God, and her husband would ever be found
faithful to me.

While the captain was officiating in the
country, and looking after evildoers, I sometimes
saw him. He told me that his quarters
were bad, but that he had at length found a
small house in the village, and was going to
have his family down. I thought they would
hardly like the change from a city life to the
dulness of a village. " The familia," said he,
"had been used to it in her father's house, and
was fond of goats, and turkeys, and geese, and
fowls, and a garden. It would be quite a treat
for Fatmeh, who could play about all day long."
Familia, or family, is now a common polite
word in Turkish for wife.

The captain's occupation ran out; he became
a suitor to me again; the treasury, to remit to
the foreign creditor, and keep faith with him,
held back payments from Osman and other
pensioners and home servants; and he was as
ill off as ever. Every now and then I got him
some little employment, and received his thanks.
There was never a Bairam, or Christmas, or
Easter, for some years when the complimentary
calls in our house did not include Captain
Osman Aga, with his wife and daughter. I
had become his effective patron and friend, and
his devotion went beyond European bounds,
though the position of a captain in the army in
Turkey is not even yet what it is in Europe.
The captain, yuzbashi, or head of a hundred in
the regular army, was, till the change was made
in my time, no more than a warrant officer;
commissions beginning with second majors, and
only the sons of country gentlemen or squireens
serving as captains and lieutenants. The
present Sultan, to elevate the army, has given
official precedence to the captains; but they
hardly realise their new honours at the tail of
the aristocracy. Europeans seldom understand
the real status of the captain, and draw very
disparaging reflections from incidents which
come before them. The captain is often no
more than an illiterate common man raised
from the ranks—I must add, though, generally
a conscientious soldier and thorough master of
his drill and business.

A curious story is told of a French ambassador,
as an illustration of the want of dignity
in what he considered to be Turkish
officers. The old general, being present at
the grand audience, in the Seraglio at the
Bairam, received some attentions from a captain
commanding near him. On leaving, his excellency
desired his dragoman to tender his
thanks to the captain, and invite him, as a
brother-officer, to dinner. The captain expressed
his gratitude, but continued to hang
about, as if wanting something more. "I can
settle it," said the dragoman; and he evidently
did so, as the captain retired with much expression
of contentment. " How did you
manage it?" " I gave him a five-franc piece,
with which he was much better satisfied than
with the honour of dining with your excellency."
The ambassador naturally wondered
at the low standard of Turkish officers, and it
was no business of the Levantine dragoman to
undeceive him, and inform him that the captain
was not an officer, but a sergeant-major.

As to Osman Aga, both before and after his
elevation to the table of precedency as a functionary
of state of the fourth class, his devotion
to me was the same. It never occurred to him,
or to me, that it was a degradation, and it was
what he would willingly have shown to his
general, or to any dear friend. If we were on
a journey, no one but himself was allowed to
saddle my horse, if he could help it. He would
snatch my boots out of the hands of my men,
and polish them himself. There was no act of
personal help he would not tender, and this
without any sycophantism or loss of respect on
either side. The colonel will fill the chibook
of his old general—he is as his child. The
major will do as much for the colonel, the
captain for the major under whom he has
served, and so on. Two friends of equal rank
will vie which shall seem to kiss the hem of the
other's robe; and ladies act in the same way.
However undignified this may seem to Europeans,
not being Spaniards, it conveys to the
Osmanli an idea of dignity; not of humiliation.
Under the old constitution (and the impress of
it is not yet lost), all was so far democratic
that any porter in the street might aspire to the
highest honours, and believe himself destined
to become grand vizier. Those who attain
honours are therefore looked upon as delegates
and representatives of the mass, to whom freemen
cheerfully do homage.

In the course of years, Fatmeh grew bigger,
and not so shy, and I found she had been sent
to school; on which the captain expressed his
sentiments with as much unction as if he had
never played the dunce. "The Family," said
he, " considers schooling religious and necessary.
The Family can read, and Fatmeh, Inshallah,
will get on with her learning, as is her
duty!"

"Inshallah, please God!" responded I.

By-and-by Fatmeh made progress in her
reading, and the reverend schoolmaster, the
captain told me, was much satisfied with her.
She gave me a specimen of her skill out of one
of my books, reading some hard words with all
the precision and ceremony of a Hojah; nor
did she neglect her needle. Besides work of
her mother's, she brought me a handkerchief
she had embroidered, and my family looked on
her as a bright girl.

Occasionally on festivals we got presents
from Adileh Hanum of choice confectionery or
pastry, and we found the small household conducted
with as much comfort and care as Turkish
arrangements will allow.

The poor captain was much pinched after I
left; but I am informed that Fatmeh is married
to a rising merchant, and that there were great
festivities, to which we should all have been
invited, had we been on the spot. Adileh
Hanum spends some of her time in arranging
her daughter's household, and the captain
passes his spare time in the warehouse of his
son-in-law, where, though his expertness is