A Week at Constantinople in 1820. [DEC. 



of last year, and the rapid concentration of our squadrons at Vourla, all 

 combined to give to this opinion of the gallant admiral a strong colour- 

 ing of probability. Intelligence of the disasters of the Ottoman armies 

 reached us in quick and rapid succession. First came the capture of 

 Silistria ; next, Diebitsch had out-manoeuvred the Grand Vizier, and 

 nearly destroyed his army before Chumla. Ere we had well digested 

 these bulletins, we heard that the formidable chain of the Balkan was 

 passed, that the northern eagle floated in lordly pride along the towers 

 of Adrianople, and that for the first time a Cossack hurra had been 

 heard almost at the very gates of old Stamboul itself. Sailors are seldom 

 profound politicians ; they rarely take the trouble of diving beneath 

 the surface of any thing save of their own element ; though in the 

 present instance they entertained an opinion with many others who had 

 the advantage of being nearer the fountain-head of affairs, that Great 

 Britain would not be a silent spectator of the game of war, or passively 

 submit to the completion of the darling plans of Russian ambition now 

 in full development. Some feeling of this kind appeared to have taken 

 possession of the minds of Count Heyden and his Russians ; for, on a 

 sudden they kept aloof from us, a circumstance we all regretted, for their 

 high-bred courtliness of manner had rendered them universal favourites. 

 It was sometimes amusing to listen to the political lucubrations of some 

 of our pseudo-politicians. With the youngsters nothing but an imme- 

 diate dash at the horse-marines, as they had nicknamed the Russians 

 from their military tenue and carriage, could save Constantinople, while 

 the views of their fellows of a larger growth in the gun-room took a 

 wider range. After destroying the Russian Mediterranean squadron, 

 we were to pass into the Black Sea, and, paying a similar compliment 

 to Admiral Greig's division, destroy in succession the naval establish- 

 ments at Odessa and Sebastopol, make a demonstration on the right 

 flank of the Russians, who, cut off from their supplies, would be forced 

 back behind the line of the Danube, and the tide of war thus rolled 

 back on their own territory. Fortunately, however, for the peace of 

 Europe, though to the utter disappointment of our projectors, whose 

 dreams of promotion and prize-money were most provokingly dissipated, 

 the fate impending over the Ottoman empire was averted, though 

 whether owing to Russian moderation or British interference continues 

 to this day to be a subject of violent debate among them. Our ambas- 

 sador returned to Constantinople, and preliminaries of peace, as all the 

 world knows, were signed. 



For some time subsequent to this event, we had been 'stationed at 

 Smyrna, passing our time most agreeably in this petit Paris du Levant, 

 and losing our hearts to the beautiful Smyrnotes, whose lovely counte- 

 nances, heightened by the effect of their beautiful and classical head- 

 dresses, rendered them in our eyes most bewitching objects, when we 

 received orders to carry on despatches to Constantinople. For any other 

 spot, at the moment, I should have quitted Smyrna with undisguised 

 reluctance ; but the attrait of a visit to the Ottoman capital was sufficient 

 to overpower every lingering feeling of regret. Bidding, therefore, 

 adieu to our fair friends, to whom we promised on our return a copious 

 budget of news from Pera, we sailed at daybreak on the morning of 

 the , and after encountering a tramontana and strong adverse cur- 

 rent, came to an anchor 1 on the evening of the third day of our de- 

 parture off Tenedos, with the far-famed Trojan plain abreast of us. 



