In a gloom so profound that the night they had left without seemed a brightness by comparison, Abd-ur-Rahman fell at his father’s feet. When the sheykh strove to raise him, he uttered cries of pain. “Let be, O my father! First hear me to an end. When I left thee to go to my uncle, I was the child of thy training; I knew no law but that God sent, in which thou hadst instructed me; I thought that all who call themselves Muslimûn deferred to that law in conscience as in form. But when I came to Istanbûl, and beheld the grandeur of that city, with its wealth and luxury, my soul doubted, and I looked two ways; for things I had reckoned sinful were there done openly in the daylight, while men of ripe years and superior judgment smiled at my careful observances and scruples against the use of this and that. After a little, thy likeness faded from my remembrance; thy maxims sounded faint amid the voices near me. “The precepts of my uncle Milhem were not what thine had been. He is a good man in his fashion, and was very kind to me. His wisdom, his wit in talk, compelled my admiration. The high authority I saw him wield enforced respect. Moreover, having no son of his own body, he used me as the apple of his eye. He gave me money for my pleasures, more than I had ever seen in all my life. He chose for me companions, Turks, the sons of good houses, in whose society I ate and drank of abomination.” Here a burst of sobbing broke the narrative. Abd-ur-Rahman had felt his father’s hand touch his brow. “Yet for that my uncle was not angry. He only laughed, when I confessed to him, and bade me have a care for my health. He himself was my tutor in the science of statecraft, of which he is the greatest master. From him I learnt to separate faith and behavior, the rules of government and those from Allah Most High. He placed me for a while at the customhouse, and when I had there learnt all that he wished me to learn from the conduct of the officials, he brought me into the employment of a certain wazìr, his friend. Everywhere I saw the needy turned away, while he who owned fine clothes and brought a gift in his hand secured an audience. Hence I contracted a loathing for the poor and miserable, and would never be seen in the company of a man ill-clad. “From the closet of that wazìr I passed to the military service, in which I served but two months before the influence of my uncle procured my appointment to this garrison as a yezbashi. At the same time I received from the bounty of our Sultàn the style and dignity of Bey.