"Effendi, no one knows for certain. It may have been owing to his wives; some people say that he had lost all his money by lending it to the Sultan. Allah only knows! I should say his wives had something to do with it."
"Why so?"
"Because he was gay and handsome. His wives were jealous. They were always scolding him—that is, whenever he went to his harem. If he had not been a military Pacha, he might have abandoned his seraglio, but he could not leave Erzeroum; the wives knew it, they had him in their power. He was such a nice gentleman!"
Later in the day I met the Consul's dragoman. He was of opinion that the Pacha had not committed suicide, but that some one in his house had saved him the trouble. This was the impression of many people in the town.
"Any how," continued my informant, "no one will be the wiser. The poor fellow is in the ground; coroners' inquests, or any sort of judicial inquiry as to the causes of death, are unknown in this part of the world."
Radford was still looking ill. I wished to leave Erzeroum. It was necessary for me to make up my mind as to what was to be done with him. It is a six days' march from Erzeroum to Trebizond: once there he might have gone on board a vessel bound to Constantinople. But on my proposing this plan, the poor fellow so entreated to be allowed to continue the journey, that rather reluctantly I consented.
When long forced marches have to be made through deep snow, an invalid is a source of great inconvenience. In addition to this, I was anything but well myself; a sudden chill had left me with an attack of dysentery. The food supplied us by the Pacha at Erzeroum consisted of very rich dishes. It was not the best thing for the digestive organs.
I was eager to commence the journey to Van; however, if both man and master were to fall ill on the march, it would be next to impossible to reach that city. When I announced to Ismail Pacha my intention of starting for Van, he did his best to dissuade me from the undertaking.
"It is a fourteen days' march," he observed. "You will be in a country infested by Kurds, many of whom are in Russia's pay.[14] The Russian Consul in Erzeroum is aware that you are here, he also knows that his Government looks upon you as an enemy—this I have heard from the interpreter. Should the Kurds kill you, your countrymen would very likely throw the blame on us. Take my advice," said Ismail Pacha; "do not go to Van. There is nothing to be seen in that town. Go straight to Kars, you will then meet with no Kurds on the road."
But I had made up my mind to see Van, and the more particularly because I had been informed by many of my Armenian acquaintances that the bazaar there had been recently set on fire by some Turkish troops, and that the Christians had been robbed of all their effects by the Mussulman soldiers. The bazaar was represented to me as having been of gigantic dimensions. The Armenian merchants in Van were said to have been reduced from a state of affluence to one of abject poverty.