160
XI. THE FLOWERS OF THE GARDEN OF BEGTASH 187
XII. THE SHIPWRECK OF LEONIDAS 198
XIII. A BALL IN THE SERAGLIO 213
XIV. KURSHID PASHA 238
XV. CARETTO 244
XVI. EMINAH 252
XVII. THE SILVER PEDESTAL IN FRONT OF THE SERAGLIO 262
XVIII. THE BROKEN SWORDS 275
GLOSSARY OF TURKISH WORDS 293

The Lion of Janina

CHAPTER I

THE CAVERNS OF SELEUCIA

A savage, barren, inhospitable region lies before us, the cavernous
valley of Seleucia--a veritable home for an anchorite, for there is
nothing therein to remind one of the living world; the whole district
resembles a vast ruined tomb, with its base overgrown by green weeds.
Here is everything which begets gloom--the blackest religious
fanaticism, the darkest monstrosities of superstition--while an
eternal malediction seems to brood like a heavy mist over this region,
created surely by God's left hand, scattering abroad gigantic rocky
fragments, smiting the earth with unfruitfulness, and making it
uninhabitable by the children of men.

Man rarely visits these parts. And, indeed, why should he come, or
what should he seek there? There is absolutely nothing in the whole
region that is dear to the heart of man. Even the wild beast makes no
abiding lair for himself in that valley. Only now and then, in the
burning days of summer, a lion of the wilderness, flying from before
the sultry heat, may, perchance, come there to devour his captured
prey, and then, when he is well gorged, pursue his way, wrangling as
he goes with the echo of his own roar.

Solitary travellers of an enterprising turn of mind do occasionally
visit this dreary wilderness; but so crushing an impression does it
make on all who have the courage to gaze upon it, that they scarce
wait to explore the historic ground, but hasten from it as fast as
their legs can carry them.

What is there to see there, after all? A battered-down wall, as to
which none can say who built it, or why it was built, or who destroyed
it. A tall stone column, the column of the worthy Simon Stylites, who
piled it up, stone upon stone, year after year, with his own hands,
being wont to sit there for days together with arms extended in th