of
Athens; insomuch that four of the principal Turks paid me a visit of
remonstrance at the convent, on the subject of his having taken a
woman to the bath--whom he had lawfully bought, however--a thing
quite contrary to etiquette.

"Basili also was extremely gallant among his own persuasion, and had
the greatest veneration for the Church, mixed with the highest
contempt of Churchmen, whom he cuffed upon occasion in a most
heterodox manner. Yet he never passed a church without crossing
himself; and I remember the risk he ran on entering St Sophia, in
Stamboul, because it had once been a place of his worship. On
remonstrating with him on his inconsistent proceedings, he invariably
answered, 'Our church is holy, our priests are thieves'; and then he
crossed himself as usual, and boxed the ears of the first papas who
refused to assist in any required operation, as was always found to
be necessary where a priest had any influence with the Cogia Bashi of
his village. Indeed, a more abandoned race of miscreants cannot
exist than the lower orders of the Greek clergy.

"When preparations were made for my return, my Albanians were
summoned to receive their pay. Basili took his with an awkward show
of regret at my intended departure, and marched away to his quarters
with his bag of piastres. I sent for Dervish, but for some time he
was not to be found; at last he entered just as Signor Logotheti,
father to the ci-devant Anglo-consul of Athens, and some other of my
Greek acquaintances, paid me a visit. Dervish took the money, but on
a sudden dashed it on the ground; and clasping his hands, which he
raised to his forehead, rushed out of the room weeping bitterly.
From that moment to the hour of my embarkation, he continued his
lamentations, and all our efforts to console him only produced this
answer, 'He leaves me.' Signor Logotheti, who never wept before for
anything less than the loss of a paras, melted; the padre of the
convent, my attendants, my visitors, and I verily believe that even
Sterne's foolish fat scullion would have left her fish-kettle to
sympathise with the unaffected and unexpected sorrow of this
barbarian.

"For my part, when I remembered that a short time before my departure
from England, a noble and most intimate associate had excused himself
from taking leave of me, because he had to attend a relation 'to a
milliner's,' I felt no less surprised than humiliated by the present
occurrence and the past