Upon The Divan, And Close Up Against The Right Hand Corner Of The
Room, There Sat The Pasha, His Limbs Gathered In, The Whole
Creature Coiled Up Like An Adder.
His cheeks were deadly pale, and
his lips perhaps had turned white, for without moving a muscle the
man impressed me with an immense idea of the wrath within him.
He
kept his eyes inexorably fixed as if upon vacancy, and with the
look of a man accustomed to refuse the prayers of those who sue for
life. We soon discomposed him, however, from this studied fixity
of feature, for we marched straight up to the divan and sat down,
the Russian close to the Pasha, and I by the side of the Russian.
This act astonished the attendants, and plainly disconcerted the
Pasha. He could no longer maintain the glassy stillness of the
eyes which he had affected, and evidently became much agitated. At
the feet of the satrap there stood a trembling Italian.
This man was a sort of medico in the potentate's service, and now
in the absence of our attendants he was to act as interpreter. The
Pasha caused him to tell us that we had openly defied his
authority, and had forced our way on shore in the teeth of his own
officers.
Up to this time I had been the planner of the enterprise, but now
that the moment had come when all would depend upon able and
earnest speechifying, I felt at once the immense superiority of my
gallant friend, and gladly left to him the whole conduct of this
discussion.
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