

THE CAPEDGI BACHI. 81 



ambition, she will not at least make me feel my nothingness by hold- 

 ing up to my eyes the glory of my rival. " Suleeman returned at the 

 end of two months from Aleppo ; he had seen the Pacha, he was in- 

 deed the son of the barber-bachi. " It was written on high," said 

 Mustapha. " But God is great !" he added, as if he counted 

 upon the assistance of the deity to avenge his wrongs. " The more 

 splendid the fate of Ahmed, the more splendid shall be my revenge !" 

 and in this idea was the secret of his resignation. 



Mustapha was long in studying the disposition of the Porte to- 

 wards his enemy : he was too well acquainted with its doctrines, to 

 be the first to create suspicion : the Porte gives ear but to those that 

 she conceives herself those that they seek to inspire her will recoil 

 upon the head of the informer. It was a cruel probation for Musta- 

 pha ; for Ahmed long continued to be in great credit with the divan. 

 At last, one night that Mustapha had retired to his harem, two men 

 knocked violently at the gate of his residence ; they wore the splendid 

 Mameluke costume, and carried long silver-headed canes. They 

 were the kawas of the Grand Vizier, and were ordered to conduct 

 Mustapha before their master. Concealing his emotion, Mustapha 

 prepared to obey the mandate for to be summoned at that hour, by 

 the Grand Vizier, he well knew to be the forerunner of favour or 

 disgrace an invitation to fortune or death ! 



Traversing a number of narrow and silent streets, abandoned solely 

 to a population of hideous dogs, they entered a kiak, crossed the har- 

 bour, and soon reached the Vizier's palace. 



At this hour Constantinople resembles an unfinished sketch. The 

 Seraglio points its vast amphitheatre its beautiful minarets are 

 peering indistinctly through the shades of night. 



The apartment into which Mustapha was ushered was in a remote 

 part of the building; a single lamp shed around it a subdued light. 

 The Vizier was alone ; his countenance wore that deep expression of 

 melancholy which the satiety of power leaves behind, when we know 

 by what dear sacrifices it is purchased, and when we cling to it as to 

 the last plank in a shipwreck like the malefactor to the pillars of a 

 temple which shield him from the vengeance of the laws. 



" Mustapha Bey, be seated," said the Vizier to the Capidgi. Mus- 

 tapha raised the robe of the Pacha to his lips, and kneeling down on 

 the carpet before the divan, awaited in silence the orders of the 

 Imperial lieutenant. 



The Vizier resumed his chabouque, which he had allowed to fall 

 beside him, relighted it, and continued to smoke for some time, 

 looking stedfastly at the Capidgi. At length he broke silence : 



" Have you imagined that a Capidgi had nothing else to do than 

 to shew himself in a rich costume at the Beyrams, or to solicit from, 

 the Porte favours for his friends ? " 



" My lord," replied Mustapha, alarmed at his beginning ; " for a 

 length of time the Sublime Porte has not deigned to cast its eyes 

 upon the wretch who now looks in the sunshine of thy glorious 

 presence." 



" I do not reproach thee ; but answer me. Hast thou well re- 

 flected on all the duties which the office of Capidgi entails upon thee ? 



M, M. No. 90. M 



