These latter, with a tenacity altogether incompatible with our European ideas of a despotic government, resolutely refused to quit their convent, when the plan of the new palace which rendered their ejection indispensable was explained to them. They had come to a resolution not to move—their mausoleum contained the holy ashes of a saint, and, in short, they were determined to measure their strength with the Sultan. Accordingly, raising the cry of sacrilege, they continued snugly within their convent walls, which were soon overtopped by the Imperial pile that rose gradually on either side of them. But Sultan Mahmoud was born a century too late to be thus baffled—the work went on; and he bore the opposition to his will with most exemplary patience so long as it did not retard the operations of his architects. But, when the moment at length arrived which rendered expedient the removal of the fraternity, he claimed from the Chèïk Islam, or High Priest, his permission to expel them; and, having failed in procuring it, quietly mounted his horse, and rode up to the convent gate. The Chief Dervish met him on the threshold, and the dialogue was brief:— “Your Tekiè occupies the ground necessary to the completion of my palace:—you must vacate it.” “We guard the sepulchre of a saint, may it please your Sublime Highness.” “My pleasure is your immediate removal—I have provided a place of reception for your community.” “We are not strong enough to contend against your Imperial will. We obey.” And the fraternity were put in possession of an extensive edifice, lately occupied by the Court Jester! By a strange chance, this house was situated immediately under the holy tomb which had afforded to the Dervishes their principal pretext for disobedience to the Imperial mandate; and the Sultan adroitly availed himself of the fact to impress upon them the eligibility of the situation, pointing out, with a solemnity worthy of the occasion, that it was more decent for them to be domesticated on the very spot consecrated by the remains of the illustrious deceased, than at the distance of a furlong, as had hitherto been the case. The observation was a happy one, and the remark unanswerable; and the fraternity were fain to affect accordance with the sentiment, however inconvenient its effects. Immediately opposite, seated upon the Asian shore, like a regal beauty contemplating her gorgeousness in the clear mirror of the Bosphorus, rises the summer palace of Beglièrbey—with its walls of pale gold and dead white; the prettiest and most fanciful of all the Imperial residences, and rendered doubly agreeable by its spacious gardens and overhanging groves.