in Wales, after they had had the benefit of
his instruction, were dead shots. The Sultan
had heard of that. Had not we ? No!
Well, certainly, we never could have read the
papers.

There were other passengers who carried
revolving and other rifles of fabulous killing
powers; some had swords, daggers, and a
variety of complicated instruments for the
speedy and effectual extermination of their
fellow-creatures. There was a Sclavonian
who assumed the title of Hungarian refugee,
but who had no weapons of attack except a
pair of spurs which rattled mightily. This
gentleman proclaimed that he was sent by the
Turkish Minister in London, who had paid
his passage, and had promised him a
captaincy in an Ottoman regiment. It was
whispered among us that he was a hero who
had smuggled himself on board the Euxine,
and so got a passage from Southampton to
Malta; that on the same occasion part of his
passage-money had been paid by a general
subscription among the passengers, and that
the Oriental Company's agent at Malta, seeing
there was no more to be had, generously
consented to be satisfied with what had been
subscribed for him. I met this young warrior
two days after our arrival in Constantinople,
and he said he had seen the Seraskier,
who had offered him a colonelcy, an outfit of
one thousand piastres, and one thousand
piastres a month if he would join the army
in Asia, and say that there was no Allah but
Allah, and that Mahomet was his prophet.
He had made up his mind to accept the offer.
Through the mist of his lies it was clear that
some one had given him some money, or that
he had wofully swindled the Turkish tradesmen,
for he had richly adorned his not very
wholesome-looking outward man. He had
discarded the blue cap and coat worn on
board ship, and dazzled all weak eyes by the
magnificence of a new dress and frogged coat
of black velveteen, and a bearskin rug flung
over his shoulders, so that he looked like a
brigand who had thrown up his engagement
at the Victoria Theatre, to accept another
at the theatre of war. Among the rest of
the passengers there was an American
worth mentioning, because he had, as he said,
only come out for a spree; there was a
homœopathic surgeon, who had quitted a successful
practice in New York, to fight against
allopathy among the Sultan's troops; there
was a young French merchant going to sell
muskets at Constantinople; there was a
chaplain en route to join one of her Majesty's
vessels in the Black Sea, and there were half
a dozen ladies, two of them widows. These
fair vanquishers went out, it was said, as there
are heroic virgins always going forth to India,
to Australia, to Lapland or Timbuctoo,
through fire, or frost, or pestilence, determined
to achieve matrimony or to die in the attempt.

It was on a bright afternoon that I, with
these and other people, stood on the deck of the
Meerschaum to take a farewell look at Malta.
Flags were streaming in one of the most
delightful breezes that ever refreshed human
beings; the bastions were lined with redcoats,
whiling away their idle hours; music came like
fragrance on the wind—music from Floriana
—music from the Lazaretto—music from
Senglen; the sunlight danced over the waters,
along with the gulls. But when we had
steamed out of the atmosphere of Malta, the
wind changed, the sky became clouded, and
the waves rolled heavily; the vessel creaked
and groaned; the weird voices of unseen
stormbirds were heard high up in the air—
and the ladies went down to their cabins
suddenly.

Then followed a night of pelting rain above
deck, and of groans and anguish in the cabins.
The captain and the agents of the vessel,
wishing to make much of the good fortune
thrown into their way, had taken double the
proper number of passengers. Beds were made
upon tables and under tables, on the benches
and far away in the stern cabin on piles of
luggage, baskets of vegetables, sacks of coffee.
I, who am short, was put into a hole
exactly four feet long, over the screw
propeller. Thus I had leisure and
opportunity, crouching, with my knees drawn
up to my chin, to ponder on the working
of that beautiful invention. There was a
clanking of chains, a boring motion, as if some
mighty engine were forcing its way up
through the bottom of my bed, and then a
stunning noise as if a score of sledge
hammers were suddenly brought down upon
an anvil at the distance of a few inches
from my ears. When at length I had
become accustomed to this, and had settled
down to the idea of sleep, I was roused by
violent shouting close to my head. All the
stewards of the ship were assembled, and in the
act of dragging up from among the pile of bales
and baskets which encompassed the stern-
berths a struggling, screeching fellow-creature.
It was a passenger in a state of
intoxication, who was being taken up to bed. He
fought bravely and roared lustily, protesting
that he was quite willing to do whatever the
stewards desired, if they would only open his
large trunk (which was at the bottom of the
hold), and take therefrom an oil-skin shako-
case, without which, he asserted, it was
impossible for him to sleep that night. This
gentleman, lodged in his nest, lay with his
head separated from mine by a thin
plank of wood, shouting and singing, calling
out lustily at intervals for his Moorish
servant and his shako-case. Finally he left his
berth, and paid me a most unexpected visit,
in my quarters, under the impression that it
was I who withheld from him the shako-case
and Moorish servant. Lights came at length,
brought to the scene of war by half-dressed
stewards, and the intrusive gentleman was
dragged out of my berth, and deposited once
more in his own. Being then satisfied,