Each of them strictly
observed the day--in his own peculiar manner.
But Fate had prepared for the people at large a very different sort of
observance.
Early in the morning, at sunrise, seventeen Janissaries were standing in
front of the mosque of Bajazid with Halil Patrona at their head.
In the hand of each one of them was a naked sword, and in their midst
stood Musli holding aloft the half-moon banner.
The people made way before them, and allowed Patrona to ascend the steps
of the mosque, and when the blast of the alarm-horns had subsided, the
clear penetrating voice of the ex-pedlar was distinctly audible from end
to end of the great kalan square in front of him.
"Mussulmans!" he cried, "you have duties, yes, duties laid upon you by
our sacred law. We are being ruined by traitors. Fugitives from the host
have brought us the tidings that the army of Kueprilizade has been
scattered to the winds; four thousand horses and six hundred camels,
laden with provisions, have been captured by the Persians; the general
himself has fled to Erivan, and the provinces of Hamadan and Kermanshan
are once more in the possession of the enemy. And all this is going on
while the Grand Vizier and the Chief Mufti have been arranging Lantern
Feasts, Processions of Palms and Illuminations in the streets of Stambul
instead of making ready the host to go to the assistance of the valiant
Kueprilizade! Our brethren are sent to the shambles, we hear their cries,
we see their banners falter and fall into the enemy's hands, and we are
not suffered to fly to their assistance, though we stand here with drawn
swords in our hands.
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