The morrow was the bridal day, when the fortunate Saïd Pasha was to receive his Imperial Bride beneath his own roof, and to look upon her for the first time. As yet he had not had even a glimpse of her through her yashmac, their only interview having taken place on his arrival from the Dardanelles, when he had been summoned to the palace to throw himself at her feet, and to return thanks for the honour she was about to confer upon him. This interview, if such indeed a meeting may be termed in which one of the parties only has a sight of the other, is one of the ceremonies _à la rigeur_ in the Imperial marriages of the East. The bridegroom elect is led into a room, at whose upper extremity a door stands ajar; and behind this sits the lady splendidly habited, and surrounded by a train of slaves. A small portion of her embroidered antery is suffered to pass the opening of the door; and a side lattice, veiled with thin gauze, enables her to take a view of her suitor as he approaches; which he does slowly, and upon his knees, the whole length of the apartment. On arriving near the “Door of Light” that conceals the Princess, he thrice bows his forehead to the earth, ere he ventures to implore a ratification of his hopes. The officious Kislar Agha replies for the bride; and after a second prostration, the Pasha returns thanks “in a neat speech;” and with the permission of the same personage, he then raises to his lips the hem of the Imperial garment, and retires in the same humble posture in which he entered. The _on dit_ at the Palace whispered the disappointment of the bride on the present occasion, that the choice of her Imperial father had not fallen on Mustapha Pasha of Adrianople, whom she had once seen by accident, and by whose personal beauty she had been much attracted. It is, nevertheless, possible that this glimpse of her destined bridegroom reconciled her to her destiny; for, as it is the appearance only to which Turkish females generally attach any importance in their husbands, the young Pasha of the Dardanelles could safely compete with all his rivals, being really a very handsome and intelligent-looking person.