e descendants of the
fierce Arabs, who--so they told me on the spot--had wrested
Constantinople from the Christians, in those old times of which I know
so little. Very often an injured Turk would run up to where I sat, and
stand there, wildly telegraphing his complaints against some
villainous-looking Greek, or Italian, whom a stout English lad would
have shaken out of his dirty skin in five minutes.

Once, however, I saw the tables turned. As the anecdote will help to
illustrate the relative positions of the predatory tribes of
Balaclava, I will narrate it. Hearing one morning a louder hubbub than
was usual upon the completion of a bargain, and the inevitable
quarrelling that always followed, I went up to where I saw an excited
crowd collected around a Turk, in whose hands a Greek was struggling
vainly. This Greek had, it seemed, robbed his enemy, but the Turk was
master this time, and had, in order to force from the robber a
confession of the place where the stolen things were deposited (like
dogs, as they were, these fellows were fond of burying their plunder),
resorted to torture. This was effected most ingeniously and simply by
means of some packthread, which, bound round the Greek's two thumbs,
was tightened on the tourniquet principle, until the pain elicited a
confession. But the Turk, stimulated to retaliation by his triumph,
bagged the Greek's basket, which contained amongst other things two
watches, which their present owner had no doubt stolen. Driven to the
most ludicrous show of despair, the Greek was about to attempt another
desperate struggle for the recovery of his goods, when two Zouaves
elbowed their small persons upon the crowded stage, and were eagerly
referred to by all the parties concerned in the squabble. How they
contrived it, I cannot say, so prompt were their movements; but, in a
very few minutes, the watches were in their possession, and going much
faster than was agreeable either to Turk or Greek, who both combined
to arrest this new movement, and thereby added a sharp thrashing to
their other injuries. The Zouaves effected their escape safely, while
the Greek, with a despair that had in it an equal share of the
ludicrous and the tragic, threw himself upon the dusty ground, and
tore his thin hair out by handfuls. I believe that the poor wretch,
whom we could not help pitying, journeyed to Kamiesch, to discover his
oppressors; but I fear he didn't gain much information there.

Had it not b