of neither arms, courage, nor discipline. To this small 
 force the grand-admiral added at Alexandria about three 
 thousand Maugarbees, or Barbaresques, very lightly equip- 
 ped. Of cavalry, the species of troops most wanted against 
 the mamlukes, Hassan's armament was entirely destitute; 
 but the Asiatic pashas of Oorfa, of Haled, of Trabloos, and 
 
ANASTASIUS. 395 
 
 others, had been ordered to bring with all expedition from 
 their respective governments more horse than were wanted, 
 to Belbeis, near the Syrian confines of Egypt, there to wait 
 the grand-admiral's further orders. 
 
 These orders were indeed despatched the day that the 
 commander-in-chief reached Rosctta; but their execution 
 experienced some difficulty, inasmuch as the pasha of Oorfa 
 was not yet arrived at the place of rendezvous, and as all 
 the others had, immediately after Hassan's departure from 
 Constantinople, been entirely countermanded. The minis- 
 ters were in daily expectation of a war in the north, and 
 felt unwilling to waste all their resources in the south. 
 
 Hassan, thus disappointed, resolved to compensate for 
 want of numbers by celerity of movements, and began to 
 ascend the Nile on the last day of July. The land troops 
 marched along the banks of the river, while the flotilla of 
 gun-boats advanced by their side on the stream. 
 
 When the intelligence of the capitan-pasha's operations 
 reached Cairo, the greatest unanimity took place among 
 the beys as to their sense of danger, but the greatest di- 
 versity of opinions as to the mode of repelling it. Ibrahim 
 was for submission, Mourad for resistance; and no medium 
 being hit upon between these two extremes, the former re- 
 tired into the said to avoid the imputation of rebellion, 
 while the latter marched into Lower Egypt to oppose force 
 by force. 
 
 The fourth day of August witnessed the meeting of the 
 two armies near Mentoobes. Mourad with his well-mounted 
 mamlukes, all mail without, and all ardour within, felt 
 secure of an easy victory over the grand-admiral's ill- 
 equipped foot soldiers. He had neither taken into his 
 account the artillery by which they were flanked on the 
 stream, nor the swamps he must wade through, to attack 
 them on its banks. Pieceived, on his first onset, with a 
 tremendous discharge of cannon from the boats, his troops 
 were immediately thrown into confusion. Even the safety 
 
SSG ANASTASIUS. 
 
 of flight was denied ihem. Sinking with the weight oF 
 their accoutrements, up to their horses' bellies into the rice 
 grounds that formed the field of battle, they became 
 molionless, and were slaughtered at pleasure by Hassan's 
 naked infantry, which might have walked on the wind. 
 The few mamlukes that escaped immediately fell back upon 
 Cairo; but, finding the gates of the citadel shut against 
 them by the sultan's visier, they only traversed the city, 
 and joined Ibrahim in Upper Egypt. 
 
 Hassan entered without further opposition the defenceless 
 capital, and received the homage of the country. He took 
 up his abode in Ibrahim's palace at Kasr-el-aini, and con- 
 ferred on the long-exiled Ismail, arrived from the said to 
 meet him, his long vacated office of schaich-el-belled. 
 Djcddawee's more dubious loyalty was less splendidly re- 
 warded; and Yeyen-visier, the obsequious tool of every 
 parly in power, was dismissed from his place: it was re- 
 served for the expected conductor of the Asiatic troops. 
 
 This personage, Abdi by name, had been pasha of Haleh. 
 Turned out of that city by its janissaries — jealous of his 
 Koordish body-guardi — he had just been consoled for his 
 loss by the government of Oorfa, when he received orders 
 to march with all the force he could collect from Diarbekeer 
 to Egypt. As nothing had been said about provisions, he 
 resolved to trust for his supplies to the plunder of the dis- 
 tricts through which he had to pass; and, as he only had 
 to traverse Syria from end-to end, in its greatest length, he 
 only contrived to spend, for want of subsistence, the whole 
 Summer on his march. 
 
 Nothing could have happened more conveniently for a 
 man who, hke me, wished to go from Cyprus to Egypt. It 
 afforded the readiest means of making up for the loss of my 
 passage on board the fleet on my right, by joining the army 
 advancing on my left. A boat conveyed me from Larneca 
 to Trabloos; and thenceforward I found the track of Abdi's 
 troops too distinctly marked by their devastations to miss 
 
ANASTASIUS. 397 
 
 the way. I could, however, only overtake the pasha near 
 Nabloos, in Palestine, where I reached him in the best pos- 
 sible disposition for glory; that is to say, not valuing life a 
 straw. Had I been inclined to fastidiousness, I might have 
 found some fault with the appearance of my competitors 
 for warlike fame. They pursued its career unincumbered 
 by superfluities. The best equipped among the pasha's 
 troops were his own body-guard of Koordish horse, who, 
 under the denomination of dellis,'^ still exercised their old 
 trade of banditti, and plundered every friend on their march 
 to the enemy. To this body of about eight hundred men 
 was added another of about six hundred Spahees, in very 
 indifferent condition. The infantry was composed of about 
 five hundred Maugarbees, who looked as if they could be 
 ledto victory by nothing but famine. In fact, this ravenous 
 horde only resembled a swarm of locusts, who suddenly 
 appear in a region as if driven by an evil wind, fall on what- 
 ever spot offers the most abundant harvest, devour all its 
 crops, and, when they find nothing further to consume, 
 rise again, only to lay waste the fields next in succession. 
 As long as there remained in a place a single article to lake 
 away or to devour, the pasha thought not of stirring. The 
 complete denudation of all around him became the signal 
 for departure ; but the tents were again pitched in whatever 
 nearest district admitted of the same proceeding. The 
 march was lengthened only when such deserts intervened 
 as offered neither provision nor plunder. Every where, 
 before the approaching army, the inhabitants abandoned 
 their villages, carrying with them all that was moveable to 
 the mountains; so that every new region we came to looked 
 as if we had been thet-e already, and left us no means of 
 marking our route but by the destruction of the fixtures ; 
 and, from the elongated shape of Syria, and the direction 
 of the march, no district escaped the devastating scourge. 
 
 Besides the general claim which my former rank in Egypt 
 gave me to the attention of a commander in the pay of the 
 
3«8 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 Porte, I carried particular letters to Abdi from the governor 
 of Larneca. Accordingly, I was promised the reversion of 
 whatever eligible appointment might become vacant, and, 
 meanwhile, stepped into the place of a captain of dellis, 
 most fortunately killed the very morning of my arrival, 
 by some peasants, in an ambush. 
 
 On calling over the muster-roll of my corps, I found not 
 a single bairak^ possessed of half of its complement of men. 
 Each was a grand skeleton composed of lesser skeletons; 
 and never did troops, at the opening of a campaign, more 
 strikingly resemble soldiers returning from the wars. This 
 remark, however, I kept to myself. As a new comer, I 
 took it for granted that my predecessor knew what he was 
 about (except indeed when he got killed); and resolved not 
 to begin by breaking through established customs. Quietly 
 therefore pocketing the surplus pay, and selling the super- 
 numerary rations, I gained the love and esteem of all my 
 fellow-officers. We agreed that Hassan would not give us 
 more fighting than was necessary, and it would be wrong 
 to tempt him to imprudences by too martial an appearance. 
 The only thing I took care of was to be well mounted my- 
 self. But the horses and accoutrements which I purchased 
 having drained me of most of my remaining cash, I was 
 obliged to draw from my other expenses on the present 
 holder of my klascheflik, — whoever that might be. 
 
 At Gaza we made our scanty provisions for the great 
 desert. Very ample ones were left in it for the vultures. 
 Belbeis saw us arrive at last, not in May indeed, but in 
 September; and from that place of general rendezvous, 
 where not a soul met us, we marched on to Cairo. 
 
 It was here that an edifying scene of mutual astonishment 
 took place, in Hassan, at the smallness of our force, and in 
 us, at the absolute nothingness of his. In fact, we had never 
 had many more troops, while he had disbanded half the 
 men whicii he brought, to pocket their pay. 
 
 Nothing could equal the change of scene which Cairo 
 
ANASTASIUS. 399 
 
 presented from what I had known it before. I had left it 
 a maniluke city; I found it a Turkish camp. Every object 
 indicated a change of masters and of regulations. Turkish 
 detachments patrolled the streets, Turkish piquets occupied 
 the places; and those porticoes of the grandees' palaces 
 which formerly witnessed the mamlukes driving away with 
 their naboods the famished Egyptians, now saw the Os- 
 manlees treat the mamlukes with scarce more respect. My 
 friend Aly-tchawoosh, whom I had the pleasure of finding 
 with the capitan-pasha — but somewhat impaired in flesh, 
 in spirits, in briUiancy, and in boastfulness — took me to the 
 house where I was billeted. "What!" cried 1, on seeing 
 it, **am I to lodge with my old acquaintance Sidi-emin, 
 who used to rail so loudly against usury, and, when a friend 
 wanted money, would oblige him by buying his old slippers 
 at fifty sequins down, so he only consented, in return, to 
 buy Emin's new ones at five hundred, payable in three 
 months ? — I shall be glad to shake hands with the worthy 
 man." **Ah !" cried Aly, **you will only shake hands with 
 his ghost. But that you may make sure of. It stalks all 
 night about its old mansion." 
 
 And good reason it had for being disturbed. The reader 
 may remember the dreadful famine which I left hanging 
 over Egypt. Emin, on this occasion, was one of the pro- 
 vident. During the years of plenty he had laid by for those 
 of want. But, like the ant, he laboured for himself, and 
 cared not to share his savings with the idle. Though his 
 granaries could scarcely hold all his corn, he saw unmoved 
 the thousands of wretches who every day perished with 
 hunger under their very walls. When the bodies of the 
 sufferers choked up the entrances of his store-houses, he 
 still refused to unbar their surly gates, until grain had 
 reached the exorbitant price fixed by his avarice. This it 
 at last attained;— and now, exulting at the thoughts of the 
 millions he sliouldmake in a few hours, Emin Look his keys, 
 and opened his vaults. But, O horror I dismay! Instead 
 
400 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 of the mountains of golden wheat which he had accumu- 
 lated, he only beheld heaps of nauseous rottenness. An 
 avenging worm had penetrated into the abodes fortified 
 against famished man ! A grub had fattened on the food 
 withheld from the starving wretch ! While the clamour 
 of despair resounded without, a loathsome insect had 
 in silence achieved within the work of justice. It had 
 wrought Emin's punishment in darkness, while his crimes 
 shone in the light of heaven. The miser's wealth was de- 
 stroyed, the monster's hopes were all blasted I At the dire 
 spectacle he uttered not a word. He only for a few mi- 
 nutes contemplated the infected mass with the fixed eye of 
 despair; then fell — fell flat on his face upon the putrid heap. 
 God had smitten him ! On raising his prostrate body , life 
 had fled. Like his corn, his frame was become a mass of 
 corruption ! 
 
 I had the pleasure to find Mavroyeni's former place of 
 drogueman of the fleet occupied by his nephew Slephan. 
 This youth's character presented a singularity among Greeks 
 in public situations, wondered at by all, and disapproved 
 of by most : — he was a perfectly honest man. His enemies 
 rejoiced at it, though his friends still kept hoping that he 
 was not too old to mend. Meanwhile the acquaintance, 
 begun between us in the Morea, ripened at Cairo into a 
 real mutual regard. I say mutual— for though Stephan 
 did not always think well of my conduct, he valued my sin- 
 cerity. 
 
 The strongest proof of attachment, however, which I re- 
 ceived in Egypt, was from my quondam mauilukes, whom 
 I had ceded to Ismail at Es-souan, and now found esta- 
 blished with the reinstated schaich-el-belled in the capital. 
 At the time of my flight they seemed perfectly satisfied with 
 the transfer; and, indeed, had they now thought it incum- 
 bent upon them to leave the schaich-el-belled and to return 
 to their old patron, they must have been great losers by the 
 change. But so excessive became, on seeing me again. 
 
ANASTASIUS. 401 
 
 their generous wrath at thinking I had renounced their ser- 
 vices, that they could not even bear to remember that they 
 once had belonged to me. 
 
 As to the capitan-pasha himself, his memory was more 
 retentive. He not only recollected having seen me in the 
 Morea : he even remembered the proposal he made me after 
 the affair of Tripolizza. When again presented to him ; 
 *'You would have acted more wisely," said he, *'to have 
 embraced the true faith for the sake of a patron, than for 
 the love of a mistress; and perhaps you might have found 
 the service of the sultan more profitable than that of the 
 beys. You have lost much time, and gained few friends. 
 But you are young still, and what is more, you are brave : 
 if you would not let me lay the foundation of your fortune, 
 I still may raise the fabric by a few additional stories. And 
 so saying, he recommended me to his kehaya ; who grinned 
 a ghastly smile of obedience and of spite. 
 
 The government of Egypt being completely organised by 
 the installation of Abdi pasha in the office of visier, and all 
 the forces having arrived that could be looked for, Hassan 
 at last began to busy himself about the long talked of expe- 
 dition to Upper Egypt, in pursuit of the rebels. Resolved 
 himself not to stir from his commodious quarters, he gave 
 the supreme command to his kehaya. The troops destined 
 for the expedition were to rendezvous at Atter-el-nebbi, a 
 place on the Nile, half a league above Cairo. As before, 
 the land force was to follow the banks of the river, and to 
 be supported by the flotilla. Hassan's favour enabled me 
 to exchange my ragged Koords for a fine body of Arnaoots; 
 and in honour of my new soldiers I furbished up my old 
 Epirote pedigree, and my presumptive descent from 
 Achilles and from Alexander. The former indeed they 
 knew little about, but the latter all seemed acquainted with ; 
 and only maintained, in opposition to my doctrine, that he 
 had fought the doge of Venice — which, iu fact, he had.^ 
 Including the miHtia of the country, supplied by the citadel 
 
 I. 20 
 
402 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 of Cairo, our force might amount lo six thousand men ; 
 and I could not help thinking that Hassan rather over- 
 rated our chance of success, when, at parting, he recom- 
 mended to us, in a speech full of pathos, to bring back the 
 days when the schaich-el-belled held the stirrup to the aga 
 of the janissaries, and when, in return, the pasha of the 
 Porte hung np the beys under the gate of the castle : — a 
 wish at which Ismail, now surnamed kbir, or the great, 
 Ali-bey-defterdar, Mohammed-bey-mabdool, Rodoan-bey 
 the bold, and several other beys present, I thought, winced 
 a little. 
 
 As usual, our army depended for its subsistence on the 
 plunder of the provinces through which we had to pass. 
 This circumstance would alone have retarded our coming 
 "p with Mourad; but what still more increased the diffi- 
 culty of closing with this chief was his own good manage- 
 ment. He had profited by his discomfiture in the Delta, 
 lustead of advancing to give us battle, he this time, on the 
 contrary, kept constantly retreating before us ; only now 
 and then just letting! his rear appear in sight, to keep up 
 the ardour of the pursuit. We discovered his drift — some- 
 what late, however — when at Sioot we found the waters too 
 low to permit the further progress of our flotilla, and thus 
 were obliged to proceed, deprived of the support of our 
 floating! battery. With a diminished strength we only 
 reached the rebels at Djirdg6, where they had all the ad- 
 vantage of the ground. Their position was admirable. 
 Backed by the walls and garrison of the city, they had in 
 front a long declivity of hard even ground, where their ex- 
 cellent horses and impenetrable coats of mail gave them as 
 great an advantage, as they had caused them a disadvan- 
 tage in the swamps of the Delta. They rushed upon us 
 like a torrent, and it soon became evident on which side 
 the scale would turn. Our rout began with the Asiatics. 
 The brave Arnaoots alone kept for a time the victory in 
 suspense. Unable, however, entirely lo dismiss all anxiety 
 
ANASTASIUS. 4»3 
 
 for the character of my former troops, llic dellis, I set 
 some Epiroles at their heels, and thus got them wedged in 
 between two fires. This concern for the credit of others 
 cost me dear. A pistol-shot struck my hip, which cer- 
 tahily came not from the enemy. It brought me not the 
 less to the ground ; and I must have died from loss of 
 blood, or have been trampled under foot, had not by good 
 fortune one of my trusty Albanians thought me dead al- 
 ready. He judged it a pity that my handsome armour 
 should become the spoil of rebels^ and approached to strip 
 me; when, to his great dismay, he found me still alive. 
 For a second or two he seemed to hesitate whether he 
 should not realise his surmise; but my good stars pre- 
 vailed. Shrugging up his shoulders, as if to say, **it was 
 not his fault," he took me in his arms, carried me off the 
 field, bound up my wounds, and left me in the care of two 
 of his comrades, themselves disabled from continuing lo 
 support a more active part in the engagement. 
 
 Meantime our commander, seeing the rout become ge- 
 neral, sounded the retreat. Fortunately, the enemy had 
 determined only to act on the defensive, in order not to 
 cut off all opening to a reconciliation. Thanks to Mourad*s 
 moderation, we experienced no annoyance in our flight, 
 except from the fellahs, whoso corps we had destroyed in 
 our progress. At Sioot we rejoined our flotilla ; and thence 
 returned to Cairo in a plight, which even those among the 
 mamlukes that had been reinstated by Hassan could view 
 without breaking their hearts. The assistance of a rival is 
 seldom forgiven. 
 
 After a certain period Mourad's Arab allies, tired of the 
 protracted war, as usual withdrew from the contest; and 
 Mourad, deprived of half his strength, no longer appeared 
 averse to a negotiation. Of this disposition Hassan availed 
 himself to draw him down to Djizeh, when he again sent 
 his kehaya in pursuit of the bey. Cured of my wound, I 
 joined the expedition, and on the eighth of January, 1787, 
 
 •i6 
 
40-i ANASTASIUS. 
 
 we crossed the Nile. The flotilla was on this occasion out 
 of the question — the river being at its lowest, and the com- 
 mander of the gun-boats dismissed, for an oiFence which 
 Hassan seldom forgave in his officers; namely, robbing 
 without his participation. 
 
 At the news of our approach, Mourad again fell back ; 
 but we came up with him at Sioot, where he was forced to 
 halt, to face about, and to receive us. His position was 
 exactly the reverse of that which he had held at Djirdge. 
 Instead of occupying the top of a long declivity, of which 
 we fdled the bottom, his army was drawn out at the bottom 
 of an extended slope, of which we occupied the summit; 
 and instead of having immediately in his rear a high wall 
 to cover his movements, he only had a deep ditch to cut 
 off his retreat. • The consequence was, that when we fell 
 upon him, as he had before done upon us, with all the im- 
 petus of a downhill charge, we almost immediately drove 
 his troops backward into the fosse, where, tumbling head 
 over heels in the mud, they left us no trouble but that of 
 despatching them at out leisure. 
 
 Of my old patron, who sided with the rebels, I hitherlo 
 have made no mention. The edge of the ravine, down 
 whose slope the mamlukes were sliding with different de- 
 grees of speed, gave me the first glimpse of his venerable 
 figure. He was curveting mid-way the long descent, sur- 
 rounded by his retinue. The sight roused all my dormant 
 feelings of relationship, and others not less warm; and I 
 became most irresistibly anxious to join my father-in-law, 
 to lock him in my arms, nay, to keep entire possession of 
 his valuable person. Calling to my best men, I showed 
 them the bey, and proposed a bold push for so important 
 a prize. They fired at the thought, and off we set ! I 
 was within ten yards of his person, and already in imagina- 
 tion hugging him most fervently, when some of his guards, 
 perceiving our drift, gave the alarm. Immediately his 
 whole horse closed in upon him, and our purpose mis- 
 
ANASTASIUS. 405 
 
 carried. I retired not, however, empty-handed. We had 
 penetrated so far into the mamluke knot, that I was 
 enabled to seize by the arm, and to carry off, what at the 
 time was nearest Suleiman's heart, his tooloondjce.^ This 
 young fellow I consigned to some of my servants in the 
 rear, and having seen him safe in their custody, again re- 
 turned to business. 
 
 The chase of a young mamluke, whose showy accoutre- 
 ments caught my eye, had inadvertently drawn me out to 
 some distance from my men, when another mamluke of 
 more advanced age and greater J)Owers — till then concealed 
 behind a small eminence — suddenly darted forward be- 
 tween us. The contest now lay with ihe newcomer, and 
 his agility already rendered the issue somewhat doubtful. 
 But when a third mamluke of colossal size — a kiaschef of 
 my ancient patron — found means by a dexterous circuit to 
 join his comrade, my situation seemed indeed become des- 
 perate. It was plain that a scheme had been concerted to 
 entrap me ; — and, unable single-handed to contend with 
 two such formidable antagonists, whom others were still 
 approaching, I gave myself up for lost, and only resolved 
 to sell my life as dear as possible. 
 
 To my inexpressible surprise, just as I rushed forward — 
 to certain death as I thought — the new coujcr made a signal 
 for a truce, which his comrade immediately obeying, I failed 
 not to do the same. I stopped short like my antagonists, 
 still however remaining on my guard, and watching every 
 motion of the two mamlukes, in order to make my escape, 
 should an opportunity offer. The kiaschef perceived my ap- 
 prehensions. ** Fear not," he cried : '*your life is indeed 
 in our hands : but we seek not your death; we want only 
 your prisoner. Restore Suleiman's tootoondjee, and in 
 return take this handjar studded with diamonds, this order 
 on the bey's harem at Cairo for two thousand sequins, and 
 this signet of our patron's lo corroborate his draft." 
 
 All this was vastly better than to be butchered at Sioot : 
 
406 ANASTASIUS. 
 
 I accepted the offer. Meantime some of my Arnaoots, who 
 had perceived my danger, were coming up. I cried to 
 them, as soon as within hearing, to fetch back the pri- 
 soner. One went on the errand, and the others waited at 
 my signal. The tootoondjee was deUvered over, and the 
 ransom placed in my hands. With this rich spoil, the 
 thing which I feared most was to return to my own men. 
 Fortunately they were full-handed themselves, and I re- 
 joined our troops safe and sound — just in time to see the 
 remnant of the enemy's force, which had escaped the 
 ditch, in full flight towards the said. 
 
 Our men were so exhausted, that we spent the night 
 where we had won the day. The next morning, ere we 
 marched, I walked over the field of battle. Beholding on 
 all sides sturdy limbs locked in death, which but the day 
 before had turned my blows with all the energies of life; 
 lips closed in eternal silence, which had stunned me with 
 their clamour; and eyeballs fixed in sightless glare, which, 
 when met by mine, had sent forth flashes of lightning; — 
 unable to avoid treading upon the mangled bodies of some 
 who often had attempted to crush me with their very 
 look, and now could not keep away the already busy vul- 
 ture — I felt a strange delight ! I contemplated with a 
 bitter satisfaction that unavoidable lot of all mankind, that 
 doom of mortality remitted to none, that precariousness of 
 life shared alike by king and beggar, thanks to which, if I 
 could not be sure of a single instant before me, no more 
 was the proudest of my antagonists certain of not being the 
 next moment a clod of clay, a mass of corruption, a feast 
 for worms; thanks to which, if any rival obtained over me 
 a temporary advantage, it was, however important, a trifle, 
 an atom, a nothing, in the contemplation of the common 
 fate awaiting all that breathe, and awaiting aU too soon; 
 and thanks to which, finafly, if I could not reach the very 
 top of fortune's wheel, or for the present carry my head 
 quite as high as some of my more successful opponenls, J^ 
 
ANASTASIUS. 407 
 
 knew that theirs must ultimately lie as low, and be as little 
 regarded as mine 1 
 
 *' Poor speechless ghastly object !" cried I, lifting up by 
 the ears one whose taunting language had but the day be- 
 fore still tortured my own; **thou art now not only below 
 me — below the meanest of my slaves ; thou art worse in 
 estate than the live dog that licks my hand, or the very 
 worm that hies to feast on thyself; he harbours joy, thou 
 feelest not even my abuse and my scorn !" 
 
 Though we did not absolutely stay in the agreeable spot 
 which occasioned these reflections, we seemed loth for a 
 time to move beyond its influence. Want of money to pay 
 his troops prevented our commander from proceeding in 
 good earnest, in pursuit of the rebels, until the month of 
 May. We then made a sudden advance ; but as soon as we 
 came in sight of Mourad's men, they crossed the river, and 
 retreated into Nubia. Arrived at the Cataracts, heat, 
 want, and disease stopped our further progress. We ad- 
 mired the falls, wheeled about, and marched back to 
 Cairo. 
 
NOTES 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Note 
 
 1. p. 3. Ji«66ee: llowinggown, generally worn in the Levant 
 
 by men of sedentary habits and professions. 
 
 2. p. 3. Drogueman: official interpreter employed by the 
 
 Franks in their conferences with the Moham- 
 medans. 
 
 3. p. 3. •^^rwm2; Italian denomination used in the Levant 
 
 for every species of fruit of the orange and le- 
 mon kind. 
 h. p. A. An Ipsariote reis : or master of a merchant vessel 
 from the island of Ipsara. 
 
 5. p. 5, Hamal: the Turkish for a porter. 
 
 6. p. 6. Caloyera: a nun, as Caloyer means a friar. 
 
 7. p. 7. Moslemin: a true believer; title assumed by the 
 
 Mohammedans. 
 
 8. p. 8. Papas: Greek priest. 
 
 9. p. 9. Panagia : the All-holy ! the Virgin. 
 
 10. p. 10. The Mitre: the cap of the Greek priesthood. 
 
 11. p. 10. Yaoor : infidel; word of abuse irequently used by 
 
 the Turks in reference to Christians. 
 
410 NOTES. 
 
 Note 
 
 12. p. 10. The Russian war: namely, that which ended iii 
 
 177A, by the peace of Kainardjee. 
 
 13. p. 13. The slim Perote dress: that worn by the Greek 
 
 women of Pera, and of the continental pro- 
 vinces ; wholly different from that of the is- 
 lands. 
 
 Ih. p. 16. Caravan: word applied in the Levant to voyages of 
 merchant ships, as well as to land journeys of 
 merchants and goods. 
 
 15. p. 18. Maynote : native of the peninsula of Mayno, 
 
 whose inhabitants are almost all pirates. 
 
 16. p. 19. Capitan-pasha: commander in chief of the Turk- 
 
 ish navy. 
 
 17. p. 19. Arnaooi: Turkish name given to the Albanians 
 
 who profess the Mohammedan religion ; and 
 form the body guard of many of the Turkish 
 pashas. 
 
 18. p. 19. Caravellas: frigates. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1. p. 20. Codgea-hashees : chiefs of the Greek communities, 
 
 accountable to the Turkish governors for the 
 contributions imposed upon their districts. 
 
 2. p. 22. Lacedemon and Christianopolis : two Greek bi- 
 
 shoprics in the Morea, thus denominated. 
 
 3. p. 22. Btiskined hero: the Albanians wear buskins or ra- 
 
 ther greaves of cloth or velvet, often richly em- 
 broidered and adorned with silver clasps. 
 A. p. 22. Rayas: subjects of the Porte, not Mohammedan, 
 who pay the capitation tax ; such as Greeks, 
 Armenians, Jews, and gipsies. 
 
NOTES. 411 
 
 Note 
 
 6. p. 22. Grand Fisier. All Pashas, before whom are car- 
 ried the three horse-tails, have the title of \i- 
 sier : but the head of that distinguished body, 
 the lieutenant of the Grand Signor, who repre- 
 sents him in his councils, and commands his 
 armies, is called by the Turks Vezir Azem, by 
 the Franks Grand Visier. 
 
 6. p. 2A. Waywode: Turkish farmer of the revenue of a 
 
 district. 
 
 7. p. 25. Hamtsh-tickeis : vouchers for the payment of the 
 
 haratsh or poll-tax, due by all rayahs. 
 
 8. p. 25. Cadee: Turkish judge. 
 
 9. p. 28. Spahees: Turkish holders of military fiefs, which 
 
 oblige them to join the army, mounted at their 
 own expense. 
 
 10. p. 30. Taooshan: hare; epithet given to the Greek is- 
 
 landers. 
 
 11. p. 30. Fanar: district of Constantinople, where chiefly 
 
 reside the Greeks of the higher class. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 i. p. 31. Tergiuinan: the Turkish for Drogueman. 
 
 2. p. 31. Beneesh: clolh vestment worn over the jubbee on 
 
 occasions of ceremony. 
 
 3. p. 31. Kalpack : cap worn by rayahs. 
 
 k. p. 31. Tshawooslies : ushers and messengers of men in 
 office. 
 
 5. p. 35. Cafedjee: the servant who in Greek and Turkish 
 
 houses hands round the coffee. 
 
 6. p. 37. Os»2aw/^^: follower of Osman or Othman, the foun- 
 
 der of the Turkish or Othomau empire :— cpi- 
 
 27* 
 
412 NOTES. 
 
 Note 
 
 thet which sounds as agreeable to its bearers, 
 as the name of Turks is offensive to them. 
 
 7. p. 38. Yatagan: Turkish sabre, worn in the belt or sash. 
 
 8. p. A2. The head^ etc. It is customary among the Turks 
 
 after a battle to give a reward for every head 
 of an enemy that is brought to the com- 
 mander. 
 
 9. p. A3. TJie difference between Kyrie-ele'ison and Allah 
 
 Ilia Allah: Greek and Mohammedan forms 
 of prayer or invocation. 
 
 10. p. A5. Kehaya: official agent of a public personage in 
 
 Turkey. 
 
 11. p. A5. Rownili: the Greeks of the lower Empire affected 
 
 to call themselves Romans, their language the 
 Romaic, and their country Romania, which the 
 Turks have changed into Roumili. 
 
 12. p. A5. 3Ioohasil: a governor of a province, inferior in 
 
 rank and power to a pasha. 
 
 13. p. A6. Stamhool: the Turkish corruption of the Greek sk 
 
 T»v 'TTohiv, pronounced by them ees teen bolin ; 
 and used to denote their going to the city >tc.iT' 
 
 lA. p. A7. Shahsheer: ample breeches made of cloth. 
 
 15. p. A9. The Boghaz : generic Turkish name for straits; 
 
 here applied to those of the Dardanelles. 
 
 16. p. A9. Didaskalos : a teacher. 
 
 17. p. A9. Three distinct Cities : namely , Constantinople, 
 
 Galata, and Scutari. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1. p. 50. Cdick: light and elegant wherry, plying about the 
 quays of Constantinople. 
 
NOTES. 413 
 
 Note 
 
 2-. p. 50. A liouae of a dark and dingy hue, apparently 
 criimhling to pieces with age arid neglect. The 
 former cireumstancc being in consequence of 
 the sumptuary laws imposed by the Turks upon 
 the Greeks; the latter in consequence of the 
 Greeks often affecting poverty in order to avoid 
 being heavily taxed by their tyrants. 
 
 5. p. 51. Jl Mamluke: name given among Mohammedans 
 to such white slaves as are destined to be gra- 
 dually promoted to offices of importance 
 within doors and without. 
 
 h. p. 52. Frank philosophers : all Europeans not rayahs, and 
 therefore considered as strangers in Turkey, 
 are called Franks or Franguee, their country 
 Franguestan, and the corrupt idiom composed 
 of their various languages current along the 
 Mohammedan shores of the Mediterranean, 
 lingua Franca. 
 
 5. p. 52. Purses: denomination for a sum of iive hundred 
 piastres. 
 
 G. p. 52. Tchartchees and Bezesteens : places in Turkish ci- 
 ties, distinct from the habitations of the mer- 
 chants, in which they keep and sell their wares. 
 
 7. p. 53. Harem: the Turkish name for the apartment of 
 
 the women : Seraglio or Serai meaning palace 
 in general. 
 
 8. p. 53. Therapiah : one of the villages on the Bosphorus, 
 
 which the Greeks of quality make their coun- 
 try residences. 
 
 9. p. 5 A. The Bostandjee Bashee: olHcer who acts as ranger 
 
 of the Sultan's demesne, and superintends the 
 police of the waters about Constantinople. 
 10. p. 55. Tandoor: a square table placed in the angle of Ihe 
 sofa, with the brazier underneath and a rich 
 counterpane over it, under which, in (ireek 
 
4M NOTES. 
 
 Note 
 
 houses, in cold weather, the company creep 
 close to each other. 
 
 11. p. 55. Bah-Huniayoon : the imperial gate or principal 
 
 entrance of the sultan's palace at Constan- 
 tinople. 
 
 12. p. 55. Feridjee: cloth capote worn out of doors by the 
 
 Greek and Turkish women of Constantinople. 
 
 13. p. 55. Archons: denominations assumed by the princi^ 
 
 pal Greeks. 
 
 lA. p. 55. Spatar : sword-bearer; one of the principal offi- 
 cers at the courts of the hospodars of Moldavia 
 and Valachia, which are formed on the model 
 of the ancient Greek court of Constantinople. 
 
 15. p. 56. Slipper-money of the Sultanas : in Turkish, pesh- 
 
 malik; equivalent to our pin-money. 
 
 16. p. 56. Reis effendee : the Turkish secretary of state for 
 
 foreign affairs. 
 
 ^7. p. 56. Pounding the grand Mufti in a mortar : according 
 to the ancient mode of capital punishment in- 
 flicted on the heads of the law, whose blood 
 it was deemed irreverent to shed. 
 
 18. p. 59. Caleondjees : marines; from cal eon, a galley. 
 
 19. p. 59. Romaic: the modern Greek; as Hellenic means 
 
 the ancient Greek. 
 
 20. p. 60. The Holy Mountain: mount Athos; that beauti- 
 
 tiful promontory, now infected by twenty-two 
 Greek convents. 
 
 21. p. 6A. Kiad-hane: public walk near Constantinople, 
 
 called by the Franks Les Eaux douces. 
 
NOTES. 415 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 N..te 
 
 l.p. 67. Galata: suburb divided from Constantinople by 
 the harbour; and occupying the base of the 
 hill of which Pera crowns the summit. 
 
 2. p. 67. Para : a small Turkish coin. 
 
 3. p. 70. The anteree : part of the long dress of men of se- 
 
 dentary professions. 
 
 A. p. 71. SuUan-Bayezid : one of the Imperial mosques at 
 Constantinople, near which is held the market 
 of second-hand apparel. 
 
 5. p. 71. Hash-keui : suburb of Constantinople, where the 
 
 Jews live. 
 
 6. p. 71. Furred cap . which the droguemen wear when in 
 
 fiocchi^ and the physicians habitually. 
 
 7. p. 72. Lalise jacket: the Lahses, or inhabitants of the 
 
 northern shores of Asia Minor, are chiefly em- 
 ployed at Constantinople in garden-work. 
 
 8. p. 72. Lorenzo: Nucciolo; a Raguseen; physician to the 
 
 Seraglio, and only very lately (as I find from 
 Mr. Turner's account) beheaded, in his eigh- 
 tieth year, by order of his chief patient, Abd- 
 ool-Hameed. 
 
 9. p. 73. Hekim-bashee : chief of the college of physicians. 
 
 10. p. 7A. Blacquernes : a remote district of Constantinople. 
 
 11. p. 75. ^ Beglier-hey : or bey of beys; title given to the 
 
 pashas of Roumili and of Anadoly. 
 
 12. p. 76. Moonedjim: astrologer. 
 
 13. p. 76. Backtche-capoossee : the garden-gate; one of the 
 
 gates of Constantinople. 
 lA. p. 78. Bagnio : the vast enclosure near the arsenal, which 
 serves as a prison to the Christian captives, 
 and the Turkish and Rayah criminals.. 
 
416 NOTES. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Note 
 
 1. p. 85. This description of the plague is conformable to 
 
 the modern Greek personification of that 
 disease. 
 
 2. p. 88. Islamism: the true belief, according to the Mo- 
 
 hammedan doctrine. 
 
 3. p. 88. Namas: the chief prayer of the Mohammedans. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 1. p. 89. Proesii: the Greek primate of a district. 
 
 2. p. 92. A seven years^ ague: the liberal wish of an enemy 
 
 in a country replete with malaria. 
 
 3. p. 93. Hydriote: from the island of Hydra; chiefly inha- 
 
 bited by sailors and ship-owners, whO;, at the 
 beginning of the revolution, when France was 
 shut out from the Baltic, supplied her with 
 corn from the Archipelago. 
 A. p. 93. Tophana: the cannon foundery, which gives its 
 name to a handsome quay near Galata. 
 
 5. p. 93. Kicbabs : mutton steaks, sold in the cook-shops at 
 
 Constantinople. 
 
 6. p. 9A. Stambool effendee: inspector of the police of the 
 
 capital. 
 
 7. p. 9A. My cries of "• aman :" of mercy or pardon. 
 
 8. p. 96. My forehead used to be studded with gold coins: 
 
 Turkish mode of rewarding public dancers and 
 singers. 
 
 9. p. 96. The Mewlewi Dermis hes : sort of Turkish friars, 
 
 whose devout exercises consist in twirling 
 round like tops. 
 
NOTES. 417 
 
 Note 
 
 10. p. 98. Yaoort: a sort of Turkish cream cheese. 
 
 11. p. 100. The solemn ceremony : still in use in Albania, and 
 
 along the eastern shore of the Adriatic. 
 
 12. p. 101. Epirotes might retain such old customs : under 
 
 the denominations oi probratimi for the men, 
 and prosestrimi for the women. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1. p. 104. Hoshah: a beverage made of fruit of various sorts, 
 
 2. p. 106. St. Demetrius: remote suburb of Constantinople, 
 
 where the Greeks have an hospital. 
 
 3. p. 108. Ardba: Turkish waggon. 
 
 A. p. 108. Tartar: the Mohammedan niessengers in the ser- 
 vice of the Porte are called Tartars, or more 
 properly Tatars, as the gate porters in France 
 used to be called Suisses, from their original 
 extrac tion. 
 
 5. p. 109. Sultana's husbands : the Sultan's sisters and 
 
 daughters— whom consequently he cannot es- 
 pouse — are alone called Sultanas : his wives or 
 concubines never assume that title, appro- 
 priated exclusively to the imperial blood. 
 
 6. p. 109. Internuncio : title given to the Austrian minister 
 
 at Constantinople, in order to avoid conflicts 
 of etiquette. Baron Herbert Ralhkeal was 
 equally venerated by Turks and by Christians. 
 
 7. p. 109. Envoy of Sweden: Mouradgea d'Ohson; an Ar- 
 
 menian by birth, originally drogueman to the 
 Swedish mission ; and author of a celebrated 
 work on the Othoman Empire. 
 
 8. p. 109. Anastasius sometimes spells Frank names very 
 
 incorrectly. On inquiry I find that of the gen- 
 
418 NOTES. 
 
 Note 
 
 tleman in question to be Vaiiden Dedeni tot 
 Gelder. 
 
 9. p. 110. Kislar Aga: chief of the black eunuchs: a per- 
 sonage possessed of vast power and patron- 
 age ; being intrusted with the administration 
 of all the religious foundations of the Turkish 
 empire, of which the revenues are immense. 
 
 10. p. IIA. Handjar: Turkish poniard. 
 
 11. p. 116. Emir : or Shereef : names given to the descen- 
 
 dants of Mohammed's daughter, who in every 
 city of the empire have their own distinct tri- 
 bunals, and the exclusive privilege of wearing 
 turbans of the sacred colour : namely, green. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1. p. 118. Berath: Foreign ministers being often obliged to 
 
 employ rayahs as their domestics, originally 
 obtained for them patents of exemption from 
 the jurisdiction of the Porte, which they now 
 find it more profitable to sell. 
 
 2. p. 130. Djamee : name given to the mosques founded by 
 
 sultans. 
 
 3. p. 130. The Mihrah: or altar. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1. p. 132. Bartended not farther than his nose. — // ne voyait 
 
 pas plus loin que son nez. 
 
 2. p. 135. Scheyis : the two principal sects among the Mo^ 
 
 hammedans are the Sunnees and the Scheyis; 
 
NOTES. 41ft 
 
 Note 
 
 and as the difference between them is small, 
 so is the hatred proportionably intense. The 
 Turks are all Sunnees, the Persians all Scheyis : 
 the former are more fanatical, and the latter 
 more superstitious. 
 3. p. 135. Pretty faces : the Persians admit representa- 
 tions uf human figures in their books of poetry, 
 which the Turks hold in abhorrence. 
 
 A. p. 136. The bridge Seerath : over which the souls of the 
 elect glide into heaven, while those of the 
 damned tumble from it into hell. 
 
 5. p. 136. Three hundred and sia^ty days in the year: the 
 
 Mohammedan months are lunar. 
 
 6. p. 136. Devas: the Mohammedan spirits that guard sub- 
 
 terraneous treasures. 
 
 7. p. 136. Hafeez : holy, but in a less degree than the Wely, 
 
 or saint. 
 
 8. p. 136. Reekath: a division of the Mohammedan prayer. 
 
 9. p. 136. Karagheuz: black-eyes; the principal personage 
 
 in a Turkish puppet-show resembling the Om- 
 bres Chinoises. 
 
 10. p. 136. Ramadan : or Piamazan : the month during which 
 
 the Mohammedans fast all day, and feast all 
 night. While the sun remains above the ho- 
 rizon they dare not even refresh themselves 
 with a drop of water or a whiff of tobacco. 
 
 11. p. 137. Moollah: generic name for the doctors of law, 
 
 who according to the Mohammedan system are 
 doctors of divinity ; inasmuch as the Moham- 
 medan law is enlirelv founded on the Koran. 
 
420 NOTES. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Note 
 
 1. p. lA^. Top Capoosee: cannon-gate; one of the gales of 
 
 Constantinople. 
 
 2. p. 1A2. Zeea?neth : denomination of the military fiefs 
 
 which ought to supply the regular cavalry of 
 the Othoman empire, but by a frequent abuse 
 pass into the hands of women or children, who 
 find substitutes. 
 
 3. p. 1A2. Sharp stirrups : with which the Turks perform the 
 
 office of spurs. 
 A. p. 1A3. Bernoos: cloak worn by the Barbaresques, by na- 
 val characters, and by those who adopt the 
 short dress. 
 
 5. p. lAA. 7^Ae same/es^2>«/; outside the Topcapoosee there 
 
 is a holy well much resorted to by the Greeks 
 on the day of St. George's festival. 
 
 6. p. 1A5. Candiote Turks: reckoned peculiarly brave and 
 
 dashing, though often intermarrying with Greek 
 women, whom they suffer to retain their re- 
 ligion. 
 
 7. p. 1A9. Mekkieme : Turkish hall of justice. 
 
 8. p. 1A9. Ndih : the cadee's clerk. 
 
 9. p. 1A9. The boiled wheat: or colyva, distributed by the 
 
 Greeks at burials. 
 
 10. p. 150. Moirai: The Fates, who in some of the Greek is- 
 
 lands are still worshipped with superstitious 
 rites. 
 
 11. p. 151. Djereed: a staff, which the Turks make it one of 
 
 their favourite sports to fling at each other with 
 prodigious force on horseback. 
 
 12. p. 151. Oc-Meidan audi Hippodrome : the first the place of 
 
NOTES. 421 
 
 Note 
 
 arrows; the latter, slill called by the Turks At- 
 
 Meidan, or the place of horses, 
 lo. p. 152. Theriakee T char tehee : place where the lovers of 
 
 opium used to resort. On one side of it rises 
 
 the superb mosque built by Suleiman the 3d ; 
 
 and in front stands the hospital for insane 
 
 persons. 
 lA. p. 152. Madjoon : Turkish name for opium. 
 15. p. 153. fVith outstretched hands: the Greeks still utter 
 
 their imprecations with outstretched hands 
 
 and fingers. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1. p. 155. The arches of Bacldche Keui : magnificent 
 
 aqueduct near the village of that name, built 
 under the Greek emperors, in the pointed style, 
 and which still supplies Constantinople abun- 
 dantly with water. 
 
 2. p. 155. Ehlis: his satanic majesty. 
 
 3. p. 156. CaravoTceiri : master of a merchant vessel. 
 A. p. 157. Sacoleva: small merchant ship. 
 
 5. p. 158. Muezzeem: person who among the Turks cries 
 
 the hour of prayer from the top of the mina- 
 rets. Sultan Achmet is a magnificent mosque 
 at Constantinople, built by that sovereign, and 
 the only one which has six minarets. 
 
 6. p. 162. Palikaria: my brave fellows ! 
 
 7. p. 163. Ihram: a small floor carpet, used chiefly by the 
 
 Turks for prayers. 
 
 8. p. 16A. Eyooh and Sultanieh : the former a beautiful su- 
 
 burb, the latter a delightful valley near Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
422 NOTES. 
 
 Note 
 9. p. 165. Kleidon Rysika : the game of drawing lots by 
 means of keys. 
 
 10. p. 165. Paramana: nurse. 
 
 11. p. 165. It is the custom among the Greek islanders to pre- 
 
 serve the broken vessels of a twelvemonth, in 
 order to throw them away in a single heap at 
 Christmas. 
 
 12. p. 165. Papadia: the wife of a papas, or priest. 
 
 13. p. 167. The ceaseless grinding of the water-wheel : used in 
 
 the gardens of Chios to irrigate the numerous 
 plantations of orange-trees. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1. p. 171. With the moisture of my lips: a superstitious pro- 
 
 cess supposed to avert the influence of the evil 
 eye, or other omiinous circumstances. 
 
 2. p. 175. fVith the purple of my own blood I sign, etc. : al- 
 
 luding, I suppose, to the custom of the Greek 
 emperors of signing their name with purple. 
 
 3. p. 175. Epitrope: primate of a Greek community. 
 
 A. p. 176. Avaneah: name given to a contribution imposed 
 by Turks on rayahs, on some unfounded pre- 
 tence. 
 
 5. p. 180. Moiro logistri: the hired female who in some of 
 
 the Greek islands still follows a funeral, singing 
 the praises and bewailing the loss of the de- 
 ceased. 
 
 6. p. 182. Khirlangitsch : properly a swallow; a Turkish 
 
 sloop of war. 
 
NOTES. 42:J 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Note 
 
 1. p. 18 A. Terzhana: the admiralty. 
 
 2. p. 186. Speciote: from the island of Specia. 
 
 3. p. i88. Sphachia: district on the coast of Crete, forming 
 
 the dower of one of the Sultanas^ and whose 
 inhabitants combine the pastoral and piratical 
 life. 
 A. p. 188. Maikiane: fief, of the nature of an apanage. 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 1. p. 202. Okhal: name for an inn or. caravan-serai, in 
 
 Egypt. 
 
 2. p. 203. Rashid: Rosetta. 
 
 3. p. 203. Rakie: an ardent spirit. 
 
 A. p. 205. Djerms: small country vessels. 
 h. p. 209. The Mawgarbees : men from Garbieh;,or the West; 
 name given to the Barbaresques. 
 
 6. p. 210. Maash: covered passage-boats that sail up and 
 
 down the Nile. 
 
 7. p. 210. Schaich-el-belled: chief of the country, or rather 
 
 land; title given alike to the chief of the whole 
 body of Beys of Egypt and to the chief among 
 the notables of a small district. 
 
 8. p. 211. Nivalis: plural for Alm^; public female singers. 
 
 9. p. 212. Ghazie: female public dancer. 
 
121 NOTES. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Note 
 
 1. p. 217. Gurgistan, Georgia. 
 
 2. p. 218. Kiashef: an officer commanding part of a pro- 
 
 vince under a bey ; though, like the title of bey, 
 that of Kiashef is often merely honorary, 
 o. p. 225. The jar: an earthen vessel, which, in one of their 
 martial sports, the Mamlukes try to hit. 
 
 A. p. 226. From terrace to terrace: the houses at Cairo are 
 
 , all flat-roofed ; and each peculiar district of the 
 
 city is separated from the neighbouring ones, 
 
 by its particular gate, which is kept shut at 
 
 night. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 1. p. 231. Masr : Cairo. 
 
 2. p. 231. Kalish: Canal or cut, communicating with the 
 
 Nile. That which runs through Cairo and 
 feeds its different birkets or lakes, is opened 
 every year with great solemnity, when the Nile 
 has attained the requisite height. 
 
 3. p. 231. Birkets: excavated ground in and about Cairo, 
 
 transformed, after the rise of the Nile, into 
 
 tanks, on which the inhabitants go in boats. 
 A. p. 232. Tried to spit in my own face: see vol. i. chapter 
 
 13, note 2. 
 5. p. 235. Franguestan: land of the Franks; name given 
 
 by the Mohammedans to Europe. 
 6. p. 235. As if it had been his oivn: Anastasius can only 
 
 allude to such trifles as the partition of Poland ; 
 
N0TE;S. 425 
 
 Note 
 
 nothing like the Congress of Vienna having yet 
 
 been witnessed at that period. 
 . 7. p. 237. The felt: which the mamlukes practise to cleave 
 
 at a single stroke with their sabres. 
 
 8. p. 238. Seratclies: domestics of the beys, who are not 
 
 slaves. 
 
 9. p. 239. 7b/i/6ooA;rf/ee : pipe-bearer ; from tchibook, pipe. 
 
 10. p. 239. Maallim: master; Arabic form of address to 
 
 gentry of an inferior description. 
 
 11. p. 239. The lake Youshekieh: one of the handsomest 
 
 birkets or lakes in Cairo. 
 
 12. p. 2A3. El Azhar: one of the great religious foundations 
 
 at Cairo for the promotion of science; but 
 where, of course, all science which is consi- 
 dered as any way militating against the inter- 
 ests of the foundation is utterly discouraged. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 -Jr. pe 2A9. Cdimakam : lieutenant or official representative 
 ' of a public personage. The giand visier, when 
 he takes the command of the Turkish army, 
 leaves his Caimakam at Constantinople. 
 
 2. p. 2h^ . Mokhadam : servant who, in Egypt, precedes 
 
 public officers with a staff called nabood, to 
 drive .a^ay the mob. 
 
 3. p. 2A9. Bazirghian: merchant or purveyor of a man in 
 
 office, by whom he is paid in drafts on his es- 
 tates or government. 
 
 A. p. 250. <Sawoor: spotted fur, much esteemed in the I^e- 
 
 vant. 
 5. p. 251. Fellahs: peasants; who in Egypt are all of Ara- 
 
 28 
 
426 NOTES. 
 
 Note 
 
 bic extraction, and hold the land according to 
 different tenures ; though considered in gene- 
 ral as serfs. 
 
 6. p. 251. Kawasses : servants who follow their masters on 
 
 foot. 
 
 7. p. 251. Shehoods : notables of a village or district. 
 
 8. p. 252. Khandgea : boat for passengers, used on the 
 
 Nile. 
 
 9. p. 256. Miri : territorial imposition of Egypt. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 11. p. 265. i/flj5/^2sA ; an intoxicating drug. 
 
 2. p. 267. Haznadar: treasurer, — from hazne, treasury. 
 
 3. p. 268. i/Mc^-wntt^i^cro/^s: among the Mohammedans slaves 
 
 are not suffered to let their beards grow : this 
 appendage therefore is always a sign of free- 
 dom; and generally marks official dignity, or 
 at least gravity of deportment. Having been 
 once suffered to grow, it is thought indecorous 
 and almost profane again to shave it. 
 A. p. 269. Somebody's mother : allusive to an exclamation of 
 anger, much in use among the Turks. 
 
 5. p. 271. Kohl: a black and almost impalpable powder, 
 
 used to tinge the eyelids, and supposed to 
 strengthen the sight. 
 
 6. p. 271. The Padishah : the emperor ; title given to the 
 
 Sultan. 
 
 7. p. 272. Surmeh : another name for kohl. 
 
 8. p. 272. Henna : a red juice, extracted from a plant, with 
 
 which the Egyptians dye their women, and the 
 Persians their horses. 
 
NOTES. 427 
 
 Note 
 
 9. p. 273. Akne: the singular of Awali or singers. 
 10. p. 276. Clapping her hands : which in the East, where 
 servants are always in waiting in the room, 
 stands in lieu of ringing the bell. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 1. p. 277. Jlhlah : Arab cloak. 
 
 2. p. 281. Bedawee : or Bedoween. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 1. p. 29A. Koohhees : sepulchral chapels. 
 
 2. p. 296. Za'ims : vessels which navigate the Red Sea. 
 
 3. p. 296. Nzleh : indigo. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 1. p. 299. Hadjee: a pilgrim; from had), pilgrimage. All 
 
 Mohammedans are enjoined by the Prophet to 
 perform that to Mekkah in person, or at least 
 by proxy. 
 
 2. p. 299. Kmha : the holy house of Mekkah, originally 
 
 built by the angels in Paradise : in its wall is 
 inserted the black stone, probably of atmo- 
 spheric origin, already worshipped by the Arabs 
 previous t6 Mohammed, who found the super- 
 stition in its favour too deeply rooted to con- 
 tend with. 
 
428 NOTES. 
 
 Note 
 
 3. p. 299. Coorhan Baymm: festival which takes place forty 
 days after that of the Bayram. 
 
 h. p. 299. Kishr : a beverage much used in Arabia. 
 
 5. p. 302. Dives: celebrated magicians. 
 
 6. p. 302. The bird roc : a fabulous bird of prodigious size. 
 
 7. p. 302. Simoom: the poisonous wind of the desert. 
 
 8. p. 303. It is customary with men of letters in Arabia to 
 
 assume a number of surnames, borrowed from 
 different circumstances. 
 
 9. p. 30A. The balance JVezn: in which, according to the 
 
 koran, are weighed man's good and evil ac- 
 tions. 
 
 10. p. 306. Afrite: evil spirit; demon. 
 
 11. p. 306. Birket-el-hadj : the lake near Cairo, on whose 
 
 banks the pilgrims bound for Mekkah as- 
 semble. 
 
 12. p. 308. The Shereef of Mekkah: the prince or sovereign 
 
 of the country. 
 
 13. p. 308. Djezzar : whom it fell to our lot to defend against 
 
 Bonaparte. 
 lA. p. 308. The Hadj : or caravan of pilgrims. 
 
 15. p. 309. Bosniac guard: some of the Turkish pashas or 
 
 governors of provinces have Bosniac soldiers for 
 their body guards, as others have Albanians, 
 and others Koords or Turkmen. 
 
 16. p. 309. Deli-bash : or officer of dellis. 
 
 17. p. 313. Firmans: passports from the Grand Signior. 
 
 18. p. 313. Crals: petty sovereigns of Christendom. 
 
 CHAPTER XX III. 
 
 1. p. 317. Seraff: cashier, banker. 
 
NOTES. • 429 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Note 
 1. p. 338. Before the holy doors. According to the ritual of 
 the Greek church the priesthood alone enters 
 the sanctuary, which is divided from the nave 
 by a screen, the doors of which are called the 
 holy doors. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 1. p. SA5. The infidel hill: on which stands Pera, the quar- 
 
 ter of the Franks. 
 
 2. p. SA8. Capidjee : gentleman usher of the Grand Signior. 
 
 The capidjees are woijt to carry to the go- 
 vernors of provinces the commands, favours, 
 and bowstrings of the Sultan. 
 
 3. p. 350. Iskiudar: Scutari; situated opposite Constanti- 
 
 nople, on the Asiatic shore. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 1. p. 36A. JSea-Moni: rich monastery in the island of Chios. 
 
 2. p. 365. Fior di Levante : emphatic epithet of praise given 
 
 by the Greek islanders to Chios. 
 
 3. p. 372. Despots : title given to the Greek archbishops. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 1. p. 596. His Koordish body-guard: The Roords and Turk- 
 
430 '^ NOTES. 
 
 Note 
 
 men are mountaineers of Anadoly, who often 
 carry their tents to a great distance from their 
 native provinces, combine a predatory with a 
 pastoral life, and form the body-guard of the 
 Asiatic pashas, as the mountaineers of Albania 
 form that of the governors of Turkey in Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 2. p. 397. Dellis: properly madmen : species of troops who 
 
 in the Turkish army act as the forlorn hope. 
 
 3. p. 398. Bairak: company. 
 
 A. p. AOl. Which in fact he had: namely Alexander — or 
 Iskander — bey ; co|nmonly called by the 
 Franks Scanderbeg. 
 
 5. p. A05. Tooioondjee: officer who carries the tobacco- 
 pouch of a great man. 
 
 END OF VOL. 
 
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