Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/184

 partake of a fine tabby tom-cat, which he had fed up for a long time, and named Marko. It was a fine and well-fatted cat, and I saw, with my own eyes, when the carpenter cut his throat. As my partner, Mr. Chaplain, would not go, and fettered together as we were I could not go without him, he sent us, as a present, a foreshoulder of the cat, which I ate. It was nice meat, and I enjoyed it very much, for hunger is a capital cook, so that nothing makes one disgusted; and if I had only had plenty of such tom-cats, they would have done me no harm.

At this time, Krygala Pasha sent orders that some of the old prisoners should be sent from our prison to his serail or the palace of his wives, where they were to clear out and clean up a building that had fallen into decay. The Turks, especially the more powerful ones, have more than one wife; but, although no Turk is allowed to enter their abode, much less to talk with them, yet in the presence of miserable captives they are not concealed, but their wives are permitted to sport and play tricks with them, and ridicule them as much as they please, it being supposed that they can have no love-passages with such sunburnt and emaciated Christians.

Amongst these prisoners, a German, Matthew Saller, was sent to clean up in the palace. When he had been there scarcely a fortnight he made acquaintance with the pasha’s wives, and having seen all their wardrobes, broke open a cupboard in the night, stole out of it two goblets, and three female girdles, each valued at 10,000 ducats, and brought them secretly, without any one’s knowledge, and with immense joy, into the prison, thinking that he should therewith be able to ransom himself