BYZANTINE CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES CONVERTED INTO MOSQUES

St. Sophia is open every day and can be visited at any time; in Ramazan, only in the forenoon. Entrance by the north porch. Admission (paid when entering) 5 piastres per head. The galleries are closed to the public.

St. Sophia, called Ayiah Sofia by the Turks, was originally a basilica with a wooden roof, and was first built by Constantine the Great in 326 A.D. ; it was named by him the Church of St. Sophia (Holy Wisdom), but either because the original edifice was found to be too small, or because it was still unfinished, it was rebuilt of wood in 358 A.D. by the son and successor of Constantine, and consecrated and inaugurated with great pomp by Eudoxius the Arian, then Bishop of Constantinople, on the 15th of February 360 A.D. Forty-four years later, on the 20th June 404 A.D., in the reign of the Emperor Arcadius, the part of the building containing the altar and pulpit, together with the roof, was destroyed by fire during the riots caused by the unjust exile of St. John Chrysostom. The church was restored by Theodosius II., and a vaulted roof was added under the superintendence of Kufinus Magister; but it was again destroyed by fire in 532 in the reign of Justinian, during the horrible riot called the Nika riot, from the watchword used by those taking part in it. Justinian, then at the summit of his power and glory, resolved to rebuild the church in such a manner as to make it eclipse all former attempts in magnificence, grandeur, and size.

Anthemius of Tralles

For this purpose he ordered the best materials and the best workmen to be got together from all parts of his empire, and the new building was commenced forty days after the destruction of the old one, and was completed in five years, ten months and two days by the architects Anthemius of Tralles (Aidin), Isidorus of Miletus, and Ignatius Magister. The dedicatory and inaugural ceremony took place on the 25th December 537 A.D. Twenty years later, the eastern half-dome and the main dome fell in, crushing the altar and pulpits to pieces in their fall. Justinian had the church restored again by the architect Isidorus the younger, a nephew of Isidorus Magister, and the second inauguration took place on the 24th December 562 A.D.; but the restoration caused the edifice to lose much of its former airiness private istanbul tour, its increased solidity having entailed a corresponding amount of bulkiness. It is said that in the re-erection of St. Sophia a hundred architects were employed, each having a hundred workmen under him.

Of these, five thousand worked on the right side, and five thousand on the left side of the building, each of the two sets vying with the other as to which should be first to complete its task, and encouraged by the Emperor, who, turning superstition to account to stimulate the efforts of the workmen, caused it to be known that the plan of the church had been divulged to him in a dream by an angel; and that visions disclosed to him whence to procure the costly materials and art treasures for the building and decoration of the church; while the solution of any architectural difficulties was also ascribed to the agency of the angels. In a word, superstition was the prime factor in the rebuilding of St. Sophia, and clings to the building down to the present day, as is evinced by the numerous traditions handed down ; a favourite one being that this whilom church is haunted every Easter Eve by a chorus of angels, whose chanting is audible to those of the pious who may happen to be in the building at the time; and not only Greeks, but Muhammadans also, are to be found who aver that they themselves have heard the angelic chorus perform!

The cost of rebuilding St. Sophia is estimated to have amounted to what would be equivalent to a million sterling, an immense sum in those days, and proved such a drain upon the imperial exchequer that, according to Procopius, to meet the expense of construction, Justinian had to stop the salaries of all government officials, and even those of masters of public schools, as well as the pay of his troops, and divert the money thus obtained to the further-ance of his pet scheme.

Along Slaveykov Street

Along Slaveykov Street there are several Revival houses connected with Petko R. Slaveykov’s stay in Plovdiv in 1881 – 1883, when Plovdiv was the capital Eastern Ru- malia. He lived in the asymmetrical Revival house of Bedros Basmajyan, now housing the Home of the Teacher and bearing the name of the great public figure, poet and writer. Close by is the so-called Slaveyk- ov School, established in the distinguished- looking house of Georgi Panchev, where Petko Slaveykov taught. Another place is Slaveykov Cafe or Georgi Moraliyata’s Tavern frequented by the elderly teacher for his morning coffee. At the corner of Kiril Nektariev and Architect Hristo Peev Streets there stands an asymmetrical house from the end of the 18th c. the home for many years of the renowned artist Georgi Dan- chov Zografina.

He was a revolutionary, an associate of Vasil Levski’s, an exile in Anatolia and a volunteer in the Russo-Turkish Liberation War. The house has been recently reconstructed by the Chamber of Crafts in Koblents – Germany and now houses a vocational school. At the upper end of Dr. St. Chomakov Street is the home of the first mayor of Plovdiv after the Liberation, Atanas Samokovets bulgaria private tours, a prominent public and political figure, brother of the Revival artist Stanislav Dospevski.

Artin Gidikov

The corner of Artin Gidikov and 4th January Streets is occupied by the entirely renovated large symmetrical house of Artin Gidikov, an Armenian social figure and benefactor to Armenians and Bulgarians alike. On Saborna Sreet opposite the imposing building of the Girls’ Secondary School there is a memorial plaque reading that the Russian Consulate lay on this site before the Liberation. It was headed in 1957 – 1877 by the Revival figure and man of letters Naiden Gerov and on several occasions visited by Vasil Levski. A very small section of the historic consulate has survived to our time.

One of the most remarkable historic buildings in the Old Town is the Yellow School, called thus because of the colour of its walls. Actually this is the first Bulgarian secondary school to be opened in Plovdiv in 1868, a successor to the well-established diocesan SS. Cyril and Methodius School. The solid building was designed and erected by the well-known Bratsigovo master-builder Todor Dimov. The school is two-storey with an elevated ground floor and sparingly decorated but dignified facades.

On the corner of the building on Tsar Ivaylo and T.Samodumov Streets stand the well-preserved inscriptions in Bulgarian and Osmanli Turkish engraved on a commemorative tablet stating that ‘this public secondary school’ was built in 1868 by the good will of Sultan Abdul Azzis Khan. The yellow school or the SS. Cyril and Methodius First Bulgarian Secondary School is unique in Bulgaria for being still used as an educational establishment. It houses the folklore department of the Music Academy in Plovdiv.

Tourist attractions

Tourist attractions: The 4th century Roman tomb, discovered in 1942, is quadrangular with a cylindrical vault and marvellous frescoes, the finest and best preserved wallpaintings from the time of Theodosius I.

The figures of people, wild animals, birds, flowers, fruits and the scenes showing leopards fighting with boars are interesting material for studying the way of life in slave society.

The Ethnographic Museum in Medjidie-Tabia fortress, two kilometres from the centre,alsohasan archaeological exhibition.

About 17 kilometres from Silistra and three kilometres from the Danube is Sreburna Lake, a national reserve under the Institute of Zoology and included in UNESCO’s World List. Some very rare species of water birds live here and pelicans from all over Europe converge on the lake in the autumn before their flight south.

South along the E-87 is Zlatni Pyassatsi, one of the biggest resort complexes in Bulgaria. It is 17 kilometres north of Varna, to which it is connected by a modern motorway. The resort takes its name from the beach — almost 4 kilometres of golden sand over 100 metres wide sightseeing turkey. It lies on the same latitude as well-known French and Italian resorts on the Mediterranean coast. The climate here is warm and mild, average temperature in July is 22°C and the water temperature from Fune to September never falls below 20°C and sometimes reaches 27°C.

Balkantourist

The complex has 81 modern hotels with 16,270 beds, bungalows and two shady camp sites accommodating about 1,240 with 128 restaurants and places of entertainment, 40 shops, a cultural and information centre, a fleet of 100 buses and microbuses, 84 taxis, a rent-a-car service and good sports facilities. Balkantourist is in the centre of the resort in addition to a barber’s and hairdresser’s shop. Near Diana Hotel is Vodenitsata (The Mill) Restaurant. The medical clinic has an excellently equipped dental surgery and consulting rooms. When necessary a doctor from the clinic can be called to the hotel by telephone 6-53-52, 6-56-86 and 6-56-87. Medicines can be purchased at the chemist connected to the clinic (tel. 6-5 £89), or at the chemist’s shop north of the Stariya Dub restaurant.

There are volleyball and tennis courts, mini-golf and croquet pitches in front of the hotels Morsko Oko, Liliya, Rodina, and Tintyava, open daily tel. 6-52-54. Near Hotel Liliya is a children’s swimming pool and at Hotel International there is an indoor swimming pool with warm mineral water. The International is the pride of the resort with 370 beds, 2 restaurants, coffee shop, and a balneological clinic with diagnostic and therapeutic departments open all the year round. The mineral water of the balneotherapeutical department is clear and colourless; it is slightly mineralized and its temperature ranges between 24°C arid 28°C. It can be used in bath tubs and in the indoor swimming pool and is recommended for diseases of the loco-motor system (arthrosis, rheumatism, arthritis)… radicolitis, plexitis, neuritis, mental fatigue, stresses, cardio-vascular diseases (atherosclerosis, hypertonia), bron-chitis, the early stages of bronchial asthma and obesity of the 1st and 2nd degree.

In 1979 the International won the World Tourism Organization Grand Prix competing with 150 other hotels all over the world.

The Post Office is a stone’s throw from the International and is open from 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. with telephone connections to all countries in the world.

Baba Vida Fortress

The town’s major historical monument is Baba Vida Fortress situated on the Danube. Built by Romans in the 3rd4th century, it was restored and expanded in the Middle Ages. In the 13th-14th centuries Bdin was the strongest fortress in North-west Bulgaria and continued to play an important part during Ottoman domination when it was restored and fortifled. Now the fortress contains a museum. Every two years the summer theatre plays host to drama festivals of historical plays.

Other points of interest are the mosque and library; The Cross Barracks, late 18th century, houses The History Museum. The Church of St Panteleimon built in the first half of the 17th century; the Church of St Petka, Hadji Angelov House — a two-storey building with two bay-windows typical of the National Revival Period.

There are several other memorials in the town commemorating battles fought over the last 100 years.

The town has a modem hotel — Rovno, 4 T.Petrov Str., two-star with 6 suites, 8 single and 132 double rooms, restaurant, day bar, cafe, duty free shop, rent-a-car service (tel.: 244-02 and 2-62-95). The Bononia Hotel is a five-storeyed, two-star hotel with one suite, 3 single and 48 double rooms, restaurant, bar, cafe and information office.

32 km southwest of Vidin is Bulgaria’s westernmost town, Koula i pop. 6,000). The Vrushka Chouka border check point on the Bulgarian-Yugoslav border is only 13 km away. In Roman times there was a settlement, called Castra Martis which was an- important fortress on the road from Ratiaria to Naisus. Ruins from this fortress are preserved in the town centre.

SOFIA – LOVECH _ VELIKO TURNOVO – GABROVO (260 KM )

Northeast of Sofia the road passes through the village of Yordankino near which Yordanka Nikolova, fighting against fascism, died a hero’s death: she is commemorated by a modest monument.

Between the villages of Potop and Chourek, on the right, is the monument to partisans from the Chavdar brigade which operated m the region during the 2nd World War sofia daily tours, The chalet opposite the monument has a small museum.

44 km from Sofia is the highest point of the picturesque Vitinya Pass. Here there is a restaurant, a food store and a petrol station.

Descending we reach Botevgrad (pop. 19,000), an important industrial and transport centre and the centre of Bulgarian industrial electronics. A beautiful clock tower (1866) stands in the town’s square. Hotels in the town include the Botevgrad hotel, 3 stars seven floors with 6 suites and 232 beds, a restaurant, day bar, night club, cafe, duty free shop, rooftop restaurant, post office; the Sinyo Nebe hotel (tel. 27-90) accommodates the ‘Rest and Recreation’ office.

On the E-83 motorway, 8 km from Botevgrad and 71 km from Sofia is the huge Pravets tourist compound, with a motel accommodating 60, a camping site situated round a pond, with 57 beds in bungalows, a hotel accommodating 104, restaurant, Shatra entertainment area, petrol station and car-repair shop.

Sebastokrator Kaloyan

In 1259, the local bolyar, Sebastokrator Kaloyan, added a two-storeyed part to the original church, a vault below and a church with a cupola above; this had a door on the south wall, reached by a wooden staircase. Although built at two different periods the architect of the second church lias combined the two buildings with such .skill that they now form an indivisible whole, linked with the harmony of measured lines and the most simplified stereometric forms, lightly arranged one next to the other or one above the other. The mountain to the south, and the spacious horizon of the sky to the north form a natural background against which the silhouette of the church stands out picturesquely. Inside, the Boyana Church houses some of the loveliest work of Old Bulgarian art.

The murals which decorate it were painted in the 13th century, and are distinguished by their refreshing realism. Here we have the portraits of the donors Sebastokrator Kaloyan and his wife Dessislava, and of King Konstantin Tih, the reigning monarch, and his Queen Irina. The faces are painted with a masterly skill, which gives a true idea of the character of the sitters. In the portraits of saints, the emaciated and ascetic images have made way for those of real living people, such as the artist who decorated the church saw around him every day. He was a great master of the art of depicting profoundly psychological moments. The picture of Jesus among the doctors, Christ Evergetes, the image of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross and the faces in a number of other compositions are unique.

Turnovo School of Painting

Boyana is eloquent enough proof of the great advance recorded by the Turnovo School of Painting with its realistic trend in the 13th century. This advance reached its zenith, however, in the 14th century, in the reign of King Ivan Alexander who, as a true humanist, attracted artists and scholars to his Court in Turnovo. A school of miniature painters was hard at work here city tour istanbul. They illuminated gospels, chronicles and other books which were translated and copied. The miniaturists who illuminated the Curzon Bible (now in the British Museum, London) worked here.

This bible was copied and illuminated in 1356, by order of Ivan Alexander. The miniatures in the Chronicle of Manasses were also the work of this School, and it too was translated from the Greek and illuminated by order of Ivan Alexander in 1345.

The Bulgarian translation of this Chronicle was however, considerably supplemented by short data on events in the history of Bulgaria, which do not exist in the Greek original, and the story of the Trojan war was a iso interpolated at the same time. This interest in the antique and in the national was a characteristic trait in the development of Bulgarian culture at the end of the 14th century. It was a manifestation of a true Renaissance spirit, of true humanism, which was widespread in the European world of that day.

Karanovo statuettes of humans and animals

In the fifth and uppermost cultural stratum at Karanovo statuettes of humans and animals disappear, and so does the pottery, so varied in form and ornamentation. A change is felt even in the plan of the house — the narrow back side rounds out and forms an apse. An original pottery now appears, much simplified with scant ornamentation, consisting mostly of incised lines. The unusually elongated lugs ending in a knob are characteristic of this pottery. The change in the life of those who inhabited the fifth settlement at Karanovo is striking. Its causes are not yet clear. Certain scholars consider that it was due to the incursions of new tribes, who were already acquainted with bronze. Some link these new tribes with the Thracians.

The same materials found in the fifth cultural stratum of the Karanovo tell were also found in the so-called Dipsiska Mogila settlement mound at the village of Ezero, near Nova Zagora. The houses are the same as in Karanovo; rectangular with two rooms, and a semicircular wall at the short back side. In the western smaller room, around the hearth and the hand mill, a number of domestic objects were found. Similar ones were also found around the houses.

Copper spearheads

One is, however, impressed by the still-existing predominance of implements made of stone, bone and horn, and by the weapons — stone battle-axes. However, the first metal weapons — copper spearheads — appear together with them. There is no doubt whatever that this is the earliest period of the Bronze age, which is recently thought to begin the second half of the third millenium B. C., when bronze was still an alloy most difficult to obtain and only slightly distributed. Nevertheless, the rare and expens- i ve bronze implements exercized an influence upon the stone implements with their more expedient forms tours bulgaria. The stone battle-axe found at the village of Lyulin, Yambol district, shows undoubted imitation of a bronze original.

The settlement of pile-dwellings, found at the bottom of the Varna Lake, near the village of Strashimirovo also belongs to the early Bronze Age. Certain extremely interesting articles and pottery were found there.

The bronze implements and weapons so far found in Bulgaria belong to the late period of this age. Of particular interest are the double axes of the type of those found at the village of Semerdjievo, Rousse district. A bronze sword and a bronze spearhead appear here for the first time. Swords of the so-called Mycenaean type, of the second half of the second millenium have been found in Bulgaria, which plainly indicate therelationsof these lands with the Mycenean culture.

Whole treasure-troves of sickles, small bronze axes, as well as the stone moulds in which they were cast, are often found. As to the precise dating of these objects, however, we have no positive data as yet. Perhaps some of them will have to be attributed to the transition from the Bronze to the Iron age. The pottery of this period is also most interesting, particularly that found in North-West Bulgaria. This pottery is distinguished by a new colour scheme in the ornament, consisting of a combination of linear motifs, incised and covered with white matter. This pottery is wi ’ely distributed in the North-Western part of the Balkan Peninsula.

Metal implements now increasingly made their way into production, intensifying and increasing surplus production. This now led to an exchange of the commodities produced between the individual clans, and also to more frequent clashes between clans and tribes to appropriate the accumulated surpluses. This was followed by a develop-ment in weapons, particularly daggers and later swords, which were unknown in the preceding age.

PLOVDIV

The second largest city in Bulgaria, and its unofficial second capital. It has a population of about 300,000. Centre of the fertile Thracian Plain, a city with a very long history, revealed by the different names under which it was mentioned in history: Pulpudeva, Philippopolis, Trimontium. Built on six hills on both banks of the largest interior Bulgarian river, the Maritsa. An old industrial, cultural and commercial centre, developing rapidly nowadays. Well-known abroad for its annual International Fair. Scattered around six syenite hills rising in a vast plain and lying on the two banks of the Maritsa River, Plovdiv is not only beautifully situated, but also has an inimitable charm of its own. Its oldest part comprises the three hills called Trimontium encompassing the heights of Djambaz, Taxim and Nebet. Once upon a time the rulers of the town built high walls around it, of which all that has remained are Hissar kapiya, one of the three fortress gates and ruins. The three other hills have been turned , into lovely parks which seem to float above the town.

But Plovdiv is not merely a blend of the past and the present. It is also, as you have probably already noticed, a lively rail and road junction. The surroundings, too, abound in places of historic interest, and then there – e the teary Rhodope Mountain

Sights:

Liberators’ Hill. On it there are three monuments: the Monument to Vassil Levski (at the foot of the hill), the Monument to the Liberators, commemorating the Russo-Turkish war (1877-1878), and the Monument to the Soviet Army, which the citizens of Plovdiv affectionately call ‘Alyosha’.

Youth Hill – to the southwest of Liberators’ Hill. It is a beautiful park with wide alleys, picturesque paths, arbours and open spaces ephesus sightseeing.

Vassil Kolarov Hill – in the centre of the city. An old clock tower stands on the hill.

National Archaeological Museum. On show are more than 15,0 exhibits, among them the priceless Panagyurishte Gold Treasure.

National Ethnographic Museum, Museum of the Revolutionary Movement, Museum of Socialist Construction, Natural Science Museum, Art Gallery, etc.

Of the Orthodox churches in the city the most interesting are: St Constantine and Helena’s Church, the Church of the Virgin Mary and St Marina’s Church.

Worth seeing, too, are two mosques: Djoumaya Djamiya and Imaret Djamiya.

The best hotels in Plovdiv are: Trimontium – tel. 2-55-61, Maritsa – 2-27-35, Trakia – 3-24-70, Bulgaria – 2-60-64, and Rhodopes – 2-43-32.

PALEOGRAPHIC PURISM

Ancient buildings certainly cannot be treated as ‘exhibits,’ to be cased in glass, and displayed in a museum. All their powers, their vitality and solemnity would disappear. They have in most cases to be kept fit for use; and in some rare cases they may have to be completed, where the kind of work they need is within our modern resources. As to Palladian work that may possibly be attempted; but as to true mediaeval work of the best periods, it is absolutely impossible. No fine carving of this age can be remotely reproduced or imitated by us now in feeling and manner.

The current of gradual growth for the best mediaeval work has been broken for centuries. And we cannot now recover the tradition. The archaic naive grace of a thirteenth-century relief, the delicate spring of foliage round capital or spandrel, are utterly irrecoverable. There does not exist the hand or the eye which can do it. To cut out old art-work wholesale, and insert new machine carving, is exactly like cutting out a Madonna in an altar-piece, or inserting a new head on to a Greek torso. What we have to do is to uphold the fabric as best we may, and preserve the decoration as long as we can.

There is need to educate the public, especially the official public, and above all the clergy, to understand all that is meant by the sacredness of ancient buildings. The business is not so much to discuss solecisms in style and blunders in chronology, as to make men feel that our national monuments are dedicated by the past to the nation for ever, and that each generation but holds them as a sacred trust for the future.

PALEOGRAPHIC PURISM

Iv this age of historical research and archaic realism there is growing up a custom which, trivial and plausible in its beginnings, may become a nuisance and a scandal to literature. It is the custom of re-writing our old familiar proper names; of re-naming places and persons which are household words private turkey tours: heirlooms in the English language.

At first sight there seems something to be said for the fashion of writing historical names as they were written or spoken by contemporary men. To the thoughtless it ‘ suggests an air of scholarship and superior knowledge, gathered at first hand from original sources. Regarded as the coatarmour of some giant of historical research, there is something piquant in the unfamiliar writing of familiar names; and it is even pleasant to hear a great scholar talk of the mighty heroes as if he remembered them when a boy, and had often seen their handwriting himself. When Mr. Grote chose to write about Kekrcps, Krete, Cleopatra, and Pennies, we were gratified by the peculiarity; and we only wondered why he retained Cyrus, Centaur, Cyprus, and Thucydides. And when Professor Freeman taught us to speak of ‘ Charles the Great,’ and the Battle of Senlac, we all feel that to talk of Hastings would be behind the age.

But, in these days, the historical schools are growin in numbers and range. There are no longer merely Attic enthusiasts, and Somersaetan champions, but other ages and races have thrown up their own historiographers and bards. There are ‘ Middle-English ’ as well as ‘ Old- English ’ votaries, — and Eliza-ists, and Jacob-ists, and Ann-ists. Then there are the French, the German, the Italian, the Norse schools, to say nothing of ^Egyptologists, Hebraists, Sanscritists, Accadians, Hittites, Moabites, and Cuneiform-ists. It becomes a very serious question, what will be the end of the English language if all of these are to have their way, and are to re-baptize the most familiar heroes of our youth and to re-spell the world-famous names.

Each specialist is full of his own era and subject, and is quite willing to leave the rest of the historical field to the popular style. But there is a higher tribunal beyond; and those who care for history as a whole, and for English literature in the sum, wonder how far this revival in orthography is to be carried. Let us remember that, both in space and in time, there is a vast body of opinion of which account must be taken. There is the long succession of ages, there is the cultivated world of Europe and America, in both of which certain names have become traditional and customary. And if every knot of students is to rename at will familiar persons and historic places, historical tradition and the custom of the civilised world are wantonly confused. This true filiation in literary history is of far more importance than any alphabetic precision.

Palais de Justice

And, besides these castles and palaces, the closely packed streets were even more thickly strewn with churches, convents, and abbeys. Notre Dame, St. Eustache, St. Germain, I’Auxerrois, the Hotel de Ville, the Louvre, the Palais Royal, and the Palais de Justice were hemmed in with a labyrinth of old and entangled streets. Buildings, alleys, and even churches separated the Louvre from the Tuileries, Notre Dame from the Palais de Justice, cut off Notre Dame and the Hotel de Ville from the river, stood between Palais Royal and Louvre, and between the Pantliion and the garden of the Luxembourg. Where the graceful fountain of Victory now brightens one of the gayest spots in Paris, Place du Chatelet, bordered with two immense theatres, colonnades, gardens, and trees, there were then the decayed remnant of the great royal fortress and a network of crooked and unsightly lanes.

St. Germain of St. Martin

Besides the churches, chapels, hospitals, palaces, and castles, there also stood within the circuit of the city more than two hundred religious houses for both sexes; abbeys, convents, nunneries, and fraternities; peopled with thousands of men and women, leading separate lives, under different vows, owning obedience to far-distant superiors, and possessing various immunities. The vast areas occupied by the abbeys of St. Germain, of St. Martin, of St. Victor, by the houses of the Bernardins, and the Cilestins, and the Quinze- Vingts, were a sensible portion of the whole area within the walls. From the then new Place Louis XV. to the Bastille, from the Luxembourg garden to the Port St. Denis, Paris was a great fortified city of the Middle Ages, crammed with thousands of sacred buildings private tours istanbul, Catholic and feudal institutions, and thickly studded with Italian palaces, colleges, hospitals, and offices in the proud and lavish style of Louis xiv. Poverty, squalor, uncleanness, and vice jostled the magnificence of Princes and the mouldering creations of the ages of Faith.

The difference between the Paris of 1789 and the Paris of 1889 is enormous; but it is very far from true that the whole difference is gain. Much has been gained in convenience, health, brilliance: much has been lost in beauty, variety, and historical tradition. To the uncultured votary of amusement the whole of the change represents progress: to the artist, the antiquarian, and the sentimentalist it represents havoc, waste, and bad taste. It would be well if the tens of thousands who delight in the boulevards, gardens, and sunny bridges of to-day would now and then cast a thought upon the priceless works of art, the historical remains, and the picturesque charm which the new Paris has swept away.

Churches and towers, encrusted sculptures of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, rare, inimitable, irrecoverable won-ders of skill and feeling, have been swallowed up wholesale in the modern ‘improvements.’ Sixteen churches have disappeared from the Citt4 alone: four of them and ten streets have been carted away to make the site of a single hospital. Where is the abbey of St. Victor, of St. Germain, of Ste. Gejievih’c, and the Conr des Comptes, and the churches of St. Andrt, St. Jacques de la Boucherie, Saints Innocents, St. Jean, and St. Paid? Where are the turrets of Saint Louis, and Etienne Marcel, and Philip the Fair? Where are the quaint passages and fantastic gables preserved for us only by Silvestre, Prelle, M6ryon, Gavarni, Martial, and Gustave Dorb?

Propontis and the Hellespont

If it issued south through the Propontis and the Hellespont, a few days would carry its armies to the teeming shores of Bithynia, or to the rich coasts and islands of the Aegean Sea, or to Greece, or to any point on the western or the southern coast of Asia Minor. And a few days more would bring its fleets to the coast of Syria, or of Egypt, or to Italy, Spain, Africa, and the Western Mediterranean. Thus, the largest army could be safely transported in a few days, so as to descend at will upon the vast plains of Southern Russia, or into the heart of Central Asia, within a short march of the head waters of the Euphrates — or they might descend southwards to the gates of Syria, near Issus, or else to the mouths of the Nile, or to the islands and bays of Greece or Italy.

And these wide alternatives in objective point could be kept for ultimate decision unknown to an enemy up to the last moment. When the great Heraclius, in 622, opened his memorable war with Chosroes, which ended in the ruin of the Persian dynasty, no man in either host knew till the hour of his sailing whether the Byzantine hero intended to descend upon Armenia by the Euxine, or upon Syria by the Gulf of Issus. And until they issued from the Hellespont into the Aegean, the Emperor’s army and fleet were absolutely protected not only from molestation, but even from observation local ephesus tour guides. To a power which commanded the sea and had ample supplies of troopships, Constantinople combined the maximum power of defence with the maximum range of attack. And this extraordinary combination she will retain in the future in competent hands.

That wonderfully rapid and mobile force, which an eminent American expert has named the ‘ Sea Power,’ the power discovered by Cromwell and Blake, of which England is still the great example and mistress, was placed by the founders of Byzantium in that spot of earth which, at any rate in its anciently-peopled districts, combined the greatest resources.

Persian and the Peloponnesian wars

Byzantium, from the days of the Persian and the Peloponnesian wars, had always been a prize to be coveted by a naval power. From the time of Constantine down to the Crusades, or for nearly eight centuries, the rulers of Constantinople could usually command large and well-manned fleets. And this was enough to account for her imperial place in history. As an imperial city she must rise, decline, or fall, by her naval strength. She fell before the Crusaders in a naval attack; and she was crippled to a great extent by the naval attack of Mohammed the Conqueror. During the zenith of the Moslem Conquest, she was great by sea. Her decline in this century has been far greater on sea than on land. When her fleet was shattered at Sinope, in 1853, the end was not far off. And when to-day we see in the Golden Horn the hulls of her ironclads moored motionless, and they say, unable to move, men know that Stamboul is no longer the queen of the Levant.

As a maritime city, also, Constantinople presents this striking problem. For fifteen centuries, with moderate intervals, this city of the Bosphorus and the Propontis has held imperial rule. No other seaport city, either in the ancient or in the modern world, has ever maintained an empire for a period approaching to this in length. Tyre, Carthage, Athens, Alexandria, Venice, Genoa, Amsterdam, have held proud dependencies by their fleets for a space, but for rarely more than a few generations or centuries. The supremacy of the seas, of which Englishmen boast, can hardly be said to have had more than two centuries of trial.

As the Catholic pilgrim

The fanaticism of these same priests and missionaries has its own reaction. As the Catholic pilgrim to-day prostrates himself on the spot where for eighteen centuries Christian pilgrims from all parts of the earth have prostrated themselves, the followers of Garibaldi and Mazzini glare on them with hatred and contempt; so that, but for soldiers and police, no priest in his robes would be safe in Rome. The death-struggle between Papacy and Free Thought was never more acute. Hundreds of churches are bare, deserted, without the semblance of a congregation. Of late years, one may visit famous churches, known throughout the Catholic world, and find one’s self, for hours together, absolutely alone; and sometimes we may notice how they serve as the resort of a pair of lovers, who choose the church as a place to meet undisturbed in perfect solitude. Vast monasteries, which for centuries have peopled Christendom with priests and teachers, are now empty, or converted to secular uses. The Pope is ‘the prisoner of the Vatican,’ and the Papal world has withdrawn from public view.

Nowhere else in the world are we brought so close face to face with the great battles of religion and politics, and with the destruction wrought by successive phases of human civilisation. This destruction is more visible in Rome, because fragments remain to witness to each phase; but the destruction is not so great as elsewhere, where the very ruins have been destroyed. At Paris, Lyons, London, York, Cologne, and Milan, the Roman city has been all but obliterated, and the mediaeval city also, and the Renascence city after that; so that, for the most part, in all these ancient centres of successive civilisations, we see little to-day but the monotony of modern convenience, and the triumphs of the speculative builder. But at Rome enough remains to remind us of the unbroken roll of some three thousand years mystical bulgaria tours.

At Rome we see the wreckage

At Rome we see the wreckage. At Paris and London it has been covered fathoms deep by the rising tide.

They are finding now the tombs, arms, ornaments, and structures of the primitive races who dwelt on the Seven Hills before history was. We may now see the walls which rose when the history of Rome began, the fortress of the early kings, and their vast subterranean works. We can still stand on the spot where Horatius defended the bridge, and where Virginius slew his daughter. We still see the tombs and temples, the treasure-house of the Republic.

We see the might and glory of Rome when she was the mistress of the world and the centre of the world. We see the walls which long defied the barbarians of the North; we see the tombs of the Christian martyrs, and trace the footsteps of the great Apostles; we see the rise, the growth, the culmination and the death-struggles of the Catholic Papacy. We see the Middle Ages piled up on the ruins of the ancient world, and the modern world piled on the ruins of the mediaeval world. At Rome we can see in ruins, fragments, or, it may be, merely in certain sites, spots, and subterranean vaults, that revolving picture of history, which elsewhere our modern life has blotted out from our view.

Take the Pantheon — in some ways the central, the most ancient, the most historic building in the world. For more than 1900 years it has been a temple — first of the gods of the old world, and since of the Christian God. It is the only great extant building of which that can now be said. It is certainly the oldest building in continuous use on earth, for it was a temple of the pagan deities one hundred years before the preaching of the Gospel at Rome; dedicated by the minister and son-in-law of Augustus in the first splendour of the Empire; converted after six centuries into a Christian church and burial- place, when it was filled with the bones of the martyrs removed from the catacombs. The festival of All Saints thereupon instituted is the one Christian festival which modern scepticism concurs in honouring.

Mirabeau thunder in the National Assembly

At Cannes there is no post-house, carriage, horses, or mules, and he has to walk through nine miles of waste ! And so he at last gets back to Paris. There he hears Mirabeau thunder in the National Assembly; meets the King and Queen, La Fayette, Barnave, Sieyes, Condorcet, and the chiefs of the Revolution; and is taken to the Jacobin Club, of which he is duly installed as a member. And this wonderful book ends with a chapter of general reflections on the Revolution, which go more deeply down to the root of the matter, John Morley has said, than all that Burke, Paine, and Mackintosh piled up in so many eloquent periods.

The Revolution as a whole would carry us far afield. In these few pages we are dealing with the great transformation that it wrought in the condition of the peasant. It must not be forgotten that part of the wonderful difference between the peasant of the last century and the peasant of to-day, is due to the vast material advancement common to the civilised world. Railroads, steam factories, telegraphs, the enormous increase in population, in manufactures, commerce, and inventions were not products of the ‘ principles of ’89,’ nor of the Convention, nor of the Jacobin Club. All Europe has grown, America has grown almost miraculously, and France has grown with both.

Arthur Young’s journey

But the political lesson of Arthur Young’s journey is this: the poverty and the desolation which he saw in 1789 were directly due, as he so keenly felt, not to the country, not to the husbandmen, not to ignorance or to indolence in the people, not to mere neglect, weakness, or stupidity in the central government, but directly to bad laws, cruel privileges, and an oppressive system of tyranny. Arthur Young found an uncommonly rich soil, a glorious climate, a thrifty, ingenious, and laborious people, a strong central government that, in places and at times, could make magnificent roads, bridges, canals, ports; and when a Turgot, or a Liancourt, or a de Turbilly had a free hand, a country which could be made one of the richest on the earth. What Arthur Young saw, with the eye of true insight, was, that so soon as these evil laws and this atrocious system of land tenure were removed, France would be one of the finest countries in the world. And Arthur Young, as we see, was right private tours istanbul.

Another point is this: to Arthur Young, the Suffolk farmer of 1789, everything he sees in the peasantry and husbandry of France appears miserably inferior to the peasantry and husbandry of England. France is a country far worse cultivated than England, its agricultural produce miserably less; its life, animation, and means of communication ludicrously inferior to those of England; its farmers in penury, its labourers starving, its resources barbarous, compared with those of England. In an English village more meat, he learns, is eaten in a week, than in a French village in a year; the clothing, food, home, and intelligence of the English labourer are far above those of the French labourer. The country inns are infinitely better in England; there is ten times the circulation, the wealth, the comfort in an English rural district; the English labourer is a free man, the French labourer little more than a serf.

The Dominicans or Black Friars

The thirteenth century saw the romantic rise, the marvellous growth, and then the inevitable decay of the Friars, the two orders whose careers form one of the most fascinating and impressive stories in modern history. The Franciscans, or Grey Friars, founded in 1212, the Dominicans, or Black Friars, founded in 1216, by the middle of the century had infused new life throughout the Catholic world. By the end of the century their power was spent, and they had begun to be absorbed in the general life of the Church. It was one of the great rallies of the Papal Church, perhaps of all the rallies the most important, certainly the most brilliant, most pathetic, most fascinating, the most rich in poetry, in art, in devotion. For the mediaeval Church of Rome, like the Empire of the Caesars at Rome, like the Eastern Empire of Constantinople, like the Empire of the Khalifs, which succeeded that, seems to subsist for centuries after its epoch of zenith by a long series of rallies, revivals, and new births out of almost hopeless disorganisation and decay sofia city tour.

But the thirteenth century is not less memorable for its political than for its spiritual history. And in this field the history is that of new organisations, not the dissolution of the old. The thirteenth century gave Europe the nations as we now know them. France, England, Spain, large parts of North and South Germany, became nations, where they were previously counties, duchies, and fiefs. Compare the’ map of Europe at the end of the twelfth century, when Philip Augustus was struggling with Richard 1., when the King of England was a more powerful ruler in France than the so-called King of France in Paris, when Spain was held by various groups of petty kinglets facing the solid power of the Moors, compare this with the map of Europe at the end of the thirteenth century, with Spain constituted a kingdom under Ferdinand in. and Alfonso x., France under Philip the Fair, and England under Edward I.

At the very opening of the thirteenth century John did England the inestimable service of losing her French possessions. At the close of the century the greatest of the Plantagenets finally annexed Wales to England and began the incorporation of Scotland and Ireland. Of the creators of England as a sovereign power in the world, from Alfred to Chatham, between the names of the Conqueror and Cromwell, assuredly that of Edward I. is the most important. As to France, the petty counties which Philip Augustus inherited in 1180 had become, in the days of Philip the Pair (1286-1314), the most powerful nation in Europe. As a great European force, the French nation dates from the age of Philip Augustus, Blanche of Castile, her son Louis ix. (the Saint), and the two Philips (ill. and iv.), the son and grandson of St. Louis. The monarchy of France was indeed created in the thirteenth century. All that went before was preparation: all that came afterwards was development. Almost as much may be said for England and for Spain.

Hundred years of European history

It was an age of great rulers. Indeed, we may doubt if any hundred years of European history has been so crowded with great statesmen and kings. In England, Stephen Langton and the authors of our Great Charter in 1215; William, Earl Mareschal, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and above all Edward 1:, great as soldier, as ruler, as legislator — as great when he yielded as when he compelled. In France, Philip Augustus, a king curiously like our Edward 1. in his virtues as in his faults, though earlier by three generations; Blanche, his son’s wife, Regent of France; St. Louis, her son; and St. Louis’ grandson, the terrible, fierce, subtle, and adroit Philip the Fair.

Then on the throne of the Empire, from 1220 to 1250, Frederick II., ‘the world’s wonder,’ one of the most brilliant characters of the Middle Ages, whose life is a long romance, whose many-sided endowments seemed to promise everything but real greatness and abiding results. Next, after a generation, his successor, less brilliant but far more truly great, Rudolph of Hapsburg, emperor from 1273 to 1291, the founder of the Austrian dynasty, the ancestor of its sovereigns, the parallel, I had almost said the equal, of our own Edward 1. In Spain, Ferdinand 111. and his son, Alfonso x., whose reigns united gave Spain peace and prosperity for fifty-four years (1230-1284).

The highest generalisations of history

Therefore, if we are desirous of keeping in the highest generalisations of history, and indeed for many practical purposes, the six great epochs of universal history may be reduced to these four: —

1. The Ancient Monarchies—or the Theocratic age.

2. The Gmeo-Roman world—or the Classical.

3. The Catholic and Feudal ivorld—or the Medieval.

4. The Modern — or the Revolutionary ivorld of Free Thought and Free Life.

These dominant epochs (whether we treat them as six or as grouped into four) should each be kept co-ordinate and clear in our minds, as mutually dependent on each other, and each as an inseparable part of a living whole. No conception of history would be adequate, or other than starved and stunted, which entirely kept out of sight any one of these indispensable and characteristic epochs. They are all indissoluble; yet utterly different, and radically contrasted, just as the child is to the man, or the man to the woman; and for the same reason — that they are forms of one organic humanity.

It follows, that it is not at all the history of our own country which is all-important, overshadowing all the rest, nor the history of the times nearest to our own. From the spiritual, and indeed the scientific, point of view, if history be the continuous biography of the evolution of the human race, it may well be that the history of remoter times, which have the least resemblance to our own, may often be the more valuable to us, as correcting national prejudices and the narrow ideas bred in us by daily custom, whilst it is the wider outlook of universal history that alone can teach us all the vast possibilities and latent forces in human society, and the incalculable limits of variation which are open to man’s civilisation. The history of other races, and of very different systems, may be of all things the best to correct our insular vanities, and our conventional prejudices. We have indeed to know the history of our own country, of the later ages. But the danger is, that we may know little other history private tour istanbul.

Successive phases of civilisation

Thus one who had a grasp on the successive phases of civilisation from the time of Moses until our own day; vividly conceiving the essential features of Egyptian, Assyrian, Chaldean, and Persian society; who felt the inner heart of the classical world, and who was in touch with the soul of the mediaeval religion and chivalry — would know more of true history than one who was simply master of the battles of the seventeenth century, and could catalogue, with dates and names, the annals of each German duchy, and each Italian republic. No doubt, for college examinations, they wring from raw lads, as Milton says, ‘ like blood from the nose,’ the details of the Saxon coinage, and the latest German theory of the mark-system.

These things are essential to examinations and prizes, and the good boy will give his whole mind to them. But they are far from essential to an intelligible understanding of the course which has been followed in the marvellous . unfolding of our human destiny. To see this, in all the imposing unity of the great drama, it is not enough to be crammed with catalogues of official and military incidents. It is needful to have a living sense of the characteristic types of life which succeeded each other in such glaring contrast, and often with such deadly hatred, through the dominant phases of man’s society on earth.

Larger tribes could now collect

With the institution of pastoral — a modified form of nomad — life, a great advance was made in civilisation. Larger tribes could now collect, for there was now no lack of food; tribes gathered into a horde; something like society began. It had its leaders, its elders, perhaps its teachers, poets, and wise men. Men ceased to rove for ever. They stayed upon a favourable pasture for long periods together. Next, property — that is, instruments, valuables, and means of subsistence — began; flocks and herds accumulated; men were no longer torn daily by the wants of hunger ; and leisure, repose, and peace were possible. The women were relieved from the crushing toil of the past. The old were no longer abandoned or neglected through want. Reflection, observation, thought began ; and with thought, religion. As life became more fixed, worship became less vague and more specific.

Some fixed, great powers alone were adored, chiefly the host of heaven, the stars, the moon, and the great sun itself. Then some elder, freed from toil or war, meditating on the world around him, as he watched the horde start forth at the rising of the sun, the animals awakening and nature opening beneath his rays, first came to think all nature moved at the will of that sun himself, perhaps even of some mysterious power of whom that sun was but the image. From this would rise a regular worship common to the whole horde, uniting them together, explaining their course of life, stimulating their powers of thought guided tour ephesus.

Kind of knowledge commenced

With this some kind of knowledge commenced. Their vast herds and flocks needed to be numbered, distinguished, and separated. Arithmetic began; the mode of counting, of adding and subtracting, was slowly worked out. The horde’s course, also, must be directed by the seasons and the stars. Hence astronomy began. The course of the sun was steadily observed, the recurrence of the seasons noted. Slowly the first ideas of order, regularity, and permanence arose.

The world was no longer a chaos of conflicting forces. The earth had its stated times, governed by the all-ruling sun. Now, too, the horde had a permanent existence. Its old men could remember the story of its wanderings and the deeds of its mighty ones, and would tell them to the young when the day was over. Poetry, narrative, and history had begun. Leisure brought the use of fresh implements. Metals were found and worked. The loom was invented ; the wheeled car came into use; the art of the smith, the joiner, and the boat-builder. New arts required a subdivision of labour, and. division of labour required orderly rule.

Society had begun. A greater step was yet at hand. Around some sacred mountain or grave, in some more favoured spot, where the horde would longest halt or oftenest return, some greater care to clear the ground, to protect the pasture, and to tend’ the plants was shown ; some patches of soil were scratched to grow some useful grains, some wild corn ears were cultivated into wheat, the earth began to be tilled. Man passed into the third great stage of material, existence, and agriculture began.

Error in educating a young man

It was a clear case of error in educating a young man out of his station in life. But the philosophers who rebuke such proceedings omit to suggest how a young man is to rise out of a submerged mass if when he has risen he may not find himself above the station in life wherein he was born. I counselled the uncle to have patience, put small jobs of clerk’s work in the way of the young man, and then, after a few months, the uncle met me one day smiling. His nephew had got a position as assistant superintendent of a mine somewhere in the interior of Asia Minor.

And the young man? Look at him to-day—a man trusted by the mining company, handling accounts with accuracy, and correspondence without limitation of language, looked up to by the whole district as a living personification of manly, clean living. You must agree that when a school can take an individual from a mass of Asiatic villagers and make a true man of him in seven years, the men who have taught that boy have done a work of which to be proud, for they see the fruit of their self-denying labour to a degree seldom permitted to those who work for the good of others. This is not a single case.

Professor Ramsey of St. Andrews, Scotland, who has travelled much in Asia Minor says: * “I have come in contact with men educated in Robert College in widely separated parts of the country, men of divers races and different forms of religion—Greek, Armenian and Protest-ant—and have everywhere been struck with the marvellous way in which a certain uniform type, direct, simple, honest in tone, has been impressed upon them. Some had more of it, some had less, but all had it in a certain degree, and it is diametrically opposite to the type produced by growth under the ordinary conditions of Turkish life.”

Woman’s Board of Missions of Boston

The American College for Girls at Scutari is connected with the Woman’s Board of Missions of Boston. It does for young women what Robert College is doing for young men. One of those truths which the American missions in Turkey set out to prove is the thesis that woman has a mind and can use it for the good of her race if men do not thrust her into marriage when she is still a baby. Proof of this thesis is worked out in the Girls’ College in a way that once seen can never be forgotten. Many a woman of Constantinople looking at the intelligent, mature, and Impressions of Turkey.

Capable young women who graduate at this College, at once to become centres of power in the community, sighs over her own lost opportunity, for she is a grandmother at thirty-two. To have begun to teach the people that there is such a thing as respect for woman because of intellectual power, is to have secured an advance in the Christianity of the country which amply justifies all that it has cost private tours balkan.

In emphasizing the importance of the moral training given in these colleges we would not obscure the fact that the permanent fruitfulness and usefulness of graduates must depend upon the degree to which they have changed the centre of gravity of their lives—upon the change of nature wrought by the spirit of God. Where the teachers are themselves full of the Holy Ghost, and where they are able to distinguish between the work of training men to live in Jesus Christ and the work of training adherents to a sect, they impress the spiritual nature of their pupils of whatever sect.

The pupils of such teachers become in some degree centres of spiritual reformation wherever they may be. To have found a means, while imparting the highest scientific training, of making the tree good that its fruit may be good, is the discovery which makes these colleges and others like them in other parts of Turkey centres of hope for the future.

The curious opposition so often

On Eastern people is limited by the curious opposition so often noted between the man of the East and the man of the West in method of action.

The Western man deferentially takes off his hat on entering a house, hut he carefully keeps his lower members covered. When he writes he lays his paper upon the table, and moves his pen from left to right. If he saws a board he has his saw arranged to cut upon the downward stroke so that his whole force may tell. The Eastern man wears his hat into the house, although a king be within, but he takes off his shoes, leaving his feet, perhaps bare and exposed to view. When he writes, he takes up the paper from the table (if he has one) while doing so, and moves his pen from right to left. If he has to saw a board or a log of wood, he makes his saw cut on the up stroke alone. These common instances of a general tendency of Orientals to do exactly the opposite of what Occidentals would do under the same circumstances, have an importance deeper than their picturesqueness when on exhibition.

They are surface indications of a reversal in the point from which life is viewed. When the Oriental wears his hat into the house, it is because he feels that his shaven head would make him grotesque if exhibited to others. The idea that leads him to take off his shoes is that presently he is going to sit down on the floor, and he does not wish to soil his clothes when he does so. If he has no table at which to write it is because he would be obliged to move in order to use it, if he had one. To write where he is requires that he shall rest the paper on the palm of his hand; and this again makes it necessary for him to move his pen from right to left. If he has his saw made so that it does its work when drawn back instead of when it is pushed forward, it is because he prefers to sit while sawing, in order to avoid too severe exertion daily tours istanbul.

Continent of Asia labour

In Western lands it is quite possible that a man will work without the need to work; because idleness is burdensome and ruinous. But in Asia this idea is quite incomprehensible. A carpenter from the vicinity of Constantinople, who was earning about eighty cents a day at his trade, heard that in the United States carpenters get two or three dollars a day. So he packed his kit and hastened to that favoured country. After a time his friend’s wrote to ask if the increased pay was a fact. “ Yes,” he wrote back, “ I do get two dollars a day. But so would I have had two dollars a day at home, if I had been willing to work there as hard as they work me in this terrible country.” Throughout the continent of Asia labour is incompatible with personal dignity. Those favoured from on high will be freed from the need for it. Those who have to work are the “ herd ”—the people made for such degradation. Not to work; to be supported by the labour of others; to be waited on by servants; to grow fat through stagnation of the capillaries is an ideal of existence so generally held in the East, that it might almost be styled the Asiatic scheme of complete happiness. It was an Asiatic to whom God once said “ Thou fool.” The hope of that man still lives among the millions of Asia. It is the hope to be able to say “ Soul take thine ease, for thou hast much goods laid up for many years.”

The man of the West glories in examining, testing, discovering unknown facts. In Asia, the experimental stage of existence ended before any Western nation had come out of its caves or imagined dress goods better than skins. The Fathers have examined everything and they have fixed the best in their saws and proverbs and rules. The old Hebrew preacher expressed the opinions of Asiatics when he said “ That which is hath been already, and that which is to be hath already been, and God seeketh again that which is passed away.” The hope of the West is in the aspiration of the individual. The purpose of the East is that the mass shall always repress and overwhelm the aspiring individual.

At the top of a Pera building

This day I was daguerreotyped by an artist who lived at the top of a Pera building, in a hothouse of glass, where it was scarcely possible to breathe. The portrait has been copied with tolerable accuracy, and it may explain how it was that so few of my friends recognized me on my return. But the comfort of a beard, when travelling, to the abolition of shaving tackle, may be readily conceived.

Demetri had ordered two porters to come to the hotel for our luggage, but six arrived instead, upon which a great battle was fought in the street, and the final couple — apparently having “fought the ties off” and remained the victors — carried our luggage down to the Golden Horn, on the 25th of September. The Ferdinando Pritno, one of the Austrian Lloyd’s boats, was getting her steam up, and at half past four she started, just as the “ husband’s boat” was leaving the bridge for Prinkipo, with the same class of passengers on board, quite ready to dress up again on the Sunday, and walk about as long as there were others to admire them, or fireworks to show off their fashionable toilets.

My eyes from Constantinople

I could not take my eyes from Constantinople as we left the port, and commenced ploughing our way towards the Sea of Marmora ; for now, in addition to the beauty of the view, there was some little association connected with almost every point of it on which the eye fell. There was the noble Genoese tower above Stampa’s shop, in which so many hours had been laughed away, and. behind that minaret was the window of our bed-room at the Hotel, in which private guide turkey, on evenings, so many jolly little meetings had been held. There were the hills over which we had such famous gallops, and enjoyed such good spirits; and there was the Bosphorus, and the site of the little cafe, in the extreme distance, where the pickles were served with the bottled beer. The Seraglio, as I looked at it, had lost all its mystery, when I thought of the French clocks, and gimcrack furniture, and English pictures that it contained; and the picturesque tumble-down houses of Galata, I knew, on the other side, were ship-chandlers’ shops, merchants’ counting-houses, ordinary steam-packet offices, and other material establishments. But still the view was as beautiful as ever, even with every vivid recollection of its internal dirt and dilapidation; and, loth to lose it, I kept my eyes fixed on the domes and minarets, the distant Bosphorus and the violet hills above it, until the twilight stole over them, and I could only think of Constantinople as a bright fleeting vision of the past.

I believe that my companion and myself were the only two cabin passengers, and we were in the fore part. But on the deck there were a great many Moslems — Turks and Circassians principally— on their way to Mecca, for their pilgrimage. Their encampment, if so I may call it, was a curious sight. One half, taken longitudinally, of the aft-deck was allotted to them. Of this, the stern portion was railed off into a species of pen, in which the women were placed, to the number of six or seven. They were shut up exactly like animals at a fair. Along the entire length of the aft-deck a spar was hung, over their heads; and when rain came on, they put canvas on this, and formed a species of tent. Under it each made his “divan”; for the quantity of carpets, dirty cushions, and mattresses they carry about with them, when travelling, is incredible. They had also their cooking utensils, and the filth they prepared, from time to time, is equally matter of difficult belief.

All my readers know that the Bosphorus

THE BOSPHORUS

All my readers know that the Bosphorus is the broad stream of sea-water which connects the Euxine with the Sea of Marmora, falling into the latter between Stamboul and Scutari. It is joined at this point by the “ Sweet waters of Europe,” which flow into the upper end of the Golden Horn, as the Liane may be said to do into the Port of Boulogne, to use a familiar example. There is, however, no tide. It is of great importance to the beauties of Constantinople and its neighborhood that the water is always at the same height.

The length of the Bosphorus is, at a rough guess, about twenty miles. Its course is very winding; its shores are irregular and hilly, broken by small valleys or chines; its banks are covered with picturesque villages, and indeed nearly all along the water’s edge the line of pretty dwellings is unbroken. It divides Europe from Asia, and is the great channel of communication between all the ports of the Black- Sea and the Mediterranean.

On my first disengaged day, I arranged with a friend to make a little voyage up this beautiful stream, in a caique. Ho was residing at Pera, and made a bargain with two fellows to take us for the day for forty-five piastres, (about ten shillings.) We took a large basket of food — principally consisting of hard eggs, bread, and pale ale — and started from the Tophane landing-place about nine A. M.

The morning was threatening, and it soon began to rain in torrents; so drenching our poor boatmen, in their flimsy white jackets and drawers, that we pulled up at a little cluster of houses, where there was a Greek cafe, (properly inscribed, that there might be no mistake about it,) and waited until the storm was over. The room was crowded with Greeks, drinking, smoking, and playing cards; and, in an adjoining room, as many more were absorbed in a game of billiards, played with small ninepins on the cloth. The master had not much to offer beyond some muddy coffee, and execrably bad brandy; but he pointed with great pride to a shelf of English pickles, and bottled beer, which, he appeared to have some vague notion, were always taken together. There was also a picture of Queen Victoria, which had been presented gratis, with some newspaper — hung up, I suppose, in compliment to the Anglo-Ionian subjects who used the house. The noise and confusion, were bewildering, and the intentions of llussia the sole subject of conversation. In about half an hour the weather held up, and when we embarked again the scene was most lovely. The greater part of the noble Turkish fleet was lying at anchor in the middle of the stream.

Many ships were sailing down from the Euxinc ports, on the sterns of some of which it was pleasant to read the Polly of Sunderland, or the Two Sisters of London : all the caiques had come out of their nooks and corners again, and the roofs of the houses, wet with rain, glistened in the sunlight as though they had been silver. I earn conceive nothing so exciting as the approach to Constantinople must be, by the Bosphorus, to those travellers who have come down the Danube. The banks display every variety of water scenery. Now the handsome villas and palaces remind one of the edges of an Italian lake, Como or Orta, for instance; the next turn of the stream brings you to rocky eminences, with such ruins on them as you might see on the llhine or Mo.-elle; and, a little further on, gentle hills, covered with hanging woods, rise from the stream, as they might do anywhere between Maidenhead Bridge and Marlow.

Village called Arnaudhoi

Our men rowed very well, and we soon came to a village called Arnaudhoi, where the current is very rapid, and at times dangerous, the banks forming the outer curve of a sharp sweep in the 6tream. 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 daily ephesus tours.

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 clay-colored 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 cardboard, 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. 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 bis 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.

Mademoiselle Virginie

The progress of the next day presented little variety. “We still had nothing but blue sky and sea to look upon, when we sought distraction beyond the bulwarks of the steamer. Mademoiselle Virginie was studying navigation with the Commissaire, in his cabin; she was there nearly all day. Pauline was incessantly employed upon a piece of crochet-work, which lasted all the journey, and got very, dirty towards the end of it —being one of those fearfully uncomfortable things called anti-macassars, which hang on the backs of chairs, to make your hair rough and tumble over your head. About four o’clock is the afternoon we caught sight of Greece — high up over the larboard bow; and at dinner-time a pretty stiff breeze came on, and the boat began to ride, which had the admirable effect of keeping the foreigners rather more quiet at table; indeed, one or two left it. At dusk, we passed Cerigo, one of our English possessions — a melancholy, reddish-rock island. It was difficult to conceive a more dreary time than the officer must have had of it who was stationed there with his handful of troops. I longed to have seen some small boat, by which I could have sent him a bundle of Galignanis, and a few numbers of Punch, that we had on board.

The opera airs bringing up thoughts of Grisi

Then the little concert on deck began again — the opera airs bringing up thoughts of Grisi, and Covent Garden, and the London season, here, out and away, at one of the gates of the Archipelago; and then, at nine o’clock, we all began to think of retiring rose festival tour. I did not try the berths again; but the Maltese lent me a coat, and lying down on this, with my knapsack, as before, for a pillow, I was soon comfortably curled up with my own thoughts. I was, however, obliged to silence two runaway patriots from some of the Italian States, who had been arguing loudly for an hour upon the 2 affairs of Rome, without any chance, of approaching a conclusion. When this was done, and the usual quantity of fowls had been killed, as on the preceding night, everything became quiet, and I was soon wandering in the world of dreams.

Some dashing European milliners

The brilliancy of the fine ladies and gentlemen who walked up and down to be looked at, was beyond all conception; but the most curious feature of all this was, that in their overpowering costumes, there was no particular fashion prevalent. Everything had evidently been made from a book, or imported from some dashing European milliners, but at all sorts of periods; so that there were long and short petticoats, and wide and narrow bonnets, and polkas and mantillas, and summer fly-away scarfs over winter dresses, all jumbled up together to create a sensation and outshine the neighbours. There were few fezzes to be seen now. The wearers had exchanged them for glossy silk hats; and they all wore gloves of dazzling hues city tours istanbul.

But the children were the most marvellous of all; and one family looked as if they were preparing for an exhibition of ground and lofty tumbling, so brilliantly outre were their costumes. Two of the little boys were attired in crimson satin trousers, spangled, and the third had a perfect Highland dress, which was the great hit of all. With a bit of carpet for the latter to dance, and the others to posture upon, the business would have been complete. The men were all gents—as thorough-bred as might have been selected from the combined forces of Rosherville, Epsom, and the public ball-rooms of London. Some, for display, paid for the blue candles to be fired by day-light: others marched up and down, several abreast; and all evidently had the notion that, got up so remarkably well, they were “ doing it! ” Amidst the throng, cajidjees (waiters) darted about with little morsels of incandescent wood to light the narghiles with: boys sold walnuts, ready peeled and kept in glass jars of water: and sweetmeat men plied their trade. Those ladies who had servants made them walk behind them; and those who had not, sneered at the others. All this went on for two or three hours. There was not one trace of oriental life in the entire scene. The gravity of the Levantine had entirely disappeared; and a restless fevered wish to cut out the others was the leading attribute of every character there assembled.

We sat here until dusk, when it got cold, and the gay crowd disappeared. Most of the men were on board the return steamer the next morning, but their appearance was not so grand as on the preceding evening. They looked very dirty, and they made their breakfast from a cigarette. But I dare say they were all at Prinkipo again the next week, as brilliant as ever: and so on, until the cold weather drove them in like fine caterpillars to hybernate, until the first warmth of the present spring shall bring them out again, more wonderful than ever.

The Narghile.

BAZAARS GENERALLY A CAMEL RIDE A BOAT BUILDER

Whenever I had a leisure day at Constantinople, I always spent it in and about the bazaars; finding no amusement anywhere else equal to this.

These bazaars possess one great advantage over our establishments so named in England. You can stop and look at the wares, without the stall keeper darting upon you immediately, and asking you what you want, which is bad policy, for it always drives people immediately away; whereas, if left to themselves, they might possibly select something.

SX. LEWIS ASSUMES THE CROSS FOR THE SECOND TIME

After the things above stated, it happened that the king loaned all his barons to Paris during a certain Lent 267). I excused myself on account of a quartan fever hitch I then had, and begged him to super me to remain vary. But he sent me word that he insisted that I should time, because he had with him good physicians who well new how to cure quartan fever.

To Paris I went. When I came thither on the night of the vigil of our Lady in March, I found no one, neither the queen or any other, who could tell me why I had been summoned y the king. Now it chanced, as God so willed, that I slept ; ruing matins; and me seemed, while I slept, that I saw the king before an altar, on his knees; and me seemed further late many prelates, duly vested, were vesting him with a ;d chasuble of Rheims serge.

After seeing this vision I called my Lord William, my rest, who was very wise, and told him of the vision. And e said to me: “ Lord, you will see that the king will take le cross to-morrow.” I asked him why he thought so. nd he told me he thought so because of the dream that I ad dreamed; for the chasuble of red serge signified the ross, which was red with the blood that God shed from His ie, and His feet, and His hands. “ And for that the risible is of Rheims serge,” said he, “ that signifies that le Crusade shall be of little profit, as you shall see if God vies you life tour bulgaria.”

Never believe me if the king

When I had heard mass at the Magdalen in Paris, I went ) the king’s chapel and found the king, who had gone up the affording where were the relics, and was causing the true ross to be taken down. While the king was coming down, two knights, who were of his council, began to speak to one another; and the one said: “Never believe me if the king ; not crossing himself here.” And the other made answer: If the king crosses himself, this will be one of the most colorous days that ever were in France. For if we do not ace the cross, we shall lose the king’s favor; and if we take the cross we shall lose God’s favor, because we shall not take it for His sake, but for the sake of the king.”

So it happened that on the following day the king tool the cross, and his three sons with him; and afterwards I befell that the Crusade was of little profit, according to the prophecy of my priest.

Much was I pressed by the King of France, and the Kin; of Navarre, to take the cross. To this I replied that while I was in the service of God and of the king overseas, am since I had returned, the sergeants of the King of France am of the King of Navarre had ruined and impoverished m; people, so that, to all time, I and they would lie the pore for it. And I told them this, that if I wished to do what was pleasing to God, I should remain here, to help am defend my people; and if I put my body in danger in the pilgrimage of the cross, while seeing quite clearly that the would be to the hurt and damage of my people, I should move God to anger, Who gave His body to save His people

I held that all those who advised the king to go on the expedition committed mortal sin; for at the point at which France then was, all the kingdom was at good peace wit itself and with its neighbors, while ever since he departed the state of the kingdom has done nothing but go from ba to worse.

Great was the sin of those who advised the king to go, see king how weak he was of his body,’ for he could bear neither t be drawn in a chariot, nor to ride. So great was his weal ness that-he suffered me to dairy him in my arms from th mansion of the Count of Auxerre, where I took leave of him to the abbey of the Franciscans. And yet, weak as he was, he had remained in France he might have lived longer, an done much good, and many good works.

Wall three hundred verse

And to show you the cost that the king incurred, you must now that I inquired of the legate how much this gate and le portion of wall had cost. And he asked me how much I aught? and I reckoned that the gate had cost full five hundred limes, and the portion of the wall three hundred verse. And he told me so might God help him! that ate and wall together had cost him full thirty thousand verse.

When the king had finished fortifying the burgh of Jaffa, he decided to go and re-fortify the city of Sayette, which the awakens had destroyed. He started on the day of the feast f the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul (29th June 1253); and sat night the king and his host lay before the castle of Assur, which was very strong. The same night the king called his people together and told them that if they agreed he would go and take a city of the Saracens called Naplouse; which city the ancient Scriptures called Samaria.

The Templars and the Hospitallers and the barons of the ,nd answered him, with one accord, that it would be well to and take the city; but that he ought not to go thither 1 person, because, if anything happened to him, all the land mold be lost. And he said that they should not go unless e went with them. Therefore this enterprise remained unachieved, because the lords of the land would not consent eat he should go in person.

Journeying day by day we came to the sands of Acre

A here the king and the host encamped. At that place came me a great troop of people from Great Armenia, who were going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, having paid a great tribute 0 the Saracens, by whom they were conducted. By an interpreter, who knew their language and ours, they be-

ought me to show them the sainted king. I went to the king there where he sat in a pavilion, leaning against the pole f the pavilion ; and he sat upon the sand, without a carpet, nd without anything else under him. I said to him: “ Sire, Here is here outside a great troop of people from Great uremia, going to Jerusalem; and they pray me, sire, to amuse the sainted king to be shown to them; but I have no leisure as yet to kiss your bones.” He laughed aloud, and old me to go and fetch them; and so I did. And when they had seen the king they commended him to God, and the king commended them to God likewise.

Soldan of Damascus sent envoys to the kin

While the king was at Acre, the Soldan of Damascus sent envoys to the king, and complained greatly of the emirs of Egypt, who had killed his cousin; and he promised the king that, if he would help him, he would deliver up to him the kingdom of Jerusalem, which was in his the Soldan’s hand. The king decided to make answer to the Soldan of Damascus through envoys of his own, whom he sent to the Soldan. With these envoys went Brother Yves le Breton, of the order of the Preaching Brothers, who knew the Saracen tongue.

While they were going from their hostel to the palace of the Soldan, Brother Yves saw an old woman going across the street, and she bore in her right hand a dish full of fire, and in her left a phial full of water. Brother Yves asked her: “ What are you doing with these? ” And she answered that with the fire she was minded to bum up paradise, so that there should be none remaining; and with the water to quench hell, so that there should be none remaining. And he asked: “Why wilt thou do this?” “ Because I would that none should do good to have the guerdon of paradise, or because of the fear of hell, but solely for the love of God, who is all-worthy and can do for us what-sever is best.”

JOHN THE ARMENIAN, THE KING’S ARTILLERYMAN

John the Armenian, who was artilleryman to the king, went at that time to Damascus, to buy horn and glue for the making of crossbows; and he saw an old man, very aged, seated in the bazaar of Damascus. This aged man called to him and asked him if he were a Christian; and he said “ Yes.” And the aged man said to him: “ Much must you Christians hate one another; for once upon a time 1 saw King Baldwin of Jerusalem, who was a leper, discomfiting Saladm. and Baldwin had with him but three hundred men-at-arms, whereas Saladin had three thousand; but now you have been brought to so low estate by your sins that we take you in the fields as if you were wild beasts.”

Counsellors of the Soldan

Him.” Then he went away, and all the young men with him; whereat I was greatly rejoiced, for I thought most certainly that they had come to cut off our heads. And it was not long afterwards that the Soldan’s people came and told us that the king had procured our deliverance.

After the aged man who had given us comfort, was gone away, the counsellors of the Soldan came back to us, and told us that the king had procured our deliverance, and that we must send four of our people to hear what he had done. We sent my Lord John of Valery, the right worthy man, my Lord Philip of Montfort, my Lord Baldwin of Ibelin, Senes chalk of Cyprus, and my Lord Guy of Ibelin, Constable of Cyprus, one of the most accomplished knights I have ever seen, and one who most loved the people of that land. These four brought back to us word after what manner the king had procured our deliverance.

ST. LEWIS THREATENED WITH TORTURE HE NEGOTIATES WITH THE SARACENS

The counsellors of the Soldan had tried the king in the same manner that they had tried us, in order to see if the kins: would promise to deliver over to them any of the castles of the Temple or the Hospital, or any of the castles belonging to the barons of the land; and, as God so willed, the king had answered after the very same manner that we had answered. And they threatened him, and told him that as he would not do as they wished, they would cause him to be put in the bertiicles. Now the bernicles are the most cruel torture that any one can suffer.

They are made of two pieces of wood, pliable, and notched at the ends with teeth that enter the one into the other; and the pieces of wood are bound together at the end with strong straps of ox-hide; and when they want to set people therein, they lay them on their side, and put their legs between the teeth; and then they cause a man to sit on the pieces of wood. Hence it happens that, not half a foot of bone remains uncrushed, And to do the worst they can, at the end of three days, when the legs are swollen, they replace the swollen legs in the bernicles, and crush them all once more. To these threats the Icing replied that he was their prisoner, and that they could do with him according to their will.

The Soldan of Babylon

The Soldan of Babylon expected that the king would arrive in Egypt in spring, and bethought himself that he would, ere the spring, overthrow the Soldan of Emessa, who was his mortal enemy, and he went and besieged him in the ritzy of Emessa. The Soldan of Emessa saw no way of severance from the Soldan of Babylon, for he perceived that f the latter lived long enough, he would overthrow him. Therefore he bargained in such sort with the ferrais of the Soldan of Babylon that the Ferrais poisoned him.

And the manner in which he poisoned him was this: The errais was aware that the Soldan came every day, after inner, to play chess on the mats that were at the foot of his jed; and the mat on which he knew that the Soldan sat very day he put poison thereon. Now it happened that :he Soldan, who was unshod, turned himself about upon  that was on his leg. Immediately the poison struck into the open sore, and took away all power from the half of :he body into which it had entered; and every time that the roison impinged upon his heart, the Soldan remained for .ome two days unable to drink, or eat, or speak. So they lift the Soldan of Emessa in peace; and the people of the Soldan of Babylon carried him back into Egypt.

THE HOST I,EAVES CYPRUS 1249

As soon as we entered into the month of March, by the king’s command the king, the barons, and the other pilgrims ordered that the ships should be re-laden with wine and pro visions, so as to be ready to move when the king directed. And when the king saw that all had been duly ordered, the king and queen embarked on their ships on the Friday before Pentecost (21st May 1249), and the king told his barons to follow in their ships straight to Egypt. On the Saturday the king set sail and all the others besides, which was a fair thing to look upon, for it seemed as if all the sea, so far as the eye could reach, were covered with the canvas of the ships’ sails ; and the number of the ships, great and small, was reckoned at eighteen hundred customised private istanbul tour.

Point of Limassol

The king anchored at the head of a hillock which is called the Point of Limassol, and all the other vessels anchored round about him. The king landed on the day of Pentecost. After we had heard mass a fierce and powerful wind, coming from the Egyptian side, arose in such sort that out of two thousand eight hundred knights, whom the king was taking into Egypt, there remained no more than seven hundred whom the wind had not separated from the king’s company and carried away to Acre and other strange lands; nor did they afterwards return to the king of a long while.

The day after Pentecost the wind had fallen. The king and such of us as had, according to God’s will, remained with him, set sail forthwith, and met the Prince of Morea, and the Duke of Burgundy, who had been sojourning in Morea. On the Thursday after Pentecost the king arrived before Damietta, and we found there, arrayed on the seashore, all the power of the Soldan a host fair to look upon, for the Soldan’s arms are of gold, and when the sun struck upon them they were resplendent. The noise they made with their cymbals and horns was fearful to listen to.

The king summoned his barons to take counsel what they should do. Many advised that he should wait till his people returned, seeing that no more than a third part had remained with him; but to this he would by no means agree. The reason he gave was, that to delay would put the foe in good heart, and, particularly, he said that there was no port before Damietta in which he could wait for his people, and that, therefore, any strong wind arising might drive the shore to other lands, like as the ships had been driven on the und of Pentecost.

King of Wallachia and Bulgaria

Johannizza, the King of Wallachia and Bulgaria, who had sojourned long in Roumania, and wasted the country during the whole of Lent, and for a good while after Easter (and April 1206), now retired towards Adrianople and Demotica, and had it in mind to deal with those cities as he had dealt with the other cities of the land. And when the Greeks who were with him saw that he turned towards Adrianople, they began to steal away, both by day and by night, some twenty, thirty, forty, a hundred, at a time.

When he came to Adrianople, he required of those that were within that they should let him enter, as he had entered elsewhere. But they said they would not, and spoke thus: “ Sire, when we surrendered to thee, and rebelled against the ranks, thou didst swear to protect us in all good faith, and o keep us in safety. Thou hast not done so, but hast utterly uined Roumania; and we know full well that thou wilt do into us as thou hast done unto others.” And when Johanlizza heard this, he laid siege to Demotica, and erected round 11 sixteen large petraries, and began to construct engines of wery kind for the siege, and to waste all the country round.

Then did those in Adrianople and Demotica take mesa engers, and send them to Constantinople, to Henry, the legent of the empire, and to Vernas, and prayed them, for jod’s sake, to rescue Demotica, which was being besieged. And when those at Constantinople heard these tidings, they lecided to succour Demotica. But some there were who did lot dare to advise that our people should issue from Con- .tantinople, and so place in jeopardy the few Christian folk hat remained. Nevertheless, in the end, as you have heard, t was decided to issue forth, and move on Salymbria.

The cardinal, who was there as legate on the part of the Pope of Rome, preached thereon to the people, and promised i full indulgence to all such as should go forth, and lose their ives on the way. So Henry issued from Constantinople vith as many men as he could collect, and marched to the  of Salymbria; and he encamped before the city for full light days. And from day to day came messengers from Adrianople praying him to have mercy upon them, and come to their relief, for if he did not come to their relief, they were out lost. . , V

THE CRUSADERS MARCH TO THE RELIEF OF DEMOTICA

Then did Henry take council with his barons, and their decision was that they would go to the city of Bizye, which was a fair city, and strong. So they did as they had devised, and came to Bizye, and encamped before the city on the eve of the feast of our Lord St. John the Baptist, in June (23rd June 1206). And on the day that they so encamped came messengers from Adrianople, and said to Henry, the brother of the Emperor Baldwin: “ Sire, be it known to thee that if thou dost not relieve the city of Demotica, it cannot hold out more than eight days, for Johannizza’s petraries have breached the walls in four places, and his men have twice got on to the walls.”

Then he asked for counsel as to what he should do. Many were the words spoken, to and fro; but in the end they said: “ Lord, we have come so far that we shall be for ever shamed if we do not succour Demotion. L&t.every man now confess and receive the communion; and then let us set our forces in array .” And it was reckoned that they had with them about four hundred knights, and of a certainty no more. So they summoned the messengers who had come from Adrianople, and asked them how matters stood, and what number of men Johannizza had with him. And the messengers answered that he had with him at least forty thousand men-at-arms, not reckoning those on foot, of whom they had no count guided istanbul tour.

Ah God! what a perilous battle so few against so many I In the morning, on the day of the feast of our Lord St. John the Baptist, all confessed and received the communion, and on the following day they marched forward. The van was commanded by Geoffry, the Marshal of Roumania and Champagne, and with him was Macaire of Sainte-Menehould. The second division was under Conon of Bethune and Miles the Brabant; the third under Payen of Orleans and Peter of Bracieux; the fourth was under Anseau of Cayeux; the fifth under Baldwin of Beauvoir; the sixth under Hugh of Beaumetz; the seventh under Henry, brother of the Emperor Baldwin; the eighth, with the Flemings, under Walter of Escomai; Thierri of Loos, who was seneschal, commanded the rear-guard.

So they, rode for three days, all in order; nor did any host ever advance seeking battle so perilously. For they were in peril on two accounts; first because they were so few, and those they were about to attack so many; and secondly, because they did not believe the Greeks, with whom they had just made peace, would help them heartily. For they stood in fear lest, when need arose, the Greeks would go over to Johannizza, who, as you have already heard, had been so near to taking Demotica.