"
The host is coming to Stambul!--that was a word of terror.
And Achmed III. well understood what it meant. Well did he remember the
message which, three-and-twenty years before, the host had sent to his
predecessor, Sultan Mustafa, who would not quit his harem at Adrianople
to come to Stambul: "Even if thou wert dead thou couldst come here in a
couple of days!" And he also remembered what had followed. The Sultan
had been made to abdicate the throne and he (Achmed) had taken his
place. And now just the same sort of tempest which had overthrown his
predecessor was shaking the seat of the mighty rock beneath his own
feet.
"Mashallah! the will of God be done!" exclaimed Achmed, kissing the
sword of Muhammad, and a quarter of an hour later he went on board the
ship destined for him with the banner of the Prophet borne before him.
In the Seraglio all the clocks one after another struck one as
four-and-twenty salvoes announced that the Sultan with the banner of the
Prophet had arrived in the camp.
And the people of the East believe that the blessing of Allah does not
rest on the hour which marks the afternoon.
CHAPTER VI.
THE BURSTING FORTH OF THE STORM.
A contrary wind was blowing across the Bosphorus, so that it was not
until towards the evening that the Sultan arrived at Scutari, and
disembarked there at his seaside palace with his viziers, his princes,
the Chief Mufti, and Ispirizade.
Though everything had quieted down close at hand, all night long could
be heard, some distance off, in the direction of the camp, a murmuring
and a tumult, the cause of which nobody could explain.
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