Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/233

 All the pashas present arose, went to the Sultan, and made intercession that we might be released from prison, saying that peace would be made between the Emperors so much the sooner. But orders were given to our aga to place us again in the tower, and bring me also if I were still alive, to the divan in a fortnight. The prisoners, my comrades, thanked the pashas, and returned towards the Black Tower, past the church of St. Sophia, where I sat in the lime-vault. I crawled out of the lime-vault and joined them with my two guards, and we went to the tower, and anxiously waited for the last day of the fortnight.

When the Emperor Mehemet came to the determination of besieging the city of Erlau in person, and all military matters were prepared, the embassies of the King of France and the Queen of England made intercession with Ibrahim Pasha for our release, promising, by means of us, to bring it to pass that peace should be made between the Sultan and the Emperor; for at that time the Turks were already weary of the war, and would rather have had peace than war, as the flower of their army had perished in Hungary.

After a fortnight we all sailed again to Constantinople with one fetter. On going into the divan we were informed, through an interpreter, that the mighty Sultan, out of his natural goodness, released us all from so grievous an imprisonment, and counselled us to show gratitude in return, and never to wage war against him; otherwise, if any of us were seized and captured in war, he would be immediately impaled. Likewise, when we returned to our own country, he bade us, with the aid of our friends, bring it to pass that our king should seek peace