JANISSARIES. 67 
with him as his guard; the one belonging to the French 
Consul was a Candiote; he had been surnamed the T'er- 
yor. Whenever some news unfavourable to France was 
announced in the cafés, he came to the Consulate to in- 
form himself as to the reality of the fact; and when we 
told him that the other janissaries had propagated false 
news, he returned to them, and there, yatagan in hand, 
he declared himself ready to enter the lists in combat 
against those who should still maintain the truth of the 
news. As these continual threats might endanger him, 
(for they had no support beyond his mere animal cour- 
age,) we had wished to render him expert in the hand- 
ling of arms by giving him some lessons in fencing; but 
he could not endure the idea that Christians should touch 
him at every turn with foils; he therefore proposed to 
substitute for the simulated duel a real combat with the 
yatagan. 
One may gain an exact idea of this savage nature when 
I mention that, having one day heard a pistol-shot, the 
sound of which proceeded from his room, people ran, and 
found him bathed in his blood ; he had just shot off a ball 
into his arm to cure himself of a rheumatic pain. 
Seeing with what facility the Deys disappeared, I said 
one day to our janissary, “ With this prospect before your 
eyes, would you consent to become Dey?” “ Yes, 
doubtless,” answered he. “You seem to count as noth- 
ing the pleasure of doing all that one likes, if only even 
for a single day!” 
When we wished to take a turn in the town of Algiers, 
we generally took care to be escorted by the janissary 
attached to the consular house; it was the only means of 
escaping insults, affronts, and even acts of violence. I 
have just said it was the only means. I made a mis- 
