Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/206

 hand, his clothes, and his feet, recommended ourselves to his care with tears, and waited in great terror for his arrival.

Returning before evening from Constantinople, he comforted us by telling us that they were not going to kill us, and declared that he had obtained orders to the effect that three aspers, or kreutzers, a-day should be given to us to live upon by the pasha, adding also as follows: “Since ye still have to wait long for the payment, for the wages of court officials and soldiers are paid quarterly, and your pensions will be paid then, I must, therefore, provide you with means of support in the interval.” And these he provided as follows. Knowing we could not wait for the money, like a good man, he made himself our surety to the bakers in the town by the Black Tower, arranging that they should give each of us two loaves of bread daily, and he would pay them the money every quarter. He also kept his promise, for at the conclusion of the quarter he paid the bakers, and kept for himself the third kreutzer per diem for his trouble, though certainly he said that they refused to give us more than two aspers, a sum which we were obliged to receive thankfully. And since the salt sea-water could not be drunk, they brought good water from a spring on a hill some hons from the town, and gave us two pitchers of it daily, so that, hot as it was in our prison, we could scarcely quench our thirst, and often quarrelled together for the water, when one drank more of it than another. Therefore, that there might be equality amongst us, we took up the stocking trade, and made partnerships of five or six persons in each—one spinning the cotton, another winding it together, a third knitting, and so forth. When