But If An Adept In Such Matters, You Insisted Upon Being
Conducted Before The "Pasha Of The Night," And, The Clerk Fearing To
Refuse, You Were Hurried To The Great Man's Office, Hoping For Justice,
And Dealing Out Ideal Vengeance To Your Captors,-The Patrol.
Here you
found the dignitary sitting with pen, ink, and paper before him, and
pipe and coffee-cup in hand, upon a wide Diwan of dingy chintz, in a
large dimly-lit room, with two guards by his side, and a semi-circle of
recent seizures vociferating before him.
When your turn came, you were
carefully collared, and led up to the presence, as if even at that
awful moment you were mutinously and murderously disposed. The Pasha,
looking at you with a vicious sneer, turned up his nose, ejaculated
"'Ajami," and prescribed the bastinado. You observed that the mere fact
of being a Persian did not give mankind a right to capture, imprison,
and punish you; you declared moreover that you were no Persian, but an
Indian under British protection. The Pasha, a man accustomed to
obedience, then stared at you, to frighten you, and you, we will
suppose, stared at him, till, with an oath, he turned to the patrol,
and asked them your offence. They all simultaneously swore-by
Allah!-that you had been found without a lantern, dead-drunk, beating
respectable people,
[p.121]breaking into houses, invading and robbing harims. You openly
told the Pasha that they were eating abominations; upon which he
directed one of his guards to smell your breath,-the charge of
drunkenness being tangible.
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