Identifier: travelspolitic00mill (find matches)
Title: Travels and politics in the Near East
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Miller, William, 1864-1945
Subjects: Eastern question (Balkan) Balkan Peninsula
Publisher: New York : Frederick A. Stokes
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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nd day, and whenonce a week at Fridays Selamlik the lord of the OttomanEmpire goes forth to his devotions, fifteen thousandsoldiers are needed to protect him from his subjects ashe traverses in his carriage the hundred yards whichseparate the gates of his grounds from the beautifulHamidieh Mosque, which he now always selects as thenearest, and therefore the safest, place of worship in hiscapital. I saw him one day at this function, riding in hiscarriage with old Osman Pasha facing him—the lattercool and calm as in the shot-riven battlements of Plevna ;the former white as ashes, his quivering lip and nervousface betraying the constant fear in which he passes hislife. As he drove past the long line of soldiers, all ofwhom carry unloaded rifles for fear of treachery, heglanced uneasily from side to side, as if to detect thepresence of some possible assassin. In former days itwas his custom to go about more freely ; but now henever visits the city, save once a year, when he journeys 405
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Travels and Politics in the Near East from Yildiz to Santa Sophia and the SeragHo. Last timethe precautions taken for his safety were extraordinary.Two different routes were chosen, and his carriage wassent closed, while he went by sea. On another occasion,when he drove, he changed the order of his own and hismothers carriage at the last moment, so that if anyattempt were made upon his life the victim would be hismother and not himself. Who would be Sultan on suchconditions ? Better than anyone else does Abdul HamidII. exemplify those terrible lines of Horace, in which theold Roman poet has described the fate of the Siciliantyrant, over whose head the naked sword is ever sus-pended by a single thread. Many people have wished totake revenge upon the Sultan for his treatment of theArmenians, but no punishment that has ever been devisedcould exceed the daily and hourly sufferings of mindw^hich he endures. Without a single real friend, he seesan enemy in every one, and trusts no man long.

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