ever could understand, and
was eternally giving me the slipper. He declared that I was a
reprobate, an unbeliever, a son of Jehanum, who would be impaled before
I was much older; but here I am, without a stake through my body at the
age of forty-five; and your highness must acknowledge that when he
railed all this in my ears, I was justified in _very much doubting the
fact_.

When I was grown up, my father wanted me to enrol myself in the corps of
janissaries, and become a lion-killer like himself; I remonstrated, but
in vain; he applied, and I was accepted, and received the mark on my
arm, which constituted me a janissary. I put on the dress, swaggered
and bullied with many other young men of my acquaintance, who were all
ready, as they swore, to eat their enemies alive, and who curled their
moustachios to prove the truth of what they said. We were despatched to
quell a rebellious pacha--we bore down upon his troops with a shout,
enough to frighten the devil, but the devil a bit were they frightened,
they stood their ground; and as they would not run, we did, leaving
those who were not so wise, to be cut to pieces. After this, when any
of my companions talked of their bravery, or my father declared that he
should be soon promoted to the rank of a spahi, and that I was a lion's
whelp, I _very much doubted the fact_.

The pacha held out much longer than was at first anticipated: indeed, so
long as to cause no little degree of anxiety in the capital. More
troops were despatched to subdue him; and success not attending our
efforts, the vizier, according to the custom, was under the disagreeable
necessity of parting with his head, which was demanded because we turned
tail. Indeed, it was to oblige us, that the sultan consented to deprive
himself of the services of a very able man; for we surrounded the
palace, and insisted that it was all his fault; but, considering our
behaviour in the field of battle, your highness must admit that there
was reason to _doubt the fact_.

We were again despatched against this rebellious pacha, who sate upon
the parapets of his strong-hold, paying down thirty sequins for the head
of every janissary brought to him by his own troops, and I am afraid a
great deal of money was spent in that way. We fell into an ambuscade,
and one half of the corps to which my father belonged were cut to
pieces, before we could receive any assistance. At last the enemy
retired. I looked for my father,