He recovered the cattle which had been carried off by his Kurdish allies and liquidated his claims from the proceeds of their sale. His services were rewarded by a decoration from Constantinople; and he was able to pose as the restorer of the authority of Government, the ringleader being in his hands. These events occurred in the month of June. Damadean is a good type of the Armenian revolutionary. He received a sound education in the school of the Mekhitarists at Venice, and he is said to speak both the French and the English languages. Some ten years before our visit he came to Mush as a teacher in one of the Armenian schools. The real miseries attendant upon the social and political lot of his countrymen are nowhere more eloquent than in that remote town. They spoke to the soul of an Armenian who had tasted the liberties of Europe without succumbing to the vices on the surface of European life. The actions of such a neophyte are in so far misguided that they operate upon much too low a plane. They produce disturbance rather than wholesome change. The despairing usher shook off the dust of Mush from his feet; and, when he returned after a protracted absence to pursue his old vocation, the profession was only a cloak to the designs he had matured in Constantinople as a petty conspirator and correspondent of European newspapers. When his plans were sufficiently ripe, he exchanged the dress of his office for that of a peasant in Sasun; and the disguise enabled him to pass to and fro between the town and the adjacent mountains in the capacity of a seller of firewood. Disposing of his logs in the houses of the principal officials, he had ready access to their confidential servants. No move was made of which he had not been apprised. His career was cut short in the doubtful manner already indicated; but it was not calculated to accomplish abiding results. CHAPTER VII FROM BITLIS TO MUSH--MUSH