to be frightened at the responsibility he had assumed, and the man
broke down and admitted that he might be mistaken, on which the
kaimakam withdrew the charge.

I knew perfectly well that the servant was guilty, but I knew, too,
that for accidental wounding he would have been punished by
indefinite confinement in a Turkish prison, as if he had shot the boy
intentionally. The refusal of the pasha to permit me to judge the
case, as I had a right to do, he being my protégé, left me only the
responsibility of the counsel for the prisoner, and I determined to
acquit him if possible. The bullet had, fortunately, gone through the
boy and could not be found; and, as the wound, though through the
lungs, was healing in a most satisfactory manner, and would leave no
effects, I had no scruples in preventing a conviction that would have
punished an involuntary offense by a terrible penalty, which all who
know anything of a Turkish prison can anticipate. The governor-general
was very angry, and the kaimakam was severely reprimanded, but they
could not help themselves. My position under the capitulations was
secure, but it made the hostility between the pasha and myself the
more bitter.

The accumulated oppressions of Ismael Pasha had finally the usual
effect on the Cretans, and they began to agitate for a petition to the
Sultan, a procedure which time had shown to be absolutely useless as
an appeal against the governor; and, while the agitation was in this
embryonic condition, I decided to go back to Rome and get my wife and
children. We were still in the state of siege by the cholera, and
there was still no communication with the Greek islands, so that I
accepted the offer made by my English colleague, the amiable and
gratefully remembered Charles H. Dickson, of whose qualities I shall