Come, let us go to prayer and then to
bed!"
At about the same hour, three softas awoke the Chief Mufti and
Ispirizade, and laid before them a letter written on parchment which
they had discovered lying in the middle of a mosque. The letter was
apparently written with gunpowder and almost illegible.
It turned out to be an exhortation to all true Mussulmans to draw the
sword in defence of Muhammad, but they were bidden beware lest, when
they went against the foe, they left behind them, at home, the greatest
foes of all, who were none other than the Sultan's own Ministers.
"This letter deserves to be thrown into the fire," said Ispirizade, and
into the fire he threw it, there and then, and thereupon lay down to
sleep with a good conscience.
The following day was Thursday, the 28th September. On that very day,
twelve months before, the Sultan's eleven-year-old son had died. The day
was therefore kept as a solemn day of mourning, and a general cessation
of martial exercises throughout the host was proclaimed by a flourish of
trumpets.
To many of the commanders this day of rest was a season of strict
observance. The Aga of the Janissaries withdrew to his kiosk; the
Kapudan Pasha had himself rowed through the canal to his country house
at Chengelkoei, having just received from a Dutch merchant a very
handsome assortment of tulip-bulbs, which he wanted to plant out with
his own hands; the Reis-Effendi hastened to his summer residence, beside
the Sweet Waters, to take leave of his odalisks for the twentieth time
at least; and the Kiaja returned to Stambul.
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