At last he stopped, and, turning to me, salaamed and apologized for his apparent rudeness. It appeared that the half battalion which I had seen drilling was to march the following morning for Constantinople, viâ Samsoun. The Caimacan was engaged in making arrangements for its departure. Carriers would have to be sent forward to the different villages between Sileh Zela and Samsoun, to apprise the local authorities of the approaching arrival of the troops. The chief difficulty which the Caimacan experienced was the want of money, he presently observed, "Asker tchok, lakin para yoke," "We have plenty of soldiers, but no paras" (money).
The colonel of the battalion now entered the room, and after having been introduced to me, observed that he had heard in the event of hostilities England would be neutral.
"What! desert her old friend of the Crimea?" said the Caimacan, turning to me. And the Cadi, grinning in a ghastly manner at the rest of the company, remarked that England had many paras, and that perhaps she would send some of them to the Sultan.
This created a revulsion of feeling in my favour—the assembly having been a little annoyed at the colonel's statement about the neutrality of Great Britain.
"Well," I said, "you will probably have an ally in Austria."
"An ally in Austria!" said the colonel; "no, certainly not. There are more Slavs than Magyars in the Emperor Francis Joseph's dominions. However, Andrassy, a Hungarian, is at the head of affairs, and by all accounts he rules the emperor. Perhaps Andrassy may prevent Austria from allying herself with Russia against us."
"We shall have to fight our own battles this time," continued the colonel; "and, please God, we will win."
An old Imaum, who was seated in a corner, now put in a word, and said that if there were a war, he too would go at the head of the Imaums. I had observed this same propensity for fighting amidst other Mohammedan priests. In fact in Asia as in Europe the most bellicose members of society are often those gentlemen whose profession is that of peace.[15]
"We shall have Yakoob Khan of Kashgar with us," observed the Caimacan.
"No we shall not," replied the colonel; "the Russians have stirred up a quarrel between Yakoob and the Chinese, so as to prevent him giving us any assistance."