The Tomb of Sultan Selim II

The Tomb of Sultan Selim II., the Mest (Drunkard), is situated in the southern part of  St. Sophia courtyard. Admission 5 to 10 piastres (lOd. to Is. 8d.) per party, according to number. On both sides of the door are two elegant panels of Persian tiles of great beauty. The walls of the interior are also faced with tiles of the best period. Sultan Selim’s tomb bears a turban. The thirty-six other and smaller graves are said to be those of his sons and other princes. There is an exquisitely illuminated Koran kept in this turbeh also.

The Tomb of Sultan Murad III., situated in the vicinity of that of Sultan Selim II., is also ornamented with tiles, and contains, in addition to Sultan Murad’s grave, forty-four smaller ones said to be those of his children. Admission 5 to 10 piastres (lOd. to Is. 8d.) per party.

BYZANTINE CHUECHES STILL BELONGING TO THE GEEEKS

The Church of the Fountain of Life, commonly known as the Shrine of Our Lady of the Fishes, outside the land walls and not far from the Seven Towers, was originally built by Leo the Great, and afterwards enlarged by Justinian, with the surplus materials left after the building of St. Sophia. The church was destroyed in 1821 by the Janissaries, and rebuilt in 1849 by the Greek community of Constantinople. The absurd legend connected with this Church is believed by the majority of the followers of the Eastern cult even in the present day.

It is said that a monk who was told that the Turks had taken the town protested to his informant that it was just as likely that the fish he was then frying would jump out of the frying-pan and return to their native element, as it was that the followers of the prophet should ever be able to take the city ; when lo! the fishes at once returned to life, and jumped out of the frying-pan into an adjacent basin of water erected in the courtyard ! A shrine, which ’still exists, was built over the spot, and in a marble basin at the foot of a flight of steps, a few fish, somewhat resembling red mullet, may be seen swimming about private tour istanbul. These are stated to be the last and only descendants of those in the legend. The water in the basin is looked upon as holy, and like the Eikon (picture) of the Virgin Mary in the shrine, is credited with virtues to cure any disease imaginable ; and no disciple of the Eastern church would pay a visit to the shrine without bringing away with him some of the water out of the basin.

Blachernse Church, at Alvan Saral, near the land walls, and close to the shore of the Golden Horn. It was originally built by the Empress Pulcheria, and destroyed and rebuilt by several emperors. The present church was built not many years ago by the Greek community of Constantinople.

THE OLD SERAGLIO AND THE MUSEUMS

The Old Seraglio.—The word Seraglio is derived from the Turkish Sarai, which means ‘ palace.’ The Old Seraglio is situated on the promontory called Seraglio Point, which juts out into the Bosporus at its junction with the Sea of Marmora, and is separated from Pera by the Golden Horn. On this lovely spot the Byzantine Emperors, for several centuries, had their palaces; and here also resided the Sultans, after the taking of the city by the Turks. It extends some 2000 yards, the greatest portion of which is occupied by the sites of the palaces of the Byzantine Emperors.

It was, and in part still is, both by sea and land, protected by strong walls and lofty towers, erected by Constantine the Great, Theodosius II., Heraclius, etc., and remains of which are still partly to be seen. The present land wall, however, is the work of the Emperor Michael Palmologus, erected soon after the reconquest of the Empire by this Emperor from the Latins in 1261. This wall is entered by four gates, which are—Demir Kapu (Iron Gate), near the railway station ; Sohuk Chesmeh Kapu (Gate of the Cold Spring), near the Eoreign Office; Gul Ranch Kapu (Rose-bed Gate), near the Marmora shore; and the famed Bab-i-Humayun (Sublime Gate), the name of which is much more high-sounding than its real size and unimposing appearance warrant. This gate was first built by the Conqueror, Sultan Muhammad II., and was the principal entrance for the sovereigns into the Seraglio.

LITURGICAL EMBROIDERY WITH THE COMMUNIONOFTHE APOSTLES

50. LITURGICAL EMBROIDERY WITH THE COMMUNIONOFTHE APOSTLES

15th – 16th century

Red purple silk, blue linen lining, bullion 56 x 42 cm

Liturgical text in Greek: HIETAI EE AYTOY nANTEE TOYTO EETIN TO A1MA MOY TO THE KAINHE AIAOIKHE TO YT1EP HMQN KAI nOAAON EIE A0EEIN AMAPTrON AMHN

Drink all of you from this [chalice]. This is my blood that from the New Testament [that was shed] for us and for all to be absolved of sins. Amen

In the early 20th century it was among the sacred attributes of the Church of St. Clement (older St. Theotokos Peribleptos) in Ohrid, Macedonia

51. LITURGICAL EMBROIDERY WITH ST. VIRGIN ORANS

Constantinople

1216 Red silk, linen lining, bullion 75 x 55 cm

Inscriptions in Greek: on either sides of the nimbus: MH[TH]P 0[E0]Y (Mother of God); on the frame: + O CAPKA AABON EE AnEIPANAPOY KOPHC / + TPOnOIC AOPACTOIC O 0[E0] Y n[A]TP[0]C AOTE, / + HN NYN OPOME[N ANOPQnOIC] [WPOKEIMENHN / + EIC ECTIACIN KAN nACI nAPAEIAN. / + AEEAI TO AOPON EK OEOAOPOY TOAE / + KOMNHNOAOYKA KAI AOYKAINHC M[APIAC] / + KOMNHNO0YOYC THC KAAHC CYZYHAC / + ANTIAIAOY AE WYXIKHN [COTHJPIAN +

Thou, Word of God, Father who was born in an inexpressible way from the unmarried Virgin, Thou belongest to people in order to feed them though none is worthy of that, accept this gift from Theodore Ducas and from his good wife Maria Ducaena Comnenogeneta and give them in return the salvation of the soul

Coming from the Curch of St. Sophia in Ohrid tour bulgaria, Macedonia

52. PROCESSIONAL CROSS

Constantinople 11th century Bronze

45 x 27 x 0,3 cm

Inscriptions in Greek: I(HCOT)C X(PHCTO) C NH – KA at the terminations of the arms, and MHXAHA next to Archangel Michael

Provenance unknown

53. THE PRESLAV TREASURE

The treasure was discovered in Kastana, a few kilometers northeast of Preslav. It is associated with the efflorescence of the Capital city of Tsar Symeon, between the late 9tk and early l(Tk cen-tury, Most probably it belonged to an aristocratic family and was buried in the fourth quarter of the 10th century when Knyaz Svetoslav of Kiev invaded Preslav twice before the town surrendered to Constantinople in 971.

The treasure had been accumulated in the course of years and consists mainly of jewelry as well as of some fragments of plates (of a rhyton), spoons and coins.

The objects are made of gold, silver and bronze, combined with colour enamel, precious stones, pearls and rock crystal. The decoration employs floral and geometrical patterns, images of mythological creatures from the Eastern tra-dition, and also images of birds peculiar of the Christian symbolism.

Before Vama

Some 18 km before Vama, is the Stone Forest — a semidesert area covered with yellow sand and groups of stone columns up to 6-7 m high. They are supposed to have been formed as a result of the action of the wind, water and sand, which eroded the softer rocks, leaving the hardei ones. Recently another group of stone trees was found near the village of Beloslav.

SOFIA – KARLOVO – KAZANLUK – MOUNT SHIPKA – SLIVEN – ROURGAS – SLUNCHEV BRYAG (440 km)

This route runs along one of Bulgaria’s most modem mo-torways, E-772, between the Balkan Range and Sredna Gora mountain towards the sea, crossing the famous Valley of Roses. The road climbs the Sarantsi saddle and Gulubets hill and then descends into Zlatitsa-Pirdop valley to the town of Srednogo- rie (pop. 15,800) which was founded in 1978 by merging the towns of Zlatitsa and Pirdop and has refineries for copper, blue vitriol, rare and white metals. 20 km south is the Pana- gyurski kolonii resort.

Bulgaria’s largest Coppermine (Medet) is nearby.

16 km from Srednogorie a detour leads to Koprivshtitsa (pop. 3,600) situated on both sides of the Topolnitsa River at an altitude of 1,060 m. Every street and every house here is a monument to the heroic past of this region. It was here that the first shot was fired on 20 April 1876 to mark the outbreak of the April Uprising against the Turks. Many historical and architectural monuments from the National Revival period have been preserved. The houses of Koprivshtitsa. are particularly interesting — higti spacious buildings with carved wooden decorations, solid stone walls and heavy wooden gates. The oldest architectural monument is the Pavlikenska House, early 18th century. Other buildings include craftsmen’s writers’and revolutionaries’houses. Koprivshtitsa was the first town liberated by the partisans on 24 March 1944.

Hotels: Koprivshtitsa, one star, tel. 21-18; Barikadite — (18 km southwest, 3 storeys, 30 beds, restaurant, night club and national taverna. Tel. 20-91).

The next stop along the E-772 isKlissoura (pop. 2,000) — a small mountainous town burnt down during the April 1876 Uprising. The village of Rozino follows, famous for its rose gardens and rose-distilleries. Next is Sopot (11,000), buried in greenery and steeped in the romanticism of the National Revival period. The patriarch of Bulgarian literature — Ivan Va- zov (1850-1921) was bom here and his birth place is now a museum of the National Revival Period, The Museum of Ivan Zagoubanski, courier for the underground Iskra newspaper published in Munich. Balkantourist hotel — Stara Planina — 2 stars, accommodating 84, restaurant. Tel.: 21-23 and 21-25.

Karlovo (pop. 26,000) is situated in the centre of the Valley of Roses and is an important transport junction. The town was well-known in Vienna and Egypt during the National Revival period, thanks to its trade with attar of roses and craftsmen’s goods. The revolutionary during liberation from Ottoman domination — Vassil Levski (1837-1873) was bom here and his birth place is now a museum sofia guided tours.

Koprivshtitsa. The monument to GeorgiBenkovski

Balkantourist hotel — Rozova Dolina, accommodating 105; a restaurant. Sofia hotel, a tourist hostel. The next town in the Valley of Roses is Kalofer (pop. 6,000), situated on both banks of the Toundja river, 17 km from Karlovo. It was founded in the 16th century, by refugees after the Ottoman invasion. It developed rapidly probably as a crafts centre. It is the birth place of the poet-revolutionary Hristo Botev (1848 -1876). Roza hotel 2 stars, 2 floors, 50 beds, a tourist hostel.

Further east 39 km from Kalofer is Kazanluk (pop. 58,0) , founded in the 15th century. It was known in the past only as a producer of attar of roses, but today it is an important industrial centre as well.

Temperate continental climate

Sofia has a temperate continental climate. Because of its comparatively high altitude, summer is moderately warm and autumn dry, warm and very pleasant. The mean temperature in Januaiy is —2.3° C and in June 20° C. Sofia lies on the same latitude as Dalmatia in Yugoslavia and Nice and Marseilles in France. As it is almost mid distance between the Black Sea and the Adriatic, between Belgrade and Tirana, between Athens and Istanbul, it is easy to see why the Slavs called it Sredets (centre). The central position has made Sofia an important junction, connecting for centuries East with West and the Adriatic and Central Europe with the Black Sea and the Aegean.

In ancient times Sofia was the centre of many thermal and mineral springs. In the town centre there are thermal mineral springs which probably played an important role in the settlement of ancient Thracian tribes in these parts. There are mineral springs with curative properties in the Ovcha Koupel, Gor- na Banya and Knyazhevo city districts daily tours istanbul, as well as in Pancharevo near Sofia.

Ancient settlements in Europe

Sofia is one of the most ancient settlements in Europe. Its history dates back 5,000 years, while the most recent archaeological excavations have yielded traces going back 7,000 years.

In the 8th-7th century B.C. the Thracian tribe Serdi settled here. They were later conquered by the Romans who gave it the name of Serdica (the town of the Serdi). Emperor 1 rayanus (98-117) expanded the settlement and named it Ulpia Serdica, and made it a town with an independent autonomous administration.

At the end of the 2nd century it was strongly fortified. In the fifth century the Balkans were overrun by the ‘ hordes of Attila the Hun who devastated the town. During the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527-565) the town was rebuilt and surrounded by strong walls and towers. In 819 it was conquered by troops of the Bulgarian Khan Kroum and was incorporated into the Bulgarian state. It was given the Slav name of Sredets. In the llth-12th century it was conquered by the Byzantines who named it Triaditsa. Late in the 14th century the Bulgarian King, Ivan Shishman issued a deed of conveyance for the property of the Dragalevtsi monastery in which the town is referrecTto as Sofia for the first time.

The Ottoman troops besieged the strongly fortified town for quite some time but did not succeed in capturing it until 1382. They set up an administrative centre here from where they ran the affairs of almost all their European possessions. At the beginning of the 19th century Sofia began to decline. In January 1878, when the Russian General Gurko entered Sofia with his troops, the town numbered only 20,000 people. On 22 March 1879 the Constituent Assembly in Veliko Tumovo declared Sofia the capital of the newly liberated Bulgarian state.

It began to grow and in 1939 had a population of 300,000. Although Sofia was heavily bombarded in 1944, it continued to be an important centre of anti-nazi acitivity. Many anu-fascists killed in street battles with the police. On 26th August 1944 the Bulgarian Communist Party called on the people of Bulgaria to rise and overthrow the rule of the fascist monarch. The first nine days of September 1944 are the iiistoric days for modern Bulgaria.

Day One. The Soviet liberation troops reach the Romanian-Bulgarian frontier. A decree by the Bulgarian Communist Party is broadcast over the clandestine Hristo Botev Radio Station declaring that the eleventh hour for Bulgaria had struck.

Day Two. The country is without a government. Premier Bagryanov resigns and is replaced by Mouraviev who tries to buy time.

Church of St. Sophia

Another building in Sofia, preserved from the end of the antique period, is the Church of St. Sophia of which further mention will be made. The excavations undertaken many years ago around, and pariicularly in the church itself, established that the present building, which is a vaulted basilica with a cupola, was built only in the 6th or 7th century A. D. on the site of two smaller 4th or 5th century churches, which had been consecutively destroyed by the invading Huns and Goths. This was a cemetery church situated outside the city walls. The floors of both the older churches were covered with beautiful mosaics. Numerous graves were found around the churches at the time, as well as masonry tombs, some of which were richly decorated with mural paintings. The necropolis is Early Christian and dates back to the 3th or 6th century. There are also graves of the 10th to 14th century.

Although very rarely, certain ancient buildings were preserved for a long time, and even up to the present day in certain other towns. Thus, for instance, even to this day the ruins of a big building, called the Roman tower, are to be seen in Varna; its walls bear traces of having been built and re-built many times at later dates. Passages of tremendous length now form deep basements beneath this building. It was probably a big public building or fortified palace of the 3rd century A. D. which was later partly destroyed, only parts of it being used in the Middle Ages and preserved to the present day travel bulgaria. In Plovdiv the remains of Trimontium’s (the Town of Three Hills) walls have been preserved on Djambaz Tepe; they show traces of extensive repairs at a later date. However, the walls of the former Roman city of Augustae — today known as Hissarya Spa near Levskigrad, are in the best state of preservation.

The southern city gate, known as the «Camels» impresses the approaching traveller with its colossal body, rising on the road leading to the town, although it has lost the two square towers that formerly flanked it, and its upper part. Its plan, and particularly its superstructure, with a tower in the centre, brings to mind the images of city gates found on the coins that were minted in the cities of Thrace and Moesia in the 2nd and 3rd centuries B. C Far more important ruins of the old Roman fortifications were preserved up to the 19th century at many places in the Bulgarian lands, particularly along the Danube. The ruins of Trajan’s Gate in the Ihtiman Pass were particularly imposing; however, as absolutely nothing was done to preserve these ruins before the Liberation from Ottoman bondage and in the years immediately following it, a large part of them was completely destroyed.

The town of Pomorie

One of the most interesting and massive monuments of funeral architecture in the period of Roman rule has been preserved under a mound near the town of Pomorie (ancient Anchialo). The tomb is distinguished both by its plan and its size, as well as by its construction and the original disposition of its space. It consists of a covered vaulted passage, 22 m., long, flanked on both sides by square chambers; the passage leads to the funeral chamber, which is round and has a diameter of 11.60 m., with a brick column in the centre, 3.5 m. in diameter, hollow on the inside with an opening on the south side opposite the passage, and at its top.

The space between the column and the walls of the tomb forms a ring-shaped corridor, 4.05m. wide, 5.50m. high, and semi-cylindrically vaulted, with the column supporting the inner side of the vault, and thus forming a funnel-shaped extension. The tomb is a real mausoleum. Despite the new manner of construction and the new architectural conception, certain elements of the architecture of the old Thracian cupola tombs have, nevertheless,, been preserved in it. The mausoleum may be dated back to the 4th century A. D.

BABA VIDA FORTRESS

Near the town of Vidin. One of the oldest Bulgarian towns, the successor of the Roman Bononia Vidin is today, as it was in the past, an important commercial centre and port. It is the centre of a rich viticultural region (you might just as well miss the place altogether if you don’t taste the Vidin Gumza wine). There is still another thing without which we can’t visualize Vidin: the mediaeval Baba Vida’s Fortress or Towers private tour guide ephesus. On the occasion of Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary, a ‘Shakespeariade’ was held in this mediaeval setting in which several Bulgarian theatre companies staged Shakespearean plays,using the walls and towers of the old fortress as a fitting decor.

Historically Baba Vida is associated with Pazvantoglou, a despot of the late 18th century and yet a man who had the good idea of replacing the crescent on his mosque with a … heart! Built in the 10th century by the Bulgarians over the remains of the north-eastern part of the Roman wall, the fortress took on its final appearance in the 12th-14th centuries. For the last time it was reconstructed in the 17th and 18th centuries. With its impressive towers and embrasures and with its museum of mediaeval weapons, the fortress represents an interesting tourist sight which attracts visitors from many countries.

What else can you see in Vidin: a park of rare beauty, a museum, and the murals of the St. Panteleimon and St. Petka Churches. The town has its own theatre, amateur opera and orchestra.-Vidin is connected by ferryboat with the Romanian town of Kalafat, and there are five roads and highways and one railway line leading to Sofia.

SHIPKA PASS AND MOUNT STOLETOV

Twelve kilometres from the town of Kazanluk, at the foot of the Balkan Range, rise the gilt domes of a splendid memorial church built to the memory of the soldiers who gave their life in the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation of 1877-1878. From here a good road leads to Mount Stoletov and to the granite monument which recalls to the coming generations the heroic deeds of the handful of Russian and Bulgarian defenders of the Shipka Pass against the army of Syuleiman’ Pasha, which numbered 35,OOO.The monument is 51 m tall and on its front side stands the sculpted figure of a lion, representing the Bulgarian people.

BELOGRADCHIK ROCKS

A unique freak of nature, this labyrinth of quaint rock for-mations is situated near the town of Belogradchik. For millions of years nature has worked to sculpt in the red limestone a wonderful world of figures, such as ‘Adam and Eve’, ‘The Schoolgirl’, ‘The Madonna’, ‘The Monks’…. At their foot lie the stone walls of the Belogradchik Fortress, which in its present form was completed in the 19th century on the foundations of a very old fortress (4th-6th and 13th-14th centuries).

In Belogradchik there is a Balkantourist hotel with restaurant, and nearby is the Madonna Camp Site. The town lies at the 162nd km of the road Sofia-Vidin, 52 km from Vidin, and 67 km from Mihailovgrad. 28 km from the town is the well- known Rabisha Cave.

Shaksperes

The way in which it all works into ordinary books is this. The compilers of dictionaries, catalogues, compendiums, vade-mecums, and the like, the writers of newspaper paragraphs and literary announcements, are not only a most industrious, but a most accurate and most alert, race of men. They are ever on the watch for the latest discovery, and the last special work on every conceivable topic.

It is not to be expected that they can go very deeply into each matter themselves; but the latest spelling, the last new commentary, or the newest literary ‘ find,’ is eminently the field of their peculiar work. To them, the man who has abolished the ‘ Battle of Hastings ’ as a popular error must know more about history than any man living; and so, the man who writes Shakspere has apparently the latest lights on the Elizabethan drama. Thus it comes that our ordinary style is rapidly infiltrated with Karls and JE If reds, and Senlacs, Qurans, and Shaksperes; till it becomes at last almost a kind of pedantry to object.

How foolish is the attempt to re-name Shakespeare him-self by the aid of manuscripts ! As every one knows, the name of Shakespeare may be found in contemporary documents in almost every possible form of the letters. Some of these are — Shakespeare, Schakespere, Schakespeire, Shakespeyre, Chacsper, Shakspere, Shakespere, Shakespeere, Shackspear, Shakeseper, Shackespeare, Saxspere, Shack- speere, Shaxeper, Shaxpere, Shaxper, Shaxpeer, Shaxspere, Shakspeare, Shakuspeare, Shakesper, Shaksper, Skackspere, Shakspyr, Shakspear, Shakspeyr, Shackspeare, Shaxkspere, Shackspeyr, Shaxpeare, Shakesphere, Sackesper, Shackspare turkey sightseeing, Shakspeere, Shaxpeare, Shakxsper; Shaxpere, Shakspeyr, Shagspur, and Shaxberd. Here are forty of the contemporary modes of spelling his name. Now are the facsimi- lists prepared to call the great poet of the world by whichever of these, as in a parish election, commands the majority of the written documents? So that, if we have at last to call our immortal bard, Chacsper, or Shaxper, or Shagspur, we must accept it; and in the mean time leave his name as variable as ever his contemporaries did?

Various ways

Shakespeare no doubt, like most persons in that age, wrote his name in various ways. The extant autographs differ; and the signature which is thought to be Shakspere, has been simply misread, and plainly shows another letter. The vast preponderance of evidence establishes that in the printed literature of his time his name was written — Shakespeare. In his first poems, Lucrece and Venus and Adonis, he placed Shakespeare on the title-page So it stands on the folios of 1623 and 1632.

So also it was spelled by his friends in their published works; Ben Jonson, by Bancroft, Bamefield, Willobie, Freeman, Davies, Meres, and Weever. It is certain that his name was pronounced Shake-spear (i.e., as *Shake ‘ and Spear’ were then pronounced) by his literary friends in London. This is shown by the punning lines of Ben Jonson, by those of Bancroft and others; by Greene’s allusion to him as the only Shake-scene; and, lastly, by the canting heraldry of the arms granted to his father in 1599: — ‘In a field of gould upon a bend sables a speare of the first: with crest a ffalcon supporting a speare.’

It is very probable that this grant of arms, about which Dethick, the Garter-King, was blamed and had to defend himself, practically settled the pronunciation as well as the spelling. It is probable that hitherto the family name had not been so spelt or so pronounced in Warwickshire. It is possible that Shake-speare was almost a nick-name, or a familiar stage-name; but, like Erasmus, Melancthon, or Voltaire, he who bore it carried it so into literature. For some centuries downwards, the immense concurrence of writers, English and foreign, has so accepted the name. A great majority of the commentators have adopted the same form: Dyce, Collier, Halliwell-Phillipps, Staunton, W. G. Clark. No one of the principal editors of the poet writes his name ‘Shakspere But so Mr. Furnivall decrees it shall be.

One would have thought so great a preponderance of literary practice need not be disturbed by one or two signatures in manuscript, even if they were perfectly distinct and quite uniform. Yet, such is the march of palaeographic purism, that our great poet is in imminent danger of being translated into Shakspere, and ultimately Shaxper.

Elective representation of the citizens

There was no real municipality, no true elective representation of the citizens. Certain officials, named by the Crown, professed to speak and to act in the name of the city. Civil and criminal justice was shared by various bodies under quite indefinite authority. The Chtelet absorbed in the seventeenth century no less than nineteen, baronial jurisdictions; but the Archbishopric and several abbeys retained their own distinct courts.

The Chatelet, the Hotel de Ville, the church, each divided Paris into distinct sets of local subdivisions. Taxation, public works, justice, police, markets, public health, even hospitals and charities, were under the control of different authorities, with no defined limits. Interminable disputes between the different authorities ensued. Of the streets, one in ten was a cul-de-sac. Although the area of Paris is now six or seven times greater than it was before the Revolution, and though the population is nearly four times as great, there are little more than twice as many houses. There were 30,000 beggars in Paris. Down to 1779 the ancient foundation of St. Louis, the Quinze-Vingts, held an immense area between the Louvre and the Palais Royal, blocking up both, as well as the Rue St.

Honoriand the Rue Richelieu. This enclosure, which was a privileged asylum, contained a population of from five to six thousand, not only licensed to beg, but bound to live by begging. It was not until 1786 that the cemetery and charnel-house of the Saints Innocents was suppressed. It is hardly credible that little more than a hundred years have passed since, in the densest quarter of Paris sightseeing turkey, long colonnades of grinning skulls and festering burying-grounds were standing where now we have the lovely fountain of Lescot and Goujon, transformed indeed, and almost more lovely in its transformation, in the centre of the bright and glowing square that recalls Verona or Genoa.

The Catholic faith

The censorship of all writings ‘contrary to law, to the Catholic faith, to public morals, or judicial prerogative/ opened a wide door for arbitrary power. In the years .immediately preceding the Revolution, the Parlement of Paris suppressed sixty-five works. One of these is condemned as tending ‘ d soulever les espritsl Another is condemned as a libel on Cagliostro! Sunday labour, eating meat in Lent, neglecting to dress the house-front on a religious procession, playing hazard, ‘speaking so as to alarm the public,’ are some of the grounds of a criminal sentence. The most revolting public executions were common in all parts of the city.

As if to accustom all to the sight of cruel punishments, some fifty places are recorded as the scenes of these horrible public exposures. The sentence sets out the details of these executions in all their hideous particulars. Ledit so-and-so shall be taken to Notre Dame, where his hand shall be chopped off, then taken on a cart to another place, where he shall be broken alive on a wheel, and so left ‘as long as it shall please God to prolong his life ’; then his body shall be burned and the ashes scattered to the winds. A workingman, for stealing some linen, is condemned to be hung on a gibbet and strangled by the public executioner. It was not till 1780 that preliminary torture of an accused person was abolished: torture as part of the sentence was retained till the Revolution. The personal punishments included the pillory, branding, flogging, maiming, strangling, breaking alive, and burning. This is how the ancient Monarchy prepared the people for the guillotine.

From Justinian to Isaac Comnenus

The fact is that, for the five centuries from Justinian to Isaac Comnenus, the attacks on the empire, from the European side, at any rate, were the attacks of nomad, unorganised, and uncivilised races on a civilised and highly- organised empire. And in spite of anarchy, corruption, and effeminacy at the Byzantine court, civilisation and wealth told in every contest. Greek fire, military science, enormous resources, and the prestige of empire always bore down wild valour and predatory enthusiasm. Just as Russia dominates the Turkoman tribes of Central Asia, as Turkey holds back the valiant Arabs of her eastern frontier, as Egyptian natives with British officers easily master the heroic Ghazis of the Soudan — so the Roman Empire on the Bosphorus beat back Huns, Avars, Persians, Slaves, Bulgarians, Patzinaks, and Russians. We need only to study the history of Russia and of Turkey to learn how the organising ability, the resources, and material arts of great empires outweigh folly, vice, and corruption in the palace.

4. Of course a succession of victorious campaigns implies a succession of valiant armies; and there is nothing on which we need more light than on the exact organisation and national constituents of those Roman armies which crushed Chosroes, Muaviah, Crumn, Samuel, and Hamdanids. They are called conventionally ‘Greeks’; but during the Heraclian, Isaurian ephesus daily tour, and Basilian dynasties there seem to have been no Greeks at all in the land forces. The armies were always composed of a strange collection of races, with different languages, arms, methods of fighting, and types of civilisation. They were often magnificent and courageous barbarians, conspicuous amongst whom were Scandinavians and English, and with them some of the most warlike braves of Asia and of Europe.

National characteristics

The empire made no attempt to destroy their national characteristics, to discourage their native language, religion, or habits. Each force was told off to the service which suited it best, and was trained in the use of its proper weapons. They remained distinct from each other, and wholly distinct from the civil population. But as they could not unite, they seldom became so great a danger to the empire as the Praetorian guard of the Roman army. The organisation and management of such a heterogeneous body of mercenary braves required extraordinary skill; but it was just this skill which the rulers of Byzantium possessed. The bond of the whole was the tradition of discipline and the consciousness of serving the Roman Emperor.

The modern history of Russia and still more the native armies of the British Empire will enable us to understand how the work ©f consolidation was effected. The Queen’s dominions are at this hour defended by men of almost every race, colour, language, religion, costume, and habits. And we may imagine the composite character of the Byzantine armies, if we reflect how distant wars are carried on in the name of Victoria by Hindoos, Musulmans, Pa- thans, Ghoorkas, Afghans, Egyptians, Soudanese, Zanzibaris, Negroes, Nubians, Zulus, Kaffirs, and West Indians, using their native languages, retaining their national habits, and, to a great extent, their native costume.

The Roman Empire was maintained from its centre on the Bosphorus, somewhat as the British Empire is maintained from its centre on the Thames, by wealth, maritime ascendency, the traditions of empire, and organising capacity — always with the great difference that there was no purely Roman nucleus as there is a purely British nucleus, and also that the soldiery of the Roman Empire had no common armament, and was not officered by men of the dominant race, but by capable leaders indifferently picked from any race, except the Latin or the Greek. Dominant race there was none; nation there was none. Roman meant subject of the Emperor; Emperor meant the chief in the vermilion buskins, installed in the Palace on the Bosphorus, and duly crowned by the Orthodox Patriarch in the Church of the Holy Wisdom.

Mount Pentelicus

Let every traveller hasten to reach the top of Mount Pentelicus. It is loftier than Snowdon; but it is only some twelve miles from Athens, a morning walk for the average hill-climber. In the hollow which seems to lie beneath our feet, as we gaze on the wonderful scene from the summit, the Acropolis, with the Parthenon and Propylaea portico, dominate the basin of Athens. It is easy to mark the Nyx where Themistocles and Pericles, Alcibiades and Demosthenes addressed the people; there is the agora where Socrates stood and questioned all who cared to answer; there is Mars’ Hill where Paul spoke to philosophers and idlers about the Unknown God.

One can almost make out the olive grove which still seems to mark the site of Plato’s Academy, and not far from it the knoll which marks Colon os, the birthplace of Sophocles, the scene of his exquisite drama of the exiled Oedipus. In the two hundred years that sever the age of Pisistratus from that of Demosthenes, what a harvest of genius in all forms of human power—in war, art, poetry, policy, philosophy — has been gathered from that little field, which from our mountain top looks like a few bare, barren, sunbaked acres ! What an outburst of human activity and invention in that dazzling light and purity of atmosphere, where, as their poet says, they passed their days ‘ in dainty delight, in most pellucid air,’ or as our own poet has said —

‘ Where, on the Mgean shore, a city stands Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil — ’

The atmosphere of Athens still seems to be light rather than air: its soil seems to be not earth, but the dust of white marble bulgaria trips.

Still standing on Pentelicus

Still standing on Pentelicus, we may see a little further Piraeus and the three ports beside the blue gulf, from whence some thousand fleets of triremes have set sail for all parts of the Mediterranean. And just across the thin streak of blue rises the island of Salamis. The water beneath it is the scene of the most famous sea-fight in history: beyond, the hills look down on the birthplace of Aischylus: in the distance rise up the crag of Acro- Corinth and the mountains of Argolis, Cithaeron, Helicon, Parnes, and Hymettus. To the west and south, half Greece can be outlined, or traced by its topmost peaks and distant islands. If we turn northwards, beneath our feet, an hour or two on foot below us, lies a quiet, drowsy plain along the sea-coast, sheltered by the vast ranges of Euboea.

That quiet, drowsy plain is Marathon, where Greeks first met the Mede in arms in the great day of the Athenian glory. The tumulus still to be seen was always known as the sepulcher of the Athenian warriors. Along the reedy shore Aischylus and his brothers fought in the desperate embarkation of the Persians. And in the northern distance we see the mountains which tower above Thermopylae. This union of magnificent scenery with so large a prospect over historic scenes, this vast panorama over the memorials of events commemorated in the greatest poetry and prose of the world, makes the view from Pentelicus live in the memory with that other prospect from the campanile of the Capitol at Rome.

Cleanliness and sanitary discipline

Health was a matter of religion, and it was vastly promoted by this, that cleanliness and sanitary discipline was a religious duty as well as an affair of personal pride. It remained a religious duty and a poetic sentiment after definite belief in local gods had become a mere convention or a phrase.

To defile the precincts of the city, and almost every open corner of it was consecrated to some deity or hero, was to outrage the powers of heaven or of earth; to cast refuse or sewage into a stream was to incur the wrath of some river-god; to pollute one of the city fountains was to offer sacrilege to some water-nymph. To bring disease into some public gathering was to insult the gods and demi-gods; to place the dead within the precincts of a temple, or to bury the dead within the city, or in contact with human habitations, to leave the dead or any human remains unburied or scattered about in public places and abandoned as carrion, would have seemed to a Greek or a Roman the last enormity of blasphemous horror.

To wash, to shampoo the skin daily, to trim and anoint the hair, to scour the clothes (and the Roman toga was made of white wool which needed endless scouring), to brush, paint, and limewash the walls and floors, to cleanse the public thoroughfares, to get rid of every form of uncleanness and refuse — this was a religious, social, domestic, and personal duty: to effect which were concentrated almost all the impulses that we know as obedience to the Deity, social decency, family pride, and the being a gentleman and a lady city tours istanbul.

A Greek who should have submitted to live in the bestial uncleanness, the fetid atmosphere, and the polluted water supply to which we condemn such masses of the labouring people of our vast cities, would have felt himself a rebel against the gods above, and an outcast from the fellowship of decent citizens. The Greek word for ‘gentleman’ is Kaxotcaaobs, which literally means the ‘beautiful and the good,’ and which, perhaps, came to mean in practice the clean and ‘the nice,’ as we say, gens comme ilfaitt, as the French say, ‘ the well-washed ’ and ‘ the respectable.’ No Greek could think himself ‘respectable’ or ‘nice,’ unless he were constantly scouring, scraping, washing, polishing, and anointing his person, his clothes, his house, and his utensils. And the women were almost as active as the men in the daily use of the bath.

Habit of bathing grew on the Romans

The habit of constant discussion and witnessing shows grew on the Greeks, as the habit of bathing grew on the Romans, until these things became a mania to which their lives were given up. Whole rivers were brought down from the mountains in aqueducts, and ultimately in the Roman empire the city population spent a large part of their day in the public baths — buildings as big as St. Paul’s Cathedral and of magnificent materials and adornment — where 5000 persons could meet and take their air- bath in what was club, play-ground, theatre, lecture-hall, and promenade at once.

Such was the classical religion of cleanliness, of which the Musulman has inherited some traditions, and of which Europe in our own generation is beginning to revive the practice. The excess of this skin deep purification of the body led to a melancholy reaction, when Christianity denounced it as sinful, and reconsecrated Dirt, the natural state of primitive man; until at last in the ages of faith we had uncleanness of the body regarded as the purity of the soul, and a man was exalted to be saint when he was found to have made himself a mass of vermin.

The smallest opportunity for experience

The vast mass of the people thus grew consolidated, without a single public outlet for its energies, or the smallest opportunity for experience in affairs; the whole ability of the nation for politics, administration, law, or war, was forced into abstract speculation and social discussion; conscious that it was the real force and possessed the real wealth of the nation; increasing its resources day by day, amidst frightful extortion and incredible barbarism, which it was bound to endure without a murmur; the thinking world, to whom action was closed, kept watching the tremendous problems at stake in their most naked and menacing aspect, without any disguise, compromise, or alleviation. And in France, where the old feudal and ecclesiastical system was concentrated in its most aggravated form, there it was also the weakest, most corrupt, and most servile.

And there, too, in France the tiers Hat was the most numerous, the most consolidated, the most charged with ideas, the most sharply separated off, the most conscious of its power, the most exasperated by oppression. Thus it came about that a European evolution broke out in France into revolution. The social battle of the eighteenth century began in the only nation which was strictly marshalled in two opposing camps; where the oppressors were utterly enfeebled by corruption; where the oppressed were fermenting with ideas and boiling with indignation sofia sightseeing.

The Church was torn by factions

The fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries saw the silent universal but unobserved dissolution of the old mediaeval society. For crusades the soldier took to the puerilities of the tournament. The lordly castles fell one by one before the strong hand of the king. The humble village expanded into the great trading town. The Church was torn by factions and assailed by heresies. The musket- ball destroyed the supremacy of the mailed knight.

The printing-press made science and thought the birthright of all. The sixteenth century saw a temporary resettlement in a strong dominant monarchy and a compromise in religion. Whilst the seventeenth century in England gave power to a transformed and modified aristocracy, in France it concentrated the whole public forces in a monstrous absolutism, whilst nobility and Church grew daily more rife with obsolete oppression. Hence, in France, the ancient monarchy stood alone as the centre of the old system. Beside it stood the new elements unfettered and untransformed. It was the simplicity of the problem, the glaring nature of the contrast, which caused the intensity of the explosion. The old system stood with dry-rot in its heart; the new was bursting with incoherent hopes and undefined ideals. The Bastille fell — and a new era began.

Take a rapid survey of France in the closing years of the Monarchy. She had not recovered the desolation of the long wars of Louis xiv., the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the banishment of the Protestants, the monstrous extravagance of Versailles and the corrupt system which was there concentrated. The entire authority was practically absorbed by the Crown, whilst the most incredible confusion and disorganisation reigned throughout the administration. A network of incoherent authorities crossed, recrossed, and embarrassed each other throughout the forty provinces. The law, the customs, the organisation of the provinces, differed from each other. Throughout them existed thousands of hereditary offices without responsibility, and sinecures cynically created for the sole purpose of being sold.

The administration of justice was as completely incoherent as the public service. Each province, and often each district, city, or town, had special tribunals with peculiar powers of its own and anomalous methods of jurisdiction. There were nearly four hundred different codes of customary law. There were civil tribunals, military tribunals, commercial tribunals, exchequer tribunals, ecclesiastical tribunals, and manorial tribunals. A vast number of special causes could only be heard in special courts: a vast body of privileged persons could only be sued before special judges. If civil justice was in a state of barbarous complication and confusion, criminal justice was even more barbarous.

Preliminary torture before trial, mutilation, ferocious punishments, a lingering death by torment, a penal code which had death or bodily mutilation in every page, were dealt out freely to the accused without the protection of counsel, the right of appeal, or even a public statement of the sentence. For ecclesiastical offences, and these were a wide and vague field, the punishment was burning alive. Loss of the tongue, of eyes, of limbs, and breaking on the wheel, were common punishments for very moderate crimes. Madame Roland tells us how the summer night was made hideous by the yells of wretches dying by inches after the torture of the wheel. With this state of justice there went systematic corruption in the judges, bribery of officials from the highest to the lowest, and an infinite series of exactions and delays in trial.

Outline of Modern History

I am accustomed to recommend as a general summary the Outline of Modern History by Jules Michelet. It is unsurpassed in clearness and general arrangement. It begins with the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, and has been well translated and continued to our own day by Mrs. W. Simpson. I am also old-fashioned enough to rely on the Manual of a great historian,— Heeren’s Political System of Europe which covers almost exactly the same ground, — though it is now more than eighty years old, not easily procurable in the English form, and avowedly restricted to the political relations of the European States. But its concise and masterly grouping, its good sense and just proportion, make it the model of a summary of a long and intricate period. But we must not ask more from it than it professes to give us. We shall look from it in vain for any account of the revolution directed by Cromwell or of the culture that gave splendour to the early years of Louis xiv.

Summaries and manuals are of course made for students, and it would be vain to expect the general reader, who is not about to be ‘ extended ’ on the ‘ mark-system,’ and who, tired with work, takes up a volume at his fireside, to commit to memory the dates and subdivisions which are the triumph of the examiner and the despair of the practical man. Records and summaries there must be private turkey tours, if only for reference and general clearness of heads. We must to some extent group our periods; and, without pretending to very minute details, the following may serve for practical purposes, and are those which are commonly adopted: —

1. The formation of the European monarchies and the rise of the modern State-System.

2. The revival of learning and the intellectual movement known as the Renascence. This is synchronous with, and related to, the first mentioned.

3. The Reformation and the great religious wars down to the middle of the seventeenth century.

4. The dynastic, territorial, and colonial struggles from the Peace of Westphalia to the close of the Seven Years’ War.

Holland in the sixteenth century

5. The struggle against autocracy in (a) Holland in the sixteenth century; (b) England in the seventeenth century; (c) America in the eighteenth century. This is a special phase of the general movements noted as 3 and 4.

6. The Revolution of the eighteenth century and its political, social, and industrial effects.

We will take each of these six movements in their order: —

I. For the first we have a book of established fame, now well entered on its second century, which still lives by virtue of its high powers of generalization, its pellucid style, and sureness of judgment — Robertson’s Charles V In spite of the development of research in the last one hundred and thirty years, the famous Introduction or Survey of Europe from the fall of the Roman empire to the fifteenth century remains an indispensable book, the appendix, as it were, and philosophic completion of The Decline and Fall.

Victory followed upon victory

Victory followed upon victory, and the whole Greek race expanded with this amazing triumph. The old world had been brought face to face with the intellect which was to transform it. The Greek mind, with the whole East open to it, exhibited inexhaustible activity. A century sufficed to develop a thoroughly new phase of civilisation. They carried the arts to a height whereon they stand as the types for all time. In poetry they exhausted and perfected every form of composition. In politics they built up a multitude of communities, rich with a prolific store of political and social institutions. Throughout their stormy history stand forth great names. Now and then there rose amongst them leaders of real genius. For a time they showed some splendid instances of public virtue, of social life, patriotism, elevation, sagacity, and energy. For a moment Athens at least may have believed that she had reached the highest type of political existence ephesus sightseeing.

Barren struggles and wanton restlessness

But with all this activity and greatness there was no true unity. Wonderful as was their ingenuity, their versatility and energy, it was too often wasted in barren struggles and wanton restlessness. For a century and a half after the Persian invasion, the petty Greek states contended in one weary round of contemptible civil wars and aimless revolutions. One after another they cast their great men aside, to think out by themselves the thoughts that were to live for all time, and gave themselves up to be the victims of degraded adventurers. For one moment only in their history, if indeed for that, they did become a nation. At last, wearied out by endless wars and constant revolutions, the Greek states by force and fraud were fused in one people by the Macedonian kings ; and by Macedon, instead of by true Hellas, the great work so long postponed, but through their history never forgotten, was at length attempted — the work of avenging the Persian invasion, and subduing Asia.

Short and wonderful was that career of conquest, due wholly to one marvellous mind. Alexander, indeed, in military and practical genius seems to stand above all Greeks, as Caesar above all Romans; they two the greatest chiefs of the ancient world. No story in history is so romantic as the tale of that ten years of victory when Alexander, at the head of some thirty thousand veteran Greeks, poured over Asia, crushing army after army, taking city after city, and receiving the homage of prince after prince, himself fighting like a knight-errant: until, subduing the Persian empire, and piercing Asia from side to side, and having reached even the great rivers of India, he turned back to Babylon to organise his vast empire, to found new cities, pour life into the decrepit frame of the East, and give to these entranced nations the arts and wisdom of Greece. For this he came to Babylon, but came thither only to die. Endless confusion ensued ; province after province broke up into a separate kingdom, and the vast empire of Alexander became the prey of military adventurers.

Anglican church at Kadikeuy

There are about 1200 of these native Protestants in Constantinople. Three churches have been organized among them, which manage their own ecclesiastical affairs independently of foreign control. The influence of these “ Gospel Christians ” must be reckoned upon in any summing up of forces that tend for the substitution of the service of God for the service of self in this place. Besides the native “ Gospel Churches ” in Constantinople there are congregations of English speaking Protestants connected with the chapel of the British Embassy and the Crimean memorial church in Pera, with the Union Evangelical Church which worships at the chapel of the Dutch Legation in Pera, with an Anglican church at Kadikeuy, the ancient Chalcedon, and with a little Union Church of English and Americans at Bebek on the Bosphorus.

German Protestant congregation at Bebek

There is also a German Protestant congregation at Bebek, and a more important one under the charge of the Chaplain of the German Embassy in Pera. All of these efforts to secure the spiritual culture of foreign residents of Constantinople are to be regarded as one in purpose and interest with missions among the natives, because people who do not know Christ learn of Him more influentially through the lives and conduct of his followers than through the most eloquent of sermons. It is entirely possible that an English or Swiss or German merchant, who is of incorruptible character, and who lives in Constantinople without thought of what is beyond the Bosphorus may exert a Christianizing influence in Bagdad through the return to that place of natives who have admired the Christian life of such business men tailor-made bulgaria tours.

Among these forces for the reform of life and character will be reckoned, too, every one of the foreign missionary establishments in Constantinople alluded to in the last chapter. As a type of the influence which such establishments may wield the work of the mission of the American Board may be described, since it is one of the oldest and largest of these institutions in the city.

After seeing the Colleges and the Bible House, the traveller sometimes leaves Constantinople with the idea that he has looked into all the enterprises of the American missionaries there, and that they do educational work alone. As a remedy for this idea the visitor has to be taken to see sights on Sunday. A missionary calls at the hotel at nine o’clock on Sunday morning, and takes the stranger to a chapel about two blocks away. There for the first time in his life the visitor hears “ Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” sung in Armenian to the tune of Old Hundred, and then listens to a prayer in Armenian offered by the preacher.

He is hurried away from this chapel, however, and taken to another two blocks farther along. Here an-other native congregation is assembled, and another pastor is in the midst of a service in the Greek language. There the visitor hears for the first time, perhaps, the Greek Testament read with its natural pronunciation. Thence again he is hurried a mile and a half to the Bible House, where in a neat chapel another Greek preacher is just finishing a very eloquent sermon. The bene-diction is pronounced and the congregation disperses.

The visitor wishes to go, too, when he discovers that an entirely different set of people are beginning to come into the chapel. Before he knows what is happening a new congregation has filled the place. It is composed of all classes of people, from the professional man and the merchant to the day-laborer and the donkey driver, and from the lady in silk to the tired handkerchief painter in her faded cotton dress. Then he hears for the first time a sermon in Turkish, to which the people pay profound attention, and which a Turkish officer or two also come in to hear. By their tunes he recognizes the hymns in Turkish, sung by every man, woman and child, roaring at full lung power. He further understands without the services of an interpreter, the collection, and drops a gold piece on the plate, to the vast amazement of the coppers and five-cent pieces into the midst of which it falls.

During two hundred years

During two hundred years, Europeans, often notable for refinement and culture, and since the Crimean War of 1856, considerable in numbers, have lived in Constantinople surrounded as far as possible by the requirements of their own various types of civilization. They constitute a colony, living under the protection of the curious treaty privilege of extra-territoriality, which, to the European in any Asiatic domain is what the air helmet is to the diver working in deep waters. In this European colony are many men who stand head and shoulders—in point of morals—above the Turks who style them infidel dogs. There are men whose word is sacred under all circumstances, and whose sturdy manliness might act directly to break up the Mohammedan prejudice against Christianity. But there are also in this colony numbers of Europeans who make the name of Christianity a byword by their profligate lives. And there are large numbers of Europeans in this colony who are not really Europeans at all, hut who give, in the eyes of the Turks, character to the whole body, because they are the only part of the colony with which a middle-class Turk can enter into intimate relations.

These are the half-bloods, such as throng the outskirts of every European colony in Asia. They are the somewhat nondescript offspring of European fathers and native mothers. These “ Levantines ” dress as Europeans, and have European passports. They translate the alert and active bearing of the European into a swagger that is peculiar to themselves, and that imposes itself on the simplicity of the Oriental as a token of greatness. They browbeat the natives in virtue of their superiority, they converse in polyglot fluency, pursue amusement as the Euro-pean does not, and they often lie and cheat with as clean a conscience as any native. When they go to Europe they are eyed askance as “ Greeks ” in the clubs and the gambling houses to which they find admittance guided istanbul tour.

Petit Champs of Pera

In Constantinople the average Levantine may be studied any day in the coffee houses of the Petit Champs of Pera, which he frequents as the Venetian does the Piazza of St. Mark’s, because there one may receive one’s friends without expense for hospitality. He also has among his amusements the club, because English civilization demands it. There he gambles for high stakes, because Italian civilization demands the thrill of appeals to chance. He has also the theatre and the concert hall, because French civilization demands the society drama and the singing of girls as a set-off and accompaniment to light tippling. He has also the beer garden in all its forms because German civilization requires that the pleasures of life shall be mixed with beer.

At specified times he has to go out hunting, and mentions the fact as a solemn duty done. If he has a fraction of a drop of English blood in his veins he pays penalty in unseemly and wearisome exertion on the cricket field, the golf links, or in the stern of a sail boat which he calls a yacht. Intellectual pleasures do not flourish in such soil and the Levantine is out of his element in a moment if any one broaches a subject of conversation outside of the celebrated Levantine Quadrilateral of Society, Shop, The Turk, and the Table: Society—that is to say, womankind and amusement; Shop—namely the conditions and incidents of trade; The Turk— including the daily bulls and delicious absurdities of Government officials; and The Table—the art of producing savory meats, drinks, and smokes.

Living and expenses at Constantinople

With the wish to make this volume something more than a mere recollection of travel, I have ventured to add an Appendix of such information as may be useful to any traveller about to make the same journey. Whilst on my way to the East, I remember the eagerness with which I questioned certain returned travellers respecting various points connected with living and expenses at Constantinople, about which I could get at no accurate information in the guide-books. I have now thrown together my notes on these subjects, and I hope they will be found as useful to others as I should have found them myself this time last year.

THE JOURNEY

The direct line to Constantinople by the English boats, starting from Southampton, is that usually patronized by travellers with much luggage, and in such cases is decidedly the preferable one. As full information connected with the departure of these fine vessels may be obtained at the London offices private tours istanbul, it is unnecessary to repeat it here, beyond stating that the fares are, for the first class, £41, and for the second, £27 10s. Passengers’ servants are charged £22.

The excellent service of the French Paquebots-Postcs de la Mediterrante, which start from Marseilles, is less generally known. This is by far the best method for the mere tourist unencumbered with luggage ; and it is also the most agreeable, and cheapest.

There are two lines from Marseilles to Malta. One of these is a direct one; the other touches at Genoa, Leghorn, Civitavecchia, Naples, and Messina; and both are so arranged as to correspond, at Malta, with the boat proceeding, without loss of time, to Constantinople. The departures take place three times a month, and arc very regular. The direct boat to Malta starts on the 1st, 11th, and 21st; that touching at Italy, on the 1Oth, 19th, and 29th; and all these arrive respectively in time for one or the other of the boats which leave Malta in turn, on the 5th, 15th, and 25th, and arrive at Constantinople on the- day week of their departure from that port.

From Marseilles to Constantinople

The fares are—presuming the direct line be chosen — from Marseilles to Constantinople: first class, 4G5 francs; second, 279 francs; third, 186 francs; fourth, 11G francs; or, in rough sums, respectively about 18/. 12s. ; 11/.; 71. 10s.; 41.12s. The living is not included in this, but the tariff is fixed at six francs a day for first-class passengers, and four francs for the second. This must be paid whether the passengers partake of the meals or do not. If there are servants on board, they have their meals in the second cabin, after the passengers, but are not allowed to join them at any time. The third and fourth class passengers can lay in their own stock, but may get anything from the restaurateur on board by paying for it. I add the bill of fare of one day’s dinner, in tho fore-cabin, taken at random : —

The mere expenses of conveyance from London to Marseilles, via Folkestone, Boulogne, Paris, Lyons, and Avignon, by steamer, railway and diligence, are 130 francs. This is for the banquette of the diligence and second class of the railways, but the arrangements are so good that it is a mere throwing away of money for a tourist to go in the more expensive places. The route from Paris, at present, is by rail to Tonnare, and thence by diligence to Dijon; from Dijon to Chalons by rail; from Chalons to Lyons by * steamer, on the Saone; from Lyons to Avignon by diligence, and from Avignon to Marseilles by the rail. The journey occupies three days and three nights; of these, two nights only are passed on the road. When the line of railway is completed from Paris to Avignon, of course the time will be considerably abridged. The route is most interesting, and has the incalculable advantage of avoiding all the rolling misery of the Bay of Biscay.

An hour in Constantinople

This will be a feature you cannot fail to notice before you have been an hour in Constantinople.

The chaplet, or tesbeh, contains ninety-nine wooden beads, divided into three rows by little oblong pieces of turned wood. It is used in certain forms of the Mohammedan religion; but the active minds of the Armenian and Greek traders require something to expend their irritability upon, and so they all carry these beads, constantly whirling them about, or rapidly reckoning them up by twos and threes, all the while they arc conversing or smoking.

Amongst the crowd you see porters, water-carriers, or Sakcis ; cake-men, or Lokumjees; native couriers, or Tatars, who will take you for a certain sum, everything included, to Bagdad, if you please; and bending beneath their baskets are grape-sellers, with the beautiful fruit we have before noticed — the chow-oosh-nzume, as it is pronounced, and which you should always ask for. Now two trains of mules, laden with firewood and barrels, have met, and there is great confusion, which the drivers considerably increase. On the water below, there is equal bustle. The eighty thousand caiques, said to be plying about Constantinople, must necessarily get, at times, in each other’s way ; and our own “bargees” would pale before the riot and swearing that begin when such takes place.

The other for Buyukdere

Here a heavy boat, filled with country people, is going up the Pos- phorus; there two steamers are lying, all ready to start from the bridge — one for Prince’s Islands, and the other for Buyukdere. The dogs sleep about the bridge just the same as in tire streets, and do not move for anybody. Little Greek children, taught to beg with a winning smile and courtesy, instead of the whining cant of our mendicants, get immediately before you; and the distant appearance of a camel or two at the Stamboul end of the bridge, and a buffalo drove at the other, with the opposition mules still in the centre, promises such an awkward rencontre, that our best plan is to get away as soon as possible. Hut you will often return to this Galatu bridge, and always find amusement in watching its ever-changing objects local ephesus tour guides.

My guide took me on, through the narrow, crooked streets of Stamboul — which are certainly a trifle cleaner than those of Pera — towards the chief bazaar. lie was anxious to prove that be was doing his duty; and showed and told me so much that my head was soon in an absolute whirl.

“ Here’s where they cut the heads off,” lie said, in somewhat more difficult Lmrlish than I care to distress the reader with: “ just here, where these two streets meet, and the body is left hero a day or so, and sometimes the dogs get at it. Not many executions now — only English subjects.”

There was something very startling in this information, until it was explained. By “ English subjects,” lie meant the emigrants from Malta and the Ionian Islands — natives of those places, who bear the worst characters of all the graceless scamps forming, unfortunately, a large proportion of the Pera population. There had not, however, been an execution for more than a year, with all the popular talk of Turkish scimitars and sacks.

Divides Pera from Galata

Descending the steep narrow lane, we passed an old gateway which divides Pera from Galata, and then the road became steeper and narrower still. Put the same busy throng kept slipping and jostling, and hurrying up and down ; although the absence of carriages allowed an odd kind of silence to prevail, — such as has struck one in a great London thoroughfare, when the pavement has been taken up. Now and then, a horseman clattered and stumbled over the rough pavement, in imminent danger as regarded himself, his horse, and the foot-passengers ; and occasionally some mules increased the confusion. But. everything was carried by the Ninth — even the blocks of stone from the port, to be used for the buildings high above us; andat last, I met one toiling up with a sick sailor on his back, going to a hospital.

From Galata to Stainboul

A few minutes brought us down to the bridge of boats, leading from Galata to Stainboul, across the Golden Horn, which is here somewhat over a quarter of a mile in breadth. From this point, one of the most superb views in Constantinople is to be obtained, more comprehensive than that from the steamer, as the continufttion of the port towards the arsenal is added to the range. Emerging from the close and dirty Galata, the bright panorama fairly takes one’s breath away. The wondrous and dazzling confusion of minarets, domes, towers, ships, trees, ruins, kiosks, and warehouses, with the sparkling water below, more intensely blue than the sky above, is beyond description. The ever-changing kaleidoscope, however, that the bridge affords, may be better dealt with. One has only to lean against the rails for five minutes, and he will see some specimen of every known Oriental race pass by him. Take your place, with your back to the arsenal, near where the good- tempered little cripple has permission to sit and ask for alms,, (as the blind girl iu the large straw hat, and the man with the ragged vulture, used to do on the Pont des Arts at Paris,) and make all use of your eyes. First, observe how the poor mannikin at your feet has chosen his place carefully. He knows that some paras will come in change from the toll, and he waits for them, near the gate, before you put them in your pocket. At the other end of the bridge he would have no chance of this small money. And now watch the folks before you, and lot me be the showman.

First of all comes a person high in command, upon horseback. He has adopted, in common with his Sultan, the European dress — the red fez alone distinguishes him from any other foreigner you might chance to meet. His servant, in Turkish costume, runs by his side, and can keep up with him for any distance. The trappings of the horse are magnilicently embroidered with tinsel and gold, and they carry your mind back to the days when you saw the combat between Kerim and Sanballat, in Timour the Tartar.

The old Turk with the mighty Turban, who meets him, dislikes the European dress and the simple fez; lie foresees, in the change from the lumbering costume of himself and fathers, the spirit of advancing civilization which must shake the most time-honored observances of the Eastern world, in another age ; and he knows, with sorrow to himself, that every paddle-wheel which churns the waters of the Bosphorus, produces, by its revolutions, others almost imperceptible, bnt no less certain, in his social and political state. He clings, however, to bis religion and his Koran; that will always endure, for the wily impostor who drew up the Mahom- medan code, so flattered the passions of his followers, that their allegiance was certain as long as human nature remained unchang ing.

There is loud musical female laughter now heard, and an odd vehicle crosses the bridge, drawn by a jaded horse. We have no conveyance like it in England ; nor possibly is there its fellow out ot Turkey. It has no seats; bunt on fenthions, in its interior, those dark-eyed beauties are siring. — pah1 Ciieassian girls, and inmates of the liareem of some great man. Tin* carriage halts in front of you to allow a train of mules, carrying planks, to pass on their way to Bern, and you can see the inmates plainly. One of them stares fixedly at you; you look again, and she is not angry — a few years ago, you would have been sent away. She only draws back, hut she still keeps her eyes on you — wondrous large- pupiled eyes, in whose depths your own vision appears to lose itself. Then she speaks to her companions, and, just as the vehicle moves on, they all three join in another burst of ringing laughter, and leave you to debate whether an uncompanionable beauty — to say nothing of three — can be regarded as a jewel or a bore, in a man’s household jeep safari bulgaria.

All this time the tide of foot passengers has been flowing on. Here are some Turkish soldiers; untidy-looking fellows, in blue eats and white trousers, still with the red fez. A cavass, or policeman is with them. lie wears a surtout, pistols are in his belt, a sabre is at his side, and his breast is ornamented with rows of cartridges; they are all going to take up some unfortunate wight. He is followed by a dervish—one of those who dance, on certain days, at Pera: he also keeps a shop, in Stamboul. The other way comes a group of keen Armenian merchants, each swinging a chaplet of beads about, or counting them, restlessly, and half unconsciously, with his finger.

Individual benefit

The water-side rows of bail lings were seen through forests of ships, the lines of which were agreeably broken by the slanting spars of the felucca-rigged vessels, which formed the greater portion of those at anchor. In the middle of tin stream were tjeep safari bulgaria. good-tempered, intelligent misseri eotlien’s collected his intended inmates into large caique hotel d’angleterre; young destuniano (whose father formerly best dragoman Constantinople, now keeps d’lurope) followed. i latter, anxious break party we formed putting off old scamandre, gilded barge approached us, which sitting two imposing turks, officers customs. proper duty examine our luggage but bribe three piastres sixpence satisfied scruples. gravely received this; then, proud, saluted party, away another boat. must my ears tingled when reflected share pecuniary offering these noble gorgeous gentlemen been under penny. need delicacy 4 upon matter.

Appears perfectly understood customs constantinople are established individual benefit; thus dollar any kind finds its way the sultan’s treasury. landed tophane stairs, found enough occupy attention. first all, five six turkish women got out boat just before veiled eyes, looking like nuns incantation hubert devil, throw dresses; only black skirts. then great many sellers fruit cakes former consisting grapes, honestly literally plovers’ eggs, latter species pancake. appearance, tables, what pea-and-thimble used carry races, novel amusing. directly, came string mules laden rubbish buildings pera; unloaded themselves going haunches, reached landing, allowing panniers end slide off. next, sturdy porters, itamals, seized luggage. fellows, who past prime life, wore knots half backs, capable carrying immense weights. preceded them, set off, jostled crowds variety striking costume, picking half-wild dogs, lay streets scores, did get one.

Marine a building adjacent

The man who had taken the letter into the Arsenal came back in a quarter of an hour, and told us that the effendi was over at the Marine—a building adjacent. I sent it in by a messenger, who presently returned, and said that Sali Pacha wished to see me. I was accordingly ushered in, the ceremony of taking off my shoes being dispensed with, and found this gentleman, who has an important post in the Turkish navy, sitting on a divan at the end of a large room, looking on to the Golden Horn, and swinging the string of beads to which I have before alluded. To my delight he spoke English perfectly, and was well acquainted with our metropolis. We had an agreeable chat for a few minutes, on comparison between London and Stamboul; and then he took charge of my letter, telling me that the effendi was at Smyrna, but that he would take my address, and I might calculate on its being safely delivered.

So that the document was at last, to a certain extent, on its right mission; which, but for this gentleman’s courtesy, I do not suppose it would ever have been. The trouble I had in getting rid of it may show the difficulty of presenting a Turkish letter of introduction. Stampa subsequently told me that it was a wonder how anything in the way of publicity or correspondence at Constantinople was managed at all, with streets having no names, and hundreds of people the same. He said that a post delivery was unknown. If the people did not go after their letters they never got them ; but that sometimes, even under these circumstances, they got somebody else’s, which appeared to answer just as well. Amongst the Franks this is all excellently managed. There is a letter box, both for the Austrian and French mails; besides our own steamers. I believe the Austrian despatch is the quickest, but the police in that empire have an ugly knack of opening all the letters that go through their hands.

Resident at Constantinople

That evening a few of my kind English friends, resident at Constantinople, collected in a snug little house, on the bold hill beyond the large burying ground at Pera, and gave me a dinner—an honest English dinner, of joint and pudding, and goodly beer. It was a pleasant meeting, so far from home guided istanbul tours.

It was capital to hear make the headlands over the Golden Horn echo again, through the open windows, with a fine old English sea-ballad, and laugh with such heartiness, at the latest London jokes, that his amiable wife told me afterwards she had never known him so inclined to leave the East and return again; so much had we stirred up his old home feelings by songs and stories. Even ‘‘Jeannette and Jeannot” and “When other lips” came out bran spick-and-span new ; and a scene from “Box and Cox” played extempore, with dreadful interpolations and deficiencies, was pronounced so fine a thing, that I wonder, upon the strength of the applause, the performers did not, from that moment, renounce all other pursuits but the drama. Then we had small speeches, and homely toasts; not dismal conventional affairs, but little heartfelt bits that came well into such companionship ; and be sure that there were many in England to whose health and happiness we drank that night, three thousand miles away. And when another guest arrived late, and told us, on diplomatic authority, that the Sultan had determined not to give up the poor Hungarian people who had come to him for shelter, there was such a thoroughbred British cheer, that I think that if the Emperor of Russia had heard it, it would have knocked him completely over, powerful gentleman as he is.

Good honest plunging wash

I should be very sorry to class foreigners, generally, as a dirty set of people when left to themselves, but I fear there is too much reason to suppose that (in how many cases out of ten I will refrain from saying) a disrelish for a good honest plunging wash is one of their chief attributes. It requires but very little experience, in even their best hotels, to come to this conclusion. I do not mean in those houses where an influx of English has imposed the necessity of providing large jugs, baths, and basins; but in the equally leading establishments—patronized chiefly by themselves—in these, one still perceives the little pie-dish and milk-jug, the scanty doyly-looking towel, and the absence of a soap dish ; whilst it would be perfectly futile to ask for anything further. So, on board the Scamandre, this opinion was not weakened.

They dipped a corner of a little towel, not in the basin, but in the stream that trickled from the cistern as slowly as vinegar from any oyster-shop cruet, and dabbed their face about with it. Then they messed about a little with their hands; and then, having given a long time to brushing their hair, they had a cigarette instead of a tooth brush, and their toilet was complete tour bulgaria. This description does not only apply to the Scamandre passengers, but to the majority of their race, whom I afterwards encountered about the Mediterranean.

There was such a terrible noise still upon deck— such hauling about of huge chains and dashing them down, as though theatrical goalers were constantly making their entrances or exits — such renewed squabbling, and stamping, and screaming; and useless covering up and darkening of hatchways, that I was glad to get back upon deck, along which the rising sun came right from the bowsprit, to tell us again that we were at last going towards the East. And here it would have been more to our comfort, if the sailors had transferred to themselves, some of the pains they took to wash the decks. The engine pumped up the water into a tub, and this they dashed

about in the most reckless manner; now flooding you away from the seat you had picked out upon a coil of ropes ; now almost washing the scared poultry clean out of their coops; and at last not leaving a spot so big as a foot-print to stand upon. So that when the ladies were dressed, we were not sorry to go down to breakfast, at three bells—which, (as everybody will say they knew,) is the nautical for half-past nine ;— and here a very good meal of omelets, fish, cutlets, potatoes, fruit, and wine, awaited us.

Last as long as possible

On board ship, breakfast or dinner is made to last as long as possible—there is so little to occupy the rest of the time ; so that we did not complain of being kept waiting between the courses, but clutched eagerly at any subject of general conversation that was started. There was no lack of this amongst the French, at their end of the table; but it was astonishing to analyze it, and see what trivial subjects occupied them. Those accustomed to the clatter of a table must frequently have observed the same thing, In the present case, one of the party occupied the attention of the entire table for ten minutes with an anecdote, which he prefaced by saying, “ Limes arrive quelea chose then recounted his story at length, of which, in all honest truth, the following is the essence:—that he had been going by a shop and seen a large fish exposed for sale, and that, the same morning, he called upon a friend at breakfast-time, and saw a piece of the same sort of fish on the table. This was all; but one would have thought from his energy and excitement, that a matter of the deepest

importance was connected with the occurrence, as he struck the table so violently to enforce its singularity, that the glasses jumped about. But his audienee appeared amazingly astonished at the event, and said, with the liveliest enthusiasm. Encouraged by this, he next called the attention of the company to a peach that he had cut through, stone and all, as another affair ties singuliere.” There is no telling what other matters of interest he might have touched upon, had not our phrenologist turned the conversation by observing that the bust of Lyeurgus, in the Royal Academy, at Naples, was the image of Mazzini; whereupon everybody went off at once about Rome and the Pope, Hungary, Louis Napoleon, Garibaldi, Russia, and the state of Venice, in such full cry, that it is a wonder how their mouths found opportunities to finish breakfast. It was, however, over at last, and then we all went upon deck, beneath an awning, to read, work, or smoke, until the heat was so intense that we could do nothing but lie down, completely overcome, in our berths, until dinner. This meal was a superior edition of breakfast; and when it was over we went on deck again.

My Lady Mary of Vertus

My Lady Mary of Vertus, a very good lady and a saintly woman, came to tell me that the queen was making great lamentation, and asked me to go to her and comfort her. And when I came there, 1 found her weeping; and I told her that he spoke sooth who said that none should put faith in woman. “ For,” said I, “ she that is dead is the woman that you most hated, and yet you are showing such sorrow.” And she told me it was not for the queen that she was weep king, but because of the king’s sorrow in the mourning that he made, and because of her daughter, afterwards the Queen of Navarre, who had remained in men’s keeping.

The unkindness that the Queen Blanche showed to the Queen Margaret was such that she would not suffer, in so far as she could help it, that her son should be in his wife’s company, except at night when he went to sleep with her. The palace where the king and his queen liked most to dwell was at Pontoise, because there the king’s chamber was above and the queen’s chamber below; and they had so arranged matters between them that they held their converse in a turning staircase that went from the one chamber to the other; and they had further arranged that when the ushers saw the Queen Blanche coming to her son’s chamber, they struck the door with their rods, and the king would come running into his chamber so that his mother might find him there; and the ushers of Queen Margaret’s chamber did the same when Queen Blanche went thither, so that she might find Queen Margaret there.

Once the king wras by his wife’s side, and she was in great peril of death, being hurt for a child that she had borne. Queen Blanche came thither, and took her son by the hand, and said: “ Come away; you have nothing to do herel” When Queen Margaret saw that the mother was leading her son away, she cried: “Alas! whether dead or alive, you will not suffer me to see my lord! ” Then she fainted, and they thought she was dead; and the king, who thought she was dying, turned back; and with great trouble they brought her round.

The great King of the Tartars

With the. king’s envoys returned other envoys from the great King of the Tartars, and these brought letters to the King of France, saying: “ A good thing is peace; for in the land where peace reigns those that go about on four feet eat the grass of peace; and those that go about on two feet till the earth from which good things do proceed in peace also. And this thing we tell thee for thy advertisement; for thou canst not have peace save thou have it with us. For Prester John rose up against us, and such and such kings ” and he named a great many “ and we have put them all to the sword. So we admonish thee to send us, year by year, of thy gold and of thy silver, and thus keep us to be thymine; and if thou wilt not do this, we will destroy thee and people, as we have done to the kings already named.” And you must know that it repented the king sorely that he id ever sent envoys to the great King of the Tartars.

CERTAIN KNIGHTS ARRIVE FROM NORWAY

Now let us return to the matter in hand, and tell how, while the king was fortifying Csesarea, there came to the imp my Lord Alenard of Senaingan, and he told us he had built his ship in the realm of Norway, which is at the world’s :id, towards the west, and how, in coming to the king, he ad gone all round Spain, and passed through the Straits of morocco. Great perils had he undergone before he came to s. The king retained him in his service and nine of his nights. And this lord Alenard told us that, in the land of Norway, the nights were so short in summer that every ight you saw at one time the light of the day that was passing and the light of the day that was dawning.

And he betook himself, he and his people, to the hunting f lions; and they took several very perilously; for they round go forward to shoot at the lions, spurring as hard as hey could; and when they had shot their shafts, the lions prang at them; and now would they have been seized and devoured if they had not let fall a piece of ragged cloth, reach the lion leapt upon, tore and devoured, thinking he Lad hold of a man. While the lion was thus tearing the loth, another hunter went and shot at him, and the lion eft tearing the cloth, and sprang after this hunter; and he a turn let fall another piece of cloth, and again the lion lounged upon it. And thus they killed the lion with their .rrows.

Lord Geoffry of Sarginei

At sun-rising my Lord Geoffry of Sarginei went into the city, and caused the city to be given up to the emirs. The >0!dan’s flags were hoisted on all the towers of the city. The Saracen knights got into the city, and began to drink the wines, and were soon all drunken; whereupon one of them me to our galley, and drew his sword all reeking with blood, and said that for his part he had killed six of our people.

Before Damietta was surrounded, the queen had been received into our ships, together with all our people who were in Damietta, save the sick only. These last the Saracens, by their oath, were bound to keep and guard; but they killed them all. The king’s engines of war, which they were also bound to preserve, they knocked to pieces. And the salted meat, which they were bound to keep for us, inasmuch as they do not eat pork, they did not keep. They made a pile of the engines, and a pile of the bacon, and another of the dead people, and they set fire thereto; and the fire was so great that it lasted the Friday, the Saturday, and the Sunday.

THE MASSACRE OF THE PRISONERS IS CONSIDERED

The king, and all we who were there, should have been set free at sunrise, but the Saracens kept us till sunset; and we nad nothing to eat, nor the emirs either, and they were quarrelling the livelong day. And one of them spoke in this wise for those who belonged to his party: “ Lords, if you will listen to me, and to those who are of my party, you will kill the king and the men of note who are here; for then, for the space of forty years, we need fear nothing, seeing that their children are young, and that we hold Damietta; wherefore we can do this with the greater security.”

Another Saracen, whose name was Sebreci, and who was a native of Mauritania, spoke contrariwise, and said this: “ If we kill the king, after we have killed the Soldan, it will be said that the Egyptians are the most evil people in the world, and the most disloyal.” And those who desired that we should he killed, rejoined: “ It is sooth that we have too wickedly rid ourselves of our Soldan, whom we put to death; for we have therein gone counter to the commandments of Mahomet, in that he commanded us to guard our lord as the apple of our eye. And behold in this book, here is the commandment written.

But listen,” said he, “ to this other commandment of Mahomet, that comes after.” And with that he turned over the leaf of a book that he held in his hand, and showed them another commandment, which was to this effect: “ For the assurance of the faith, slay the enemy of the law.” “ Now have we disobeyed the commandments of Mahomet, in that we have killed our lord; but we shall do worse if we do not kill the king, whatever promise of safety has been given to him, seeing that he is the most powerful enemy of the pagan law.”

Count of Artois

It had been so ordered that the Templars were to form the vanguard, and that the Count of Artois should have the second division after the Templars. Now it so happened that as soon as the Count of Artois had passed over the stream, he and all his people fell upon the Turks, who fled before them. The Templars notified to him that he was doing them great despite in that while his place was to come after them, he was going before; and they besought him to suffer them to go before, as had been arranged by the king. Now it chanced that the Count of Artois did not venture to answer them, because of my Lord Foucand of Merle, who held the bridle of his horse; and this Foucand of Merle was a very good knight, but heard naught of what the Templars were saying to the count, seeing that he was deaf, and was crying, “Out on them, out on them!” Now when the Templars saw this, they thought they would be shamed if they suffered the count to outride them; so they struck spurs into their horses, helter-skelter, and chased the Turks, and the Turks fled before them, right through the town of Mansourah and into the fields beyond towards Babylon.

When they thought to return, the Turks threw beams and blocks of wood upon them in the sleets, which were narrow. There were killed the Count of Artois, the Lord of Couci, who was called Raoul, and so many other knights that the numbers was reckoned at three hundred. The Temple, as the master has since told me, lost there fourteen score men- at-arms, and all mounted.

JOINVILLE, WOUNDED AND SURROUNDED BY THE SARACENS, IS DELIVERED BY THE COUNT OR ANJOU

I and my knights decided that we should attack some Turks who were loading their baggage in their camp to our left; and we fell upon them. While we were driving them through their camp, I perceived a Saracen, who was mounting his horse; one of his knights was holding the bridle. At the moment when he had his two hands on the saddle to mount, I gave him of my lance under the arm-pits and laid him dead. When his knight saw that, he left his lord and the horse, and struck me with his lance as I passed, between the two shoulders, holding me so pressed down that I could not draw the sword at my belt. I had therefore to draw the sword attached to my horse; and when he saw that my sword was so drawn, he withdrew his lance and left me.

When I and my knights came out of the camp, we found some six thousand Turks, as we reckoned, who had left their quarters and retreated into the fields. When they saw us, they came running upon us, and killed my Lord Hugh of Trichatel, Lord of Conflans, who was with me bearing a banner. I and my knights set spurs to our horses, and went to deliver my Lord Raoul of Wanou, who was with me, and whom they had struck to the ground customized daily istanbul tours.

Lord Everard of Siverey

While I was returning, the Turks pressed upon me with their lances. My horse knelt under the weight and I fell forward over the horse’s ears. I got up as soon as ever I could, with my shield at my neck, and my sword in my hand; and my Lord Everard of Siverey God have him in grace! who was one of my people, came to me and said that we should draw of near to a ruined house, and there await the king, who was coming. As we were going thither, part on foot and part mounted, a great rout of Turks came rushing upon us, and bore me to the ground, and went over me, and caused my shield to fly from my neck.

When they had passed on, my Lord Everard of Siverey came back to me, and led me thence, and we went to the walls of the ruined house; and thither returned to us my Lord Hugh of Ecot, my Lord Frederic of Loupey, my Lord Renaud of Menoncourt. The Turks attacked us on all sides. Some of them entered into the ruined house and pricked us with their lances from above. Then my knights told me to hold their bridles, and so I did, for fear the horses should run away. And they defended themselves right manfully; and afterwards received great praise from all the right worthy men of the host, both those who were there and witnessed the deed, and those who heard tell thereof.

JOHANNIZZA RAISES THE SIEGE OF ADRIANOPLE

Johannizza, the king of Wallachia, who had besieged Adrianople, gave himself no rest, for his petraries, of which he had many, cast stones night and day against the walls and towers, and damaged the walls and towers very greatly. And he set his sappers to mine the walls, and made many assaults. And well did those who were within, both Greeks and Latins, maintain themselves, and often did they beg the Emperor Henry to succour them, and warn him that, if he did not succour them, they were utterly undone. The emperor was much distraught; for when he wished to go and succour his people at Adrianople on the one side, then Theodore Lascaris pressed upon him so straitly on the other side, that of necessity he was forced to draw back.

So Johannizza remained during the whole month of April (1207) before Adrianople; and he came so near to taking it that in two places he beat down the walls and towers to the ground, and his men fought hand to hand, with swords and lances, against those who were within. Also he made assaults in force, and the besieged defended themselves well; and there were many killed and wounded on one side and on the other.

SKIZA AGAIN BESIEGED BY THEODORE LASCARIS THE EMPEROR DELIVERS THE CITY

The emperor, with as many men as he possessed, had pre-pared to go to Adrianonle, when tidings came, very grievous, that Escurion, who was admiral of the galleys of Theodore Lascaris, had entered with seventeen galleys into the straits of Abydos, in the channel of St. George, and come before Skiza, where Peter of Bracieux then was, and Payen of Orleans; and that the said Escurion was besieging the city by sea, while Theodore Lascaris was besieging it by land. Moreover, the people of the land of Skiza had rebelled against Peter of Bracieux, as also those of Marmora, and had wrought him great harm, and killed many of his people istanbul daily tours.

When these tidings came to Constantinople, they were greatly dismayed. Then did the Emperor Henry take council with his men, and his barons, and the Venetians also; and they said that if they did not succour Peter of Bracieux, and Payen of Orleans, they were but dead men, and the land would be lost. So they armed fourteen galleys in all dili gence, and set in them the Venetians of most note, and all the barons of the emperor.

In one galley entered Conon of Bethune and his people; in another Geoffry of Villehardouin and his people; in the third Macaire of Sainte-Menehould and his people; in the fourth Miles the Brabant; In the fifth Anseau of Cayeux; in the sixth Thierri of Loos, who was seneschal of Roumania; in the seventh William of the Perchoi; and in the eighth Eustace the emperor’s brother. Thus did the Emperor Henry put into all these galleys the best people that he had and when they left the port of Constantinople, well did all say that never had galleys been better armed, nor manned with better men. And thus, for this time, the march cn Adriannple was again put off.

Those who were in the galleys sailed down the straits, right towards Skiza. How Escurion, the admiral of Theodore Lascaris’ galleys, heard of it, 1 know not; but he abandoned Skiza. and went away, and fled down the straits. And the others chased him two days and two nights, beyond the straits of Abydos, forty miles. And when they saw they could not come up with him, they turned back, and came to Skiza, and found there Peter of Bracieux and Payen of Orleans; and Theodore Lascaris had dislodged from before the city and repaired to his own land. Thus was Skiza re lieved, as you have just heard; and those in the galleys turned back to Constantinople, and prepared once more to march on Adrianople.