CHAPTER XI.
GLIMPSES INTO THE FUTURE.
Halil Patrona was sitting on the balcony of the palace which the Sultanand the favour of the people had bestowed upon him. The sun was about toset. It sparkled on the watery mirror of the Golden Horn, hundreds andhundreds of brightly gleaming flags and sails flapped and fluttered inthe evening breeze.
Guel-Bejaze was lying beside him on an ottoman, her beautiful head, witha feeling of languid bliss, reposed on her husband's bosom, her longeyelashes drooping, whilst with her swan-like arms she encircled hisneck. She dozes away now and then, but the warm throb-throb of thestrong heart which makes her husband's breast to rise and fallcontinually arouses her again. Halil Patrona is reading in a big claspedbook beautifully written in the ornamental Talik script. Guel-Bejaze doesnot know this writing; its signs are quite strange to her, but shefeasts her delighted eyes on the beautifully painted festoons andlilies and the variegated birds with which the initial letters areembellished, and scarce observes what a black shadow those pretty gailycoloured, butterfly-like letters cast upon Halil's face.
"What is the book thou art reading?" inquired Guel-Bejaze.
"Fairy tales and magic sentences," replied Patrona.
"Is it there that thou readest all those nice stories which thou tellestme every evening?"
"Yes, they are here."
"Tell me, I pray thee, what thou hast just been reading?"
"When thou art quite awake," said Halil, rapturously gazing at the fairface of the girl who was sleeping in his arms--and he continued turningover the leaves of the book.
And what then was in it? What did those brightly coloured letterscontain? What was the name of the book?
That book is the "Takimi Vekai."
Ah! ask not a Mussulman what the "Takimi Vekai" is, else wilt thou makehim sorrowful; neither mention it before a Mohammedan woman, else thetears will gush from her eyes. The "Takimi Vekai" is "The Book of theSentences of the Future," which was written a century and a half ago bySaid Achmed-ibn Mustafa, and which has since been preserved in theMuhamedije mosque, only those high in authority ever having theopportunity of seeing it face to face.
Those golden letters embellished with splendid flowers contain darksayings. Let us listen:
"Takimi Vekai"--The Pages of the Future.
"On the eighth-and-twentieth day of the month Rubi-Estani, in the yearof the Hegira, 886,[3] I, Said Achmed-ibn Mustafa, Governor of Scutariand scribe of the Palace, having accomplished the Abdestan[4] andrecited the Fateha[5] with hands raised heavenwards, ascended to thetower of Ujuk Kule, from whence I could survey all Stambul, and there Ibegan to meditate.
"And lo! the Prophet appeared before me, and breathed upon my eyes andears in order that I might see and hear nothing but what he commanded meto hear and see.
"And I wrote down those things which the Prophet said to me.
"The Giaours already see the tents of the foreign hosts pitched on theTsiragan piazza, already see the half-moon cast down, and the doublecross raised on the towers of the mosques, the khanze[6] plundered, andthe faithful led forth to execution. In the Fanar quarters[7] they arealready assembling the people, and saying to one another: 'To-morrow!to-morrow!'
"Yet Allah is the God who defends the Padishah of the Ottomans. TheirOdzhakjaiks[8] will scatter terror. Allah Akbar! God is mighty!
"And the captains of the galleys, and the rowers thereof, and the chiefof the gunners, and the corsairs of the swift ships will share with oneanother the treasures and the spoils of the unbelievers.
"And the Padishah shall rule over thirteen nations.
"But lo! a dark cloud arises in the cold and distant North. A foeappears more terrible and persistent than the Magyars, the Venetians, orthe Persians. He is still tender like the fledgelings of the hawks ofthe Balkans, but soon, very soon, he will learn to spread his pinions.Up, up, Silihdar Aga, the Sultan's Sword-bearer! Up, up, Rechenbtar Aga,the Sultan's Stirrup-holder; up, up, and do your duty. And ye viziers,assemble the reserves. Those men who come from the land where the pinesand firs raise their virgin branches towards Heaven, they long after thewarm climates where the olive, the lestisk, the terebinth, and the palmlift their crowns towards Heaven. The fathers point out Stambul to theirsons, they point it out as the booty that will give them sustenance;tender women lay their hands upon the sword to use it against theOsmanli, and will fight like heroes. Yet the days of the Sons of theProphet will not yet come to an end; they will resist the enemy, andstand fast like a Salamander in the midst of the burning embers.
"The years pass over the world, again the Giaours assemble in theirmyriads and threaten vengeance. But the Divan answers them: 'Olmaz!'--itcannot be. The Anatolian and the Rumelian lighthouses, at the entranceof the Bosphorus, will signal from their watch-towers the approach ofthe foreign war-ships.
"But this shall be much later, after three-and-twenty Padishahs haveruled over the thirteen nations; then and not till then will the armiesof the Unbelievers assemble before Stambul. Woe, woe unto us! Eternallyinvincible should the Osmanlis remain if they walked, with firmfootsteps, according to the commands of the Koran. But a time will comewhen the old customs will fall into oblivion, when new ways will creepin among Mussulmen like a rattlesnake crawling into a bed of roses.Faith will no longer give strength against those men of ice, and theywill enter the nine-and-twenty gates of the seven-hilled city.
"Lo! this did the Prophet reveal to me in the season of El-Ashsoer,beginning at the time of sundown.
"Allah give his blessing to the rulers of this world."
Thus ran the message of the "Takimi Vekai."
Halil Patrona had read these lines over and over again until he knewevery letter of them by heart. They were continually in his thoughts, inhis dreams, and the eternally recurring tumult of these anxious bodingsallowed his soul no rest. What if it were possible to falsify thisprophecy! What if his strong hand could but stay the flying wheel ofFate in mid career, hold it fast, and turn it in a different direction!so that what was written in the Book of Thora before Sun and Moon wereever yet created might be expunged therefrom, and the guardian angels becompelled to write other things in place thereof!
But such an idea ill befits a Mussulman; it is not the mental expressionof that pious resignation with which the Mohammedan fortifies himselfagainst the future, submissive as he is to the decrees of Fate, withnever a thought of striving against the Powers of Omnipotence with amortal hand. Ambitious, world-disturbing were the thoughts which ranriot in the brain of Halil Patrona--thoughts meet for no mere mortal.Poor indeed are the thoughts of man. He piles world upon world, and setsabout building for the ages, and then a light breath of air strikes uponthat which he has built and it becomes dust. Wherefore, then, does mantake thought for the morrow?
The night slowly descended, the glow of the southern sky grew ever paleron the half-moons of the minarets, till they grew gradually quite darkand the cry of the muezzin resounded from the towers of the mosques.
"Allah Kerim! Allah Akbar! La illah il Allah, Mohammed rasul Allah! Godis sublime. God is mighty. There is one God and Mohammed is hisProphet."
And after a few moments he called again:
"Come, ye people, to the rest of God, to the abode of righteousness;come to the abode of felicity!"
Guel-Bejaze awoke. Halil washed his hands and feet, and turning towardsthe mehrab[9] began to pray.
But in vain he sent away Guel-Bejaze (for women are not permitted to bepresent at the prayers of men nor men at the prayers of women); in vainhe raised his hands heavenwards; in vain he went down on his knees andlay with his face touching the ground; other thoughts were abroad in hisheart--terrifying, disturbing thoughts which suggested to him that theGod to Whom he prayed no longer existed, but just as His Kingdom hereon earth was falling to pieces so also in Heaven it was on the point ofvanishing. Thrice he was obliged to begin his prayer all over again, forthrice it was interrupted by a cough, and it is not lawful to go on witha prayer that has o
nce been interrupted. Once more he cast a glance uponthe darkened city, and it grieved him sorely that nowhere could heperceive a half-moon; whereupon he went in again, sought for Guel-Bejaze,and told her lovely fairy tales which, he pretended, he had been readingin the Talik book.
The next day Halil gathered together in his secret chamber all those inwhom he had confidence. Among them were Kaplan Giraj, a kinsman of theKhan of the Crimea, Musli, old Vuodi, Mohammed the dervish, and Sulali.
Sulali wrote down what Halil said.
"Mussulmans. Yesterday, before the Abdestan, I was reading the bookwhose name is the 'Takimi Vekai.'"
"Mashallah!" exclaimed all the Mohammedans mournfully.
"In that book the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire is predicted. Theyear, the day is at hand when the name of Allah will no longer beglorified on this earth, when the tinkling of the sheep-bells will beheard on the ruins of the marble fountains, and those other bells sohateful to Allah will resound from the towers of the minarets. In thosedays the Giaours will play at quoits with the heads of the truebelievers, and build mansions over their tombs."
"Mashallah! the will of God be done!" said old dervish Mohammed with ashaking voice, "by then we shall all of us be in Paradise, up in theseventh Heaven, the soil whereof is of pure starch, ambergris, musk, andsaffron. There, too, the very stones are jacinths and the pebbles purepearls, and the Tuba-tree shields the faithful from the heat of the sun,as they rest beneath it and gaze up at its golden flowers and silverleaves, and refresh themselves with the milk, wine, and honey which flowabundantly from its sweet and glorious stem. There, too, are thedwellings of Mohammed and the Prophets his predecessors, in all theirindescribable beauty, and over the roof of every true believer bend thebranches of the sacred tree, whose fruits never fail, nor wither, norrot, and there we shall all live together in the splendour of Paradisewhere every true believer shall have a palace of his own. And in everypalace two-and-seventy lovely houris will smile upon him--young virginsof an immortal loveliness--whose faces will never grow old or wrinkled,and who are a hundred times more affectionate than the women of thisworld."
Halil listened with the utmost composure till greybeard Vuodi haddelivered his discourse concerning the joys of Paradise.
"All that you say is very pretty and very true no doubt, but let yourmind also dwell upon what the Prophet has revealed to us concerning thedistribution of rewards and punishments. When the angel Azrael hasgently separated our souls from our bodies, and we have been buried withthe double tombstone at our heads, on which is written: 'Dame Allah hutiale Remaeti,'[10] then will come to us the two Angels of Judgment,Monker and Nakir. And they will ask us if we have fulfilled the preceptsof the Prophet. What shall our trembling lips reply to them? And whenthey ask us whether we have defended the true faith, whether we havedefended our Fatherland against the Infidels, what shall we then replyto them? Blessed, indeed, will be those who can answer: 'I have done allwhich it was commanded me to do,' their spirits will await the finaljudgment in the cool abodes of the Well of Ishmael. But as for those whoshall answer: 'I saw the danger which threatened the Osmanli nation, itwas in my power to help and I did it not,' their bodies will be scourgedby the angels with iron rods and their souls will be thrust into theabyss of Morhut there to await the judgment-day. And when the trump ofthe angel Israfil shall sound and the Marvel from the Mountain of Safadoth appear to write 'Mumen'[11] or 'Giaour'[12] on the foreheads ofmankind; and when Al-Dallaja[13] comes to root out the nation of theOsmanli, and the hosts of Gog and Magog appear to exterminate theChristians, and drink up the waters of the rivers, and at the last allthings perish before the Mahdi; then when the mountains are rent asunderand the stars fall from Heaven, when the archangels Michael and Gabrielopen the tombs and bring forth the trembling, death-pale shapes, one byone, before the face of Allah, and they all stand there as transparentas crystal so that every thought of their hearts is visible--what thenwill you answer, you in whose power it once stood to uphold the dominionof Mahomet, you to whom it was given to have swords in your hands andideas in your heads to be used in its defence--what will you answer, Isay, when you hear the brazen voice cry: 'Ye who saw destruction coming,did ye try to prevent it?' What will it profit you then, old Vuodi andye others, to say that ye never neglected the Abdestan, the Guezuel, andthe Thueharet ablutions, nor the five prayers of the Namazat, that yehave kept the fast of Ramazan and the feast of Bejram, that ye haverichly distributed the Zakato[14] and the Sadakato,[15] that you havemade the pilgrimage to the Kaaba at Mecca so many times, or so manytimes, that you have kissed the sin-remitting black stone, that you havedrunk from the well of Zemzem and seven times made the circuit of themountain of Arafat and flung stones at the Devil in the valley ofDsemre--what will it profit you, I say, if you cannot answer thatquestion? Woe to you, woe to everyone of us who see, who hear, and yetgo on dreaming! For when we tread the Bridge of Alshirat, across whoserazor-sharp edge every true believer must pass on his way to Paradise,the load of a single sin will drag you down into the abyss, down intoHell, and not even into the first Hell, Gehenna, where the faithful dopenance, nor into the Hell of Ladhana, where the souls of the Jews arepurified, nor into the Hell of Hotama wherein the Christians perish, norinto the Hell of Sair which is the abode of the Heretics, nor into theHell of Sakar wherein the fire-worshippers curse the fire, nor yet intothe Hell of Jahim which resounds with the yells of the idol-worshippers,but into the seventh hell, the deepest and most accursed hell of all,whose name is Al-Havija, where wallow those who only did God lip-serviceand never felt the faith in their hearts, for we pray lying prayers whenwe say that we worship Allah and yet allow His Temple to be defiled."
These words deeply moved the hearts of all present. Every sentencealluded to the most weighty of the Moslem beliefs; the meshes of the netwith which Halil had taken their souls captive were composed of the veryessentials of their religious and political system, so they could butput their hands to their breasts, bow down before him, and say:
"Command us and we will obey!"
Then Halil, with the inspiration of a seer, addressed the men beforehim.
"Woe to us if we believe that the days of threatening are still far off!Woe to us if we believe that the sins which will ruin the nation ofOsman have not yet been committed! While our ancestors dwelt in tents ofskin, half the world feared our name, but since the nation of Osman hasstrutted about in silk and velvet it has become a laughing-stock to itsenemies. Our great men grow gardens in their palaces; they pass theirdays in the embraces of women, drinking wine, and listening to music;they loathe the battlefield, and oh, horrible! they blaspheme the nameof Allah. If among the Giaours, blasphemers of God are to be found, Imarvel not thereat, for their minds are corrupted by the multitude ofthis world's knowledge; but how can a Mussulman raise his head againstGod--a Mussulman who has never learnt anything in his life save toglorify His Name? And what are we to think when on the eve of the Feastof Halwet we hear a Sheik, a descendant of the family of the Prophet, aSheik before whom the people bow reverently when they meet him in thestreet--what are we to think, I say, when we hear this Sheik say beforethe great men of the palace all drunk with wine: 'There is no Allah, orif there is an Allah he is not almighty; for if he were almighty hewould have prevented me from saying, there is no Allah!'"
A cry of horror arose from the assembled Mussulmans which only after awhile died away in an angry murmur like a gradually departing gust ofwind.
"Who was the accursed one?" exclaimed Mohammed dervish, shaking hisclenched fist threateningly.
"It was Uzun Abdi, the Aga of the Janissaries," replied Halil, "who saidthat, and the others only laughed."
"Let them all be accursed!"
"Wealth has ruined the heart of the Osmanli," continued Halil. "Who arethey who now control the fate of the Realm? The creatures of theSultana, the slaves of the Kizlar-Aga, the Izoglani, whoselicentiousness will bring down upon Stambul the judgment of Sodom andGomorrah. It is from thence we get our rulers and our t
reasurers, andif now and then Fate causes a hero to plump down among them he alsogrows black like a drop of water that has fallen upon soot; for thetreasures, palaces, and odalisks of the fallen magnates are transferredto the new favourite, and ruin him as quickly and as completely as theyruined his predecessors; and so long as these palaces stand by the SweetWaters more curses than prayers will be heard within the walls ofStambul, so that if ye want to save Stambul, ye must burn down thesepalaces, for as sure as God exists these palaces will consume Stambul."
"We must go to the Sultan about it," said the dervish Mohammed.
"Pulled down they must be, for no righteous man dwells therein. Thewhole of this Empire of Stone must come down, whoever is so much as ahead taller than his brethren is a sinner. Let us raise up those who arelowest of all. Down from your perches, ye venal voivodes, khans, andpashas, who buy the Empire piecemeal with money and for money barter itaway again! Let men of war, real men though Fame as yet knows them not,step into your places. The very atmosphere in which ye live ispestiferous because of you. For some time now, gold and silver pieces,stamped with the heads of men and beasts, have been circulating in ourpiazzas, although, as we all know, no figures of living things shouldappear on the coins of the Mussulman. Neither Russia, nor Sweden, noryet Poland pay tribute to us; and yet, I say, these picture-coins stillcirculate among us. Oh! ever since Baltaji suffered White[16] Mustache,the Emperor of the North, to escape, full well ye know it! gold andsilver go further and hit the mark more surely than iron and lead. Wemust create a new world, none belonging to the old order of things mustremain among us. Write down a long, long list, and carry it to the GrandVizier. If he refuses to accept it, write another in his place on thelist, and take it to the Sultan. Woe betide the nation of Osman if itcannot find within it as many just men as its needs require!"
The assembled Mussulmans thereupon drew up in hot haste a long list ofnames in which they proposed fresh candidates for all the chief officesof the Empire. They put down Choja Dzhanum as the new Kapudan Pasha,Mustafa Beg as the new Minister of the Interior, Musli as the newJanissary Aga; the actual judges and treasurers were banished, thebanished judges and treasurers were restored to their places; instead ofMaurocordato, who had been educated abroad, they appointed his enemy,Richard Rakovitsa, surnamed Djihan, Voivode of Wallachia; instead ofGhyka they placed the butcher of Pera, Janaki, on the throne ofMoldavia; and instead of Mengli Giraj, Khan of the Crimea, Kaplan Giraj,actually present among them, was called to ascend the throne of hisancestors.
Kaplan Giraj pressed Halil's hand by way of expressing his gratitude forthis mark of confidence.
And, oddly enough, as Halil pressed the hand of the Khan, it seemed tohim as if his arm felt an electric shock. What could it mean?
But now Musli stood up before him.
"Allow me," said he, "to go with this writing to the Grand Vizier. Youhave been in the Seraglio already, let mine be the glory of displayingmy valour by going thither likewise! Do not take all the glory toyourself, allow others to have a little of it too! Besides, it does notbecome you to carry your own messages to the Divan. Why even the Princesof the Giaours do not go there themselves but send their ambassadors."
Halil Patrona gratefully pressed the Janissary's hand. He knew rightwell that he spoke from no desire of glorification, he knew that Muslionly wanted to go instead of him because it was very possible that thebearer of these demands might be beheaded.
Once again Musli begged earnestly of Halil that the delivery of thesedemands might be entrusted to him, and so proudly did he make hispetition that it was impossible for Halil Patrona to deny him.
Now Musli was a sly dog. He knew very well that it was a very riskybusiness to present so many demands all at once, but he made up his mindthat he would so completely take the Grand Vizier by surprise, thatbefore he could find breath to refuse the demands of the people, hewould grant one of them after another, for if he swallowed the first ofthem that was on the list, he might be hoodwinked into swallowing therest likewise.
The new Grand Vizier went by the name of Kabakulak, or Blunt-ear,because he was hard of hearing, which suited Musli exactly, as he had,by nature, a bad habit of bawling whenever he spoke.
At first Kabakulak would not listen to anything at all. He seemed tohave suddenly gone stone-deaf, and had every single word repeated to himthree times over; but when Musli said to him that if he would not listento what he was saying, he, Musli, would go off at once to the Sultan andtell _him_, Kabakulak opened his ears a little wider, became somewhatmore gracious, and asked Musli, quite amicably, what he could do forhim.
Musli felt his courage rising many degrees since he began bawling at aGrand Vizier.
"Halil Patrona _commands_ it to be done," he bellowed in Kabakulak'sear.
The Vizier threw back his head.
"Come, come, my son!" said he, "don't shout in my ear like that, justas if I were deaf. What did you say it was that Halil Patrona begs ofme?"
"Don't twist my words, you old owl!" said Musli, naturally _sotto voce_.Then raising his voice, he added, "Halil Patrona wants Dzhanum Chojaappointed Kapudan Pasha."
"Good, good, my son! just the very thing I wanted done myself; that hasbeen resolved upon long ago, so you may go away home."
"Go away indeed! not yet! Then Wallachia wants a new voivode."
"It has got one already, got one already I tell you, my son. His name isMaurocordato. Bear it in mind--Mau-ro-cor-da-to."
"I don't mean to bother my tongue with it at all. As I pronounce it itis--Djihan."
"Djihan? Who is Djihan?"
"Djihan is the Voivode of Wallachia."
"Very well, you shall have it so. And what do you want for yourself, myson, eh?"
Musli was inscribed in the list as the Aga of the Janissaries, but hewas too modest to speak of himself.
"Don't trouble your head about me, Kabakulak, while there are so manyworthier men unprovided for. We want the Khan of the Crimea deposed andthe banished Kaplan Giraj appointed in his stead."
"Very well, we will inform Kaplan Giraj of his promotion presently."
"Not presently, but instantly. Instantly, I say, without the leastdelay."
Musli accompanied his eloquence with such gesticulations that the GrandVizier thought it prudent to fall back before him.
"Don't you feel well?" he asked Musli, who had suddenly become silent.In his excitement he had forgotten the other demands.
"Ah! I have it," he said, and sitting down on the floor at his ease, hetook the list from his bosom and extending it on the floor, beganreciting Halil Patrona's nominations seriatim.
The Grand Vizier approved of the whole thing, he had no objection tomake to anything.
Musli left Janaki's elevation last of all: "He you must make Voivode ofMoldavia," said he.
Suddenly Kabakulak went quite deaf. He could not hear a word of Musli'slast demand.
Musli drew nearer to him, and making a speaking-trumpet out of hishands, bawled in his ear:
"Janaki I am talking about."
"Yes, yes! I hear, I hear. You want him to be allowed to provide theSultan's kitchen with the flesh of bullocks and sheep. So be it! Heshall have the charge."
"Would that the angel Izrafil might blow his trumpet in thine ear!" saidMusli to himself _sotto voce_. "I am not talking of his trade as abutcher," added he aloud. "I say that he is to be made Prince ofMoldavia."
Kabakulak now thought it just as well to show that he heard what hadbeen asked, and replied very gravely:
"You know not what you are asking. The Padishah, only four days ago,gave this office to Prince Ghyka, who is a wise and distinguished man.The Sultan cannot go back from his word."
"A wise and distinguished man!" cried Musli in amazement. "What am I tounderstand by that? Is there any difference then between one Giaour andanother?"
"The Sultan has so ordered it, and without his knowledge I cannot takeupon myself to alter his decrees."
"Very well, go to the Sultan then and
get him to undo again what he hasdone. For the rest you can do what you like for what I care, only bewareof one thing, beware lest you lose the favour of Halil Patrona!"
Kabakulak by this time had had nearly enough of Musli, but the latterstill continued diligently to consult his list. He recollected thatHalil Patrona had charged him to say something else, but what it was hecould not for the life of him call to mind.
"Ah, yes! now I have it!" he cried at last. "Halil commands that thosenasty palaces which stand by the Sweet Waters shall be burnt to theground."
"I suppose, my worthy incendiaries, you will next ask permission toplunder Stambul out and out?"
"It is too bad of you, Kabakulak, to speak like that. Halil does notwant the palaces burnt for the love of the thing, but because he doesnot want the generals to have an asylum where they may hide, plantflowers, and wallow in vile delights just when they ought to behastening to the camp. If every pasha had not his paradise here on earthand now, many more of them would desire the heavenly Paradise. That iswhy Halil Patrona would have all those houses of evil luxury burnt tothe ground."
"May Halil Patrona live long enough to see it come to pass. This alsowill I report to the Sultan."
"Look sharp about it then! I will wait in your room here till you comeback."
"You will wait here?"
"Yes, never mind about me! I have given orders that my dinner is to besent after me here. I look to you for coffee and tobacco, and if youhappen to be delayed till early to-morrow morning, you will find mesleeping here on the carpet."
Kabakulak could now see that he had to do with a man of character whowould not stir from the spot till everything had been settled completelyto his satisfaction. The most expeditious mode of ending matters would,no doubt, have been to summon a couple of ciauses and make them lay therascal's head at his own feet, but the political horizon was not yetsufficiently serene for such acts of daring. The bands of the insurgentswere still encamping in the public square outside. First of all theymust be hoodwinked and pacified, only after that would it be possibleto proceed to extreme measures against them.
All that the Grand Vizier could do, therefore, was frankly to presentall Halil Patrona's demands to the Sultan.
Mahmud granted everything on the spot.
In an hour's time the firmans and hatti-scherifs, deposing and elevatingthe various functionaries, were in Musli's hands as desired.
Only as to the method of destroying the kiosks did the Sultan venture tomake a suggestion. They had better not be burnt to the ground, heopined, for thereby the Mussulmans would make themselves thelaughing-stock of the whole Christian world; but he undertook todilapidate the walls and devastate the pleasure-gardens.
And within three days one hundred and twenty splendid kiosks, standingbeside the Sweet Waters, had become so many rubbish heaps; and the rareand costly plants of the beautiful flower-gardens were chucked into thewater, and the groves of amorous dallying were cut down to the veryroots. Only ruins were now to be seen in the place of the fairy palaceswherein all manner of earthly joys had hitherto built their nests, andall this ruin was wrought in three days by Halil Patrona, just becausethere is but one God, and therefore but one Paradise, and because thisParadise is not on earth but in Heaven, and those who would attainthereto must strive and struggle valiantly for it in this life.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] 1481 A.D.
[4] Ablutions before prayers.
[5] The first section of the Koran.
[6] The Imperial Treasury.
[7] The part of Stambul inhabited by the Greeks.
[8] Companies of horse.
[9] Tablets indicating the direction in which Mecca lies.
[10] "God be for ever gracious to him."
[11] Believer.
[12] Unbeliever.
[13] Anti-Christ.
[14] The prescribed almsgiving.
[15] Voluntary almsgiving.
[16] Peter the Great. The allusion is to the Peace of the Pruth.