The Argosy — page 232: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

218 Remembrances of Constantinople. clung to each other, and to the sides of the carriage, breathing a vow that only on foot would we ever after attempt the passage of the Golden Horn. A PEEP AT THE LATE SULTAN. After enduring for months the burning sirocco blasts at Malta, how refreshing was the north wind that greeted us as we drove pleasantly along the heights above Pera. As we inhaled the cool, invigorating breeze, we thought of those we had left behind on “ Melita’s deso- late shore,” and how they were plodding through the never changing, ever wearying daily drive and ride. With verdureless Malta in ‘our memories, our delighted eyes scanned with ecstacy the beautiful landscape before us, and rested with a feeling of infinite satisfaction and relief on the green hills beewsen which flowed the Bosphorus. Never before had I so thoroughly appreciated the joyous repose, the contented delight, that is conveyed to the senses by nature’s grand harmonious mingling of blue and green. The weary sight, that has in vain sought refuge from the scorching sun ; which in one blinding glare confuses the shimmering blue of the sea, the dazzling amber of ‘the rocks, and the furnace-like glow from stone buildings; welcomes with rapture spreading foliage and verdant lawhs: not alone from the associations they may awaken, but positively from physical causes. Monsieur Chevalier has. demonstrated that looking successively at several shades of red so affects the retina that we cannot, after a while, distinguish one shade from another; but the instant the eye falls on anything green its discriminating power is restored. Conse- quently, .after being baked in the oven, Strada Forn:, of Valetta, I seemed to obtain a new, or rather to recover an old sense, as hd gazed on the green hills above Constantinople. We were on our way to witness the arrival in state of the Sultan at: a small mosque in-which he delighted to offer up his prayers. SS Descending from the carriage, and passing through a file of soldiers, we were stationed on the low wall of a cemetery opposite the mosque. The people in the road below us were prevented from encroaching on the path.of royalty, as they would be in England, by two files of soldiers. These guards were clothed in ill-fitting, coarse uniforms, made on the Prussian model, in which they seemed ill at ease, and had a slouching, untidy appearance, very unlike what we are accustomed to consider soldierlike. The scene, with the Bosphorus and the wooded hills of the ‘opposite Asiatic shore as a background, was novel and exciting.- Turks in all varieties of costume passed to and fro. Some ware flowing robes, others shart embroidered jackets,’ cut :up-in’ ® point’ comicbooks.com