Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/244

 In the centre of the whole camp were placed large iron tents for the Emperor, his chamberlains and courtiers, and also for his horses and carriages, and the pashas and their attendants, and that in such numbers that one might lose one’s way among them, just as in a large city. There were also gates made of waxed linen, and so beset by the Emperor’s guard that no one could get to the Sultan’s tent without permission.

When Mehemet Pasha moved forward from the camp, to secure the safety of the road, and marched with his 50,000 men, there was no clamour, noise, or trumpeting to be heard, only small drums were beaten, and that sparingly, merely that the soldiers might know how to direct themselves. And when they wanted to stop for the night, they pitched their tents without any tumult, and struck them again in the morning, and placed them on camels and mules, so quietly, that it was a wonder to behold; and truth it is that with us fifty soldiers make more disorder and shouting than these 50,000 made. After Mehemet Pasha marched the Emperor and his main army, he himself riding in the centre of them with his usual guard of janissaries, spahis, and other soldiers, and with chief pashas in great numbers. On the right rode always 12,000 spahis and oglungars with yellow plumes on their lances; on the left, the same number of horse-soldiers with red flags on their lances, like a field of poppies in bloom; in front of the Emperor himself marched 12,000 janissaries on foot; next rode the Sultan and the pashas, and after him the sangiaks of all his lands. While marching through the open country, they beat large drums without intermission. Behind the Sultan rode all his courtiers, and last of all Cykula Pasha,