The Castle of Europe—The Traitor’s Gate—The Officer of the Guard—Military Scruples—The State Prison—The Tower of Blood—The Janissaries’ Tower—Cachots Forcès—Guard-room—The Bow-string—Frightful Death—The Signal Gun—The Grand Armoury—Flourishing State of the Establishment—A Dialogue—The Barracks of the Imperial Guard—The Persian Kiosk—Courts and Cloisters—The Kitchen—The Regimental School—A Coming Storm—The Tempest—Dangerous Passage—Turkish Terror—Kind-hearted Caïquejhe—Fortunate Escape.
Having obtained an order of admission from one of the Ministers, my father and myself started early one morning to visit the Fortress of Mahomet, commonly called by the Franks the Castle of Europe.
I have already stated elsewhere that this was the first pied-à-terre of the Prophet on the European coast; and that the entire pile, forming the characters of his name, was erected in six days. The strength of the fortress is much greater than its peculiar construction would lead you to believe when seen from the sea; and it is altogether an object of extreme interest.
When our caïque touched the landing-place opposite the Traitor’s Gate, our dragoman landed to obtain the authority of the officer on guard, who was sitting on his low wicker stool at the door of the guard-house, which is built upon the shore of the Bosphorus at the foot of the exterior wall of the fortress; and his surprise on ascertaining our errand was so great, that he scarcely removed the chibouk from his lips, as he declared the impossibility of his admitting us into a stronghold, within which no Frank had hitherto set his foot—The first European Fortress of the Prophet—The prison of the Janissaries—The—— I know not what else he might have added, for, in the midst of his harangue, he suddenly remembered that one of the two applicants for admission on the present occasion was not only a Frank, but, worse still, a woman; and he was just beginning to reason upon the fact, when our dragoman stepped in with the announcement of our order.
His scruples were silenced at once, and he immediately very civilly sent a corporal and a soldier of the garrison to point out to us the different localities; and two most intelligent men they proved to be, who, having been two years on the castle guard, were perfectly competent to do the melancholy honours of the place.
The Traitor’s Gate is the only seaward entrance to the fortress; and, when we had stooped to pass its low, wide arch, we found ourselves in a large court, having on our right hand one of the four principal towers; and precisely that which has hitherto served as a state prison for persons of distinction.
In the lower cell of this tower, which contains several ranges of dungeons, (none of them, however, subterranean), is a stone tunnel, descending deep into the sea; and beside its mouth is placed a block of marble, against which the victim knelt to receive the fatal stroke; when the severed head, and the gory stream that accompanied it, fell into the tunnel, and were carried by the current far beyond the walls of the fortress; the body, thus rendered irrecognisable, being afterwards thrown into the channel. A deep ditch passes near the entrance of this tower, which opens into an inner court; and, as we ascended a steep acclivity, and passed beside a ruined mosque, we traced the moat to the foundation of a second and lower tower, square in form, and castellated on the summit; distinguished by the fearful appellation of the “Tower of Blood!” The ditch opens immediately beneath a low archway, excavated in the foundation of the tower; and its use is similar to that of the tunnel in the lower prison, being intended to convey away to the sea all, save the bodies of the criminals executed within its walls, who were invariably the Aghas, or chiefs of the Janissaries, whom it would not have been safe to have dishonoured in the eyes of that formidable body, as it was customary to insult the remains of the less distinguished of their comrades.
In this ditch one of the soldiers informed us that near four hundred cases of ammunition had been discovered buried beneath the soil, for the private use of the Janissaries, in the event of their requiring such an auxiliary during any popular commotion; and it was singular enough that the deposit was revealed by the very individual who informed us of it, and who pointed out the spot where his pickaxe struck against the cover of one of the chests, when employed with a fatigue party to cleanse the moat from its accumulated filth.
Hence we ascended to the Janissaries’ Tower, the principal object of our curiosity. Built on the highest point of land within the walls, even from the base of this tower you command one of the noblest views in the world; having on one hand the whole stretch of the channel, to the opening of the Sea of Marmora; and on the other, the entrance to the Black Sea; the most sublime coup d’œil in the Bosphorus.
Here two additional attendants with lights were added to the party; and, having first visited a recess, or cell, in the masonry of the tower, which we entered by a low, narrow archway, that had been lately discovered, we stood within the secret magazine of the Janissaries, where they had built in upwards of six hundred cases of powder: and we then commenced our survey of the dungeons.