82 THIRTY-FIVE VEARS IN THE EAST. 



As for myself, I took refuge in a chardak ( cabin where 

 the boundary guards reside), and spent the night there. 

 In the morning, my equipage was brought up by the 

 efforts of the soldiers, with the aid of a great number of 

 oxen, fetched from the neighbouring village. Who could 

 have imagined that the coachman and the horses would 

 have been alive after such a terrible fall ? And yet the 

 former was only hurt, and the latter lamed ; but the coach 

 was broken, and required repairs. 



I cannot conclude this first part of my adventures 

 without giving some account of the deep impression I ex- 

 perienced on treading again the soil of my native country, 

 after an absence of so many years, in which I had had 

 to struggle against so many difficulties. But the feelings 

 of my heart reached their highest pitch, on entering those 

 rooms in which I had passed my earliest happy age, and 

 not missing either of my dear and beloved parents. My 

 voice faltered, and tears began to flow down my cheeks, 

 when I saw once more, after an absence of twenty years, 

 my father, mother, brothers and sisters, pressed them to 

 my throbbing heart, received their welcome, and felt their 

 kisses. As they were informed of the day of my arrival, 

 they had postponed the christening of my brother's 

 daughter, and fixed it for the moment of my return, in 

 order to heighten the solemnity of that ceremony, and to 

 have me for her godfather. For that purpose, we went 

 that very afternoon to the principal church, in which I 

 had myself been christened, where a multitude of the citizens 

 were already assembled to witness the holy act, the news 

 of my arrival having spread through the town with the 

 rapidity of lightning ; some were attracted by curiosity, eager 

 to see me in my extraordinary and splendid oriental cos- 

 tume. I also fancy that many of them were desirous of 

 knowing whether I had lost the fluency with which I for- 

 merly spoke the languages of our country ( Saxon, German, 

 Hungarian, and VValachian ). When they heard me speak 

 them with the same facility as formerly, the interest they 

 took in my person was still further increased. My parents 



