Janizaries -- Fiction; Turkey -- History -- Mahmud I, 1730-1754 -- Fiction
Well, first of all there was the old master-cobbler, Suleiman, whom they
had dragged by force from his house where he had been hiding under the
floor. Halil now ordered a document to be drawn up, whereby he elevated
him to the rank of Reis-Effendi.
Halil Patrona, by the way, was still wearing his old Janissary uniform,
the blue dolman with the salavari reaching to the knee, leaving the
calves bare. The only difference was that he now wore a white heron's
feather in his hat instead of a black one, and by his side hung the
sword of the Grand Vizier, whose palace in the Galata suburb he had
levelled to the ground only an hour before.
It was with the signet in the hilt of this sword that Halil was now
sealing all the public documents issued by him.
After Suleiman came Muhammad the saddle-maker. He was a sturdy, muscular
fellow, who could have held his own against any two or three ordinary
men. Him Halil appointed Aga.
Then came a ciaus called Orli, whom he made chief magistrate. Ibrahim, a
whilom schoolmaster, who went by the name of "the Fool," he made chief
Cadi of Stambul, and then catching sight of Sulali, he beckoned him
forth from among the ciauses and said to him:
"Thou shalt be the Governor-General of Anatolia."
Sulali bowed to the ground by way of acknowledgment of such
graciousness.
"I thank thee, Halil! Make of me what thou wilt, but listen, first of
all, to the message of the Padishah which he has entrusted to me, for I
am in very great doubt whether it be thou or Sultan Achmed who is now
Lord of all the Moslems. Tell me, therefore, what thou dost require of
the Sultan, and if thy demands be lawful and of good report they shall
be granted, provided that thou dost promise to disperse thy following."
Then Halil Patrona stood up before the Sulali, and with a severe and
motionless countenance answered:
"Our demands are few and soon told. We demand the delivery to us of the
four arch-traitors who have brought disaster upon the realm. They are
the Kul Kiaja, the Kapudan Pasha, the Chief Mufti, and the Grand
Vizier."
Sulali fell to shaking his head.
"You ask much, Halil!"
"I ask much, you say. To-morrow I shall ask still more. If you agree to
my terms, to-morrow there shall be peace. But if you come again to me
to-morrow, then there will be peace neither to-morrow nor any other
morrow."
Sulali returned to the Sultan and his ministers who were still all
assembled together.
Full of suspense they awaited the message of Halil.
Sulali dared not say it all at once. Only gradually did he let the cat
out of the bag.
"I have found out the demands of the insurgents," said he. "They demand
that the Kiaja Beg be handed over to them."
The Kiaja suddenly grew paler than a wax figure.
"Such a faithful old servant as he has been to me too," sighed Achmed.
"Well, well, hand him over, and now I hope they will be satisfied."
With tottering footsteps the Kiaja stepped among the bostanjis.
"They demand yet more," said Sulali.
"What! more?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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