And as he, pursuing his way home, passed by the
Tsiragan Palace, and there encountered riding past him the Padishah,
Sultan Achmed III., accompanied by the Grand Vizier, Ibrahim Damad, the
Kiaja Beg, the Kapudan Pasha, and the chief Imam, Ispirizade; and as he
humbly bowed his head in the dust before them, it seemed to him as if
something at the bottom of his heart whispered to him: "The time will
come when the whole lot of you will bow your heads before me in the dust
just as I, Halil Patrona, the pedlar, do obeisance to you now, ye lords
of the Empire and the Universe!"
Fortunately for Halil Patrona, however, he did not raise his face while
the suite of the Lords of the Universe swept past him, for otherwise it
might have happened that Halil Pelivan, who went before the Sultan with
a drawn broadsword, might have recognised him, and certainly nobody
would have taken particular trouble to inquire why the Janissary had
split in two the head of this or that pedlar who happened to come in his
way.
CHAPTER II.
GUEL-BEJAZE--THE WHITE ROSE.
The booth of Halil Patrona, the pedlar, stood in the bazaar. He sold
tobacco, chibooks, and pipe-stems, but his business was not particularly
lucrative. He did not keep opium, although that was beginning to be one
of the principal articles of luxury in the Turkish Empire. From the very
look of him one could see that he did not sell the drug. For Halil had
determined that he would never have any of this soul-benumbing stuff in
his shop, and whenever Halil made any resolution he generally kept it.
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