Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/210

156 they had been placed under my pastoral care. A month afterwards I went to Amedia on business, but on finding that the governor was not treating me fairly I opposed him, whereupon he was highly incensed, and despatched a messenger to the Pasha of Baghdad with a large sum of money, and another to the heretical metropolitan, inviting him to Amedia. Yeshua-yau accordingly came and offered 2,000 piastres (£20.) to obtain my imprisonment. The offer was accepted, and on the 1st of June I and my two brothers were cast into prison. When the governor of Mosul heard of this proceeding he also sent a messenger to the Pasha of Baghdad in my behalf, and it so happened that S. Mary (her prayers be with us and with all believers,) put love into the Pasha's heart, so that after he had taken the money which had been sent to him by the Coord he despatched a messenger to the governor of Amedia, ordering my immediate release. Nevertheless this infidel Hanafite refused to set me free, and dismissed Mohammed Said, the messenger, with a promise that I should be liberated in a few days; but in this he lied, for after the departure of the messenger he had us dragged out of prison to the market-place, where we were publicly beaten before all the people and before the above-named metropolitan and his heretical community, who looked on, saying: Ah, ah! we have seen it with our eyes. A month afterwards the messenger returned from Baghdad, declaring that he had orders not to leave Amedia without taking me with him, but Ismael Pasha refused to let us go. Then the Hanafite said to the messenger: Remain you here, and I will send a messenger in your stead. The infidel did so, and wrote to say that he would release me on condition that I should pay to his Effendi the sum of 5,000 piastres. This message so incensed the Pasha of Baghdad that he took an oath, and directed the messenger to say to Ismael Pasha that he would pull down his castle over his head unless he immediately sent the prisoner to him. I was accordingly released on the 13th of September, after having been imprisoned for three months and a half among scorpions, of which I killed no less than seven near my head; but the saved me from prison and from these reptiles, and from all evil, through the acceptable prayers of S. Mary, and He will deliver me from the fire of hell. Amen.