The janissaries now desperate, rushed to seize the cannon, which were just reloading: and had it not been for the heroic action of Kara-Jehennem at this critical emergency, all would have been lost. The brave general perceiving the nature of the affair, and although wounded as he was in the thigh, promptly jumped from his horse, and seizing the torch, instantly applied it to the cannon, and thus baffling the attempts of the assailants, soon turned the scale of fortune. All resistance was now rendered futile by the barracks being set on fire, when amidst shrieks of agony the miserable wretches were, on the 15th of June, 1826, destroyed. Many among them were allowed to effect their escape, with the design of sparing the innocent. The most dangerous of their number were afterwards arrested and sent to the European castles on the Bosphorus, where their doom was sealed by the bow-string, and thus perished this formidable scourge of the Ottoman Empire. Many censures and much opprobrium have been cast upon the memory of Mahmoud for this act of consummate destruction. He has been stigmatized as cruel and blood-thirsty, whereas his whole country was groaning under a scourge of tremendous power, in the shape of an unlicensed soldiery. Day by day, the monster grew in strength, and threatened the utter annihilation of both sovereign and people. What greater act of humanity then, than to crush the Hydra with one fell blow. By this act Mahmoud not only established his own sovereign authority, but bursting, for the first time, the bonds of barbarism, made a bold stride towards the platform of civilization, and the fraternity of the world. But for Mahmoud, Turkey would, perhaps, have, ere this, been only a record of the past. The army was immediately re-organized, and the soldiers were trained in European tactics, by distinguished foreign officers. They attained great distinction as infantry and artillery-men, and still greater progress would have been made in military science, had it not been for the intrigues of Russia, who, just at that period, availing herself of the forlorn condition of the country, found a favorable opportunity for declaring war. The Allies of the present day, not discerning the Muscovite cunning, were quiet spectators of the affray, and became as it were silent partners in the shameful treaty of Adrianople, for which they have since paid so dearly. But the janissaries were not the sole barriers to the civilization of the country. The Ulema, or the expounders of the faith, have exercised even greater influence over the minds of the superstitious people, through their unlimited spiritual authority. CHAPTER XI. SPIRITUAL BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT.