ordinary models. People scarcely realise,
perhaps, the extent to which they think evil
of good neighbours and industrious public
servants, on no better ground than that
Badge 100756 occasionally uses language
which, to his own perceptions, is only
forcible  and vigorous rhetoric,—or strives, on
principles strictly commercial, to enhance
the price paid for his exertions. I once
attended a popular lecture upon
temperance,  illustrated by numerous highly-
coloured prints representing, or professing
to represent, the stomachs of drunkards.
The theory appeared to be, that redness is
the greatest of all evils, and the depicted
stomachs became redder and redder; from
the rose-coloured blush attaching to that
bane of teetotalism, the moderate drinker,
up to the rubicundity, at once deep and
bright, discovered in a man who had died of
delirium tremens. When this point was
reached, there still remained a stomach
unaccounted for,—one far redder than the rest.
The intensely vivid scarlet of its centre
passed gradually into maroon on one side,
into purple on the other. There was no inscription
to show the potatory sins which
had been followed by such signal punishment.
At last the lecturer pointed his wand
towards this appalling object; and the
expectant audience was hushed into breathless
silence. A pin might have been heard
to drop. "This, ladies and gentlemen,"—very
slowly and deliberately uttered, as if in enjoyment
of our suspense,—"this, as I may say,
heart-rending diagram, presents to you a
faithful and accurate delineation of—pausing
again—a cabman's stomach! "And then, giving
time only for the expiratory sounds, and for
the rustle of subdued but general movement,
which accompany the release of an assembly
from highly-wrought attention, he proceeded
to denounce those persons who, by riding in
cabs, afford to the drivers thereof the means
of rubifying their digestive organs! Of the
effect that he produced on others I cannot
speak; but, for myself, I was sufficiently
struck by the injustice of the sweeping
accusation which the words conveyed, to
turn with no small disgust from the glib
fanatic through whose lips they passed.
From this small incident I date the origin
of an involuntary regard, since
confirmed by many incidents, for classes who
suffer unduly in the estimation of their
fellow men.

It was, consequently, not without some lurking
kindness for reputed scoundrelism, that I
found myself, in the spring of eighteen
hundred and fifty-five, brought into contact
with the army of the Sultan, and with the
Bashi-Bazouk element which that army
contained. These irregulars were then the objects
of general abhorence. In England they were
painted in the darkest pitch and the brightest
vermilion, as a band of determined villains
and ruffians. Stories of them (venerable
stories which had done duty for Tilly's
Croats, and for Kirke's Lambs), appeared
in out-of-the-way corners of weekly
newspapers.  Child-killing was mentioned as their
common recreation; burning or plundering
their daily business. An officer recruiting for
the Bashi-Bazouks of the Contingent, the
Osmanli  Irregular Cavalry, as they were called,
was in daily expectation of being murdered.
Himself of known courage and capacity, he
fully believed that his levies would resent the
control he held over them, and that he should
be shot or stabbed in some outbreak of general
turbulence, or some mere caprice of
individual  insubordination. I was induced by
his report to feel much curiosity about the
men whom he confessed to fear. Perhaps
they were not so very black.

Reaching Eupatoria a few weeks afterwards,
I did not fail to ask who commanded
the irregulars, and how the acquaintance of
this commandant might be obtained. I was
not long in hearing the name of Sifley Bey,
nor in receiving an invitation to his tent.
A friend who knew him, kindly offered me his
services as interpreter; and I lost no time in
setting out upon the visit.

Within its allotted space, the camp of the
Bashi-Bazouks was so arranged as to maintain
the irregular character of the corps, and
to give the impression that the occupiers of
each tent had pitched it where they
pleased, without reference to any settled
plan. The horses, also, were picketed
about near the tents of their respective
owners. They resented our intrusion upon
their domain by neighing and squealing,
and by such well-meant and practical
endeavours to kick, that we were thankful for
the strength of their heel-ropes. The noise
brought out picturesque and fierce-looking
figures, who quieted their horses by various
delicate attentions, and looked curiously at
us as we threaded our way to the centre of
the camp; where an Arab lance, rising high
into the air, its reed shaft decorated near
the barb with three tufts of black ostrich-feathers,
pointed out from a distance the
quarters of the Bey. At the door of his tent
fluttered a small silk standard, in alternate
stripes of crimson and yellow, marked
upon its centre by the stain of an outspread
and bloody hand. Close around were fastened
three or four fine chargers; two tents
within call, occupied by personal attendants,
were the only other intruders upon a
considerable patch of ground. Other lances,
decorated with two tufts of feathers only, rose
here and there in the camp, and indicated,
as I afterwards learnt, the quarters of
inferior officers.

I should be sorry to do Sifley Bey injustice;
but I must admit that my first impression of
him recalled unpleasantly the statements of
the recruiting-officer. If such the chief, I
thought, what are the followers? There was
a look of falseness in his demure face,—an