So I was forced to carry off my windfalls in a felucca, which was captured by the Turkish High-Admiral himself.

Such as you see me here to-day, I came very near being impaled at Smyrna.

Indeed, if it hadn't been for Monsieur de Riviere, our ambassador, who was there, they'd have taken me for an accomplice of Ali pacha.

I saved my head, but, to tell the honest truth, all the rest, the ten thousand talari, the thousand gold pieces, and the fine weapons, were all, yes all, drunk up by the thirsty treasury of the Turkish admiral.

My position was the more perilous because that very admiral happened to be Chosrew pacha.