witnesses on the ground that they had refused to take the oath. Judgment was delivered in Constantinople, ordering the apology to be made for violation of domicile, and the minister on my part engaged my protégé to make a declaration that he had not had any intention of insulting the authorities. But, with this positive order communicated to both of us, he denied for several weeks that he had had any orders on the subject; but as I stuck to the affair like a leech, having nothing else to absorb my energies, he finally admitted judgment, and ordered the mulazim to ask my pardon, but cunningly managed to have the amends made in his own audience-room to escape _éclat_. I said nothing, but waited until he made me a visit, and without any warning introduced my culprit; and before he knew what was passing, the Roland was delivered for his Oliver. He did not attempt to conceal his annoyance, nor I my satisfaction, for he had notified me that he expected our apology _chez lui_. This was not the end of the Lilliputian diplomatics, for on my next visit to him the Pasha insisted on presenting me with an intaglio, which, he said, he had bought of a peasant some days before. He knew that I was an amateur of gems, and he was a collector, and had several very fine ones. The intaglio was exquisite, but the genuineness doubtful, and, when he insisted on forcing it on me in spite of my repeated refusals, I accepted it, with the intention of sending it to the government if genuine, so as not to be under obligations to him. Reaching home, I drew a file across it, and found it to be a paste copy worth a dime. I immediately wrote him a note, enclosing the file, and telling him that, as he was a buyer of gems, and might not know how well they were counterfeited, I begged to enclose him an instrument I had found very useful. After this skirmish, the general result of which, enormously magnified in popular report, was a mortifying defeat to the Pasha, merely from the obstinacy with which he had fought the question, we got into a chronic state of pique, and my resolution to go to Omalo and Sphakia put him into a great irritation. He had no right to oppose my going, but tried to make trouble, and began to talk about intrigues, etc. However, the news coming down from the mountains that the fair was to be turned into an Assembly stopped me, for a Cretan imbroglio is something into which no wise man will allow himself to be drawn voluntarily. On the 12th of April, the Assembly began to gather at Omalo, whence it moved to Boutzounaria, then to Nerokouro, nearer to Canéa, where it remained until the gathering was nearly complete, when it moved back to Boutzounaria. CHAPTER II.