in earnest. I went down to Pera to learn the
result of the negotiations for delaying the steam-boat, and found most
of the passengers in a state of fury. Some among them had resigned their
passage, and resolved to travel home by land; others were storming,
because it was now proposed to put off the boat's starting till
Saturday, Prince Butera having been offered an audience on Friday. It
seems that when the Sultan refused the Austrian application, Orloff went
and COMMANDED him to receive his Royal Highness, "UNDER PAIN OF
INCURRING THE DISPLEASURE OF HIS IMPERIAL MASTER THE EMPEROR OF ALL THE
RUSSIAS, THE EMPEROR OF THE East!" And how did Mahmoud act? Why, he
consented; ay, consented, not only to receive with open arms this man,
who is the brother of a king set over a portion of his empire, which has
been wrested by force and treachery from his sublime grasp, and once the
brightest jewel of his diadem, but also to present him with a snuff-box
set in diamonds, with his own portrait on the lid! This is the first
instance in which the great imperial monkey has made use of the sublime
cat's paw!

[Sidenote: PRINCE BUTERA.] Though the delay in the starting of the boat
was openly resisted by all the English, as well as by the supercargoes,
the Prince's governors continued running from one passenger to the
other, canvassing for votes. The almost universal reply to this
unreasonable application was, "that it appeared extraordinary a prince
royal, who, together with his suite, had treated the passengers during
the whole voyage with supercilious contempt, and thwarted them whenever
they wished the slightest change in the route, should now condescend to
solicit those same individuals to delay the boat a week, and
inconvenience themselves, to further an object in which the Prince alone
was at all interested."

The conduct of the royal party, on the very morning when this selfish
request was made, was not at all calculated to remove the prejudices to
which their previous behaviour had given rise. The Prince had obtained a
firman to see the mosques, which would have admitted four hundred as
readily as four; yet he had not the good feeling or politeness to
announce to any single passenger that he was going to visit these
exclusive curiosities, but went with his suite and his particular
friends alone; and though he had appointed a certain hour for assembling
before St. Sophia, he actually went thither an hour earlier, so that
those w