Halil the Pedlar

rds the evening that the Sultan arrived at Scutari, and disembarked there at hi

could be heard, some distance off, in the direction of the camp,

e meaning of all that noise in the camp. Hassan replied that he himself did not understand why they wer

accordingly laid his hands on sundry who came conveniently in his way; but, for all that, the

ection of Tebrif, crying as they came that the army of Küprilizade had been scattered to the winds by Shah Tamasip, and t

ch of the Grand Vizier and tol

eaten. Only a few days ago I sent him arms and reinforcements which were more

arrive too late and the whole of the provinces of Hamadan and Kermanshan were to be lost-e

efore them a letter written on parchment which they had discovered lying in the middl

hammad, but they were bidden beware lest, when they went against the foe, they left behind t

Ispirizade, and into the fire he threw it, there and the

tan's eleven-year-old son had died. The day was therefore kept as a solemn day of mourning, and a g

house at Chengelk?i, having just received from a Dutch merchant a very handsome assortment of tulip-bulbs, which he wanted to plant out with his own hands; the Reis-Effendi hastened to his summer r

he people at large a very d

anissaries were standing in front of the mosq

aked sword, and in their midst stood Mu

and when the blast of the alarm-horns had subsided, the clear penetrating voice of the e

dan and Kermanshan are once more in the possession of the enemy. And all this is going on while the Grand Vizier and the Chief Mufti have been arranging Lantern Feasts, Processions of Palms and Illuminations in the streets of Stambul instead of making ready the host to go to the assistance of the valiant Küprilizade! Our brethren are sent to the shambles, we hear their cries, we see their banners fal

ide down. It was just as if a still standing lake had been stirred violently to its lowest depths, and all the slimy monsters and hideous refuse reposing at the bottom had come to the surface; for the streets were suddenly flood

only listening to him when his escort raised him aloft o

stopped in front of the h

the door with his fists, "Hassan, you imprisoned our comrades because they dared to murmur,

uit of rags, and bolted through the gate of the back garden to the shores of the Bosphorus, where he

reat triumph to the Etmeidan. The next instant the whole square was alive with armed men, and they hauled the Kulkiaja caldron out of the barrack

rs in the hands of the murderers and flaming torches in the hands of the incendiaries,

rs rushed forth into the piazza and all the adjoining streets, and the last of all to quit the dungeon was Janaki, Halil's father-in-l

rd and stand alongside of me. No harm can come

se women whom the Sultan had been graciously pleased to collect from all the qu

ho stroll about the streets with uncovered faces, who paint their eyebrows and lips for the diversion of strangers, who are shut out from the world like mad dogs, that they may not contaminate the people-all these women were now let loose! Some of them had grown old sin

ys! All the rest have come forth; all the rest have scattered to their various haunts, only one or two belated shapes are now emerging from the dungeon and hastening, after the others-creat

t into the loathsome hole but dimly l

in a corner of the far wall, feebly begin to move. He rushes to the spot. Surely it is some beggar-woman who hides her face from him? Gently he removes her hands

woman said not a word, gave him not a look, she only

hou shalt play with the heads of those who have played with thy heart, and that selfsame puffed-up Sultana who has stretched out her hand again

out among the crowd, and exhibiting that pale and

om I must needs discover in the midst of this sink of vileness and iniquity! Speak those of y

, and rolling onwards like a flood that has burst its

alace?" inquired

ried sundry voices f

y?" inquired Halil once mor

stood the force of the

O Halil

h his wife still clasped in his arms, forced his way in, and seeking out the harem of the Grand Vizier, commanded the odalisks of Ibrahi

d the blast of trumpets; and the whole of this tempest was