One of the Six Hundred: A Novel
"you--_mon Dieu_--you look so lovely that----"
"That what--what--Jules?"
"Well, so lovely this morning that I am quite afraid----"
"To kiss me--is it not so, Monsieur Jolicoeur?"
"Yes."
"_Tres bien_. Take courage, _mon camarade_."
"Mademoiselle Sophie, you quiz me!"
"A Zouave, and afraid," exclaimed the vivandiere; and then followed a
little sound there was no mistaking.
"You are indeed beautiful, Sophie. There is not a vivandiere in the
whole French army like you."
"Yet I may die an old maid," said she demurely.
"May?"
"Yes, Jules."
"Then it will be your own fault, _ma belle coquette_, and not the fault
of others."
"_Parbleu_! I sha'n't marry a Zouave, at all events."
"Don't speak so cruelly, Sophie. When I look on your charming face, I
always think of glorious Paris. Paris! Ah, _mon Dieu!_ shall we ever
see it again?"
"Why did you leave it, Jules, and your studies at the Ecole de Medecin,
to fight and starve here?"
"Why?" exclaimed the student.
"Yes, _mon ami_."
"The old girl at the wheel, Madame Fortune, proved false to me. I lost
my last money, fifty Napoleons, at the rouge-et-noir table in the Palais
Royal. I was ruined, Sophie; and as I had no wish to jump into the
Seine, and then to figure next morning on the leaden tables of the
Morgue, like a salmon at the fishmonger's, I joined the 2nd Zouaves in
the snapping of a flint, and so--am here."
"You will return with your epaulettes and the cross, Jules."
"I don't think so. Kiss me, at all events, _ma belle_."
"Well, camarade, if it will console you----"
Here I tried to close the window, on which Jules "carried arms," and
looked very unconscious; while the pretty vivandiere gave me a military
salute, and tripped laughingly away, singing--
Vivandiere du regiment,
C'est Catin qu'on me nomme, &c.
Daily more troops arrived from Britain and France; daily the camps
extended in size, and, notwithstanding the season, we suffered much from
cold, while, so bad were the commissariat arrangements, that, in some
instances, officers and soldiers were alike without beds or bedding, few
having more than a single blanket; so, for warmth, they reversed the
usual order, by dressing in all their spare clothes to go to bed.
Gallipoli became so crowded at last that some of the troops were
despatched towards Constantinople and Scutari. There the Highland
regiments, beyond all others, excited astonishment and admiration, not
unmixed with fear, their costume seemed so remarkable to Oriental eyes;
and many may yet remember the anecdote current in camp concerning them.
An old Turkish pasha, who had brought the ladies of his harem in a
_caique_, closely veiled in their _yashmacs_, to see our troops land,
was intensely horrified by the bare brawny legs of the 93rd foot; but
after surveying them, he said, with a sigh, to an English officer--"Ah!
if the Sultan had such fine soldiers as these, we should not need your
aid against the Russians."
"Well, _effendi_," observed the Englishman, who was quizzing, "would it
not be advisable to propagate the species in this country?"
"_Inshallah!_ (please God!) it will be done, whether we advise it or
not," said the old Turk, sighing again, as he ordered his boatload of
_Odalisques_ to shove off for Istamboul with all despatch.
Amid the novelty of our new life at Gallipoli, a week or two passed
rapidly away, ere rumours were heard of our probable advance to Varna;
but, as I do not mean to repeat the well-known details of so recent a
war, rather confining myself to my own adventures, and those of my
regiment, I shall close this chapter by relating an episode which will
serve to illustrate the brutal and lawless character of the Turk, and
the slavery to which ages of conquest and degradation have reduced the
wretched Greek. I have said that Jack Studhome and I were quartered in
the house of a Greek miller, named Demetrius Steriopoli. His chief
worldly possessions were a melon-garden, and two ricketty old windmills,
which whirled their brown and tattered sails on the breezes that came
from the Hellespont. In the basement of these edifices, and in the
walls of his dwelling-house, were--and I have no doubt still are--built
many exquisitely-carved fragments of some old Grecian temple; for there
triglyphs, sculptured metopae, the honeysuckle, and so forth, with
portions of statues, all of white marble, were used pell mell among the
rough rubble masonry.
These edifices--to wit, the house and mills--stood on an eminence a
little way beyond the ruins of the old wall of Gallipoli, on the side of
the road that leads across the isthmus towards the Gulf of Saros.
His dwelling was picturesque, and that which is better, it was clean and
airy; thus, while Beverley and others of ours were nightly devoured by
gnats and other entomological torments, we slept each in a separate
kiosk, or bedroom, as comfortably as if quartered in the best hotel of
Dover or Southampton--so much for the housewifery of the little
Magdhalini. Steriopoli was by birth a Cypriote Greek--a handsome and
fine-looking man, about eight-and-thirty, and when armed with sabre,
pistol, and yataghan, had rather more the aspect of a marauder than a
peaceful miller, especially as his attire usually consisted of a scarlet
fez, a large loose jacket of green cloth, a silk sash round his waist, a
capacious pair of blue breeches, his legs being further encased in
sheepskin hose, and his feet in sandals of hide. When the merciless
Turkish troops massacred twenty-five thousand persons in Cyprus,
destroying seventy-four once happy and industrious villages, with all
their monasteries and churches, seizing the young women as slaves, and
casting the male children into the sea, it was his fate, when disposed
of in the latter fashion, to be picked up by the boat's crew of a
British man-of-war. Torn from the arms of his shrieking mother, he had
been tossed into the harbour of Larneca, which was filled with the
corpses of poor little infants. On board the British ship he had been
kept for a time as a species of pet among the sailors. Hence his regard
for us was great; and his open trust in us was only equalled by his
secret abhorrence of the Turks. He was a widower, and his family
consisted only of his daughter and a few servants, male and female--the
latter being his assistants at the mills.
After the plain-looking women of Gallipoli, the beauty of the little
Greek maid, Magdhalini, proved an agreeable surprise for us; and within
doors she always laid aside the hideous _yashmac_ which concealed her
features when abroad. She was not much over fifteen, but already fully
developed; she was lively in manner, and graceful in deportment; and her
picturesque costume--a crimson jacket, with short, wide sleeves, open at
the throat, and embroidered at the bosom, her skirt of various colours,
and her hair ornamented with gold coins, all added to the piquancy of
her beauty. Her features were remarkably regular; her forehead low and
broad; her rich, thick hair was of a bright auburn hue; but her eyes
were of the deepest black. In the latter, when contrasted with the pale
purity of her complexion, the form of their delicate lids and curled
lashes, I saw--or fancied so--a resemblance to Louisa, which gave the
girl a deeper interest to me; and her appearance frequently recalled to
me Byron's description of Haidee:--
"Her hair, I said, was auburn; but her eyes
Were black as death; their lashes the same hue,
Of downcast length, in whose silk shadow lies
Deepest attraction; for when to the view
Forth from its raven fringe the full glance flies,
Ne'er with such force the swiftest arrow flew.
* * * * *
Her brow was white and low; her cheek's pure dye
Like twilight rosy still with the set sun;
Short upper lips--sweet lips! that make us sigh
Ever to have seen such."
In stature she was a foot less than Louisa Loftus; but her form, her
delicate hands, small feet, and rounded arms, might have served as
models for the best sculptors of the old Greek days. On one occasion I
showed her Louisa's miniature, and she clapped her hands, and begged
permission to kiss it, like a child, as she was in some respects. She
was very curious to know why Studhome and I did not wear crucifixes or
holy medals, like all the Christians she knew--even the Russians; and
when I told her that such was not the custom in my country, she shook
her head sadly, and expressed sorrow for its somewhat benighted
condition.
I found a smattering of Italian which I possessed most useful to me now,
for, next to the language of the country, it proves the most available
in Greece or Turkey. The _divan hanee_, or principal apartment of the
house (from which the doors of all the kiosks and other chambers open),
was handsome, lofty, and airy. Its lower end was lined by a screen of
trellised woodwork, containing arched recesses, or cupboards for vases
of sherbet, cool water, or fresh flowers. In the central recess a
miniature fountain spouted from a white marble basin, and a landscape
was painted on the wall beyond. Curtains covered each of the doorways,
and round the room--on three sides, at least--was a long sofa, or
cushioned divan, the height of the window-sills, in the Turkish fashion;
but, as Steriopoli was a Greek, his dwelling had more European
appurtenances, such as a dining-table and chairs; and on its walls were
various coloured prints of Greek saints and bishops, while above the
door of each sleeping kiosk hung a crucifix of carved wood. In the
divan we took our meals, and there, greatly to our host's annoyance, we
were joined at times by the Colonel Hadjee Mehmet, who commanded a
battalion of the Turkish line at Gallipoli--an individual with whom
Studhome had become acquainted through some transaction about the
purchase of horses for some of our dismounted men, an affair in which,
though worthy Jack would never admit it, this hook-nosed and keen-eyed
follower of the Prophet jockeyed him and Farrier-sergeant Snaffles as
completely as any groom might have done at Epsom or the Curragh. Now
Demetrius Steriopoli, though he seemed not to care whether Studhome or
I, or any of our brother officers who visited us, saw his daughter,
manifested great uneasiness and irritation when she caught the wicked
and licentious eyes of the Hadjee Mehmet, whose character he knew, whose
power he dreaded, and whose nation and religion he detested; and thus
she had standing orders to seclude herself whenever he came, which was
pretty often now, to smoke his chibouque and drink brandy and water in
secret, though the Prophet only forbade wine. He was a fat, bloated,
and wicked-looking man, past fifty years of age. He wore a blue frogged
surtout, scarlet trousers, and a scarlet fez, with the broad, flat,
military button. He wore also a crooked Damascus sabre and beard, in
virtue of his rank, as straight swords and shaven chins indicate the
subaltern grades of the Turkish army, whose officers are the most
contemptible in Europe. In boyhood they are generally the pipe-bearers
or carpet-spreaders of the pashas. In this instance the Hadjee Mehmet
(so named because he had performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and kissed
the Holy Kaaba) had begun life as a tiruaktzy, or nail-bearer, in the
household of Chosrew Mehmet Pasha, who was the seraskier, or
generalissimo of the forces, and who was supposed to be the gallant
Hadjee's father, though that honour was usually assigned to a Janizary
who escaped the massacre of that celebrated force by concealing himself;
and by Chosrew he was speedily advanced to the rank of mire-alai, or
colonel of infantry.