Year: 1876

a uNAAsA AAOAAahCCa


One who would paint the manners or the
morals of COnstantinOple might adorn his
theme with many anecdotes Characteristic
of condition of society which is foreign to
our experience. l select one which has the
merit of being literally true. You who be-
lieve that modern romance exists only in
tales of fiction, listen to the story of a
beauty of Constantinople, the viclssitudes
of whose life equal in variety, if not in i'm
portance, those of Theodore and Athenais.
For obvious reasons l shall mention no
names.


There lives now on the banks of the Bos-
phorous an English physician, who, at the
entreaty of Lord Byron, went to Greece in
1854 as volunteer surgeon in the war of
independence; he arrived only in time to
see the poet expire at MissolOnghi In the
course of the war he was taken prisoner by
the Egyptian troops, who in their great
need of surgeons kept him actively employ
ed in his profession. He did not regain
his freedom until after the war, and then
only on condition that he should reside in
Constantinople as one of the physicians Of
the Sultan, Mohammed II.


We may suppose that the Oriental life
was not unpleasant, nor the position irk-
some to him for he soon so far yielded to
the temptations of the capital as to fall in
love with very pretty face which he saw
daily in pay-window of the street he ira
versed on the way to the seragio. Ac-
quaintance, which sometimes proceeds love,
in this case followed it; the Doctor de-
clared his passion and was accepted by the
willing maid. But an Oriental bay-window
is the opportunity of the world, and the
Doctor, becoming convinced that his affi-
nanced was a desperate firt, and yielding
to the en5reaties of his friends, broke off
the engagement and left her free, in her
eyrie, to continue her observations upon
mankind. This, however, did not suit the
plans of the lovely and tickle girl, One
morning, shortly after, he was summoned
70 see two Turkish ladies who awaited him
in his Office; when he appeared the Greek
girl foT it was she) and her mother threw
aside their disguise, and declared that they
would not leave the house until the Doctor
married the daughter, for the rupture of
the engagement had rendered it impossible
to procure any other husband. Whether
her own beauty or the terrible aspect of the
mother prevailed, l do not know, but the
English chaplain was sent tor; he refused
to preform the ceremony, and a Greek





This marriage which took the appearance
of duress, might have been happy if the
compelling party to it had left her fondness
of adventure and variety at the wedding
threshold; but her constancy was only as
sumed, like The Turkish veil, for an Occas-
ion: lovers were not wanting. and after the
birth of three children, two sons and
daughter, she deserted her husband and
went to live with young Turk, who has
since held Office in the government Of the
Sultan. 1t was in her character of Nine.
Mehemet Pasha that she wrote Tor one of
her sons wrote for herr book well known
in the West, entitled ''Thirty Years in
Harem." But her intriguing spirit was not
extinct even in a Turkish harem; she at
tempted to palm off upon the Pasha, as her
own. child that she had bought; her de-
vice was detected by one Of the palace
eunchs, and at the same time her amour
with a Greek of the city came to light.
The eunuch incurred her displeasure for
his oficiousness, and she had him strangled
and thrown into the Bosphorous. Some
say that the resolute woman even assisted
with her own hands. For these breaches
of decorum, however she, paid dear. The
Pasha banished her to Kutayah, with or
ders to the guard who attended her to pol
| son her on the way, but she so won upon
the affection of the officer that he let her
escape to Broussa. There her beauty, If
not hsr pietv, recommended her to All
Imam OF bpe Of the mosques, and she mar
ried him, and seems for time to have led
quiet life; at any rate, nothing 1urther
yes beard of her until just before the lam
Gus cholera season, when news came OF the
death Of her husband, the Moslem priest,
and that she was living in extreme poverty,
al her beauty gone forever ana cohse-
qgsptly her ability to procure ahogher nus
band,


The Pasha, Mehemet, lived in beautiful
palace on the eastern shore of the BOspho-
rus. near Kandii. During the great chol-
era epidemic of 1866, the Pasha was taken
i'll, One day there appeared at the gate an
unknown women, who said that she had
come to cure the Pasha; no one knew Der,
but she spoke with authority, and was ad-
mltted. It was our adventures. She
nursed the Pasha with the most tender care
and watchful skill, so thai he recovered
and, in gratitude for the preservation OF
his life, he permitted her and her daughter
to remain In the palace. For some time
| they were contented with the luxury OF such
home but one day-it was the evening OF
Wednesday, neither mother nor daughter
was to be found; and upon examination il
was discovered that Il large collection Of
precious stones and some ready money had
disappeared with them. They had depart.
ed on French Steamer, in order to trans
fer their talents to the fields of Europe.
The fate of the daughter | do not know;
for sometime she and her mother were con-
spicuous in the dissipation Of Paris life;
subsequently the mother lived with a son
in London, and, since heard her story IN
Constantinople, she has died in London III
misery and want.


The further history of the Doctor and
his family may detain our curiosity for a
moment When his wife left him for the
arms of the Pasha he experienced so much
difficulty in finding any one in Constantin-
\ ople TO take care OF his children that he de
/ termined to send them to Scotland 10 he