though it no longer gleamed there to
inspire and to cheer, it nevertheless had strength enough to burn with
reproachful flame.

The multitudes cheered and prostrated themselves as he passed; but his
salutation was cold and indifferent, and he felt at that moment that he
would rather have been wandering through the Vale of Arno, hand-in-hand
with his sister, than be welcomed in the streets of Constantinople as
the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire!

O crime! thou may'st deck thy brow with flowers, and adorn thy garments
with the richest gems--thou may'st elicit the shouts of admiring
myriads, and proceed attended by guards ready to hew down those who
would treat thee with disrespect--thou may'st quit the palace of a
mighty sovereign to repair to a palace of thine own--and in thy hands
thou may'st hold the destinies of millions of human beings; but thou
canst not subdue the still small voice that whispers reproachfully in
thine ear, nor pluck from thy bosom the undying worm.

Though Ibrahim Pasha felt acutely, yet his countenance, as we have
before said, expressed nothing--he was still sufficiently master of his
emotions to retain them pent up in his own breast; and if he could not
appear perfectly happy, he would not allow the world to perceive that
his soul harbored secret care. He entered the palace now destined to
become his abode, and found himself the lord and master of an
establishment such as no Christian monarch in Europe possessed. But as
he passed through marble halls and perfumed corridors lined with
prostrate slaves--as he contemplated the splendor and magnificence, the
wealth and the luxury, by which he was now surrounded--and as he even
dwelt upon the hope--nay, the more than hope, the conviction, that he
should full soon be blest with the hand of a being whose ravishing
beauty was ever present to his mental vision--that still small voice
which he could not hush, appeared to ask what avail it was for a man, if
he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?

But Ibrahim Pasha was not the man to give way to the influence of even
reflections so harrowing as these; and he immediately applied himself to
the business of the state, to divert his mind from unpleasurable
meditations. Holding a levee that same day, he received and confirmed in
their offices all the subordinate ministers; he then dispatched letters
to the various governors of provinces to announce to them his elevation
to the grand viziership; a