They were, in reality, the ruling power in the country: dethroning sultans, and taking off the heads of ministers at their will. They were upheld in all their excesses by the people, from a dread of their vengeance, many of whom, from motives of personal safety, even enlisted as honorary members of their corps. For, even the assassin could find a secure asylum in their barracks, from which no power or authority could claim him. Nothing was sacred in their estimation; families dared not to venture abroad without a janissary escort; and, on this account, the different foreign embassies were always accommodated with two or three of their number, which custom is still in vogue; though Kavasses, or Turkish police officers, have been substituted for the janissaries of former times. Even the royal harem was not safe from them, and neither life nor property were secure from their depredations. Besides their regular rations, their pay was at the rate of from one asper to twenty, according to their rank, per day. An asper was, at that time, equal to one cent of Federal money. But they had various ways of increasing their personal revenues. They assumed a peculiar style of taxing the peaceable citizens, by carelessly tossing their handkerchiefs at them, with an intimation that their pockets needed replenishing, and none dared to return the handkerchief without a tribute tied in one of its corners. Those who were stationed in the city as metropolitan guards, generally contrived to amass a quantity of mud before the guardhouse, which they would ask all the rayahs who passed by, either to sweep away, or contribute something for its removal. The day of their revolt was most memorable, and our own janissary boatman coolly put the number and mark of his regiment upon the street-door of our residence, as an intimation to his comrades that the house was already appropriated by one of the brotherhood. Assassination was a matter of frequent occurrence in those days. The father of the writer once narrowly escaped with his life. He happened to be passing by a shop, where a janissary was examining a yataghan with a view of purchasing it. "Stop," cried the janissary, to him, "come here, I want to test this blade on you." He knew the character of those villains too well to suppose that the rascal was joking--as a forlorn hope, he indifferently remarked, "that it would be hardly worth the while to try such an exquisite blade on my old tottering body," at the same time suggesting, that it would be better for his excellency to accept the sword as a gift, with the view of trying it on some worthier subject, and throwing the money to the merchant, the old gentleman very suddenly disappeared. Imbued with the wildest fanaticism, and with all the prejudices of ancient times, and habituated to command rather than to obey, these janissaries constituted the most effectual barrier to all progress or national reform.