These men they took with
them to the council as members of the Divan.
It was arranged thus. When Halil had brought forward and defended his
motion for a war against Russia, then Kaplan Giraj would argue against
the project, whereupon Halil was sure to lose his temper. The Khan
thereupon was to rush upon him with a drawn sword, and this was to be
the signal for the Janissary officers to rise in a body and massacre all
Halil's followers.
So it was a well-prepared trap into which Halil and his associates were
to fall, and they had not the slightest suspicion of the danger that was
hanging over their heads.
* * * * *
The Grand Vizier sat in the centre of the councillors, beside him on his
right hand sat Kaplan Giraj, while the place of honour on his left was
reserved for Halil Patrona. All around sat the Spahi and Janissary
officers with their swords in their hands.
The plot was well contrived, the whole affair was bound to be over in a
few minutes.
The popular deputies arrived; there were seven-and-twenty of them, not
including Halil Patrona. The Janissary officers were sixty in number.
Kabakulak beckoned to Halil to sit on his left hand, the others were so
arranged that each one of them sat between a couple of Janissary
officers. As soon as Kaplan Giraj gave the signal by drawing his sword
against Halil, the Janissaries were to fall upon their victims and cut
them down.
"My dear son," said the Grand Vizier to Halil, when they had all taken
their places, "behold, at thy desire, we have summoned the council and
the chief officers of the Army; tell them, I pray thee, wherefore thou
hast called them together!"
Halil thereupon arose, and turning towards the assembly thus addressed
it:
"Mussulmans! faithful followers of the Prophet! If any one of you were
to hear that his house was on fire, would he need lengthy explanations
before hastening away to extinguish it? If ye were to hear that robbers
had broken into your houses and were plundering your goods--if ye were
to hear that ruffians were throttling your little children or your aged
parents, or threatening the lives of your wives with drawn swords, would
you wait for further confirmation or persuasion before doing anything,
or would you not rather rush away of your own accord to slay these
robbers and murderers? And lo! what is more than our houses, more than
our property, more than our children, our parents, or our wives--our
Fatherland, our faith is threatened with destruction by our enemy.
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