eir patronage, and the chieftain went for a day or two to the lock-up
at the British Consulate.

Sir John Fawcett--Mr. Fawcett he was in those days--chose rather
to laugh at the whole business than to treat it seriously, and the
adventurous young gentleman was released on a promise to leave the
country. I myself was offered a post of honour in this remarkable
contingent. The secret at which all Constantinople had been laughing for
a week was confided to me in whispers at the Concert Flamm. I think--but
at this distance of time I am not quite sure--that the post offered to
me was that of Captain of Marines. I don't mind confessing, in justice
to my own unwisdom at that time of day, that if there had been a boat
and a marine I might have thought twice before refusing the offer. As it
was, of course it was simply a matter for laughter.

I hardly like to leave Constantinople without a memory of the Polish
Legion. I took a journey by the Shooting Star Railway with a chance
companion, to see him sworn in and receive his commission as an officer
of that regiment The place of assignation was a loft over an untenanted
stable, for the time being the head-quarters of the corps. I never heard
of their having any others; and I remember with unusual distinctness an
interview one of the officers had with Said Pasha, who told him, with a
perfect absence of reserve, that the Legion 'would be sent to the front
and would be dissipated.' As a matter of fact, it never got really into
form. I believe that there was never at any moment a solitary private
in its ranks. So long as it lasted it consisted entirely of officers of
various grades. Many of these, seeing how hopeless the whole enterprise
had grown to be, abandoned it openly; others quietly slipped away
without warning; and a good many willingly allowed themselves to be
drafted into other regiments, where some of them did good service.

The English journalists in Turkey were divided by faction. We were
mainly Philo-Turkish or Philo-Russian, according to the political
colours of the journals we represented; and I know now very well that
I was, for my own part, so impressed by the Bulgarian atrocities scare
that I hardly knew how to look for mercy or right feeling in a Turk.
The plain truth was very hard to get at, but now, through the far
perspective of the years that lie between, it is easier to see with a
judicial eye. If there is to be found anywhere in the world a gentler,
a more