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But the Kapudan Pasha, with a merry heart, kept on watering the transplanted tulips till he had done it thoroughly, and entrusted them to four bostanjis, bidding them carry the flowers through the canal to the Sultan's palace at Scutari, while he had his horse saddled and without the slightest escort trotted quite alone into Stambul, where at that very moment they were crying loudly for his head.
The Aga of the Janissaries withdrew to his kiosk; the Kapudan Pasha had himself rowed through the canal to his country house at Chengelköi, having just received from a Dutch merchant a very handsome assortment of tulip-bulbs, which he wanted to plant out with his own hands; the Reis-Effendi hastened to his summer residence, beside the Sweet Waters, to take leave of his odalisks for the twentieth time at least; and the Kiaja returned to Stambul.
The Grand Vizier, the Kapudan Pasha, the Kiaja, the Chief Mufti, and the Sheik of the Aja Sophia, Ispirizade, were assembled in council with the Sultan who had just ordered the Silihdar to gird him with the sword of Mahomet.
"Next they demand that the Kiaja Aga be handed over to them." The Sultan cut off one of the tulips with his knife and handed it to the Kizlar-Aga. "There, take it!" said he. The Aga was astonished, but presently he understood and took the tulip. "Then they want the Kapudan Pasha." The Sultan cut off the handsomest of the tulips. "There you have it," said he.
You know that no wild beast is savage when once it has been well fed." The Sultan pretended not to hear these words. He did not even look up when the Kapudan spoke. "Seek out Halil Patrona!" he said to the Chaszeki Aga, "and greet him in the name of the Padishah!" What! Greet Halil Patrona in the name of the Padishah!
But the Moslems were no less eager for the fray, and at the close of his council-of-war, and contrary to its decision, Kapudan Pacha sailed to meet the enemy. On the morning of October 7th every ship, every man was ready for battle.
The Grand Vizier, the Chief Mufti, the Kapudan Pasha, and the Kiaja must come along with me." And while he told their names, one after the other, the Padishah did not so much as look at one of them. The names of these four men were all written up on the corners of the street. The heads of these four men had been demanded by the people and by Halil Patrona.
On the way thither, he came face to face with the Kiaja coming in a wretched, two-wheeled kibitka, with a Russian coachman sitting in front of him to hide him as much as possible from the public view. He bellowed to the Kapudan Pasha not to go to Stambul as death awaited him there. At this the Kapudan Pasha simply shrugged his shoulders. What an idea!
"H'm!" said the Kapudan Pasha to himself. "No doubt that was written by some softa or other, for cobblers and tailors cannot write of course. Not a bad hand by any means. I should like to make the fellow my teskeredji."
The Kiaja was all of an ague with apprehension, and the Grand Vizier was praying, not for himself indeed, but for the Sultan. At last even the Kapudan was sorry for the Sultan who was so much distressed on their account. "Why dost thou keep waking us so often, oh, my master?" said he, "we are still alive as thou seest.
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