appeared to have arrived at a climax. The courtyard of the
citadel was full of horses picketed by their head-and-heel ropes, in
long rows; parties of men were, according to their different habits,
talking over the events of the day,--the Albanians chattering and
putting themselves in attitudes; the Arnaouts or Mahometans of Greek
blood boasting of the chivalric feats which they intended to perform;
and the grave Turks sitting quietly on the ground, smoking their eternal
pipes, and taking it all as easily as if they had nothing to do with it.
Both before and since these days I have seen a great deal of the Turks;
and though, for many reasons, I do not respect them as a nation, still
I cannot help admiring their calmness and self-possession in moments of
difficulty and danger. There is something noble and dignified in their
quietness on these occasions: I have very rarely seen a Turk
discomposed; stately and collected, he sits down and bides his time; but
when the moment of action comes, he will rouse himself on a sudden, and
become full of fire, animation, and activity. It is then that you see
the descendant of those conquerors of the East, whose strong will and
fierce courage have given them the command over all the nations of
Islam.

Although I could not obtain an audience with the vizir, one of the
people who were with me managed to send a message to him that I should
be glad of the letter, or firman, which he had promised me, and by which
I might command the services of an escort, if I thought fit to do so.
This man had influence at court; for he had a friend who was chiboukji
to the vizir's secretary, or prime minister--a sly Greek, whose
acquaintance I had made two days before. The pipe-bearer, propitiated by
a trifling bribe, spoke to his master, and he spoke to the vizir, who
promised I should have the letter; and it came accordingly in the
evening, properly signed and sealed, and all in heathen Greek, of which
I could make out a word here and there; but what it was about was
entirely beyond my comprehension.

Whilst waiting the result of these negotiations I had leisure to notice
the warlike movements which were going on around me. I saw a train of
two or three hundred men on horseback issuing out from the citadel, and
riding slowly along the plain in the direction of Berat. They were sent
to raise the siege; and other troops were preparing to follow them. As I
watched these horsemen winding across the plain in