'The devil's in the cailloch,' said Callum; 'does she take us for ogres?'
Rather discouraged by the impression our appearance seemed to make, we pressed on towards the town, beyond which we saw a chain of snow-capped hills, sparkling in the sunshine like cones of polished silver. We studied our plans and distances over and over again; and I shuddered as I thought of the hopeless captivity that might succeed our recapture—the danger that hung over the Everinghams—the dreadful Bagnio; and with that recollection there came before me in fancy the careworn smile of poor Achmet Effendi, and his miserable comrade the lieutenant of artillery, who were still lingering there.
I knew well the danger and the difficulty attending two unarmed strangers travelling on foot in such a country as Turkey; for at the present hour I need scarcely remind the reader that even in the streets of Stamboul, notwithstanding the presence of regular troops and patrols of armed police, robberies and assassinations of every description, by the handjiar, the pistol, the bludgeon, and strangulation, are of constant occurrence in open day. If such is the case in the capital of 'the Lord of the Black and White Seas, and Keeper of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem,' our prospects in his rural districts were not very encouraging.
By the side of a rivulet we found a dreamy Osmanli reclining under an orange-tree, regaling himself on dates and cold water, with a paper cigar in his mouth. He was basking in the sunshine, and believing himself, perhaps, in the Garden of Delights, though minus the river of fragrant wine, the fruits of the giant Toaba, and the caresses of the black-eyed girls, with their limbs of snow, and scanty cymars of green.
With the usual greeting, I inquired if he knew the town now before us.
He replied in the affirmative; but the name I cannot now remember, and no map that I have seen bears it.
'Whence come you?' he inquired.
'Frangistan.'
'That I can perceive—but how?'
'By a ship.'