, 1876-07-12

or emotion, and the violence an indispensable
condition of the movement. Europe, in its
long submission to policemen, and opinion, and
diplOmatists, and other ~noiSeless machinery,
has forgotten what violence once could effect,
till many of the events in Constantinople seem
Shadowy or STACEY but such events are real
enough in the East, where life obeys many of
the old conditions. Nothing can be more
theatrical than the account Of the summons Of
the War Minister to Murad, in his place Of
confinement; the panio-terrOr of the Heir. his
renewed confidence as the pistol is handed him,
and his short journey to the Ministry at War
and to q throne but 1t was all real enough to
Nurad. The announcement might be q trick
Of his unole's to betray him into treason, and
so justify his death but no, it could not be a
trick, for with the pistol he could kill himself
or Hussein Avni, and thus produce precisely
the popular sensation which, if bis uncle were
only plotting, would have been most carefully
avoided, and so he ventured to go on, glancing
on each side to discover the possible ambush,
as an actor would glance on the stage, to re.
veal to the audience that he was still not reas.
sured. Even this drama, however, with its
wonderful contrasts of momentary situation, the
captive becoming OaIiph, and the prisoner an
absolute monarch, is far exceeded by the one
which accompanied the arrest of Abdul Azjz,
which arranged itself exactly as a British play
wright would most have desired, into two Acts,
the first having three set Scenes-the first
an anteroom Of the Dolma Bagtohe Palace,
with the Chief Eunuch, a fat and s|cornful
slave revealed half-asleep, hut reused by three
knocks at the door, and Reschid pasha aud
guards entering menacingly from the right,
There are no " guards" surrounding big persons
In Europe now, except in the theatre, but when
violence was to be expected or praotised as
matter of daily custom, there we're " guards
armed men, soldiers and servants, who
would cut you down unanimously If bidden-
and in the East there are such persons now.
Every Indian Prince who visited the Prince Of
Wales was surrounded by the men-part cour-
tiers, part servants, part soldiers-now classed
on the stage as guards" and armed with
spears, absolutely useless in q house. The
roaring laughter Of the Chief Eunuoh of the
announcement that his master had ceased to
reign his seizure, lest he should resist and
the advance of Resohid Pasha /" with guards"
to the "hoIy of holies," the Sultan's sleeping
room, is all in that theatrical style of sudden.
ness and impressiveness that seemss 80 imprO-
babls to us now, but is 80 real, when, If minutes
are lost, a threatened Sultan may find guards
to defend him, and "Of with his head /" may
not sound In the invaders ears as q melo.
dramatic command. Ten minutes delay In
the actual march through the rooms, and the
chances are that the SuItan's women would
have found help, and Resohid would have been
lying o strangled or beheaded corpse in a cor
ridor, and the Sultan have been an e~xultant
Sovereign, issuing sharp sentences of death.
One can hear the shuddering music, as Resohid
passes, with long strides,
The second scene transports us to the Sui
tan's bedroom, where the portIy monarch,
suddenly awakened by strangers, is told 10
formal style that he is dethroned, and his
nephew master, and breaks out -
"My nephew! Murad Had but f~oreseen
Whatkind of tree from this black plant would grow
had watered him with poison!'
raising his voice, we doubt not, as Kean
would have done, almost to a scream, as he
uttered the last sentence, which-utterly
STACEY as it sounds-we have given as reported,
with scarcely the transposition of a word.
Then the fierce burst of the Sultan's royal In
dignation, answered by the dramatic order to
look outside and see the troops drawn up, and
cannon pointed at the Palace, and the boats
of the ironclads waiting to attack-it Is said
In some accounts that both troops and
sailors we're ordered out to defend the
Sultan, and probably the men in both were
quite in ignorance of the use that would
be made Of them then the rush on the
scene Of the Sultana Waldo, her face exposed,
screaming, with hair dishevelled, raging,
but pitiful for her son her brief question
whether nothing could be done Reschid's
stern reply that his Majesty must obey at once
or die and the Sultan's submission, with the