In five minutes my new acquaintance had confided to me that they were sisters, and that a sweet little girl who sat between them was the only child of the younger one, and would be immensely rich; and had, in turn, inquired my country, and my relationship to my father, who stood aloof, lest he should annoy them; but whom they forthwith invited into the shade by the usual title given to all Franks:—“Gel, Capitan, Gel—Come, Captain, come”—while the daughter of the eldest lady, a pale, slight, dark-eyed houri, who was perfectly conscious of her extreme beauty, played off a thousand little coquettish airs to attract his attention. First she let the lower portion of her yashmac fall, to discover the prettiest mouth in the world; with, what is very unusual among the Turkish females, a fine set of teeth, which she displayed in a laugh of affected embarrassment at her awkwardness; and then, in her great haste to remedy the misfortune, she contrived to throw back her feridjhe, and disclose a throat and arms as dazzling as mountain snow; and a pair of delicate little hands, of which the nails were deeply stained with henna. I had seen several yashmacs adjusted in the harem, but I had never yet met with one which required so much arranging as this; and the young Hanoum was so persevering, and kept up such a soft little murmur of Turkish ejaculations, that I had time to take an excellent lesson in the difficult art of veiling.
And all this within ten paces of one of the sentinels, who stood leaning cross-legged against the stock of his musket, according to the most approved system of Turkish discipline; and who did not interfere to remove the Frank strangers from the vicinity of the women, although a couple of years ago it would have perhaps subjected my father to temporary imprisonment, and certainly to insult.
As we had already had sufficient experience of the slight attention which His Sublime Highness ever paid to time on public occasions, we felt no inclination to spend half the morning under a tree on the edge of a dusty road; and, having ascertained by the line of sentinels, that the procession would pass the Military College; we accordingly made a parting salutation to our new friends, and plunged once more into the hot sunshine.
As we ascended the hill we came upon a squadron of the Imperial Guard, who were to form a portion of the shew, and who were lying comfortably in the dust, some asleep, and others nearly so; while the horses were huddled together in groups in the centre of the road? This was a portion of the corps which I mentioned in my account of the marriage festivities of the Princess Mihirmàh, and they certainly were considerably more like soldiers at a distance, than when seen thus on our very path.
Nothing requires more management than a fèz. It may be so arranged as to form even a becoming head-dress; but wo betide the unlucky wight who pulls it on until he is fèzed over head and ears! As worn by the Turkish soldiers, it were impossible to conceive any thing more hideous; generally nearly black, and always more or less greasy; some fling it down into their necks, where it forms a deep fold, others drag it over their eyebrows, and others again bury their whole heads in it, till it takes the form of the skull, and looks like a red clay basin. I need not expatiate on the appearance of their white overalls, even on such an occasion as the present, because I have already stated that the wearers were lying about in the dust; and it were equally supererogatory to do more than allude to the effect of a lancer jacket of coarse cloth, braided with yellow cord, nine times out of ten a misfit.
The horses were in excellent keeping with their riders, and presented a beautiful independence of accoutrement. Some had blue saddlecloths, and some had brown ones; some scarlet, and some white; some had European saddles, and some Tartar—some had holsters, (many of them, by the by, to my great amusement, charged with cucumbers, of which the Turks are extremely fond) and some were without. Their lances looked as though they had dropped down among them by mistake, their points were so glittering, and their crimson pennons so fresh and bright, for a Turkish soldier is always careful of his arms. They do not carry these graceful weapons like our own Lancers, although they are similarly provided with slings, but grasp the pole in the Russian fashion.
We were curious to witness the bearing of the Sultan on this occasion, as on the presentation of his portrait at Scutari, a portion of the Imperial Guard had murmured openly against so glaring an infringement of their law, which forbids literally the likeness of any human being to be taken; whereas this had, moreover, been carried with great pomp, and saluted after the same fashion as would have been the august personage whom it represented. “We are be coming Giaours—Infidels,”—was the complaint—“The Franks are turning the head of the Sultan, and he will soon be as they are.”
The first intimation of this disaffection on the part of the troops which reached the inhabitants of the capital, was the appearance of bodies floating in the Bosphorus; and the fact that a Greek captain, who had moored his vessel in the current, found it clogged in an incomprehensible manner; and, on employing half a dozen men to remove the evil, discovered that it was choaked with corpses!
After so decided a manifestation of the sentiments of the soldiery, it was a courageous act of the Sultan to venture thus immediately on a repetition of the offence; and the rather that a portion of the troops are composed of the sons of the Janissaries, who cannot be supposed to entertain the most favourable feelings towards the destroyer of their fathers; and who would naturally embrace so favourable an opportunity of spreading their own hate, as that which permitted them to enforce their expressions of disgust with the name of the Prophet, and the authority of their religion.
As it was uncertain whether His Highness might not descend at the College, as he had done on a previous occasion, three temporary steps covered with scarlet cloth had been prepared for him to descend from his horse; and a carpet laid down from thence to the apartment of Azmè Bey, where a handsomely-embroidered, and elaborately-cushioned sofa had been arranged for his reception. In this room we took up our position, near a window that commanded the long stretch of road, by which the procession was to advance; and we had calculated justly on the procrastination of the Sultan, for we waited nearly four hours ere the cortège was actually in motion. “The cry was still ‘they come!’” and during all that time they came not. There were two or three false alarms. The drums beat off at the Palace, and were answered by those on the heights, and at the College; the gallant cavalry gathered themselves up out of the dust, and mounted their horses: the Bey turned out his guard, and all in vain. There was a mistake somewhere; and consequently the cavalry dismounted, and lay down again to finish their sleep; and the young Colonel turned in the guard; and we drank another glass of sherbet, and tried to think that we were not at all out of patience; in which attempt, I, at least, was very unsuccessful.