First of all they
must be hoodwinked and pacified, only after that would it be possible
to proceed to extreme measures against them.
All that the Grand Vizier could do, therefore, was frankly to present
all Halil Patrona's demands to the Sultan.
Mahmud granted everything on the spot.
In an hour's time the firmans and hatti-scherifs, deposing and elevating
the various functionaries, were in Musli's hands as desired.
Only as to the method of destroying the kiosks did the Sultan venture to
make a suggestion. They had better not be burnt to the ground, he
opined, for thereby the Mussulmans would make themselves the
laughing-stock of the whole Christian world; but he undertook to
dilapidate the walls and devastate the pleasure-gardens.
And within three days one hundred and twenty splendid kiosks, standing
beside the Sweet Waters, had become so many rubbish heaps; and the rare
and costly plants of the beautiful flower-gardens were chucked into the
water, and the groves of amorous dallying were cut down to the very
roots. Only ruins were now to be seen in the place of the fairy palaces
wherein all manner of earthly joys had hitherto built their nests, and
all this ruin was wrought in three days by Halil Patrona, just because
there is but one God, and therefore but one Paradise, and because this
Paradise is not on earth but in Heaven, and those who would attain
thereto must strive and struggle valiantly for it in this life.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] 1481 A.
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