basins and napkins. I could not refrain from smiling when I saw the idleness, and want of common exertion in the capitan bashaw: a slave washed his face, he remaining as passive as a well-fed child. In the mean time, the very necessary ablution took place amongst us all. A respectable Turk washed my chin, for I could not then swear by my beard; and afterwards performed the same requisite cleansing towards my hands in perfumed water, drying them in the softest of napkins. "Oh! oh! quoth I, if ever I do change my religion, I'll turn Turk; this is something like luxury."

The ceremony of feeding being disposed of, we were ordered to attend the sultan, and the robing commenced, according to our ranks. The ambassador had a splendid ermined robe, ornamented with gold. The captain's and Lord Byron's were not deficient in elegance and intrinsic value; but as for the rest (with the exception of the tail of the comet, the fag end of diplomacy, kind of feathers to a quill), we had the cheapest court-dresses ever seen. I sold mine, after I had used it as a dressing-gown, for twenty piastres; and certainly I could not have expected that sum had it not come from the seraglio. Mr. Adair followed the vizier and some of the great officers of state; the janizaries then interfered to prevent a rush, but in reality to keep out too many from crowding the sublime. presence; but I was held fast by the captain, and had the honour of making a low bow to Mahmoud II. Mahmoud was then about five-and-twenty years of age, a remarkably handsome man, with the most orthodox of black beards: if all reports are true, the sultan ought to be a Bluebeard. He rose to receive the ambassador; a compliment which, as mentioned before, was omitted by the now headless, and then unceremonious, capitan bashaw. A vast deal of talking and compliments, and presentation of letters, took place; after which we were invited to depart with about as much ceremony as we had been invited to enter. Mustapha mentioned, that during our dinner, the sultan had amused himself from behind a curtain in watching the repast; and that one of the many female favourites was likewise employed in satisfying herself of the truth that heretics could eat with their fingers like men, and that we had not tails like monkeys. This last is by no means

confined to ignorant females of the East, for in the West, in South America, the same idea prevails amongst the Spaniards. A very handsome Englishwoman told me at Xalapa, a town about sixty miles inland from Vera Cruz, that she was tormented by crowds of women looking into her window when she went to bed, and that for the soul of her she could not discover the reason: she added, with a smile, "had they been men, one might have surmised the reason. When I told her my idea on the subject, which was in accordance with the general belief of the ignorant, she laughed heartily, and consulted her Spanish maid, who confirmed my opinion. The lovely Mrs. M. satisfied her domestic, that at any rate she was not one of Lord Monboddo's primeval females; and that if she had been blessed with that necessary monkey appendage, it had been worn away by constantly sitting upon it. We rode back in the same state as we arrived, wearing our cloaks, which we were told it would be disrespectful to lay aside until we reached our abodes. The whole ceremony was concluded by noon; and at one P. M. we fired a salute, as the sultan passed the ship in returning to his harem, on the shores of the Bosphorus, to which place the greater part of his women had been removed the day previous to the arrival of the frigate.

It has been my lot in life to jumble much against royalty and their dinners, but certainly I never was at a feast so eminently entertaining as the sultan's; in which there was so much novelty, so much decorum, or so much hospitality. I shall defer a dinner-scene with the late empress-mother of Russia until a future chapter; and I will venture to affirm all will agree with me, that, overlooking the knives and forks, the Turkish banquet was superior to that of the empress.

Perhaps there is no one occurrence from which a stranger can form an accurate idea of national character equal to a public execution. The quiet, determined spirit of the Scotch was strongly manifested in Porteus' mob; the hasty disposition of the English was highly developed in the executions in December, 1831; and in Ireland the violence of feeling is so strong during the last act of the law, that I was once nearly torn to pieces, and only saved by a prudent retreat, because I remarked that the new

drop was a humane invention, and likely to finish the poor culprit more speedily than a bungling Ketch. I never was fond of visiting public executions; but in foreign countries one must see every thing that is to be seen, and therefore, when I heard that forty men were to suffer the bowstring, and their leader to be beheaded, I resolved, much against my inclination, to witness the scene. It had been found convenient to vote these poor devils pirates: the leader, who was possessed of the most dangerous article in Turkey (money), and who had long since retired (if he ever engaged in it) from being "a fisherman of men," as Lord Byron calls Lambro, was also voted some time or other to have been a pirate, and he therefore was condemned to be beheaded, and his estates confiscated unto the crown. The fact was, they wanted his money, and therefore took his head first: they might have compromised the business by cutting out his tongue and seizing his gold. Poverty and want of articulation would soon have relieved the state of their victim. The ceremony was very unceremoniously performed, for they began before the time appointed; the shears of Atropos had closed before we arrived. The forty thieves were all bowstrung, and taken away; but the beheaded criminal was lying in the front of the execution-office, with his head placed between his thighs, and only one human being near. Lord Byron looked with horror at the appalling No man can form an idea of the distorted sight who has not seen it; and neither am I very much inclined to recall to my recollection the horrible appearance of the corpse. Not far from this exhibition (for the body was in the high road, exposed to the gaze of the curious public,) stood a melancholy looking Turk, endeavouring to scare away some dogs; but his attempts were fruitless, for, unmindful of our presence, they rushed at the body, and began lapping the blood which still oozed from the neck. I never remember to have shuddered with so cold a shudder as I did at that moment; and Byron, who ejacu lated a sudden "Good God!" turned abruptly away. was altogether a scene never to be obliterated from a man's memory, and on a boy's mind it left the most unpleasant recollection. Those lines in the "Siege of Corinth," which some shudder at reading, and which few

scene.

It

could ever scan with delight, are the vivid representation of the above anecdote :

And he saw the lean dogs beneath the wall
Hold o'er the dead their carnival;

Gorging and growling o'er carcass and limb,
They were too busy to bark at him.

Alp's mind is the delineation of Lord Byron's when he witnessed the scene:

Alp turn'd him from the sickening sight.

We were decidedly out of luck in the event, for the executioner boasted of the clean cut by which the head was severed from the body. I was fortunate shortly afterwards, and my luck came when I least expected it. The bastinado is a punishment every man should see inflicted. It really is quite astonishing with what nonchalance a Turk sees his comrade undergoing the penalty of the law: the fact is, the scene is so common in Constantinople that no one cares a pin about it. Two of our boat's crew contrived to get embroiled with some Turks: neither party seemed to understand upon what point they differed; but differ they did, and one of our men seized a Turk by the turban, which he shortly dislodged, and then began to slap the bald head of the Mussulman: this created no small disturbance, and the affair terminated by the interference of the police, who seized two of our infidels and lodged them in a kind of gaol on the market place. I happened to pass, and was made to understand that something had occurred, and that our men were in durance vile. As I entered the place, I heard words much like unto the following:-"I say, Jack, what 's that Turk going to do to you?"- "Damn me if I know," replied the other, "but he seems to have taken a fancy to my shoes." I was just in time to see Jack thrown upon his back, and two stout Turks commence a regular hammering on the soles of their feet, with sticks resembling those carried by the janizaries. Jack roared in no common style, which seemed to excite the astonishment and contempt of the Turks; for they stand the bastinado with apparent indifference, accounting it an honour as well as a punishment,

though they seldom solicit a continuation of such favours. My interference was sufficient to liberate the men, who limped away, and walked tenderly for about a week.

In Russia, after a man has been thrashed for half an hour, it is by no means uncommon to see the poor miserable slave crawl upon his hands and feet, kiss the shoes of his master, and then begin a long set speech, thanking the tyrant for the leniency of the punishment; confessing that he merited much more than had been inflicted, and finishing by calling upon God to bless so good and so mild a ruler. This is carrying civility rather too far; but the Russians are a courteous nation, and far exceed the Turks in gratitude, at least on this score: it would have been a rich contrast to have heard "the curses not loud but deep," uttered by our men, and the very kind, mild accents in which they devoted sultan, vizier, and populace to the especial care of the devil.

CHAPTER VIII.

And now commenced a strict investigation,
Which, as all spoke at once-and more than once,
Conjecturing, wondering, asking a narration,

Alike might puzzle cither wit or dunce,

To answer in a very clear oration.

DON JUAN.

We were rich in adventures during our stay at Constantinople, and had ample time to avail ourselves of all oppor tunities to see strange sights; sometimes they came to us, instead of our going to them.

It was on a Sunday, the crew all neatly dressed, the awning spread, and that silence which distinguishes the sabbath on board a man-of-war in harbour, particularly remarkable. On the forecastle some one or two seamen walked up and down with measured step; some were to