If we give them this
help they will be our allies, if we withhold it they will become our
adversaries. The Tartars, the Circassians, and Moldavians are the
bulwarks of our Empire, let us join to them the Cossacks also, and not
wait until they all become the bulwarks of our northern foe instead, and
he will lead them all against us. When he built the fortress of Azov he
showed us plainly what he meant by it. Let us also now show that we
understood his intentions and raze that fortress to the ground."
With these words Halil resumed his place.
As pre-arranged Kaplan Giraj now stood up in his turn.
Halil fully expected that the Tartar Khan, who was to have played such
an important part in his project, inasmuch as his dominions were
directly in the way of an invading enemy, and therefore most nearly
threatened, would warmly support his proposition. All the greater then
was his amazement when Kaplan Giraj turned towards him with a
contemptuous smile and replied in these words:
"It is a great calamity for an Empire when its leading counsellors are
ignorant. I will not question your good intentions, Halil, but it
strikes me as very comical that you should wish us, on the strength of
the prophecy of a Turkish recluse, to declare war against one of our
neighbours who is actually living at peace with us, is doing us no harm,
and harbours no mischievous designs against us. You speak as if Europe
was absolutely uninhabited by any but ourselves, as if there was no such
thing as powerful nations on every side of us, jealous neighbours all of
them who would incontinently fall upon us with their banded might in
case of a war unjustly begun by us.
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