The Defterdar himself was a Turk of Roumelian origin, whose only son was the child of his Hindu concubine.

He again married the daughter of a Polish countess at the court of Vienna.

The wife of Baron Leonard's father was a wallachized Hungarian lady, whom he married for her wealth.

It was not wonderful, therefore, if the noble baron possessed the qualities of five distinct races.

Thus he had something of the voluptuousness of the Turk, the ostentation of the Hindu, the flightiness of the Pole, the foolhardiness of the Hungarian, and the obstinacy of the Wallach.
"For, I speak of his faults first," the lawyer proceeded, "because I consider that they outweigh his good qualities.