[128] Covel’s Diaries, p. 245; Rycaut’s Memoirs, pp. 282-3, 318.
[129] Finch to Coventry, Sept. 9, 1675.
[130] Finch to Coventry, Sept. 9, 1675. Rycaut, who always reflects the conventional view, would have agreed with Kindsberg: “It is certainly a good Maxime for an Ambassador in this Countrey, not to be over-studious in procuring a familiar friendship with Turks,” Present State, p. 170. This maxim arose from the belief that “a Turk is not capable of real friendship towards a Christian.”
[131] Covel’s Diaries, p. 226.
[132] Life of Dudley North, p. 107.
CHAPTER IX
THE SUBLIME THRESHOLD
As soon as the Feasts ended (June 25th) the Ambassador applied for his Audience—“and here,” he says, “I find I was mistaken, that it was not the Feasts that hinderd’ my Audience, but a Pay day to the Souldiery.” The Turks commonly chose that day for the reception of new ambassadors in order to dazzle them with the sight of their strength and wealth. But Sir John, who did not yet know all the ins and outs of Ottoman etiquette, readily believed what he was told—“that the Gran Signor had an Intention to place the highest Respect upon me in giving me audience on the pay day of his Janizarys.”[133]
This honour is promised him at once; but the days pass, and it is still to come. Instead, other things come—things enough to try the temper of a saint. Just then—beginning of July—the Plague breaks out in the overcrowded city of Adrianople; and to the nuisance of interminable festivals now succeed the horrors of interminable funerals. Hundreds die every day. It is impossible to stir out of doors without meeting a corpse. All slaves and poor people, the moment they expire, are wrapped up in some rag, thrust upon the back of a hamal, or porter, and conveyed to their destination like bales of cadaverous goods. What is worse, one knows that there lies as much danger of contagion in touching the clothes of the living as the bodies of the dead. There is no protection against the foul disease except in flight. Even the Turks, who are much less given to panic than the Franks, fly in great numbers from the town into the country. The Grand Signor himself, good Mohammedan though he is, sets the example of lack of faith by retiring to a palace which he has built at Ak-bonar, some ten miles north of Adrianople, leaving the Grand Vizir in the infected city to carry on the business of government as usual. What is left for mere infidels?