Turning away from this forbidden door, we proceeded to an apartment in which the Sultan passed a night about three years ago, and which has only just been re-opened, at his express desire, for the use of the family. The Imperial bedstead yet remains, but the golden hangings have been removed, and have probably since figured in anterys and salvas on the fair forms of the ladies of the harem. The room is now appropriated to the master of the house; and on a sofa-cushion lay his watch, his hand-mirror, and a small agate box containing opium pills. Having understood that there was a young Greek girl on the establishment, who had been induced, by the representations of interested and treacherous advisers, to embrace Mohameddanism, I expressed a wish to see her, when she was immediately summoned; but made her appearance with great reluctance, being evidently most heartily ashamed of her apostacy. She told us that she was very unhappy; for, although she was treated with great kindness, she could not reconcile herself to the sin which she had committed; and that, had she been left to her own free will, she never should have thought of taking such a step. A few weeks only had elapsed since she had become a Turk, but she already felt that, although no taunt was uttered by her companions, they never lost sight of the fact of her being a renegade; and, had she not known the penalty which must be paid, she declared that she should at once have uttered her second recantation. Well might she pause as she remembered it; for that penalty is death! When once a Christian female has been induced to utter the simple prayer which is the only necessary ceremony—the few brief words which declare that “There is but ONE GOD, and Mahomet is the Prophet of GOD”—she is a Mahomeddan; and, should she afterwards repent her apostacy, and resolve on returning to the bosom of the Christian Church, and her determination become suspected before she has time or opportunity to escape from the power of the Turks, the waters of the Bosphorus terminate at once her project and her life. Nor is a male renegade placed in a more secure position. The Mahomeddans tolerate no off-falling from their faith. They are bound by their law twice during their lives to _invite_ a Christian to embrace the religion of the Prophet; but they never outrun the spirit of their instructions: they simply suggest the conversion, and use no endeavour to enforce it; while, on the other hand, they permit no apostacy—death is the instant penalty for the bare idea. Few Missionaries, however talented, or however zealous, ever made a Turkish convert—and no renegade Christian, unless by some rare chance he succeeded in escaping at the critical moment ere his resolution became suspected, ever survived the intention.