But, unhappily for the continuance of these joyous feelings, the authorities had just secured a band of Sclavonian housebreakers, and, having bestowed upon them a very summary species of civil drum-head court-martial, had hung a dozen of them the previous day in the outskirts of the city. Of this uncomfortable fact we were entirely ignorant; and the shock may consequently be conceived when, on descending a steep pitch into the narrow street of Ortakeuÿ, the arabadjhe suddenly exclaimed—“A man hanged! A man hanged! Hide your eyes, ladies.” But it was too late. As the carriage turned the corner of the road I had caught sight of the suspended criminal, and I continued to gaze upon him, fascinated by the horror of the spectacle. This was only the second time that I had looked upon death, and it was now before me in so revolting a shape that I felt as though my life-blood were curdling about my heart! We had come upon the victim in so instantaneous a manner that the sleeve of my dress almost touched his arm, as he hung from the projecting spout of a house immediately beside our path. He was a tall, powerful man, bare-headed, and clad in a white jacket and trowsers, fastened about his waist with a scarlet shawl. But what made the exhibition tenfold more horrible was the fact that the rope had slipped during his dying struggles, and that his head was bent forcibly backward. I shall never forget it; and I verily believe that I should have remained without the power of turning away my eyes had not my companion aroused me forcibly from my lethargy; when, yielding to the heart-sickness which crept over me, I fortunately fainted, and thus escaped all further suffering from the disgusting spectacle. I am not prepared to deny that these wayside executions may be very efficacious in preventing the spread of crime; it is a subject on which I am not competent to offer an opinion; but I am enabled from my own painful experience to decide upon their extreme inconvenience, to use no stronger term, to those who do not require so frightful a warning. To encounter death in a shape of violence upon the very path of the living, and in the midst of men busied in their daily avocations—to know that the narrow space in which the victim is suspended, surrounded by objects of barter, has been let out on hire for this horrible purpose—that a bargain has been made between the government and the shopkeeper for the use of the doorway leading into his dwelling—there is altogether something so revolting in the whole system that I cannot think of it without a shudder; and thus was every avenue into Pera closed for three days against those to whom such sights were painful; for the same ghastly object presented itself at each village leading from the city: while the body of the ringleader of the band, decapitated, and deprived of its right hand, was exposed in one of the public squares.