of the only aperture where fresh air can
find an entrance; the heat of the confined chamber; the myriads of
insects, that devoured my body with ravenous appetite, after having
endured a fortnight's starvation; kept me in such a fever, that I vowed
never to enter the cabin again. [Sidenote: EXTRAORDINARY
TRANSFORMATION.] When I looked out, my fellow-passengers burst into a
laugh; and Barrow, taking an observation, as my phiz came to the
meridian above them, exclaimed, "Who has been painting your face? it is
as yellow as a canary-bird!" "Nonsense!" I exclaimed; and, jumping upon
deck, I seized my glass, and saw myself indeed as yellow as our good
King's face on a sovereign. Not my face only, but, by all that's
startling! hands, arms, legs, body, were in the same condition, as
though I had been plunged into a curry-pot. I beheld myself with
jaundiced eyes! It was wholly inexplicable; for I had not suffered a
moment's illness, since I arrived in Stamboul; neither have I felt any
symptoms of approaching disease; yet, in one night, my skin has been
gilded over like a counterfeit sovereign,--

"Suffering a _yellow_ change
Into something rich and strange."

Nevertheless, I am afraid, unlike the false coinage, the gilt will not
very easily rub off. On my first appearance, I observed the French
doctor, who seemed to possess a hawk's eye for business, vanish from the
quarter deck, and descend hastily below; in a few minutes he reappeared,
bearing in his hand an ample supply of his _rob_; but I declined his
services, as a medical officer from Corfu undertook to give me the
necessary advice. We had also an English physician, and the Prince's
body-surgeon.

[Sidenote: BRITISH FLEET.] At the Dardanelles we learned the very
interesting news that the English fleet had arrived in Basike Bay; and
in swinging round "old Sigaeum," we beheld the Admiral's ship at anchor,
and several other large vessels sailing towards the harbour. At mid-day
we were alongside the Britannia; and a boat came off from her, to ask
intelligence from Constantinople. As I was anxious to renew my
acquaintance with Sir Pulteney Malcolm, and as many of the passengers
wished to see the ship, the boat took as many as could get into her, and
in a few minutes we stood on the deck of the largest of those majestic
floating castles which, I trust, are destined, ere long, to teach the
Russian that all "Old England's wooden walls" have not got the dry rot
in them. It