Whatever was bad and vicious, corrupt and shameful, this the
Mameluke practised without fear or hesitation. His virtue was that
intrepidity, that courage, that boldness, that recoils from nothing,
from no danger, from no abyss; that yields to nothing, and to which
nothing is sacred. But the slaves willingly submitted to a brave
master, and greeted him as a hero.

"They galloped through the streets on their proud steeds, despising
those who walked. When drawn up before the enemy on their war-
horses, they bore down upon them boldly, and scattered them to the
winds. But if the enemy were able to resist the force of their first
fierce attack, they turned their horses and galloped away in wild
flight.

"Such was the state of things when two hundred years ago the
Ottomans marched with large armies into Egypt, to combat and
vanquish the haughty Mamelukes.

"And now the time selected by Allah to punish the insolent race of
the Mamelukes and their rulers who were seated on the throne of
Egypt had come.

"The nations one by one submitted to the rule of these sons of
Mohammed. After protracted struggles they had established a united
empire on the banks of the Bosporus, and had built the proud city of
Stamboul. The son of Mohammed governed as an illustrious ruler,
until at last the Christian dogs came and conquered the magnificent
city, and took up their abode in the shining palaces built by the
last emperors of the house of the Comnenes. In the city of
Constantinople, as they have named our beautiful Stamboul, they