Vani did not despair of completing the education of so promising a pupil. He pressed him to come again, guaranteeing him full security and freedom of speech. The Knight went no more. If the way to Mohammed’s Paradise lay through the plague-stricken streets of Adrianople, he preferred to stay outside it. But he continued the discussion through the disreputable Count, until Vani (with better taste) intimated that Bocareschi was not a fit channel for divine truth, and desired the Knight, if he had any more questions, to put them down in writing, and he would answer in like manner. But the Knight had had enough.[147] By that time the necessity which had impelled him to brave the sickness and enter the lists of Moslem theology appeared to be over, or nearly over.
The Tefterdar, having made it quite clear that he was not duped by our diplomacy, passed the clauses submitted to him; and the Kehayah, having thus redeemed his pledge, reminded Sir John’s Dragomans of the bakshish they had promised. Sir John wasted no time. He gives twice who gives quickly; besides, the reminder was tantamount to an intimation that his deliverance was now actually at hand. In the plenitude of his gratitude, Sir John even proposed to bestow some of the Levant Company’s gold upon the Tefterdar, who had never asked for any. Then, contrary to every expectation, new difficulties sprang up; bringing with them fresh doubts and disquietudes.
When, on the appointed day, the Treasurer of the Levant Company and the Dragomans came to the Kehayah with the cash, that gentleman said he could not touch it before he had spoken with the Vizir. The Rais Effendi proved less coy. He very kindly pocketed his present and showed the bearers the Capitulations being drawn up fair. Fair they were, indeed, so far as calligraphy went; but the Dragomans noted that one Article—the Article about English factors turning Turks—had, in the process of copying, undergone a curious transmutation. In the draft read to Sir John, though the evidence of Christian witnesses was not granted, it had been conceded that the proofs of embezzlement should be derived from the Levant Company’s books and bills of lading: wherewith his Excellency was well satisfied. This concession had entirely vanished.[148] In Sir John’s own phrase, “the Mufti castrats the Article as to manner of Proofe,” or, “the Byshop had His foot in it.” However, the point was not worth fighting for—English factors were not likely to turn Turks every day. The thing that made Sir John uneasy was the Kehayah’s new-born repugnance to bribery. What did it mean?
Sir John was not left in doubt long. When his Dragomans went to the Kehayah for an answer to his Petition on behalf of the Latin Fathers, they brought back word that his Excellency would do well to give up all thoughts of that matter. The Vizir was inflexible: “He cannot deferr the Execution of the sentence any longer; for the messenger being now returnd’ from Jerusalem which He had employd’, He was resolvd’ to issue out the Gran Signor’s Command immediately in order to putt the sentence in execution.” Sir John bore this blow with comparative equanimity. He had at first been led to believe that the sentence involved expulsion of the Cordeliers from Jerusalem and confiscation of their convents. But two months’ close intercourse with the “good Fathers,” assisted perhaps by the wish to minimise in his own eyes the magnitude of his failure, enabled him to see things in their true proportions. “Now, Sir,” he tells the Secretary of State, “you will wonder that so great a noise should be made about so small a thing, the sentence being onely this, That the Latin Fathers who were in possession of the Luoghi Santi at Jerusalem are to be lookd’ upon as living in the Patriarchicall See of Jerusalem, and so under the Patriarch: which jurisdiction is onely to be shown in this, that when the Greek Easter and theirs fall on the same day, the Ceremony’s of Palme Sunday and Easter Day are to be performd’ first by the Greeks, and the Latins are to pay a small recognition besides in mony; Both which points the Latin Fathers look upon as renouncing the Pope’s Supremacy; For the rest they are to enjoy their convents and freedome of Mass as formerly.”[149]
It was less easy for our Ambassador to bear another disappointment. For months the Kehayah had nourished his hopes about the title of Padishah; and now he sent him word that this also was a thing that the Grand Vizir would not hear of: “He was loath that I above all should depart from this Court any wayes discontented, but He could not with safety alter the ancient style.”[150] Had mortal ever suffered such vexing frustrations? Why did the Turks tease him so—holding the cup to his lips only to snatch it away?
On the other hand, the copying out of the Capitulations seems to be going on satisfactorily. The Dragomans daily report progress; they are engrossed; signed by the Rais Effendi; decorated with the Imperial cipher by the Nishanji-bashi; and so on. At last it is announced that they are in the hands of the Grand Vizir, who only waits for an opportunity to present them to the Grand Signor for signature. That opportunity seems to the sorely tried Ambassador very long in coming, and he thinks to accelerate matters by ordering his Dragomans to inquire into the Vizir’s pleasure concerning his bakshish. But here also the unexpected happens: the Dragomans are told that Ahmed Kuprili has never hitherto taken anything from any ambassador and will not now: what he did, he did purely for right and justice.[151] It was an astounding statement for a Grand Vizir to make, and the most astounding part of it was that it was true. Ahmed had never soiled his hands. His probity was notorious. Strange, that Sir John alone should never have heard of this peculiarity.
At any rate, it now became evident to him that the Vizir knew nothing of the demand made on his behalf by his underlings. It was another of their little tricks; and another lesson for Sir John in the mysteries of Ottoman procedure. He does not seem to have profited greatly by it. For he sends his Dragomans again to press the Kehayah about the title of Padishah. The Kehayah replies that he has done all he could, but without effect. Yet, that wily and oily one adds, the Ambassador need not despair: so desirous is he to oblige the English, and to spite the French, that he would gladly spend five purses (or 2500 dollars) of his own money to get this feather for the King of England. On whom was he to spend that money? The matter rested entirely with the Vizir, and the Vizir was proof against corruption. Obvious as these reflections were, they did not occur to Sir John. The Kehayah’s suave message, and the gentle hint it conveyed, spur him to fresh exertion: he immediately orders the Treasurer and the Dragomans to renew to the Kehayah their offer of bakshish, and moreover, since the Grand Vizir has so courteously refused money, to tell his Steward that the Ambassador has a copy of the Atlas which the Dutch Resident some time before had presented to the Grand Signor—a work in twelve volumes which had pleased the Sultan so much that he had commanded its instant translation into Turkish.[152] If the Kehayah thinks this gift would be acceptable, his Excellency will bring it to the Vizir together with some superfine vests of cloth at his final audience. The Kehayah undertakes to sound the Vizir, and meanwhile graciously signifies his own readiness to pocket the English gold without further delay.
Even bribery, however, did not run in Turkey smoothly. Early next morning the Treasurer and Dragomans carried the moneybags to the Kehayah’s house and waited for him to come out of the women’s apartments. After waiting for some time in vain, they were informed that he had taken horse at the door of his harem and was riding away to the Vizir’s. Swiftly they ran after him with the coin. He bade them deliver it to his Hasnadar or Treasurer. Back to the house they went and begged the Hasnadar to relieve them of their burden. But the Hasnadar absolutely refused to touch the money without a formal order from his master. He had many times suffered in such cases—the sum paid him proving less than it ought to have been. So the Dragomans went to the Vizir’s palace and spoke to the Kehayah of this new difficulty. He was kind enough to write two words on a scrap of paper, which removed the Hasnadar’s scruples. The transaction was concluded as if it had been payment of a debt: the Hasnadar bending and testing the pieces of gold and counting them twice over.[153]
By this time Sir John was fairly tired. Italian diplomacy was simple, transparent, and child-like beside this Ottoman maze with its supple turns and sudden twists, its infinite ambiguities and bewildering mutabilities. The game was much too elusive for Sir John’s grasp: the moment you thought your fish safe in the net, somehow it slipped through the meshes; the moment a concession seemed crystallised, it melted again. Nothing was ever fixed; everything was fluid. Our metaphors are rather perplexed; but so was Sir John’s mind: so would be anybody’s mind after several months of promises and refusals continually interchanging. He did not know what to think. “I am sensible enough,” he confesses, “that all buissenesse of moment is hardly done; but here the perplexity of doeing affayrs is still attended with more of difficulty and intrigue, by having to doe with a people who neither in language, custome, manners, or religion, have any affinity with us.”[154] He longs to leave this baffling scene of suave, slippery Kehayahs and be back in his peaceful house at Pera—that scene of retirement and wrens from which he set out—how long ago? But hitherto his fortitude has not been tried beyond easy endurance.