They have swept o’er the rude and rushing tide, Bestrewn with wreck and spoil, Where the shrieking seaman writhed and died ’Mid his unavailing toil; And they rode the wave, without power to save The wretch as he floated by; And sighed to think, as they saw him sink, What a boon it was to die! Some were cast from the burning womb, Whence the lava-floods have birth; From fires which wither, but ne’er consume The rejected one of earth— And these are they who were once the prey Of the thirst that madmen know, When the world for them is the diadem That burns into the brow. They who crouch in the deepest gloom Where no lightning-flash can dart, Who, chained in couples, have hither come, And can never be rent apart; These are they whose life was a scene of strife, And who learnt, alas! too late, That the years flew fast which they each had cast On the altar of their hate. But, hark! through the forest there sweeps a wail More wild than the tempest-blast, As each commences the darkling tale Of the stern and shadowy past— And the spell that has power, in this dread hour, No pang of our’s controls— Nor may mortal dare in the watch to share That is kept by the Damnèd Souls! CHAPTER X. Character of the Constantinopolitan Greeks—The Greek Colony at the Fanar—Vogoride, Logotheti, and Angiolopolo—Political Sentiment—Chateaubriand at the Duke de Rovigo’s—Biting Criticism—Greek Chambers—“What’s in a Name?”—Custom of Burning Perfumes—The Pastille of the Seraglio—Turkish Cosmetics—Eastern Beauty. The more I saw of the Greeks, the more curious did I find the study of that page of the great volume of human nature which was there flung back; and, far from sharing in the astonishment of those who almost deem it a miracle that the whole nation has not been swept away, I rather marvel at the state of moral and political thraldom in which they exist. The tolerated citizens of an Empire whose interests, both civil and religious, differ so widely from their own, the Fanariote Greeks nourish in their heart’s core a hatred of their masters as intense as it is enduring, and serve them rather from fear than zeal.