gh road from Belgrade to
Constantinople crosses the Morava.

The Natchalnik, a tall, muscular, broad-shouldered man, now entered,
and, saluting me like an old friend, asked me how I slept.

_Author_. "I thank you, never better in my life. My yesterday's ride
gave me a sharp exercise, without excessive fatigue. I need not ask
you how you are, for you are the picture of health and herculean
strength."

_Natchalnik_. "I was strong in my day, but now and then nature tells
me that I am considerably on the wrong side of my climacteric."

_Author_. "Pray tell me what is the reason of this accumulation of
arms. I never slept with such ample means of defence within my
reach,--quite an arsenal."

_Natchalnik_. "You have no doubt heard of the attempt of the
Obrenovitch faction at Shabatz. We are under no apprehension of their
doing any thing here; for they have no partizans: but I am an old
soldier, and deem it prudent to take precautions, even when
appearances do not seem to demand them very imperiously. I wish the
rascals would show face in this quarter, just to prevent our arms from
getting rusty. Our greatest loss is that of Ninitch, the collector."

_Author_. "Poor follow. I knew him as well as any man can know another
in a few days. He made a most favourable impression on me: it seems as
it were but yesternight that I toasted him in a bumper, and wished him
long life, which, like many other wishes of mine, was not destined to
be fulfilled. How little we think of the frail plank that separates us
from the ocean of eternity!"

_Natchalnik_. "I was once, myself, very near the other world, having
entered as a volunteer in the Russian army that crossed the Balkan in
1828. I burned a mosque in defiance of the orders of Marshal Diebitch;
the consequence was that I was tried by a court-martial, and condemned
to be shot: but on putting in a petition, and stating that I had done
so through ignorance, and in accomplishment of a vow of vengeance, my
father and brother having been killed by the Turks in the war of
liberation, seven of our houses[15] having been burned at the same
time, Marshal Diebitch on reading the petition pardoned me."

The doctor of the place now entered; a very little man with a pale
complexion, and a black braided surtout. He informed me that he had
been for many years a Surgeon in the Austrian navy. On my asking him
how he liked that service, he answered, "Very well; for we rarely go
out to the Mediterr