a pity you don't know how to make use of it!"

"I am only too glad if people will let me live in peace."

"Very well, hide behind me, and come along boldly, and when you pass him
don't so much as look at him."

The Wallachian desired nothing better, but the Janissary had already
caught sight of him from afar, and as, clinging fast to his guide's
mantle, he was about to slip past the man of war, the Janissary suddenly
barred the way, seized him by the collar with his horrible fist, and
dragged the wretched creature towards him.

"Khair evetlesszin domusz!" ("Not so fast, thou swine!") "a word in
thine ear! I have just bought me a yataghan. Stretch forth thy neck! I
would test my weapon upon thee and see whether it is sharp."

The poor fellow was already half-dead with terror. With the utmost
obsequiousness he at once began unfastening his neck-cloth, whimpering
at the same time something about his four little children: what would
become of them when they had nobody to care for them.

But his conductor intervened defiantly.

"Take yourself off, you drunken lout, you! How dare you lay a hand upon
my guest. Know you not that he who harms the guest of a true believer is
accursed?"

"Na, na, na!" laughed the Janissary mockingly, "are you mad, my worthy
Balukji, that you bandy words with the flowers of the Prophet's garden,