Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/94

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44
ADVENTURES OF

their underlings, and sometimes gratefully accept very miserable donations. For instance, one day at Constantinople, when my lord the ambassador wished to have a brief conversation with Synan Pasha, and we were waiting before his apartment, a shepherd, who was an achamolglan, i. e. a kidnapped Christian, who had already become a Turk, came into the room amidst ourselves and the Turks, carrying a live sheep on his shoulders, and walked, without intermission, in front of the door, when it was opened for people to go into the pasha, till the pasha noticed him. The pasha immediately ordered him to be admitted, sheep and all, into his presence, thankfully received the sheep, and gave audience to a shepherd in preference to the imperial ambassador. But, to tell the truth, my lord the ambassador had no worse fault than stinginess and unwillingness to spend money, though he knew that love is bought from the Turks by presents; a thing which afterwards the unhappy man, as well as ourselves, had bitterly to pay for; an account whereof will be given in the proper place. That day we travelled to Karystra, a simple village without an inn, whence my lord the ambassador sent a horseman to Constantinople, and gave notice of his approach to Petsch, who was there as imperial resident.

On Nov. 21 we came to the town of Churli, or Korlii, a good memorial of the unfortunate war which Sultan Selim waged in those regions with the pasha, his father, when he escaped out of battle by means of his horse Karavulik, i. e. black wolf, saved his neck, and took refuge among the Tartars of Perecop, where his father-inlaw ruled. After some years, by dint of great promises