‘Why should I go to this expense?’ he objected. ‘I have already told you that I am not going to disarm.’
‘The question is whether you are willing to see Germany and Austria disarm, leaving you to face Russia single-handed. Surely it is worth a hundred thousand pounds to Turkey to prevent her allies from falling into such a trap.’
The Sultan still hesitated.
‘How do I know that I shall get anything in return, if I trust you with this money?’ he asked suspiciously.
‘Your Majesty must judge me by what I have done already. Two days ago you had never heard my name. Now I am here alone with you, with a loaded revolver in my pocket’—the Sultan started violently—‘discussing the secrets of your foreign policy. Does that look as though I were a fool?’
The Commander of the Faithful sat silent, attentively regarding me for some minutes. Finally he dismissed me, promising to consider my proposal.
“‘Your Majesty must judge me by what I have done already. Two days you had never heard my name. Now I am here, alone with you, with a loaded revolver in my pocket.’ The Sultan started violently.”
I withdrew, confident that Abdul would consult his all-powerful favourite, and that Muzaffir would see that I got my way.
A week later I was back in Paris, with an autograph letter from the Sultan to his Ambassador in Russia, and a draft on the Ottoman Bank which I took the precaution to exchange for a letter of credit from a private Parisian banking firm to the Ephrussis of Petersburg.