The chief of the Janissaries, Pehlivan-Aga, had formerly been colonel of a regiment, which had acted once as guard of honour, given to a French embassy at the Porte. Having remained some time in that station, he had contracted a lasting connexion with the French, to whose party, since that period, he devoted himself. When General Sebastiani saw that peace with England was on the point of being concluded, he sent Franchini to him to suggest a plan which the Turkish officer carried into immediate execution. He went to the seraglio[33], as if in great haste, and having obtained audience of the Sultan, he thus addressed his imperial chief:— “May God preserve your sacred person and the Ottoman empire from every possible evil. A pure sense of duty brings me before your Royal Person, to represent that so strong and general a fermentation has arisen amongst my Janissaries since the appearance of the infidel’s fleet before your royal palace: they express so great a discontent at the measures pursued by your ministers in negotiating with the English, from a shameful fear that the appearance of that fleet has thrown them into; that a general insurrection is on the point of breaking out, unless the negotiations be laid aside, and all offers of peace be rejected with scorn. They declare that it is beneath the dignity and fame of the Ottoman empire, to submit to such an act of humiliation, as to sign a treaty, because a few ships have come to bully its capital, and dictate their own terms to the Ottoman sovereign. Your brave Janissaries will not suffer so disgraceful a stain to tarnish the splendour of the Ottoman arms. They are all ready to sacrifice themselves in defence of your residence, and in vindication of the honour and faith of the Ottoman nation. But they can never consent to stand tacit witnesses of a submission so ignominious to the Turkish name.” Sultan Selim, a prince naturally timid and credulous, no sooner heard a message of this sort delivered in the name of the Janissaries, then in good understanding with the chiefs of government, and apparently united with the troops of the Nisam-y-gedid[34], than he ordered all communications with the English fleet to be suspended, and immediate preparations of defence to be made, in the event of its commencing hostilities. This manœuvre, unknown at the time, and with which very few persons are yet acquainted, was the true cause of the failure of the negotiations which, at the commencement, bore so sure a prospect of success. The fleet returned without even having made a show of hostile intentions, and left to the triumphant French party the most decided influence in the Seraglio. Before we enter into further observations on the events which followed, it may not be amiss to make a few remarks on the character of those who were then at the head of the Turkish administration, as it is to them that the whole change of system of the Porte is to be attributed.