Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/178

 what has been neglected; if they die, they are given to the prisoners to be buried, or thrown into the sea. Having brought us to this place, the judges presented letters or orders from Ferhat Pasha to the Quardian Pasha, instructing him how we were to be dealt with. After this the executioners took the chains and rings off our necks, and two or three of them ran up, and tripped up the feet of each, so that he fell on the ground. Here we poor wretches expected that they would beat us with a stick, but, thank God, that did not take place; but gipsy smiths came, and putting an iron ring round the feet of one who lay on the ground, passed a chain through it, clinched it on an anvil, and then fastened a second, whom he selected, by the foot to the same chain. Seeing that this was all they did, each of us had himself coupled to the companion whom he liked best. As soon as two were coupled together, they were obliged to go immediately into the common prison. When all had been thus fettered except myself and the apothecary, a little man, who was then also ill, they fastened us together as we lay on the ground from exhaustion, though I besought them earnestly enough, saying that we were both ill, and could not walk, and though it was impossible for me to lift the chain. When they bade us go into the prison, I rose with difficulty from the ground, and immediately fell down again on my back, and was unable to rise. A Turk, wishing to compel us to get up, struck me with a stick over the back, bidding me get up, and so he did the apothecary several times; but the pasha, seeing our real weakness, ordered one Turk to carry the chain behind us, and two others to lead us to the prison, where I seated myself with my sick com-