"Yes," interrupted the aged murderer; "Issek Pacha is a kind man, he will not put me to death; but he is very old—he may die! The Governor who will succeed him might find the firman, and order me to be hanged!" "Well, what do you want me to do?" I asked. "Only, Effendi, to beseech the Pacha to tear up the firman!" cried the old man in imploring tones. "Let me end my years in the prison, for here every one is kind to me; and let me not be strangled at the end of a rope on the scaffold!" "Well, I will speak to Issek Pacha," I said; and with difficulty escaping from the murderer, who threw himself on all fours and frantically embraced my legs, I walked to the governor's residence. He was seated on a sofa at one end of a large hall, and surrounded by attendants with documents awaiting his signature. He at once rose, and motioned to me to sit down by his side. After the customary salutations, I mentioned to him that I had just visited the prison and had seen the old murderer. "Ah! you have seen him," said the Pacha gravely, at the same time slowly stroking his stomach. "He is in a great state of mind, I believe, lest I should die before he does, and my successor order the sentence to be put into execution. But he has nothing to fear; I have the firman safe in my drawer, and am trying to arrange the matter with the relatives of the murdered man." It appears that there is a curious law in Turkey, to the effect that if a man has committed a murder, and the order for his execution has come from Constantinople, the Pacha whose duty it is to have the sentence carried out need not do so, provided that the relations of the murdered person request that the assassin's life may be spared. This frequently gives rise to mercenary dealings between the assassin and the relatives, for the latter hold his life in their hands. If the murderer is rich, he will often have to give up all his property; and then if the relations pardon him, the law enacts that he must spend fifteen years in gaol. The manner of carrying out this part of the sentence is extremely lax. Should the friends of the prisoner be able to scrape together enough money to satisfy the officials connected with the prison, the murderer will be allowed to escape and remain at large in his native town. Later in the day two Armenian gentlemen called upon me. Presently one of them remarked that Issek Pacha was immensely rich, and that many tales were in circulation about him.