at,--for in what other could so
noble a band of topers have been appropriately embarked?--

"They were row'd to their ship,
By the mess they had dined with."

In returning to the Actaeon, after a game of cricket in the Sultan's
Valley, we approached as close as possible to head-quarters, where the
Russian and Turkish bands were playing. The Russians often sang between
the airs; and some two or three hundred voices joining in chorus, during
the stillness of evening, produced a very impressive effect. Parties of
the soldiers were engaged in dancing; and, in fact, it seemed to be a
gala day, for there was a display of fireworks, and an illumination
throughout the camp in the evening.

[Sidenote: SEVEN TOWERS.] This spectacle, which had all the air of
enchantment, was seen to great advantage from the quay at Terapia. It
continued to a late hour; and the inhabitants of that quarter assert it
to have been merely a _ruse_, to occupy the attention of the idle and
inquisitive, who might otherwise be spying about and discover the other
and more serious game going on behind the Point, where soldiery are
daily landed from the fleet, and the small craft which come in from the
Black Sea. The stratagem is a good one, and I dare say some hundreds of
men will be added to the encamped army, while certain unconscious
diplomatists are sipping their coffee, and complacently gazing at these
fiery devices.

_Thursday, 6th._--Jeddi Cale, or the Seven Towers, may be considered as
the Bastile of the East. They were erected by the immediate successors
of Constantine the Great, to strengthen the fortifications at one of the
angles of the wall which surrounds the city, but in succeeding ages were
converted into a formidable state prison. This cluster of forts was
originally five in number, until Theodosius, in order to commemorate his
victory over Maximus, erected a triumphal arch, which being flanked by
towers, the structure thenceforward received the appellation which it
now bears. In 1768, one of the most ancient of these castles fell down,
and its majestic ruins afford ample proof of the vast solidity of the
masonry. Each tower is about 200 feet high, and the walls which enclose
them are double, and enormously thick, being constructed of immense
blocks of stone; but since the invention of gunpowder they are no longer
considered impregnable. This edifice, after being first used as a
barrack for the janissaries, was converted into a pris