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Mehemed had been elected and installed by the chief Janissaries, and it remained to be proved whether he would show himself equally anxious to be on good terms with the Christian Powers.
"The traitor, whoever he may be, let fall a letter that he was carrying to Mathias." "That's lucky. Well, did they discover any thing?" "No; it was written in cypher." "The cunning rascals!" "Now, I've got more news for you," Dick went on to say. "Out with it, then." "You have heard of the Arab who tells fortunes in the town?" "Mehemed Sadan, the great necromancer?" "Yes.
A Reis would have to pay a heavy reckoning with Mehemed Dey if a French ambassador had to complain of him, and you will bear me witness, Madame, that I have not touched a hair of any of your heads!
The reason of his dislike to Mehemed was this: Ibrahim was himself an usurper, having seized the government in prejudice to the right heir, and was afraid that Mehemed intended to dethrone him.
Mehemed Sadan, the Arabian magician, carried on his occult practices in a house in the best part of the town, and all his surroundings tended to show that the "black art" had proved a most profitable commerce to him.
He went on to explain that if he landed her on Christian ground, without first presenting her and her passport to the Dey and the French Consul, his men might represent him as acting in the interests of the Christians, and as a traitor to the Algerine power, by taking a bribe from a person belonging to a hostile state, in which case the bowstring would be the utmost mercy he could expect; and the reigning Dey, Mehemed, having been only recently chosen, it was impossible to guess how he might deal with such cases.
The last Dey, Baba Hali, had been a wise and prudent man, anxious to repress outrage, and to be on good terms with the two great European powers; but he had died in the spring of the current year, 1718, and the temper of his successor, Mehemed, had not yet been proved. Madame de Bourke had some trust in the Dutch Reis, renegade though he was.
De Gama, knowing that he was not to be trusted, threatened to make him a prisoner under the hatches, if he did not immediately agree to pay tribute to the king of Portugal . The king from fear engaged to pay 2000 miticals of gold yearly, and gave one Mehemed Aleones, a principal man among the Moors whom he hated, as an hostage for the payment.
Mehemed Sadan was seated on a high-backed chair, close by a long table, on which was a long cloth of black velvet, covered with mystic signs and letters, which were all so much Greek to the visitors. The room was filled with all kinds of things calculated to impress the vulgar with superstitious awe.
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