PREPARE FOR OUR DEPARTURE. 269 



which was ready to sail, we should have missed 

 seeino' Sultan Mahmoud. 



o 



As the time approached for our departure from 

 Constantinople by the Danube steamer, I felt 

 more and more disposed to think I had been 

 quite long enough in the " City of the Sultan." 

 The first novelty had passed away, and there re- 

 mained nought but the sober reality of a very dull 

 ennuyant residence. Scenery however magnifi- 

 cent, views however picturesque, will weary the 

 eye in course of time ; and, although I shall al- 

 ways look back with the greatest pleasure to my 

 visit to Constantinople, although I shall never 

 pronounce the word " Stamboul " without every 

 thing that is beautiful and picturesque in that 

 extraordinary place recurring forcibly to my mind, 

 I cannot refrain from acknowledging, that I 

 should be very sorry to live there for any lengtli 

 of time. 



I have been told, that the longer one resides at 

 Constantinople the more one becomes enchanted 

 with it. It may be so, but I cannot for the life of 

 me see what possible attraction there can be in a 

 large, dirty, uncivilized town, where one cannot 

 move out of doors after sunset, without a risk of 



