[221] And often abusing the ignorance of the Turks. “It is very sad,” writes Louis XIV. to Ferriol, February 15, 1707, “that the French bring themselves into discredit by their failures, and that the Turks set them the example of that good faith which they ought to observe in commerce.”--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 44. “There are no people in the world so easily deceived and who have been more deceived than the Turks. They are naturally simple and dull, and ready in believing. Thus it is customary for the Christians to impose upon them in a variety of ways and to play them many scandalous tricks.”--Chardin, _Voyage en Perse et autres lieux de l’Orient_, vol. i p. 17, Langlès’ edition. [222] We may quote among these usages, the obligation imposed upon the ambassadors of making a superb present to the Grand Vizier, not only when they first arrived at Constantinople, but at every change of Grand Vizier, which happened very frequently. Some of these presents cost as much as nine thousand livres, a rather large sum at that period. They consisted especially of clocks, watches, and mirrors:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, _Mémoires des Dépenses_. “In one year,” writes Ferriol, “I have made four presents to four chief viziers, Daltahan, Ramy, Achmet, and Assat-Pacha, and to the whole of the households. It costs me more than 20,000 livres.” Despatch from Ferriol to the Count de Pontchartrain, of December 4, 1703:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey. [223] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey I, _Mémoires et Documents_. [224] The Caïmacan is a lieutenant of the Grand Vizier who remains at Constantinople and fills his place when he follows the Sultan to Adrianople. [225] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey I, _Mémoires et Documents_. [226] With a rich Pole, named Krazcinskí:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, supplement I. [227] _Correspondance de Ferriol._--_Ibid._ [228] The ambassador was never married. This Madame de Ferriol, his brother’s wife, mixed in the best society of Paris, and enjoyed considerable influence with the high personages of the State. She was the sister of the famous Abbé de Tencin, Cardinal, Minister of State, and Archbishop of Lyons, and also of the celebrated nun, notorious for her debauchery, the mistress of Dubois and mother of d’Alembert, by the Chevalier Destouches:--_Mémoires de Saint-Simon_, vol. xi. p. 182. Chéruel’s edition. See also _Vézelay_, historical study by M. Aimé Chérest, vol. iii. p. 83. [229] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, _Mémoires et Documents_, I. [230] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Correspondence from Turkey, I. [231] Chief of the Bostanji, the Sultan’s Guards.