hose comfortable house we had left only a few days before. I
stayed at Yanina one day, but the Pasha could not see me to hear my
account of the protection I had enjoyed from his firman. A messenger had
arrived from Constantinople, and the report in the town was that the
Pasha would lose his head or his pashalic if he did not put down the
disturbances which had arisen in every part of his government. Some said
he would escape by bribing the ministers of the Porte; but as I was no
politician I did not trouble myself much on the subject His Highness,
however, was good enough to send me word that he would give me any
assistance that I needed. Accordingly, I asked for a teskere for
post-horses; and the next day galloped in ten hours to Paramathia. All
day long the rain poured down in torrents, and I waded through the bed
of the swollen stream, which usually served for a high-road, I do not
know how many times. I was told the distance was about sixty miles; and
it was one of the hardest day's riding I ever accomplished; for there
was nothing deserving the name of a road any part of the way; and the
entire day was passed in tearing up and down the rocks or wading in the
swollen stream. The rain and the cold compelled us and our horses to do
our best: in a hot day we could never have accomplished it.

Towards the afternoon, when we were, by computation, about twenty-five
miles from Paramathia, as we were proceeding at a trot along a narrow
ledge above a stream, the baggage-horse, or mule I think he was, whose
halter was tied to the crupper of my horse, suddenly missed his footing,
and fell over the precipice. He caught upon the edge with his fore-feet,
the halter supported his head, and my horse immediately stopping, leant
with all his might against the wall of rock which rose above us,
squeezing my left leg between it and the saddle. The noise of the wind
and rain, and the dashing of the torrent underneath, prevented my
servants hearing my shouts for assistance. I was the last of the party;
and I had the pleasure of seeing all my company trotting on, rising in
their stirrups, and bumping along the road before me, unconscious of
anything having occurred to check their progress towards the journey's
end. It was so bad a day that no one thought of anything but getting on.
Every man for himself was the order of the day. I could not dismount,
because my left leg was squeezed so tightly against the rock, that I
every moment expected