118 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
there is no analyzing the sensations experienced by the be¬ 
holder ; he may be perfectly conscious of the nature of his 
own impressions, yet entirely unable to convey any adequate 
idea of them to others. To me it seems a renewal of the un¬ 
alloyed pleasures of youth ; a return after mingling with the 
world and its realities, to the first pure, joyous sense of the 
beautiful. All that I had ever read of the East and its ro¬ 
mance was here a gorgeous dream realized; yet not all a 
reality, for there was no dividing mark between the strictly 
real and what so imperceptibly merged into realms of fancy. 
We reached the anchorage on the outside a few hours before 
daylight. The grating jar of the chain as it ran out aroused 
us from our pleasant dreams of home ; and soon we heard the 
Arabs and Turks on deck echo in guttural tones the words 
Stamboul! Stamboul! There was a charm in the name that 
drove away from me every vestige of sleep. I was wide 
awake in a moment. My more experienced fellow-travelers, 
however, turned over to enjoy another nap, with the philosoph¬ 
ical remark that “it’s a great bore to be waked up when one 
can’t see any thing in the dark.” There was truth as well 
as philosophy in this, but all my efforts to sleep again were 
in vain. From the open sky-light came down now and then 
the magic words Stamboul! Stamboul! bringing before me, as 
I strove to keep down my eyelids, visions of gilded palaces and 
seraglios, and Sultans in turbans and flowdng robes, and the 
spray of fountains, and caiques sweeping over the flashing 
waters, and the countless things of beauty that are involun¬ 
tarily associated with the first thoughts of Constantinople. It 
was useless to try any longer—an invisible something lifted 
me up bodily and tumbled me out on the cabin floor, where 
I contrived, after slipping on two or three pairs of boots that 
were much too short or too long, and some trowsers that 
bagged in the legs with a very Turkish effect, to grope out 
what belonged to me, and rushing up on deck I just succeeded 
in not carrying away the roof of the companion-way. 
The gleam of approaching day was spread over the eastern 
sky ; low on the water were a few pale lights flickering with 
a faint glimmer, while overhead all was deep in night, but 
