Demetrius Poliorcetes and Lysiinachus

After repelling Philip, Byzantium had to submit, some years later, to Alexander. It passed through the hands of his successors, Demetrius Poliorcetes and Lysiinachus ; but on the death of the latter, regained its independence for another hundred years, until the power of Rome invaded the region of Thrace and the Hellespont. In return for the assistance it rendered to the Romans in their wars with Macedon and Antiochus, the senate conferred on Byzantium the status of a ‘ free and confederate city and it was not till the time of the Emperor Vespasian that it lost its privileges and became an ordinary provincial town (73 A.D.).

In the struggle between Septimius Severus and Pescennius Niger for the Roman Empire, Byzantium espoused the cause of the latter; but was taken by Severus, after a three years siege, in 197 A.D., and reduced to ashes. A few years later, however, he rebuilt the city and embellished it with porticoes, magnificent public baths, and part of the Hippodrome or racecourse.

During the civil wars which followed the abdication of Diocletian, the city fortifications were restored, and afforded refuge to Licinius after his defeat by Constantine at Adrianople in 323 A.D. Constantine advanced on Byzantium, and, by means of constructing ramparts and towers as high as those of the city, finally succeeded in taking it.

The acquaintance with the advantages

The acquaintance with the advantages of its position gained in this campaign no doubt decided Constantine in fixing on Byzantium as the site of his new capital daily tours istanbul. It had probably been for some time clear to him that the Empire, once more united under a firm rule, required in its new circumstances a new political centre. The advisability of transferring the seat of government from Borne to a point farther east had been felt long before. The frequent wars against Persia, the repeated revolts of Asiatic nations, the incursions of tke Scythians, troubles at Borne, that old hot-bed of civil war, had already caused Diocletian to fix his residence at Nicomedia (now Ismid); and, indeed, Julius Csesar is said to have thought of transferring the capital to Alexandria Troas (Eski-Istambol), which, from its more central situation, would enable him the easier to keep the conquered nations in subjection. Constantine, however, was also actuated by other than strategic and political motives. The abandonment of Eome marked the establishment of Christianity as the State religion. The new capital was dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and the fact that the ceremony of its inauguration was performed solely by Christian ecclesiastics, and that no pagan temples were allowed to be erected in the new city, emphatically proclaimed the downfall of Paganism.

The new city was begun in 328 A.D. The Emperor himself marked out its boundaries, which included five of the seven hills enumerated on page 1. Setting out on foot, followed by a numerous retinue, and pretending that he was following the directions of a divine guide invisible to all save himself, with his spear he drew on the ground a line that crossed the triangular promontory at a distance of about two miles from the old fortifications. Along this line the new walls were erected, and on the 11th of May 330 A.D. the inaugural festivities were commenced, and lasted forty days.

OLD PLOVDIV

As far back as six thousand years ago Neolithic man appreciated the propitious combination of a fertile land, a large river and inaccessible hills in the heart of the Thracian plain.

Contemporary with Troy, Mycanea and the cities of Crete, Plovdiv grew into a proper town in the 12th century B.C. Ancient Greek writers attribute its foundation to Eumolpi – son of Haemus and Rhodope. The town was raised behind a fortress wall upon a cluster of hills – Nebet Tepe, Taxim Tepe and Jambaz Tepe. It adopted the name of its founder – Eu- molpiade. A succession of names followed through the centuries – Philippopolis, Pulpudeva, Trimontium, Puldin, Felibe and Plovdiv.

Cultural strata laid down by the centuries have been integrated in the appearance of the present day town. Antique, mediaeval and Revival Period monuments stand next to each other in striking architectural ensembles on the historic Three Hills. Old Plovdiv is a unique living organism built of archaeological remains, museums and excellent galleries, Revival buildings holidays bulgaria, functioning churches rich in frescoes, carved wooden ornamentation and religious articles, cozy cafes and restaurants, school buildings, old-time and new houses with romantic courtyards and picturesque cobbled alleys. In 1956 Old Plovdiv was declared an architectural- historical reserve and in 1979 it was awarded a gold European medal for its achievements in the preservation of historical monuments.

Nebet Tepe

Decades of archaeological excavations on Nebet Tepe have uncovered numerous significant remains from antiquity and the earliest settlement on the hills. Archaeologists have identified fortification walls from various stages of antiquity. In the southern part of the saddle between Jambaz and Taxim hills there have also survived parts of the impressive fortress walls of the Acropolis and the South Gate. Eleven years of archaeological work unearthed, just inside the fortress wall, the remains of an imposing antique theatre, which was successfully conserved and restored. Another remarkable building was discovered at the western foot of Taxim Tepe hill in the Jumaya Square. A restored section of Philippopolis’ antique stadium is displayed here nowadays. Nearby, to the south of the Three Hills are the remains of the large Roman city square – the forum (agora). Sections of the fortress wall running along the tops of the hills have also survived to our day. There are remains of the early Thracian and Hellenistic ages as well as repaired structures from the Roman and Byzantine periods.

Kleptouza and Velyuva Banya

Hotel-restaurant Zdravets, 2 stars, accommodating 200, tel. 26-82, large restaurant. There are two camp sites near the town — Kleptouza and Velyuva Banya.

Further along E-80, is Pazardjik (pop. 73,400), the centre of a rich and fertile region. Situated on both banks of River Maritsa. it was founded in 1485. The first inhabitants were Tartars who guarded the Big Market which was held here. Bulgarians settled here in the second half of the 16th century. There are mineral baths with water from the Rhodopes.

Sights:

Cathedral of the Virgin Mary is Pazardjik’s most important building. It was built in i 837 and is a magnificent example of National Revival architecture. It is made of pink stone and is known mostly for its walnut iconostasis by Debur wood carvers private tour istanbul. The oldest icon dates from 1814.

St Constantine and Elena Churcht Benkovski St. is the second largest church with icons painted by local artists.

Stanislav Dospevski Museum. 50, G.Dimitrov Blvd. is combined with the district art gallery. It was built in 1864 by Bratsigovo masters. Some of the walls are decorated with paintings by Stanislav Dospevski himself.

Kourshoum (Bullet) Mosque – BratyaMiladinovi St. built 1667, Pazardjik’s oldest building.

The Synagogue, Assen Zlatarov St. built 1850.1 he ceiling represents a carved sun, surrounded by round rosettes and interlacing geometrical figures.

Nikolaki Hristovich’s House, 8 Otets Paissi St. built 1850. Its architecture is similar to that of the baroque house in Plovdiv.

Kouzmov House, 5 Benkovski St., early 19th century, has very finely executed eaves. It is a two-storey building with bay windows.

Pozharov Home near the St Constantine and Elena Church in Benkovski St. also resembles the baroque house in Plovdiv.

Sakaliev House, 15 Trakiiska St. with carved ceilings.

Hadji Stoyanov house and the house of Konstantin Ve- lichkov, now a branch of the District History Museum, are also worth visiting.

Metodi Shatarov Monument-Ossuary is situated on an island in the River Maritsa in memory of Metodi Shatarov and other partisans who perished in 1941-1944.

Old Post Office with its Gothic tower.

The District History Museum, 5 Assen Zlatarov St., tel. 2-55-45.

The District Art Gallery ‘Stanislav Dospevski’, 1 lb 9 September St., tel. 2-5546.

The Drama Theatre, K. Veliehkov Blvd., tel. 2-75-35.

The Amateur Operetta Theatre — the Trade Union House of Culture.

Symphony Orchestra

Hotel Trakiya, 2 stars, 4-storey, in Red Square, accommodates 228, restaurant, coffee shop, night club, national restaurant and an exchange bureau. Tel. 2-60-06.

A small detour to the south of Pazardjik goes through several towns and villages active in the April 1876 uprising. After 20 km we reach the town of Peshtera (pop. 18 000), situated on both banks of Stara Reka river. It is well-known as a mountain resort but has rapidly developed recently as an industrial centre. In the town centre is an old poplar tree, whose circumference measures 10 m, 7 km east is the small village of Bratsigovo (pop. 6,000). Though small, its name is engraved in Bulgarian history. It was founded in the 16th century when Rhodope inhabitants, seeking refuge from forced convertion to Mohammedanism, settled in the small valley nestling in the folds of the mountain. The village developed quickly. Its inhabitants took an active part in the April 1876 Uprising, and from April 30 to May 5 they waged a fierce battle with the Bashibazouk and regular Turkish army.

Banya Bashi

Banya Bashi Djamiyaf 16th century, opposite the Central Supermarket, is a typical monument of Islamic civilization.

Small Churches: St. Nikolai Russian Church on Tzar Ka- loyan St., Church of St. Petka the Old at the comer ofStam- boliiski Boulevard and Tzar Kaloyan St. and the ( Lurch of St, Petka Samardjiyski in the subway of Lenin Square.

Modem monuments:

Liberators Monument in front of the National Assembly by the Italian sculptor Arnoldo Zocchi, in honour of the Russian troops who liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman domination.

The Alexander Nevsky Memorial Cathedral built in gratitude and respect for the Russian soldiers who died for Bulgaria’s liberation. There is a crypt with an exhibition of old icons.

Sofia. The Monument to Liberators

Sofia, the Sveta Sofia Church and the Alexander Nevsk

Memorial Cathedral

There are many other monuments to the fallen from World War II all over Sofia

The Banner of Peace monument is close to where the ring road crosses the road to Simeonovo district. It was built for the 1979 World Assembly Banner of Peace. It contains seven main bells symbolizing the seven continents, at its base are 20 musical bells, and around it are bells from all parts of the world.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is by the south wall of St. Sophia Church.

Museums: National History Museum, 2 Vitosha Blvd. in the Palace of Justice; Archaeological Museum, Alexander Stamboliiski Blvd.; Ethnographic Museum, Sept. 9th Square; Natural Science Museum, 1 Rousski Blvd.; Museum of the Revolutionary Movement in Bulgaria, 14 Rousski Blvd.; National Military History Museum, 23 Skobelev Blvd; Church History and Archaeological Museum, 19 Lenin Sq.; Museum of Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship, 4 Klement Gottwald Blvd.; Museum of the History of Sofia, 27 Exarch Yossif St.; Dimiter Blagoev Museum, Lajos Cossuth St.; Georg Dimitrov Museum66 Opulchenska Street; A lexandet StamboliiskiMuseum, 44 Sou- hodol Street; Ivan Vazov Museum, 10 Ivan Vazov Street; Pet- ko and Pencho Slaveikov Museumf 138 Rakovski Street; Peyo Yavorov Museum, 136 Rakovski Street; Hristo Smyrnemki Museum, 116 Emil Shekerdjiiski Siieet;Nikola VaptsarovMuseum, 37 Angel Kunchev Street.

Interesting buildings: The Lyudmila Zhivkova People’s Palace of Culture is the most impressive building in Sofia. It was designed by a team of architects under Alexander Barov daily sofia tour. The Palace covers an area of 17,000 square metres and has several halls, the largest with 7,500 seats.

The Palace of Justice, built 1932-1935 and designed by Pencho Koichev. The building has been reconstructed and now houses National History Museum. (The collections include important exhibits from pre-historic times, from Thrace, from the Middle Ages and from the National Revival Period) Other interesting buddings are the National Assembly, the Clement of Ohrid University, the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, the National Art Gallery, the National Ethnographic Museum, the Central House of the People’s Army, the Ministry of Defence, the Universiade Sports Hall, the Festival Hall, the Winter Palace of Sports, the Holy Synod Building, the Bulgarian National Bank, the Russian Church, St. Nicholas, the Cyril and Methodius National Library9 and many others.

Parks: Freedom Park, Hristo Smlmenski park (Western Park), Vladimir Zaimov Park, the Doctors’ Monument Park, and Southern Park south of the Lyudmila Zhivkova Palace of Culture.

Monumental sculpture

In aspect, planning, architecture and art, the cities of Moesia and Thrace were no different from those of the eastern Hellenistic provinces. Monumental sculpture, which was, in general, a form of art alien to the Thracians, became widespread towards the end of the 2nd century A. D. Excavations in towns and settlements constantly reveal pedestals of statues, and the statues themselves; they represent various deities both of the Graeco-Roman pantheon and of the cults of other countries and peoples, which invaded and rapidly spread throughout the two provinces, displacing the local Thracian cults to a large extent. One of the largest statues ever found, probably of Demeter,. 2.83 m. in height without its pedestal, came to light at Oescus years ago. The head and arms are lacking; they had been separately made and’ attached to the trunk.

The sculptor had treated the draperies of its clothing with great skill and lightness, not only clearly stressing the difference in the material of chiton and cloak, but also successfully modelling the forms of the body beneath its garments. The works of. the old Greek masters of the classical period of Greek art were particularly highly prized by the cities of Thrace and Moesia. A very fine copy of Praxiteles’s Eros came from Nicopolis ad Istrum. From the Roman camp at the village of Riben, Pleven district, comes a somewhat fragmentary copy of the statue of the Resting Satyr, also by Praxiteles guided istanbul tours. In the sphere of sculpture here too, as in the other Roman provinces, portrait sculpture developed extensively. It followed, on general lines, the development of this art in Rome and Italy. But here too certain nuances of provincial art are noticeable.

Roman busts

The museums of Bulgaria abound in Roman busts — portrait busts of the Emperors, which ornamented the public places and squares, portrait busts of eminent citizens, to whom statues were erected at the decision of the municipalities in gratitude for the services they had rendered their native cities. And lastly portrait sculpture was extensively used on the tombs. Among the numerous works of this nature the head of Gordian III (238—244), row in the Sofia Museum, deserves mention; it belonged to a bronze statue of this emperor, which stood in Niccpolis ad Istrum.

However, together with the great master sculptors, who worked in the workshops of the cities in the style of the official Roman-Hellenistic art, and whose vast output barely managed to satisfy the great needs of construction in the Roman cities, the workshops of the local masters were at work no less intensively in the villages around the local shrines; they had to satisfy the religious needs of the masses in connexion with the rites of the local cults and the cult of the dead.

The custom of consecrating stone tablets or statuettes with the images of the gods worshipped in the small village shrines, or of putting up monuments on tombs with symbolical imagery connected with the activity of the deceased, had penetrated the widest socialstrata under the influence of the Roman and Hellenistic religion. In the conventional images of the gods of the Roman and Greek pantheon, the Thracian population continued to worship its local gods with their specific Thracian names, among which the cult of the «Thracian Horseman» was particularly widespread. Thousands of votive tablets are preserved in the Bulgarian museums upon which the whole scale of the Thracians’ religion in this period is depicted.

SOFIA KARLOVOKAZANLUK MOUNT STOLETOV

SOFIA-KARLOVOKAZANLUK-MOUNT STOLETOV-SLIVEN BOURGAS SLUNCHEV BRYAG (398 km)

The route takes you through the sub-Balkan valley and the famous Valley of Roses to the sea. On your way you will see the attractive sub-Balkan towns and villages of Klissoura, Rozino, Karlovo, Sopot, Kalofer and Kazanluk. From here you can follow the road to the top of Mount Stoletov (in the north there is a side road leading to Kotel and Zheravna) and then on to Bourgas and Slunchev Bryag.

SOFIA PLOVDIV-ASSENOVGRAD PAMPOROVO-SMOLYAN (250 km)

The road passes through Ihtiman, Pazardjik, the second largest Bulgarian city of Plovdiv and then turns south to pass Assen’s fortress and the Bachkovo Monastery (29 km from Plovdiv), up to the modern mountain resort of Pamporovo. 15 km to the south is Smolyan, tucked away in a mountainous area of great scenic beauty. From Plovdiv you may continue via Stara Zagora to Bourgas.

VELIKO TURNOVO-OMOURTAG- TURGOVISHTE-SHOUMEN-PRESLAV- PUSKA- MADARA NOVI PAZAR- VARNA (240 km)

After enjoying the picturesque views in Veliko Turnovo, you set out for the major administrative and economic centre of Shoumen. From here you must without fail go to’Preslav and Pliska, as well as to Madara — a complex of old fortresses, remains of religious buildings and among them a unique rock relief, dating probably from the 9th century and representing a horseman with a lance, piercing a lioness.

SOFIA LOVECH VELIKO TURNOVO- GABROVO (260km)

From Sofia you cross the Balkan Range by the Botevgrad Pass, set out for Lovech, go across the famous covered bridge, the work of the Bulgarian master-builder Nikola Fichev tour bulgaria. Gabrovo was known in the past as Bulgaria’s Manchester. The historical reservations and museum villages Bozhentsi and Etur lie nearby. From here one can set out for Mount Stoletov and the Liberty Monument. Further on you come to Veliko Tur- novo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom.

VARNA-DROUZHBA ZLATNI PYASSATSI- ALBENA-ROUSSALKA (80 km)

This route, in addition to the wonderful view of the sea, will enable you to see a number of historical and cultural monuments in Varna, Balchik and Kavarna, plus several modern seaside resorts.

VARNA SLUNCHEV BRYAG- BOURGAS- SOZOPOL PRIMORSKO (190 km)

From Varna, head for Slunchev Bryag and you will pass through several small resorts, such as Byala, the estuary of the Kamchiya River, Obzor, Banya, and further on, after Slunchev Bryag, you will arrive at the old little town of Nessebur. Then on to Pomorie, Bourgas and Sozopol (ancient ApoIIonia), and after that – Primorsko, which has become popular through the International Youth Resort Complex.

SEASIDE RESORTS BULGARIA

For many foreigners Bulgaria means scarcely more than her Black Sea coast. They may be right, though not quite, but let us not argue the point. What is more important is that this Black Sea coast was ‘discovered’ not very long ago by the Bulgarians themselves.

But first of all, let us say a few words about the Black Sea. It is one of the medium-sized seas — with a maximum length of 1,130 km, width of 611 km, and an area of 413,488 sq km. The salinity of its water is low (18 per thousand), but that is why its transparency is high – up to 16-20 m – at an average depth of 1,690 m. The temperature of the water in the summer months averages 23°C.

The Bulgarian stretch of the Black Sea coastline (378 km) is less indented than the eastern and southern parts, but boasts a more picturesque shore. The woody, softly descending slopes of the Balkan Range and the Strandja Mountains, the vineyards and orchards, as well as the other types of vegetation create such an abundance of verdure that many people rightly call this part of the country the Bulgarian Riviera. Almost along the entire coastline there is an unbroken strip of froe sand, and the sea is clean and shallow. We could not possibly imagine our seaside resorts – from the old and romantic fishermen’s settlements to the most modern resort complexes – without this greenery, without this sand and without this sea. Neither could we imagine them without their abundance of fruit, grapes and sparkling white wines.

But let us introduce you in a few words to some of the most important Bulgarian Black Sea resorts daily ephesus tours, starting out in the north.

ALBENA

The most recently opened resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast is situated in a calm bay north of the Batova River. It welcomed its first guests in 1969. There are currently 35 lst- class hotels with some 10,000 beds, a camping site with 1,500 places and restaurants and night clubs for 10,000. The places of entertainment are situated aside from the hotels to ensure peace and quiet for the holidaymakers.

The water is clear and warm and the seabed is even, without holes and whirlpools.

For lovers of sport there are many volleyball, basketball and tennis courts, golf links, croquet pitches, bowling alleys, horses, bicycles, a sailing club and go-carts.

Next to Kardam Hotel there is a tailor’s shop for men’s and women’s clothes, a shoemaker’s and watchmaker’s shop and dry-cleaning and clothes pressing shop. At the entrance to the resort is the post office which is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The resort is some 30 km from Varna. A regular bus service links it with Varna, Zlatni Pyassatsi, Drouzhba, Toblukhin and Balchik. A six-seater cutter makes regular trips to Balchik, Kavama and Kaliakra.

The taxi stand is next to Slavyanka Hotel.

Exhibitions of works of leading Bulgarian painters, cartoonists and graphic artists are organized in the hotel lobbies.

A competition for ‘Miss Albena’ and ‘Miss Black Sea’ is organized here in the months of July and August.

At the resort there are several places of entertainment, with interesting floor shows and very good cooking.

The Zlaten Klas Tavern next to Or low Hotel is open from 11.0 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Dobroudja Tavern – in the trade centre of the resort. Open from 11.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Ribarska Hizha Restaurant in the eastern part of the resort, by the sea. A variety of fish dishes are served.

The Old House Restaurant – in national Bulgarian style. A folk-instrument orchestra. Open from 6.00 p.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Gorski Tsar Night Club. Every night a varied concert programme. Situated in the western part of the resort and open from 9.00 p.m. to 4.00 a.m.

Arabella Night Club, in the eastern part of the resort, next to the beach. Open from 9.00 p.m. to 4.00 a.m.

Batova Picnic — 18 km away from the resort; delicious dishes served and a varied floor show. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.0 p.m.

Robinson – a place of entertainment near the town of Balchik. Interesting programme every day from 10.00 a.m. to 12.0 p.m.

In the shopping centre of the resort there is a wide range of leather, fur and ceramic articles, folk-style fabrics, perfumery, shoes, bathing suits and souvenirs. The grocery stores, the greengrocers and fruiterers, as well as the flower shops, are open from 9.00 to 12.00 a.m. and from 4.00 to 9.00 p.m.

The health clinic of the resort is next to Bratislava Hotel; tel. 20-25, 23-06. There is a pharmacy at Orlow Hotel.

Currency exchange – at Dorostol Hotel and in the shopping centre, tel. 23-71.

The bureau of the National Tourist Information Centre is in Bratislava Hotel, tel. 21-50.

The Museum Catalogue devotes

The Museum Catalogue devotes six volumes to the poet and his editors. All these thousands of works are entered under ‘ Shakspere’; though in about 95 per cent, of them the name is not so written. The editions of Dyce, Collier, Staunton, Halliwell-Phillipps, and Clark, which have Shakespeare on their title-pages, are lettered in the .binding Shakspere. Nay, the facsimile of the folio of 1623, where we not only read Shakespeare on the title-page, but laudatory verses addressed to ‘ Shake-speare ’ {sic’) is actually lettered in the binding (facsimile as it purports to be), Shakspere. We shall certainly end with ‘Shaxper.’

The claim of the palaeographists to re-name great men rests on a confusion of ideas. ‘ Shakespeare ’ is a word in the English language, just as ‘Tragedy’ is; and it is in vain to ask us, in the name of etymograpliy, to turn that name into Shakspere, as it would be to ask us, in the name of etymology, to turn ‘Tragedy ’ into Goat-song. The point is not, how did the poet spell his name — that is an antiquarian, not a literary matter, any more than how Homer or Moses spelled their names. Homer and Moses, as we know, could not possibly spell their names: since alpha-bets were not invented. And, as in a thousand cases, the exact orthography is not possible: the matter which concerns the public is the form of a name which has obtained currency in literature. When once any name has obtained that currency in a fixed and settled literature, it is more than pedantry to disturb it: it is an outrage on our language. And it is a serious hindrance to popular education to be ever unsettling familiar names.

If we are to re-edit Shakespeare’s name by strict revival of contemporary forms, we ought to alter the names of his plays as well. There is reason to think that Macbeth was Mcelbcethe. The twentieth century will go to see Shaxpers Mcelbathe performed on the stage. And so they will have to go through the cycle of the immortal plays. Hamlet was variously written Hamblet, Am leth, Hamnet, Hamle, and Hamlett; and every ‘ revival ’ of Hamlet will be given in a new name. Leirs daughters were properly Gonori/l, Ragan, and Cordila. If Shakspere’s own orthography is decisive, we must talk about the Midsummer Night’s Dreame, and Twelffe-Night, Henry Fift, and Clcopater, for so he wrote the titles himself. Under the exasperating revivalism of the palaeographic school all things are possible; and, in the next century private guide turkey, it will be the fashion to say that ‘the master-creations of Shaxper are undoubtedly Cordila, Hamblet, and Madbaethe.’ Goats and monkeys! can we bear this?

Revivalism rests upon

All this revivalism rests upon the delusion, that bits of ancient things can be crammed into the living organism of modern civilisation. Any rational historical culture must be subordinate to organic evolution; lumps of the past are not to be inserted into our ribs, or thrust down our throats like a horse drench. A brick or two from our father’s houses will not really testify how they built their homes; and exhuming the skeletons of their buried words may prove but a source of offence to the living. An actor who had undertaken the character of Othello once blacked himself all over the body, in order to enter more fully into the spirit of the part; but it is not recorded that he surpassed either Edmund Kean or Salvini. So we are told that there exists a company of enthusiastic Ann-ists, who meet in the dress of Addison and Pope, in boudoirs which Stella and Vanessa would recognise, and read copies of the old Spectator, reprinted in contemporary type.

In days when we are warned that the true feeling for high art is only to be acquired by the wearing of ruffles and velvet breeches, we shall soon be expected, when we go to a lecture on the early Britons, to stain our bodies all over with woad, in order to realise the sensations of our ancient ‘ forbears ’; and na one will pass in English history till he can sputter out all the guttural names in the Saxon Chronicle. Palaeography should keep to its place, in commentaries, glossaries, monographs, and the like. In English literature, the literary name of the greatest ruler of the West is Charlemagne; the literary name of the most perfect of kings is Alfred; and the literary name of the greatest of poets is Shakespeare. The entire world, and not England alone, has settled all this for centuries.

Constantinople must dominate the Balkan peninsula

Nor is this all. In the hands of a first-class military and naval power, Constantinople must dominate the Balkan peninsula and the whole of Greece. With an impregnable capital, and the powerful navy which the wonderful marine opportunities of Constantinople render an inevitable pos-session to any great power, the rival races and petty kingdoms of the peninsula would all alike become mere dependencies or provinces. Here, then, we reach the full limit of the possible issue. Turkey is now no longer a maritime power of any account. Her magnificent soldiery forms no longer a menace to any European power, however small; and, if it suffices to hold the lines of Constantinople on the Balkan side (which is not absolutely certain), it is liable at any moment to be paralysed by an enemy on the, flank who could command the Black Sea or the Sea of Marmora.

Of course, the Bosphorus has lost its ancient importance as a defence; for a northern invader command-ing the Black -Sea could easily descend on the heights above Pera, and with Pera in the hands of an enemy, Stamboul is now indefensible. That is to say, Constantinople is no longer impregnable, or even defensible, without a first-class fleet. Therefore neither Turkey, nor Bulgaria, nor Greece, nor any other small power, could have any but a precarious hold on it, in the absence of a very powerful fleet of some ally.

From these conditions the following consequences result. Turkey can hold Constantinople as her capital with absolute security against any minor power. She could not hold it against Russia having a predominant fleet in the Black Sea, unless she received by alliance the support of a powerful navy. With the support of a powerful fleet guided turkey tours, and her own reconstituted army and restored financial and administrative condition, she might hold Constantinople indefinitely against all the resources of Russia.

Placed in Stamboul

It is perfectly plain that no minor power, even if placed in Stamboul, could hold it except by sufferance; certainly neither Bulgaria, nor Greece, nor Servia, perhaps hardly Austria, unless she enormously developed her fleet, and transformed her entire empire. Turkey, as planted at present on the Bosphorus, is not a menace to any other power. The powers with which she is surrounded are intensely jealous of each other; and by race, religion, traditions, and aspirations, incapable of permanent amalgamation.

From the national and religious side the problem is most complex and menacing. Even in Constantinople the Moslems are a minority of the population; and still more decidedly so in the other European provinces. But in jnost of the Asiatic provinces, Moslems are a majority, and in almost all they are enormously superior in effective strength to any other single community. To put aside Syrians, Arabs, Egyptians, Jews, and other non-Christian populations, there are, within the more western parts of the Turkish Empire, Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, various Slavonian peoples, Armenians, and Levantine Catholics, not so very unequally balanced in effective force and national ambition; all intensely averse to submit to the control of any one amongst the rest, and unwilling to combine with each other. Each watches the other with jealousy, suspicion, antipathy, and insatiable desire to domineer.

Ancient cemetery of Cerameicus

There is one aspect of Attic art, and one of its most impressive types, which can be properly seen only in Athens itself. This is the monuments of the dead: of which many stand in the ancient cemetery of Cerameicus, and many are collected in the National Museum. In their pensive and exquisite pathos, in their reserve, in their dignity and human affection, in their manly simplicity— in frank, pure, social, and humane acceptance of death in all its pathos and all its solemnity, these Athenian monuments may be taken as the highest type of funeral emblems that the world possesses. They present an aspect of Death pensive, affectionate, social, peaceful, and beautiful. There is nothing of the ghastly and cruel symbolism of the Middle Ages, nothing of the stately and pompous mausoleums dear to Roman pride, nothing of the impersonal fatuity of our modern gravestones.

The family group is gathered to take its last farewell of the departing. He or she is not stretched on a bed or bier, not sleeping, not wasted by sickness, not ecstatically transfigured. They sit or recline in all their health and beauty, sweetly smiling, as a loved one who is about to take a distant voyage. The family grouped around are thoughtful, serious, not sad, loving and tender, but not overcome with grief; they too take a long farewell of the traveller about to depart. At his feet lies a favourite dog, some bird or cherished pet, and sometimes in an obscure corner a little slave may be seen howling for his master. But only slaves are allowed to weep. Sometimes the young warrior is mounted on his steed, sometimes is seen charging in the midst of battle. But, for the most part, all is ideal beauty, peace, and love.

Heraldic emblems

There is here no vain pomp, no arrogance of wealth and power, heraldic emblems, swords, coronets, and robes of state walking tours ephesus. Neither is there the horror or the ecstasy, the impossible angels, the grotesque demons, the skulls or the palm branches with which we moderns have been wont to bedizen our funeral monuments. It recalls to us our poet’s In Memoriam — a work too of calm and ideal art — towards the latest phase of the poet’s bereavement. It seems as if the sculptor spoke to us in the words of the late Laureate: —

‘ No longer caring to embalm

In dying songs a dead regret,

But like a statue solid set,

And moulded in colossal calm.’

Impressions — first impressions of Athens throng on the mind so closely and so vividly, that they are not easily reduced to order. A visit to Athens is worth the study of a hundred books, whether classical or recent. Any man who has sailed round Greece from the Ionian Sea to the Aigean, and up the Gulf of Corinth, and thence to that of Aigina and Eleusis, at once perceives that Greece was destined by nature to be, not so much the country of a settled nation, as the mere pied-a-terre of a wonderful race whose mission was to penetrate over the whole Mediterranean and its shores.

The Modern City

With all this, there was about the great cities of the Middle Ages a noble spirit of civic life and energy, an ever-present love of Art, a zeal for good work as good work, and a deep under-lying sense of social duty and personal faithfulness. A real and sacred bond held the master and his apprentices together, the master workman to his men, the craftsman to his gild-brethren, the gild- men in the mass as a great aggregate corporation. Each burgher’s house was his factory and workshop, each house, each parish, each gild, each town had its own patron saint, its own special church, its own feudal patron, its corporate life, its own privileges, traditions, and emblems.

Thus grew up for the whole range of the artificer’s life, for the civic life, for the commercial life, a profound sense of consecrated rule which amounted to a kind of religion of Industry, a sort of patriotism of Industry, an Art of Industry, the like of which has never existed before or since. It was in ideal and in aim (though alas! not often in fact) the highest form of secular life that human society has yet reached. It rested ultimately, though somewhat vaguely, on religious Duty. And it produced a sense of mutual obligation between master and man, employer and employed, old and young, rich and poor, wise and ignorant. To restore the place of this sense of social obligation in Industry, the world has been seeking and experimenting now for these four centuries past adventure balkan tours.

The Modern City

It is needless to describe the modern city: we all know what it is, some of us too well. The first great fact about the Modern City is that it is in a far lower stage of organic life. It is almost entirely bereft of any religious, patriotic, or artistic character as a whole. There is in modern cities a great deal of active religious life, much public spirit, in certain parts a love of beauty, taste, and cultivation of a special kind. But it is not embodied in the city; it is not associated with the city; it does not radiate from the city. The Modern City is ever changing, loose in its organization, casual in its form. It grows up, or extends suddenly, no man knows how, in a single generation — in America in a single decade. Its denizens come and go, pass on, changing every few years and even months. Few families have lived in the same city for three successive generations. An Athenian, Syracusan, Roman family had dwelt in their city for twenty generations.

A typical industrial city of modern times has no founder, no traditional heroes, no patrons or saints, no emblem, no .history, no definite circuit. In a century, it changes its population over and over again, and takes on two or three different forms. In ten or twenty years it evolves a vast new suburb, a mere wen of bricks or stone, with no god or demi-god for its founder, but a speculative builder, a syndi-cate or a railway. The speculative builder or the company want a quick return for their money. The new suburb is occupied by people who are so busy, and in such a hurry to get to work, that in taking a house, their sole inquiry is — how near is it to the station, or where the tram-car puts you down.

Two generations preceding 1789

In the two generations preceding 1789, such Englishmen as Boling- broke, Hume, Adam Smith, Priestley, Bentham, John Howard (one might almost claim part, at least, of Burke and of Pitt); such Americans as Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson; such Italians as Beccaria and Galiani; such Germans as Lessing, Goethe, Frederick the Great, and Joseph 11., had as much part in it as Voltaire, Montesquieu, Turgot, Diderot, and Condorcet, and the rest of the French thinkers who are specially associated in our thoughts with the movement so ill-described as the French Revolution.

By the efforts of such men every element of modern society, and every political institution as we now know it, had been reviewed and debated — not, indeed, with any coherent doctrine, and utterly without system or method. The reformers differed much amongst themselves, and there were almost as many schemes of political philosophy, of social economy, or practical organisation, as there were writers and speakers. But in the result, what we now call modern Europe emerged, recast in State, in Church, in financial, commercial, and industrial organisation, with a new legal system, a new fiscal system, a humane code, and religious equality.

Over the whole of Europe the civil and criminal code was entirely recast; cruel punishments, barbarous sentences, anomalies, and confusion were swept away; the treatment of criminals, of the sick, of the insane, and of the destitute was subjected to a continuous and systematic reform, of which we have as yet seen only the first instalment. The whole range of fiscal taxation, local and imperial, external and internal, direct and indirect, has been in almost every part of Western Europe entirely reformed. A new local administration on the principle of departments, subdivided into districts, cantons, and communes, has been established in France, and thence copied in a large part of Europe customized tours istanbul.

The old feudal system of territorial law

The old feudal system of territorial law, which in England had been to a great extent reformed at the Civil War, was recast not only in France but in the greater part of Western Europe. Protestants, Jews, and Dissenters of all orders practically obtained full toleration and the right of worship. The monstrous corruption and wealth of the remnants of the mediaeval Church was reduced to manageable proportions. Public education became one of the great functions of the State. Public health, public morality, science, art, industry, roads, posts, and trade became the substantive business of government. These are ‘the ideas of ’89’ — these are the ideas which for two generations before ’89 Europe had been preparing, and which for three generations since ’89 she has been systematically working out.

We have just taken a rapid survey of Franee in its political and material organisation down to 1789, let us take an equally rapid survey of the new institutions which 1789 so loudly proclaimed, and so stormily introduced.

For the old patriarchal, proprietary, de jure theory of rule, there was everywhere substituted on the continent of Europe the popular, fiduciary, pro bono publico notion of rule. Government ceased to be the privilege of the ruler; it became a trust imposed on the ruler for the common weal of the ruled. Long before 1789 this general idea had been established in England and in the United States.

West Saxon’s indignation

‘ But no decent historian ever does intend to state what he knows to be an error,’ said Phil, somewhat surprised at the warmth of the West Saxon’s indignation.

‘ I should think not indeed,’ said Wessex; ‘ no one but a thief intends to take what is not his own, and no one but a liar means to state what he knows to be untrue. But the historian of all men is bound by the sanctities of his office to what we call in Roman law summa diligentia. And to be thinking of his “pictures,” of the scheme of his colours and other literary effects, forms a most dangerous temptation to adopt the picturesque form of a story in place of the recorded truth. Unfortunately, as we know to our sorrow, the materials of the historian are of almost every sort — good, doubtful, and worthless; the so-called histories go on copying one another, adding something to heighten the lights out of quite second-rate authority; a wrong reference, a false date, a hearsay anecdote gets into accepted histories, and it costs years of labour to get the truth at last. If you ever hope to be a historian, you must treat historical falsehood as you would a mad dog, and never admit a phrase or a name which suggests an untruth private sofia tours.’

‘ Has not this purism been a little overdone? ’ said the innocent freshman. ‘I remember that Freeman once told us he could not bear to speak of the Battle of Hastings, lest some one should imagine that it began on the seashore.’

Replied the Bede

‘A fine example of scrupulous love of truth,’ replied the Bede, ‘and I wish that all histories of England had been written in a similar spirit. Can anything be more unscholarly than a readiness to accept a statement which we have not probed to the core, simply because it works up into a telling picture, or will point an effective paragraph? It is positively dishonest! And some of them will quote you a passage which you discover, on collating it with the original, has a blunder in every sentence, and a mistranslation in every page. If you write a romance, you may go to your imagination for your facts. If you write history, you should scrupulously extract the best contemporary record, and throw everything else into the fire. I sometimes wish that histories were not published at all in the current English of literature, but were plain and disconnected propositions of fact, like the cuneiform inscriptions of Daryavush at Behistun.’

‘Surely,’ cried Phil, with a laugh, ‘that would be a little dull! It would be a mere lexicon. No one could get up Facciolati or Littrd as we get up Herodotus. Besides, the enormous number of propositions, each of which might fairly be called “ truth,” would make history impossible even for the most prodigious memory.’

‘You forget,’ said the tutor, ‘that we treat history in “periods” of short or, at any rate, of manageable length. Nobody has any business out of his own “period,” and if he trespasses on to another man’s “period,” he is pretty certain to be caught. The “ periods ” in our schools are far, far too long, and encourage superficial and flashy habits of reading. I remember dear old Bodley, late Professor of Palaeography, who was before your time, saying that ten years in the fourteenth century was about as much as any man should try to master. He died, poor old boy, before his great book was ever got into shape at all; and perhaps ten years is rather short for a distinct period. But it takes a good man to know as much as a century, as it ought to be known. And one of our greatest living masters in history, with enormous industry and perseverance, just manages to write the events of one year in the seventeenth century within each twelve-months of his own laborious life.’

Politically vigorous

With these threefold sources of corruption—war, slavery, false belief — the Roman empire, so magnificent without, was a rotten fabric within. Politically vigorous, morally it was diseased. Never perhaps has the world witnessed cases of such stupendous moral corruption, as when immense power, boundless riches, and native energy were left as they were then without object, control, or shame. Then, from time to time, there broke forth a very orgy of wanton strength. But its hour was come. The best spirits were all filled with a sense of the hollowness and corruption around them. Statesmen, poets, and philosophers in all these last eras were pouring forth their complaints and fears, or feebly attempting remedies. The new element had long been making its way unseen, had long been preparing the ground, and throughout the civilised world there was rising up a groan of weariness and despair.

For three centuries a belief in the existence of one God alone, in whom were concentrated all power and goodness, who cared for the moral guidance of mankind, a belief in the immortality of the soul and its existence in another state, had been growing up in the minds of the best Greek thinkers. The noble morality of their philosophers had taken strong hold of the higher consciences of Rome, and had diffused amongst the better spirits throughout the empire new and purer types. Next the great empire itself, forcing all nations in one state, had long inspired in its worthiest members a sense of the great brotherhood of mankind, had slowly mitigated the worst evils of slavery, and paved the way for a religious society. Thirdly, another and a greater cause was at work guided tours turkey.

Overruling Creator

Through Greek teachers the world had long been growing familiar with the religious ideas of Asia, its conceptions of a superhuman world, of a world of spirit, angel, demon, future state, and overruling Creator, with its mystical imagery, its spiritual poetry, its intense zeal and fervent emotion. And now, partly from the contact with Greek thought and Roman civilisation, a great change was taking place in the very heart of that small Jewish race, of all the races of Asia known to us the most intense, imaginative, and pure: possessing a high sense of personal morality, the keenest yearnings of the heart, and the deepest capacity for spiritual fervour.

In their midst arose a fellowship of devoted brethren, gathered around one noble and touching character, which adoration has veiled in mystery till he passes from the pale of definite history. On them had dawned the vision of a new era of their national faith, which should expand the devotion of David, the spiritual zeal of Isaiah, and the moral power of Samuel into a gentler, wider, and more loving spirit.

How this new idea grew to the height of a new religion, and was shed over the whole earth by the strength of its intensity and its purity, is to us a familiar tale. We know how the first fellowship of the brethren met; how they went forth with words of mercy, love, justice, and hope; we know their self-denial, humility, and zeal; their heroic lives and awful deaths; their loving natures and their noble purposes; how they gathered around them wherever they came the purest and greatest; how across mountains, seas, and continents the communion of saints joined in affectionate trust; how from the deepest corruption of the heart arose a yearning for a truer life; how the new faith, ennobling the instincts of human nature, raised up the slave, the poor, and the humble to the dignity of common manhood, and gave new meaning to the true nature of womanhood; how, by slow degrees, the church, with its rule of right, of morality, and of communion, arose; how the first founders and apostles of this faith lived and died, and all their gifts were concentrated in one, of all the characters of certain history doubtless the loftiest and purest — the unselfish, the great-hearted Paul.

Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus

“Well, you have had quite a day’s work,” says the missionary, as they turn at length toward the hotel once more. “ It has been rather a busy day,” says the visitor, ruefully, for he feels that he has had a surfeit of missions, and has walked almost twenty miles besides. He is glad enough that the time is short when the missionary goes on to apologize because time does not allow him to be taken to other congregations in the city connected with the Mission. One of them is in Hasskeuy on the Golden Horn, another is in Scutari, on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, and not far from that great hospital where Florence Nightingale did her work as a nurse during the Crimean war. Besides these there are also an English service for the students of the Girls’ College in Scutari, another English service for the students of Robert College on the Bosphorus, a congregation of some forty Armenians at the house of Dr. Washburn for whom Mrs. Washburn always sees that a preacher is provided, and another little congregation of as many more Armenians and Greeks together at one of the districts farther up the Bosphorus.

American Board’s mission in Constantinople

visitor is quite willing to admit that the work of the American Board’s mission in Constantinople is not solely educational work. He does not need to be dragged about to see all these other congregations. And in the evening as he thinks it over at his hotel, tired as he is with gadding, he is glad that there are men and women who are not too tired with the labours of the week to use their day of rest in trying to aid the spiritual development of this medley of peoples. For at this meeting point of the continents this kind of work, if properly maintained must end in teaching men and women over large expanses of territory to know Jesus Christ, must attract them to follow Him, and must inspire them to do the same kind of work for their fellows in all the places where they live or to which they go for business or pleasure. The work of the mission is the slow work of influencing the roots of character. But let the friends of Jesus Christ in the western lands support this work as it should be supported, and we shall begin to see that the awakening of the Eastern Church from its long lethargy has begun private ephesus tours.

The missionary does not merely preach to the people. He seeks to win a place in their hearts by all means in his power.

Among the motley crowds in the streets of Constantinople are seen great numbers of coarsely dressed villagers, in blue cotton clothing with a bright handkerchief perhaps around the head and a gaily coloured shawl wound about the waist to keep together the loose and unfitted clothing. Some of these are Kourds, who arc the burden bearers, and the ditch-diggers of the city, and some are Armenians, who are the masons and carpenters, and the hod-carriers of every enterprise in building houses.

All such have come from their homes at the ends of the Empire, often plodding on foot for two or three weeks to reach a sea-port, and then crowding the decks of the steamers with their bedding and their food bags because they are unable to pay the cost of even a steerage ticket. In the city they live in masses together, six or eight men hiring a room and making it their home during four or five years while they are earning enough money to make it worth while for them to return again to visit their families.

European colony without really knowing

With rare exceptions the result of this state of affairs is that the Turk, if in official position, rubs shoulders with the best part of the European colony without really knowing one of them, or if he is in common life he merely looks at them afar off. In either case the European with whom the Turk comes into real contact is the profligate one—the one who to whom the Turk might perhaps teach morals, or else it is the half-blood Levantine who poses as a European on the strength of his right to wear a hat. The idea of the Western civilization received by the Turk from either of these is that it centres about wine, women, and the roulette table. If he had before no tendency to haunt the drinking houses and brothels of Pera, the Turk gets the impulse to do so from the “ Europeans ” whom he has met, and that very rapidly makes an end of him.

Civilization represented by Western commercial enterprise and isolated from religious principle has been in contact with the people of Constantinople for many many years. Since the Crimean War it has had untrammelled sway. Some of the externals of environment have benefited from this contact. Individuals may sometimes have been lifted out of the quagmires of the mass of the population by glimpses of what manhood really is. But there is no question as to the general result. The result has been the moral deterioration of the city, and the strengthening of the repulsion felt by Turks toward the West.

Constantinople dealt

One of the leading Turkish papers of Constantinople dealt with this subject not long ago. It said that the one positive influence of Western civilization is against faith in God and in favour of drunkenness and debauchery. It pointed to the great number of disorderly houses in Pera, which engulf and destroy large numbers of Mohammedan youth, and it declared in open terms that the family life of Europeans living in Pera is such as to lead to the supposition that marital fidelity is not known there. “ We want none of this Christian civilization,” said the Turk jeep safari bulgaria.

The syndicate of European officials who constitute the Administrators of the Turkish Public Debt, have multiplied several fold the places in Constantinople where liquor is sold. They are proud of this, for it has added to the revenues derived from the tax on liquors and has brought dividends to the holders of Turkish bonds. But it is worthy of note that during two hundred years of commercial intercourse between the Turkish people and civilized Europe, the mercantile colonists living in Constantinople in all the splendour of superior culture, enterprise and business success, have not once tried to do anything for the improvement of the minds or the morals of the native population, whether Mohammedan or Christian. It was the missionary spirit in Roman Catholic and Protestant churches which first gave the city schools that could teach and school books which children could understand.

Even Armenian and Greek women

A few years ago one of these dervishes discovered a new method of wider influence in making his wife a member of the dervish order and advancing her to as high a rank as himself. From that moment his fortune was made. The man in a room full of men, and the wife in a room full of women, exercised the gift of healing by reciting intricate formulas over the heads of patients, and by blowing in their faces. A single breath from one of these workers of magic was held to be worth a whole drug store full of mere medicine, and the pair received two or three hundred dollars at a sitting. Even Armenian and Greek women came in numbers to partake of the benefits of this combination, and swell its revenues.

It is the women of the country who hold to such remedies for the nervous fears of childhood as this: The cause of the fear is that a demon has secretly shown himself to the child. The remedy is to take a bullet which has been fifed from a gun, to melt it, and to pour the melted lead into a basin of water in which the child has been washed after being prepared by reciting over it appropriate verses of Scripture. The lead must be poured out in three portions, and then the remnant poured into the water will assume the form and appearance of the offending demon. If the lead last poured into the water is carefully preserved and hung about the neck of the child, the demon will recognize his likeness and fearing to be interfered with now that he is found out, lie will show himself no more in the neighbourhood of the child. It is the women, too, who insist at the time of a conflagration, that after the fire is extinguished a sheep must be killed and its blood mixed with the water of the fire-engine so that it may be thrown for good luck ” over the house at which the fire was stayed. The men may or may not believe in these follies, but they are as wax in the hands of the wives, who always find means to bring them to assist in the most heathenish incantations private tours istanbul.

Another element of this Woman Question is this. The women, notwithstanding all this ignorance and unfitness to guide others, hold ultimate sway over the conduct of the men. The tangled intrigues for place and power which centre in the harem form the key to many vicissitudes of Turkish history.

 Poland as a result of a war of the Harem

In the reign of Sultan Mohammed IV., Turkey became involved in war with Poland as a result of a war of the Harem. One of the Sultan’s wives was jealous of the influence of the Sultan’s mother. To secure the downfall of that lady, the wife thought it a small thing to invite the King of Poland to invade Turkey which seemed unprepared for war, to stain vast regions with blood, and to hope that the army upon the first defeat would depose the Sultan, her own husband. In order to carry out this precious scheme the woman had first made the Grand Vezir her devoted slave. But the Sultan unexpectedly defeated the Polish army in battle, captured the treasonable correspondence of his wife and unearthed the whole plot. So the Sultan’s mother had the grim pleasure of seeing the head of her rival carried out of the palace in the same basket with those of the Grand Vezir and the other conspirators.

Sultan Ahmed 1. picked up a Greek girl some-where, named Kiusen. She was not beautiful, but she ruled the Sultan by her bright and pleasing wit. Kiusen, after securing the aid of a man whom she caused to be appointed Grand Vezir in reward for his services, devoted her life to the advancement of her sons to the throne of Turkey in place of older princes, the children of less keen-witted wives.

She succeeded in making and unmaking Sultans as well as Prime Ministers, and at last, when in the seventieth year of her age she was strangled in order to end her jealous intrigues, she had ruled the Empire through the reign of four successive Sultans— her husband, her two sons, and her grandson— while her quarrels with the mother of the last of these four had brought the Turkish Empire to the verge of disruption and had destroyed several of its ablest statesmen. One cannot but feel sympathy with the feeling that gives to such women their power on reading the reply of Sultan Abd ul Mejid, the father of the present Sultan Abd ul Hamid, to Lord Stratfoid de Redcliffe when that great Ambassador hinted that a little less subservience on the part of the Sovereign to the wishes of the Sultan’s mother would be advantageous to Turkey. Said the Sultan: “ I have a thousand servants and wives and dependents and grovelling courtiers in my palace, but I have only one true friend; and that is my mother.”

Jesus Christ over the heathen world

When Constantine, 1500 years ago, was marking out lines of fortification for his new capital, some of his couriers, surprised at the greatness of the included space, asked “ How far are you going to carry the lines?” “ Until lie stops who goes before me,” was the answer of the Emperor. He deemed the city to belong to Jesus Christ; a token of the triumph of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ over the heathen world. To emphasize this idea, Justinian in reconstructing the Cathedral of St. Sophia, tore from the temples of Jupiter, and Venus, and Diana, and Baal, and Astarte, and Isis, and Osiris through all the region of the Eastern Mediterranean, their finest marbles and most noble columns. And the gracious majesty of that venerable monument to the overthrow of paganism still draws visitors from all parts of the world.

The name of Mohammed gleaming

The church is now a Mohammedan mosque. The name of Mohammed gleaming in letters of gold by the side of the name of God above the place where the Christian altar used to be, testifies to the failure and downfall of Oriental Christianity in that place, and makes this ancient Cathedral a monument to warn men of the doom awaiting political Christianity everywhere. Knowing by experience, ourselves, the blinding splendour of the temptation when the devil insidiously offers to satisfy all cravings of selfishness in return for some small concession—the Kingdoms of the earth in return for admission that the glory of such possession will content our cravings —we may not judge too harshly the fall of the early Church into this snare. But thus it was that this Church, after celebrating here in the fourth century the triumph of Christianity over the pagan world, became itself in the tenth century an object lesson in the capacity of the old pagan covetousness and lust for power to deaden disinterested devotion to Jesus Christ, so that in the fifteenth century the Lord “ removed its candlestick out of its place sightseeing sofia.”

Eastern Roman Empire

By the time that Islam finally crushed the Eastern Roman Empire, the name of Constantinople had long been synonymous in Western Asia with Imperial power. The Arabs to this day give it the dreadful name of Imperial Rome (Rourn) and know its sovereign as the Sultan of Rome. To the people of the whole region between Bokhara and Afghanistan and the Mediterranean this city is the wonderful place where might and wealth and knowledge take their source. As for the Turkish Empire the whole mass of doleful, disheartened territory is a mere appendage to Constantinople. Throughout its whole extent not a church nor a school, nor a factory nor a sawmill nor a village road nor a bridge over a rivulet can be built, not a book or newspaper can be printed nor a printing press set up, not a single petty official can take office without examination of the question at Constantinople. To this city young men in all Turkey look for their career, merchants for their goods, farmers for their market, mechanics for a field for their skill, and day-laborer’s for unlimited employment.

The whole male population of the Empire has for its ideal of success in life the opportunity to spend some years in Constantinople, and a large part of each successive generation attains to this ideal and is thus more or less formed by the influences of the great city. The eyes of all religious denominations too, instinctively turn to Constantinople for instruction in doctrine and polity and for the crown of successful effort. There lives the great head of Mohammedanism in all the world. There the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church still sits in the chair of Chrysostom, unmoved by the vain and restless curiosity respecting the nature of truth which first drove the Western Church into schism, and then tore the wandering schismatics of Rome into separate and discordant sects of many names.

Four or five miles from Constantinople

We had a wild scamper over the hills again ; but, when four or five miles from Constantinople, it got so dark that we were obliged to pull up and walk our horses, on account of the bad road and the holes. At last we saw the lights of Pera, and once more threaded our way amongst the dogs and people, along its narrow Street, to the hotel.

It was very hot indeed that night. The wind went round, and changed to the stifling sirocco. As such, I knew my fate, and prepared to lie down the whole of the next day with a feverish head-ache, gasping instead of breathing — such being the invariable effects of the blighting wind upon me. These, however, lasted no longer than the cause, and when the refreshing breeze came down again from the Euxine, I was at once as well as ever. As this was the only indisposition I suffered from, during the whole of my absence from England, with every change of temperature, climate, diet, and general habits, that could try a constitution, T always considered myself very fortunate, and was grateful accordingly city tours istanbul. It must be very sad to be laid up for any time with illness in a strange country; and although a clever Turkish member of our own College of Surgeons, Mr. Zohrab, is practising in Pera, I preferred dispensing altogether with his assistance.

PRINCE’S ISLAND, AND ITS POPULAR AMUSEMENTS

Home superstition becomes sadly upset when we find that Friday is considered the most fortunate day of the week, in the East, and the Turks like to begin or perform any work on that day, accordingly- It is also their Sabbath; and, during the fine weather, the women go in crowds to the Sweet Waters of Asia — a beautiful valley near the fortress of Hissari, on the Bosphorus, watered by the River Goksu. They spread their carpets here, and pass the day in admiring themselves in mirrors, smoking, chatting, and eating sweetmeats. I was told that many flirtations were originated on these occasions, but with Moslem gallants. There is not a chance for a Frank traveller to establish one ; and, therefore, when such a one boasts of any success in this particular line, whatever else he says may be believed as fully — at least, in nine cases out of ten. All I know from my own experience is, that every attempt I made at philandering with the belles of Stamboul, and once or twice under unusual advantages, turned out a total, not to say contemptible, failure.

Cashmere shawls

Smyrna had, in some measure, prepared me for the general appearance of an oriental bazaar; but the vast extent of these markets at Constantinople created a still more vivid impression. To say that the covered rows of shops must, altogether, be miles in length — that vista after vista opens upon the gaze of the astonished stranger, lined with the costliest productions of the world, each collected in its proper district — that one may walk for an hour, without going over the same ground twice, amidst diamonds, gold, and ivory; Cashmere shawls, and Chinese silks; glittering arms, costly perfumes, embroidered slippers, and mirrors; rare brocades, ermines, Morocco leathers, Persian nick-nacks; amber mouth-pieces, and jewelled pipes —that, looking along the shortest avenue, every known tint and color meets the eye at once, in the wares and costumes, and that the noise, the motion, the novelty of this strange spectacle are at first perfectly bewildering — all the possibly gives the reader the notion of some kind of splendid mart fitted to supply the wants of the glittering personages who figure in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments; yet it can convey but a poor idea of the real interest which such a place calls forth, or the most extraordinary assemblage of treasures displayed there, amidst so much apparent shabbiness.

Elegant street

No spot in the world — neither the Parisian Boulevards, nor our own Elegant-street — can boast of such an accumulation of valuable wares from afar, as the great bazaar at Constantinople. Hundreds and thousands of miles of rocky road and sandy desert have been traversed by the moaning camels who have carried those silks and precious stones from Persia, with the caravan. From the wild regions of the mysterious central Africa, that ivory, so cunningly worked, in the next row, has been brought — the coal-black people only know how — until the Nile floated it down to Lower Egypt. Then those soft Cashmere shawls have made a long and treacherous journey to Trebizond, whence the fleet barks of the cold and stormy Euxine at last brought them up the fairy Bosphorus to the very water’s edge of the city. From the remote active America; from sturdy England ; from Cadiz, Marseilles, and all along the glowing shores of the Mediterranean, safely carried over the dark and leaping sea, by brave iron monsters that have fought the winds with their scalding breath, — these wares have come, to tempt the purchasers in the pleasant, calm, subdued light of the bazaars of Stamboul.

I have said that each article has its proper bazaar assigned to it. Tims, there L one row for muslins, another for slippers, another for fezzes, for shawls, for arms, for drugs, and so on. let there is no competition amongst the shopkeepers. No struggling to out-placard or out-ad verity each other, as would oeuvre with us in cool-headed, feverish, crafty, credulous London. You must not expect them to pull one thing down after another for yon to look at, until it appears hopeless to conceive that the counter will ever again be tidy, or everything returned to its place. The merchant will show you what you ask for, but no more. He imagines that when you came to buy at his store, you had made up your mind as to what you wanted; and that, not finding it, you will go elsewhere, and leave him to his pipe again.

He knows how to charge, though, but he is easily open to conviction that he has asked too high a price. For the way of dealing with him is as follows. Wanting one of the light scarfs with the fringed ends, which supersede the use of braces in the Levant, I inquired the price at a bazaar stall. The man told me fifty piastres, (half a sovereign.) I immediately offered him five-and- twenty. This he did not take, and I was walking away, when he called me back, and said I should have it. I told him, as he had tried to cheat me, I would not give him more than twenty, now; upon which, without any hesitation, he said it was mine. This plan I afterwards pursued, whenever I made a purchase at Constantinople, and I most generally found it answer. My merry friend at Smyrna had given me the first lesson in its practicability private tour ephesus.

I do not suppose that they ask these high prices, as the French do, because they suppose we are made of money; I believe, on the contrary, that they try to impose on their own countrymen in the same manner; for, to judge from the long haggling and solemn argument which takes place when they buy of each other, the same wide difference of opinion as to a fair value exists between the purchaser and vendor, under every circumstance.

Considered contagious except money

When a ship arrives in a quarantine port, from a suspected district, she is placed under the strictest surveillance. Attendants from the health-office are put on board: everything sent on shore has to undergo purification—if goods, by quarantine; if letters, by fumigation—in fact, everything is considered contagious except money, which is simply received in a vessel of water at the end of a pole by the people in the boats. On the other hand, everything from the shore, touched by anything or any body on the ship, is at once contaminated, and subject to the same quarantine. At Malta, this circumstance leads to many rows with the homeward bound passengers. Yaletta is famous for the manufacture of fine mittens and black lace; and when the overland steamers arrive, the quarantine harbour is filled with the boats of the dealers.

The articles are handed up in boxes at the ends of poles for inspection. The unthinking passengers turn them over to look at, and are immediately compelled to take the whole, because their touch has infected them. At Beyrout, speculators occasionally put off with Syrian curiosities—chaplets of olive-stones, from the Mount of Olives; cedar cones from Lebanon, and the like. On the occasion to which I now allude, a sharp touter had got ahead of his companions, and was beginning to treat with some passengers; selling the aforesaid wonders, and recommending dragomen. The engineer had, as is common, a little bird in his cabin, that was very tame, and used to be permitted to fly about the deck and rigging. It was loose on the morning of the arrival, and when the tooter came alongside, innocently perched on his shoulder. In an instant the quick-eyed guardians observed it. The poor tooter was declared compromised by the contact. He was hurried off to the lazaretto, in spite of his protestations and arguments, for ten days; and the engineer, as owner of the bird, was compelled to pay all the expenses of his incarceration.

The other case was more annoying still. In every lazaretto is a place called the parlatorio, at which the inmates may communicate with their friends. It is very like the grating used for the same purpose at our prisons. There is a double wall of bars, with a space of six or seven feet between them; and articles are pushed backwards and forwards on boards which run across communist bulgaria tour, in boxes fixed to poles. A person in quarantine received a visit from a friend on the first day of his confinement. Laden with treasures of travel, he was exhibiting some beautiful feathers to his friend, when a sudden puff of wind dispersed the collection, and by an evil chance blew one between the bars into the bosom of his innocent visitor.

The unfortunate weight

The unfortunate weight was directly condemned. All egress was denied him; he was told that, of all things, feathers were peculiarly susceptible of plague; and he had to join his friend for the whole term of his imprisonment. In fine, the laws of quarantine appear to be the most rigid of any existing, and cannot by any influence or interest, be evaded. This is not so much to be wondered at when the various incomes derived from enforcing them are taken into consideration; and, indeed, this appears to be, at present, the sole cause of their continuance.

There was a large quantity of beasts of burden awaiting the turn-out—camels, horses, and donkeys. The boys who attended the latter were sad young scamps—little dusky chaps with nothing on but what seemed to be a long blue bedgown. When a stranger appeared, they caught their donkeys by the head, and backed them, all in a heap, against him. In vain the valet beat them furiously about the head, face, and naked legs. They only fell back for an instant, and then all returned to the charge again, shouting, “ I say, master—good jackass ! ” Somehow or another, I was hustled on to one of the donkeys—I am sure I don’t know how; I never chose one—and then we set off at a quick easy amble towards Alexandria.

Arnaudkoi

Our men rowed very well, and we soon came to a village called Arnaudkoi, where the current is very rapid, and at times dangerous, the banks forming the outer curve of a sharp sweep in the stream. The boatmen here shipped their oars, for persons were in waiting to tow the caiques round the bend, it being impossible to row against the current. They were here always for the purpose, taking the boats in turn, and they received a few paras for their trouble. Further on, the same thing was repeated, and indeed at every sudden turn some poor fellows were waiting to track us.

The houses continued uninterruptedly along the shore, and they were nearly all built after the same style, and of wood. Here and there a new edifice was being raised upon a European model, but it did not appear to be so much in keeping with the scene, as the green, and dove, and claycoloured houses of the Turks. There is a lightness about these little buildings which is very pretty and effective. They look, from a short distance, as if made of card-board, and one cannot help thinking that a single candle within would illuminate their entire form, like the cottages the Italians carry about on their heads in our streets private tour Istanbul.

There are very many palaces amongst them, belonging to the Sultan and the great people of his court; and on the summits of some of the mountains are royal kiosks, wherever a beautiful view is to be commanded. In the absence of all artistic impressions, the Turks are great admirers of Nature. Fields and forests, blue water and skies, sunny air and bright flower gardens, are the great sources of their happiness. The state of idle listless dreaming into which the contemplation of these objects throws them, they call Kef. We have no word that answers to this; busy anxious England has not allowed one to be invented.

But it is a very pleasant repose—one that teems with images far more real and beautiful than the deadly opium or hasheesh can call up, and so, these little kiosks, dedicated to the idlest inactivity of mind and body, are perched about the hills of the Bosphorus, and there the Turk dreams away his leisure time, drinking in the bright and lovely prospects around him, with only the bubbling of the narghile to assist rather than intrude upon his unstrained contemplations.

 Monte Cristo

With respect to the hasheesh, of which I have just spoken, a word or two may not be out of place. I had been so excited by the accounts I had read of its effects in “ Monte-Cristo,” that I was very anxious to try some; and Demetri bought me samples of two or three different preparations of it, somewhere on the sly. One sort was like greenish candy; another was of the same colour, but soft, and in a tin box; another was dark, and resembled black-currant jam; and a fourth was in powder. All tasted sufficiently nasty.

The second was the least offensive, being mixed up with honey and bitter almonds. Of the first I took a tolerable quantity; but the effect was not proportioned to my expectations. I felt rather giddy and buoyant, but nothing further: yet the dragoman assured me that I had swallowed more than the ordinary quantity. “ Once,” he said, “ a waiter found some in the hotel, and ate it all, not knowing what it was. He laughed all night long, and the next day was very sick, and cried.” Much, in a case of this kind, must depend upon the idiosyncrasy of the individual who swallows it. I have said, with myself, the hasheesh was a failure: I may mention, at the same time, that no quantity of wine or spirits, however large, has ever any effect upon my head; so that it does not follow that its exhibition would be similarly innocuous upon everybody.

PROFIT TO BE DERIVED FROM THE THREATENINGS OF GOD

Now let us return to our subject, and proceed. After we had escaped from these two perils, the king sat himself on he bulwark of the ship, and made me sit at his feet, and spoke hues: “Seneschal, our God has shown us His great power 1 this: that a little wind not one of the four great master hends! has come near to drowning the King of France, is wife, and his children, and all his company. Now are we found to give Him grace and thanks for the peril from which .e has delivered us. Seneschal,” said the king, “ such tribulations, when they come to people, or great sicknesses, I great persecutions, are, as the saints tell us, the threaten- digs of our Saviour.

For just as God says to those who scape from great sicknesses: ‘ Now see how I might have trough your life to an end, had/such been My will,’ even so oculi He now say to us: ‘ You see how I might have drowned of all, had such been My will,’ Now ought we,” continued he king, “ to look to ourselves, and see if there is anything n us that displeases Him, and on account whereof He has hues placed us in fear and jeopardy; and if we find anything n us that displeases Him, we should cast it out. For if we lo otherwise, after the warning He has given us, He will mite us with death, or with some other great tribulation, to he destruction of our bodies and of our souls.” And the The present king, Philip the Fair, whose sister Blanche named Rudolph, the son of the King or Emperor of Germany.

king added: “ Seneschal, the saint says: Lord God, why dost thou threaten us? For if thou destroys us all, Thou wilt be none the poorer; and if Thou saves as alive Thou wilt be none the richer. Whereby we may see,’ says the saint, ‘ that the warnings that God gives us can neither be to His advantage, nor save Him from harm; and that it is only out of His great love that He sends His warnings to awaken us bulgaria tour, so that we may see our defects clearly, and remove from us all that is displeasing to Him.’ Now let us do this,” said the king, “ and we shall be acting wisely.”

THE ISLE OF LAMPEDOUSA

We left the island of Cyprus after we had watered there, and taken in such other things as we required. Then we came to an isle called Lampedousa, where we took a great quantity of conies; and we found an ancient hermitage ir the rocks, and found the garden that the hermits who dwell there had made of old time: where were olives, and figs, and vines, and other trees. The stream from the fountain rare through the garden. The king, and we all, went to the end of the garden, and found an oratory in the first cave, white-washed with lime, and there was there a cross of red earth We entered into the second cave, and found two bodies oil dead men, with the flesh all decayed; the ribs yet held al together, and the bones of the hands were on their breasts and they were laid towards the East, in the same manner that bodies are laid in the earth. ‘When we got back to out ship, we found that one of our mariners was missing; and the master of the ship thought he had remained there to be a hermit: wherefore Nicholas of Soisi, who was the king’s master sergeant, left three bags of biscuit on the shore, so that the mariner might find them, and subsist thereon.

Soldan without first speaking

The master told these things to the king; and the king was greatly surprised, and sari; the master had been over bold in holding speech or negotiating with the Soldan without first speaking to him, the king; and the king added that reparation should be made. And the reparation was made in this wise: The king caused the flaps of three of his pavilions to he raised; and all the commonalty of the host who would, had leave to assemble there and see what was toward. And thither came the Master of the Temple, and all his brotherhood of knights, all barefoot, right through the camp, because their quarters were outside.

Soldan’s envoy

And the king caused the Master of the Temple to sit in front of him, and also the Soldan’s envoy; and the king said to the master, in a loud voice: “ Master, you will tell the Soldan’s envoy that it repents you that you have made any treaty with the Soldan without first speaking to me; and because you did not first so speak to me, you must hold the Soldan discharged from what he has covenanted, and return him all his cove nans.” Thereupon the master took the written agreements and gave them to the emir; and then the master said: “ I give you back the agreements that I entered into wrong fully; whereof it repented me.”

Then the king told the master to rise, and to cause all the brethren to rise; and he did so. And the king said: “ Now kneel, and make reparation, because you have gone to the Soldan against my will.” The master knelt, and handed the end of his mantle to the king, and gave over to the king all that they possessed to take therefrom such fine and penalty as the king might determine. “ And I declare in the first place,” said the king, “ that Brother Hugh, who made these agreements, shall be banished from all the realm of Jerusalem.” Neither the master, who was godfather with the king to the Count 01 Alenfon, boom at Castle Pilgrim, nor even the queen, no: any other, was able to do aught on behalf of Brother Hugh he had to avoid the Holy Land and the kingdom of Jerusalem.

The queen was brought to bed of a son

The queen was brought to bed of a son, who had for name John; and they called him Trist ram for the great sorrow and anguish that were about his birth. On the very day that she was brought to bed, she was told that those of Pisa, and Genoa, and the other free cities, were minded to flee away; and on the day following she had them all called before her bed, so that the chamber was quite full, and said to them:

Lords, for God’s sake do not leave this city; for you see if this city were lost, my lord the king would be utterly 1st, and all those who have been taken captive with him. nd if this moves you not, yet take pity upon the poor weak renature lying here, and wait till I am recovered.”

And they replied: “ Lady, what can we do? For we are yang of hunger in this city.” And she told them that for imine they need not depart, “ for,” said she, “ I will cause all re food in this city to be bought, and will keep you all from henceforth at the king’s charges.” They advised together, ad came back to her, and said they consented to remain got willingly. Then the queen whom may God have in [is grace! caused all the food in the city to be bought at a of three hundred and sixty thousand liters and more, re due time she had to rise from her bed, because the city lust needs be surrendered to the Saracens. Then the queen rime to Acre to await the king.

THE KING ADJOURNS HIS CLAIMS AGAINST THE SARACENS PASSAGE TO ACRE

While the king was waiting for the deliverance of his rother, he sent brother Raoul, a preaching brother, to an , whose name was Faress Eddin Octay, one of the most Saracens I have ever seen. And the L ng notified to le emir that he greatly marveled how he and the other could suffered the treaty to be so villainously ; for they had killed the sick whom they were bound o entertain, and made litter of his engines of war, and had the sick, as well as the salted swine’s flesh that they ‘ere bound to preserve.

Lord Guy of Mauvoisin

After the troops belonging to the Temple came the troops of my Lord Guy of Mauvoisin; and these troops the Turks were never able to overcome. Notwithstanding the Turks had so covered my Lord Guy of Mauvoisin with Greek fire that his people could hardly extinguish it.

Starting from the place where my Lord Guy of Mauvoisin was stationed, the barriers that defended our camp went down about a stone’s – throw towards the river. Thence the barriers passed before the troops of Count William of Flanders and extended to the river that went towards the sea. In face of the barrier which came from the side of my Lord Guy Mauvoisin was our battalion; and because the troops of Count William of Flanders stood facing them, the Turks never dared to come and attack us; wherein God showed us great courtesy, for neither I nor my knights had our hauberks and shields, because we had all been wounded in the battle on Shrove Tuesday.

The Turks charged the Count of Flanders with great vigour and spirit, and on foot and horse. When I saw this I commanded our crossbowmen to shoot at those who were mounted. When those who were mounted saw they were being wounded from our side, then they took to flight; and when the count’s people saw this, they left the camp, scrambled over the barriers, ran in among the dismounted Saracens, and discomfited them. Many were killed, and many of their targes taken. There acquitted himself right valiantly Walter of the Horgne, who carried the banner of my Lord of Apremont.

Count of Flanders

After the troops belonging to the Count of Flanders came the troops of the Count of Poitiers, the king’s brother. These troops of the Count of Poitiers were on foot, and he alone mounted; and the Turks discomfited them immediately, and led away the Count of Poitiers captive. When the butchers, and the other camp followers, and the women who sold provisions, saw this, they raised the cry of alarm throughout the camp, and with God’s help they succored the count, and drove the Turks out of the camp.

After the troops of the Count of Poitiers came the troops of my lord Josserand of Brancion, who had come with the count into Egypt, and was one of the best knights that were in the host. He had so arranged his people that all his knights were on foot; and he himself was on horseback, as also his son my Lord Kenry, and the son of my Lord Josserand of Nanton, and these he placed or horseback because they were but children. Several times the Turks discomfited his people. Every time that he saw his people discomfited, he set spurs to his horse, and took the Turks in the rear; and oft, when he did this, the Turks left off attacking his people to set upon him.

Nevertheless this would not have availed to prevent the Turks from killing them all on the field of battle, had it not been for my Lord Henry of Cone, who was in the Duke of Burgundy’s division, a wise knight and valiant and of good counsel; for every time that he saw the Turks falling upon my Lord of Brancion, he caused the king’s crossbowmen to shoot at the Turks across the river. Thus did the Lord of Brancion escape from the peril of that day; but only in such sort that of the twenty knights he had about loom he lost twelve, without counting the other men-at-arms; and he himself was so sorely mishandled that never afterwards could he stand upon his feet, and he died of that wound in the service of God.

THE WARNINGS OF GOD

THE WARNINGS OF GOD HOW THEY ARE TO BE TURNED TO ADVANTAGE

You shall be told here of one of the lessons he taught me at sea, when we were returning from the lands oversea. It chanced that our ship struck before the island of Cyprus, when a wind was blowing which is called garban ; and this wind is not one of the four great winds. And at the shock that our ship received, the mariners so despaired that they rent their garments and tore their beards. The king sprang from his bed, barefoot, for it was night, and having on no more than his tunic, and went and placed himself cross-wise before the body of our Lord, as one who expected nothing but death. The day after this happened, the king called me to him alone, and said: “ Seneschal, God has just showed us a portion of His great power; for one of these little winds, a wind so little that one can scarcely give it a name, came near to drown the King of France, his children, his wife, and his men.

God meant to say to us

Now St. Anselm says that such are warnings from our Lord, as if God meant to say to us, See how easily I could Have compassed your death, had it been my will.’ ‘ Lord 15od,’ says the saint, ‘ why dost Thou thus threaten us? For when Thou dost threaten us, it is not for Thine own profit, loafer Thine advantage seeing that if Thou hardest caused is all to be lost, Thou wouldst have been none the poorer, and if Thou hardest caused us all to be saved, Thou oudist lave been none the richer. Therefore, this Thy warning is lot for Thine own advantage, but for ours, if so be that we offer it do its work.’ Let us therefore take the warning hat God has given us in such sort that, if we feel that we lave, in our hearts or bodies, anything displeasing to God, we hall remove it hastily; and where be anything we think will please Him, let us try hastily to do it. If we so act, then Lord will give us blessings in this world, and in the next blessings greater than we can tell. And if we do not act thus,

I 3e will deal with us as the good lord deals with his wickeder ant; for if the wicked servant will not amend alter yarning given, the lord punishes him with death, or with their great troubles that are worse than death.”

Let the king that now is beware; for he has escaped from peril as great as that in which we then were, or greater. Therefore let him amend from his evil deeds in such sort that Hod smite him not grievously, either in himself or in his possessions customized guided tour.

WHAT ST. LEWIS THOUGHT ABOUT FAITH

The holy king endeavored with all his power as you ;hall here be told to make me believe firmly in the Christian .aw, which God has given us. He said that we ought to believe so firmly the articles of faith that neither from fear of death, nor for any mischief that might happen to the body, should we be willing to go against them in word or deed. And he said that the Enemy is so subtle that, when people are dying, he labours all he can to make them die doubting as to some points of the faith. For he knows that he can in no wise deprive a man of the good works he has done; and he knows also that the man is lost to him if he dies in the faith.

Wherefore we should so guard and defend ourselves from this snare, as to say to the Enemy, when he sends such a temptation: “ Away! ” Yes, “Away! ” must one say to the Enemy. “ Thou shalt not tempt me so that I cease to believe firmly all the articles of the faith. Even if thou didst cause all my members to be cut off, yet would I live and die in the faith.” And whosoever acts thus, overcomes the Enemy with the very club and sword that the Enemy desired to murder him withal.

He said that the Christian faith and creed were things in which we ought to believe firmly, even though we might not be certain of them except by hearsay. On this point he asked me what was my father’s name? And I told him his name was Simon. And he asked how I knew it. And I said I thought I was certain of it, and believed it firmly, because my mother had borne witness thereto. Then he said, “ So ought you to believe all the articles of the faith, to which the Apostles have borne witness, as also you chant of a Sunday in the Creed.”

Theodore Lascaris pretends to the empire

At the feast of St. Martin after this (nth November 1204), Henry, the brother of the Emperor Baldwin, went forth from Constantinople, and marched down by the straits to the mouth of Abydos; and he took with him some hundred and twenty good knights. He crossed the straits near a city which is called Abydos, and found it well furnished with good things, with com and meats, and with all things of which man has need. So he seized the city, and lodged therein, and then began to war with the Greeks who were before him. And the Armenians of the land, of whom there were many, began to turn towards him, for they greatly hated the Greeks.

Towards Philippopolis

At that time Renier of Trit left Constantinople, and went towards Philippopolis, which the emperor had given him; and he took with him some hundred and twenty very good knights, and rode day by day till he passed beyond Adrianople, and came to Philippopolis. And the people of the land received him, and obeyed him as their lord, for they beheld his coming very willingly. And they stood in great

need of succour, for Johannizza, the King of Wallachia, had mightily oppressed them with war. So Renier helped them right well, and held a great part of the land, and most of those who had sided with Johannizza, now turned to him. In those parts the war with Johannizza raged fiercely city tours istanbul.

The emperor had sent some hundred knights over the straits of Saint George opposite Constantinople. Macaire of Sainte- Marehould was in command, and with him went Matthew of Wallincourt, and Robert of the Ronsoi. They rode to a city called Nicomedia, which lies on a gulf of the sea, and is well two days’ journey from Constantinople. When the Greeks saw them coming, they avoided the city, and went away; so the pilgrims lodged therein, and garrisoned it, and enclosed it with walls, and began to wage war before them, on that side also.

The land on the other side of the straits had for lord a Greek named Theodore Lascaris. He had for wife the daughter of the Emperor Alexis, through whom he laid claim to the land this was the Alexius whom the Franks had driven from Constantinople, and who had put out his brother’s eyes. The same Lascaris maintained the war against the Franks on the other side of the straits, in whatsoever part they might be.

In Constantinople remained the Emperor Baldwin and Count Lewis, with but few people, and the Count of St. Paul, who was grievously sick with gout, that held him by the knees and feet; and the Doge of Venice, who saw naught.

Reinforcements from Syria death of Mary, the wife of Baldwin

After this time came from the land of Syria a great com pany of those who had abandoned the host, and gone thithei from other ports than Venice. With this company camt Stephen of the Perche, and Reginald of Montmirail, who was cousin to Count Lewis, and they were by him much honoured, for he was very glad of their coming. And the Emperor Baldwin, and the rest of the people also received them very gladly, for they were of high rank, and very rich, and brought very many good people with them.

From the land of Syria came Hugh of Tabarie, and Raoul his brother, and Thierri of Tenremonde, and very many people of the land, knights and light horsemen, and sergeants.