and scimetars, and what-not. But when we got back to his capital he
made me propositions, wanted me to drown a wife, and make a slave of
myself,--Orientals are so queer! But I thought I'd had enough of it;
for, after all, you know, Ali was a rebel against the Porte. So I
concluded I had better get off while I could. But I'll do Monsieur
Tebelen the justice to say that he loaded me with presents,--diamonds,
ten thousand talari, one thousand gold coins, a beautiful Greek girl
for groom, a little Circassian for a mistress, and an Arab horse! Yes,
Ali Tebelen, pacha of Janina, is too little known; he needs an
historian. It is only in the East one meets with such iron souls, who
can nurse a vengeance twenty years and accomplish it some fine
morning. He had the most magnificent white beard that was ever seen,
and a hard, stern face--"

"But what did you do with your treasures?" asked farmer Leger.

"Ha! that's it! you may well ask that! Those fellows down there
haven't any Grand Livre nor any Bank of France. So I was forced to
carry off my windfalls in a felucca, which was captured by the Turkish
High-Admiral himself. Such as you see me here to-day, I came very near
being impaled at Smyrna. Indeed, if it hadn't been for Monsieur de
Riviere, our ambassador, who was there, they'd have taken me for an
accomplice of Ali pacha. I saved my head, but, to tell the honest
truth, all the rest, the ten thousand talari, the thousand gold
pieces, and the fine weapons, were all, yes all, drunk up by the
thirsty treasury of the Turkish admiral. My position was the more
perilous because that very admiral happened to be Chosrew pacha. After
I routed him, the fellow had managed to obtain a position which is
equal to that of our Admiral of the Fleet--"