aversed
the streets, the bazaars and public places; flocks and herds, with
fleeces dyed scarlet, and gilded horns, were seen on all the roads
driven to the court by peasants under the guidance of their priests.
Bishops, abbots, ecclesiastics generally, were compelled to drink, and
to take part in ridiculous and indecent dances, Ali apparently thinking
to raise himself by degrading his more respectable subjects. Day and
night these spectacles succeeded each other with increasing rapidity,
the air resounded with firing, songs, cries, music, and the roaring of
wild beasts in shows. Enormous spits, loaded with meat, smoked before
huge braziers, and wine ran in floods at tables prepared in the palace
courts. Troops of brutal soldiers drove workmen from their labour with
whips, and compelled them to join in the entertainments; dirty and
impudent jugglers invaded private houses, and pretending that they
had orders from the pacha to display their skill, carried boldly
off whatever they could lay their hands upon. Ali saw the general
demoralization with pleasure, especially as it tended to the
gratification of his avarice. Every guest was expected to bring to the
palace gate a gift in proportion to his means, and foot officers watched
to see that no one forgot this obligation. At length, on the nineteenth
day, Ali resolved to crown the feast by an orgy worthy of himself. He
caused the galleries and halls of his castle by the lake to be decorated
with unheard-of splendour, and fifteen hundred guests assembled for a
solemn banquet. The pacha appeared in all his glory, surrounded by his
noble attendants and courtiers, and seating himself on a dais raised
above this base crowd which trembled at his glance, gave the signal to
begin. At his voice, vice plunged into its most shameless diversions,
and the wine-steeped wings of debauchery outspread themselves over the
feast. All tongues were at their freest, all imaginations ran wild, all
evil passions were at their height, when suddenly the noise ceased, and
the guests clung together in terror. A man stood at the entrance of the
hall, pale, disordered, and wild-eyed, clothed in torn and blood-stained
garments. As everyone made way at his approach, he easily reached the
pacha, and prostrating himself at his feet, presented a letter. Ali
opened and rapidly perused it; his lips trembled, his eyebrows met in
a terrible frown, the muscles of his forehead contracted alarmingly. He
vainly endea