Mahometan as he had been a Christian, and that he was not better
acquainted with the Koran than he had been with the Gospel. "I am
certain," he added, "that I shall die-calmer and much happier than Prince
Eugene. I have had to say that God is God, and that Mahomet is the
prophet. I have said it, and the Turks care very little whether I believe
it or not. I wear the turban as the soldier wears the uniform. I was
nothing but a military man; I could not have turned my hand to any other
profession, and I made up my mind to become lieutenant-general of the
Grand Turk only when I found myself entirely at a loss how to earn my
living. When I left Venice, the pitcher had gone too often to the well,
it was broken at last, and if the Jews had offered me the command of an
army of fifty thousand men, I would have gone and besieged Jerusalem."

Bonneval was handsome, but too stout. He had received a sabre-cut in the
lower part of the abdomen, which compelled him to wear constantly a
bandage supported by a silver plate. He had been exiled to Asia, but only
for a short time, for, as he told me, the cabals are not so tenacious in
Turkey as they are in Europe, and particularly at the court of Vienna. As
I was taking leave of him, he was kind enough to say that, since his
arrival in Turkey, he had never passed two hours as pleasantly as those
he had just spent with me, and that he would compliment the bailo about
me.

The Bailo Dona, who had known him intimately in Venice, desired me to be
the bearer of all his friendly compliments for him, and M. Venier
expressed his deep regret at not being able to make his acquaintance.

The second day after my first visit to him being a Thursday, the pacha
did not forget to send a janissary according to his promise. It was about
eleven in the morning when the janissary called for me, I followed him,
and this time I found Bonneval dressed in the Turkish style. His guests
soon arrived, and we sat down to dinner, eight of us, all well disposed
to be cheerful and happy. The dinner was entirely French, in cooking and
service; his steward and his cook were both worthy French renegades.

He had taken care to introduce me to all his guests and at the same time
to let me know who they were, but he did not give me an opportunity of
speaking before dinner was nearly over. The conversation was entirely
kept up in Italian, and I remarked that the Turks did not utter a single
word in their own language, even to