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THE PASSAGE TO CONSTANTINOPLE.

Filled with these sad sentiments, I descended to my chamber, and having revived the lamp which had been lit beneath the countenance of a sweet Madonna, in trusting invocation of her blessed protection against the encroaching perils of the plague, I sunk upon my pillow, and soon passed into that shadowy realm, where the anxieties and sorrows of earth are soothed and forgotten. How inexplicable is sleep! We wake from this mysterious state each day to a fresh existence; one in which our wisdom is retained, and the fever of our doubts and cares assuaged; and then a few glimpses of philosophy may perhaps be attained, in a resembling experience, each night, of the end that awaits us,—

"Our little life is rounded with a sleep."

CHAPTER II.

Janizary-cavash--Fate of Hallet Effendi-Stratagem of Mahomet-Capture of Constantinople-The silver sofa-Palace of the Sultan -His wives, odalisques, guards, garden-The Sultan shooting an arrow-Conversation with him-His personal appearance-Prevalence of the plague.

I WOULD challenge any one, situated as we were, to look at the breaking morn, so full of life and freshness, and not determine to forego his apprehensions of the most deadly contagion, and visit, at once, the objects of his wearisome pilgrimage. Taking with us our Armenian guide, and placing ourselves under the protection of a cavash, attached to the American legation at the Ottoman court, we started on our first day's ramble. The cavash exercises the functions of a body guard, is allowed certain rights and privileges, and any violence or insult offered to his person, or official character, is regarded as an indignity to the embassy with which, for the time being, he becomes identified. The person who attended us in this capacity had been a Janizary; but being absent from the capital in the catastrophe which overwhelmed that fierce body, he escaped their tragical fate. Still there was something in his bearing, as he moved on with his mounted wand, pipe, pistols, and yategan, which betrayed the proud, indomitable spirit of the corps to which he had belonged.

We paused a moment, near the college of the

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dancing dervishes in Pera, at the sumptuous mausoleum of the late Hallet Effendi. The melancholy fate of this distinguished individual is a striking proof of the precarious and perilous nature of honor and influence in the Ottoman government. Hallet had been, for several years, ambassador at the court of France, and being a man of quick perception, had naturally imbibed something of the literature and liberal spirit of the age; with these impressions he returned to Constantinople; and the Sultan, so far from being displeased with his European sentiments, placed him near his person, and made him keeper of the royal signet. This office, in itself, conferred no direct power, but it afforded Hallet an opportunity of exerting his individual influence, and his opinions were powerfully felt in the decisions of the divan. The enlightened policy of many important measures could be traced to the wisdom of his counsels. Among his invaluable suggestions were some which encroached upon the old and riveted order of things: these gave great umbrage to the Janizaries, who, it would seem, had determined that the world should for ever remain in statu quo, and they imperiously demanded the head of their offensive author. The Sultan, at first, very justly hesitated; but at length so far yielded to their clamorous demand as to dismiss Hallet; not, however, without giving him a written protection, under his own hand, extending over his person, property, and life. He advised him, for the present,

to retire to Iconia assuring him that he should be recalled, with increased honors, as soon as the excitement had subsided.

He set off on his temporary exile with a guard of honor, and received, in the successive villages through which he passed, the most distinguished attentions. Arriving at Bala Vashee, he was met by the Musselim, or governor of the place, who earnestly solicited the honor of entertaining him at his own palace. The illustrious exile assented, and a short time passed off in friendly conversation, when a silikdar entered, and presented to Hallet a firman from the Sultan for his head! Hallet, with his usual self-possession, drew from his bosom his written protection, bearing the imperial signet, but the Musselim, who was all the while acting in treacherous concert with the executioner, decided against his betrayed guest, in as much as the date of the firman for his death was subsequent to that of his protection. Hallet requested time to inform the Sultan of his supposed mistake, but the messenger, knowing well that he acted under orders which wait for no explanations, took out his bowstring and strangled him at once on the divan. His head was brought back to Constantinople, and exposed for several days to the gathering crowd, at the gate of the Seraglio; it was purchased at length for two thousand piastres by the wife of the murdered man, and buried in this splendid mausoleum. But the rage of

his Janizary foes was not yet appeased; they could not allow even to the lifeless head of their imputed adversary the quiet of the grave, and in compliance with their insane demand, it was dragged from the sanctity of its repose, and cast into the blushing Bosphorus-and this empty tomb now only remains to tell where Hallet might have rested in honor and peace, had he been less wise and virtuous.

From this place, so full of sad suggestions, we traversed the spot rendered memorable by the passage of Mahomet's ships in his last and decisive assault on Constantinople. The harbor, and that section of the city washed by its waves, had been successfully protected by an immense chain, stretching from Seraglio point to Galata. The Turks, concluding it as useless to fret against such a barrier as to contend with the decisions of that fate recognized in their creed, were on the eve of once more abandoning the seige, when this last expedient occurred to their enterprising commander. A deep valley sets up from the Bosphorus, separated by another which opens up from the harbor, by the narrow peninsular swell of Pera. In one night, by the treacherous aid of the Genoese sailors, who occupied this suburb, the Turkish fleet was dragged from the head of the flooded ravine over the intervening ridge, and in the morning, to the utter consternation of the Greeks, was found floating before the most defenceless part of their capital. An advantageous posi