CONSTANTINOPLE. 141- 
army; and they have since proved themselves chat. 
to be the traitors we at that time suspected > 
they v^^ere. Yet it was amazing to observe 
with what eagerness the company of these men 
was courted; and with what incredible facility 
the unsuspecting Ministers of the different 
nations became their dupes. At last arrived 
General Sehasdani himself, said to have been 
originally a postillion, and whose intellectual 
attainments certainly did not belie the report. 
This man, the avowed ambassador of the French 
Government, dressed like the trumpeter of a 
puppet-show, soon acquired such influence, by 
his affectation of gallantry, and by his unequi- 
'vocal language even with those young women 
who had the greatest reputation for chastity, 
that, according to his own vulgar expression, 
he might be said " to have had the whole diplo- 
matic body under his thumb." Yet there is 
no place where so much fuss is made about 
a point of etiquette, as at Pha; and this some- Etiquette. 
times gives rise to a very amusing exhibition. 
At a ball, before dancing begins, the gentlemen Evening 
stand up first, without their partners ; and a ge- ^"^"''^ '^*' 
neral scramble, with altercation, ensues for pre- 
cedency. A stranger would suppose that at least 
half a dozen duels were to be fought the next 
morning; but, like all blustering, it generally 
