After I routed him, the fellow had managed to obtain a position which is equal to that of our Admiral of the Fleet--" "But I thought he was in the cavalry ?" said Pere Leger, who had followed the narrative with the deepest attention.
"Dear me! how little the East is understood in the French provinces!" cried Georges.

"Monsieur, I'll explain the Turks to you.

You are a farmer; the Padishah (that's the Sultan) makes you a marshal; if you don't fulfil your functions to his satisfaction, so much the worse for you, he cuts your head off; that's his way of dismissing his functionaries.

A gardener is made a prefect; and the prime minister comes down to be a foot-boy.

The Ottomans have no system of promotion and no hierarchy.