carried poor
Tatyana off along with her wedding chest--the chest fished up with
my grapnel.

In brief, the chest and the girl found their way into Abdul's
seraglio. The letters of the dead girl--which were written and
entrusted probably to a faithless slave, but which evidently never
left the seraglio--throw some light on the tragedy, for they
breathe indignation and contempt of Islam, and call on her
affianced, on her parents, and on her people to rescue her and
avenge her.

And after a while, no doubt Abdul tired of reading fierce,
unreconciled little Tatyana's stolen letters, and simply ended the
matter by having her bowstrung and dumped overboard in a sack,
together with her marriage chest, her letters, and the Yellow
Devil in bronze as a final insult.

She seems to have had a sister, Naia, thirteen years old,
betrothed to a Prince Mistchenka, a cavalry officer in the Terek
Cossacks. Her father had been Hetman of the Don Cossacks before
the Emperor Nicholas reserved that title for Imperial use. And
_she_ ended in a sack off Gallipoli! That is the story of Tatyana
and her wedding chest.

_March 29._ Murad arrived, murderously bland and assiduous in his
solicitude for my health and comfort. I am almost positive he
knows that I fished up something from Cove No. 37 under the
theoretical guns of theoretical Fort Osman, both long plotted out
but long delayed.

_April 5._ My duplicate plans for Gallipoli have been stolen. I
have a third set still. Colonel Murad Bey is not to be trusted. My
position is awkward and is becoming serious. There is no faith to
be placed in Abdul Hamid. My credentials, the secret agreement
with my Government, are no longer regarded even with toleration in
the Yildiz Kiosque. A hundred insignificant incidents prove it
every day. And if Abdul dare not break with Germany it is only
because he is not yet ready to defy the Young Turk party. The
British Embassy is very active and bothers me a great deal.

_April 10._ My secret correspondence with Enver Bey has been
discovered, and my letters opened. This is a very bad business. I
have notified my Government that the Turkish Government does not
want me here; that the plan of a Germanised Turkish army is
becoming objectionable to the Porte; that the duplicate plans of
our engineers for the Dardanelle