Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/209

 when they went round watching what we were doing, and reviled us violently. We, however, took no more notice of any stench, for we were already accustomed to it, and only laughed at them. Alas! how memory flew back to our own dear country! What promises we made of how good we would be, if God should help us back to our own nation! How often we wished to be day-labourers with our friends, that we might only be able to earn bread in sufficiency, and have enough to eat! We also remembered our past splendour and superfluities, lamenting and heartily bewailing that we had so lightly valued the gifts of God. Desiring, also, to know whether our parents and friends were still alive, and being acquainted with a prisoner in Galata, who had earned his freedom by work and service, we sent him, by one of our guards, the stockings and gloves, purses and Turkish hats, which we had knitted, as above described, to convert them into money for our use, adding, moreover, secret letters, to be delivered at Prague by way of Venice. In this matter he behaved faithfully, and bought us provisions for the money which he gained, and carefully sent the letters, so that they were delivered at Prague. For instance, about three from me reached the late Herr Adam von Hradetz, chief burggraf of Prague my patron, who was pleased to assist me to go to Turkey. In these letters some of us informed his grace of our imprisonment, and of other Turkish matters of the day, and begged for aid.

Wishing, also, to learn to speak and write Turkish, that I might, some day, be able to serve my country by my knowledge of that language, I began to learn to read Turkish, and through diligent application, in two