The horses were in excellent keeping with their riders, and presented a beautiful independence of accoutrement. Some had blue saddlecloths, and some had brown ones; some scarlet, and some white; some had European saddles, and some Tartar—some had holsters, (many of them, by the by, to my great amusement, charged with cucumbers, of which the Turks are extremely fond) and some were without. Their lances looked as though they had dropped down among them by mistake, their points were so glittering, and their crimson pennons so fresh and bright, for a Turkish soldier is always careful of his arms. They do not carry these graceful weapons like our own Lancers, although they are similarly provided with slings, but grasp the pole in the Russian fashion.
We were curious to witness the bearing of the Sultan on this occasion, as on the presentation of his portrait at Scutari, a portion of the Imperial Guard had murmured openly against so glaring an infringement of their law, which forbids literally the likeness of any human being to be taken; whereas this had, moreover, been carried with great pomp, and saluted after the same fashion as would have been the august personage whom it represented. “We are be coming Giaours—Infidels,”—was the complaint—“The Franks are turning the head of the Sultan, and he will soon be as they are.”
The first intimation of this disaffection on the part of the troops which reached the inhabitants of the capital, was the appearance of bodies floating in the Bosphorus; and the fact that a Greek captain, who had moored his vessel in the current, found it clogged in an incomprehensible manner; and, on employing half a dozen men to remove the evil, discovered that it was choaked with corpses!
After so decided a manifestation of the sentiments of the soldiery, it was a courageous act of the Sultan to venture thus immediately on a repetition of the offence; and the rather that a portion of the troops are composed of the sons of the Janissaries, who cannot be supposed to entertain the most favourable feelings towards the destroyer of their fathers; and who would naturally embrace so favourable an opportunity of spreading their own hate, as that which permitted them to enforce their expressions of disgust with the name of the Prophet, and the authority of their religion.