Bulgaria, although originally of Albanian extraction, and had considerable estates in the neighbourhood. The new bureaucratic reform has torn up by the roots all those turbulent Barons of Turkey who, whether as rebellious Pashas, Bosniac and Albanian noblesse, Dereh Beys of Asia Minor, or Emirs of the Syrian mountains, were perpetually defying the central Government.-But there is a large secondary local gentry, who can serve the government by their influence and their activity, still remaining. "I am in a quandary," said Genge Aga, dandling the buyurdi on his knee,-"I am to forward you in every possible way, and at the same time I am to give you the best advice. Now I have no objections to give instructions from Karaoul to Karaoul that they are not to stop you on any pretext or to detain you, as you appear so anxious to go on;-but, on the other hand, and in obedience to the other part of the Firman, the best advice I can give you is not to go beyond Nicopoli: for I hear that lower down the Russians have set up a gun to sink every boat that attempts to pass.-By wind and water you may go fast enough, you may even arrive at the next world before you are aware of it.-By land you certainly at this time of the year go slow, but sure. circumstance eschew the voyage by night. proverb says: Work by night That's the way. Under every As the old So, thanking Genge Aga for his advice, we descended the hill to the landing place. But here we had a most disagreeable experience of Danubian voyaging, with the unavailing regret for the Austrian steamer which, notwithstanding all its discomforts of scanty bed accommodation, deposits the traveller at his destination with bag and baggage all correct. Having been in a state of com plete uncertainty as to how far the state of war would permit us to descend the river, we had made the arrangement for the boatmen in such a way that it was optional on our part to stop at Rahova, Nicopoli or Sistov. But the inclement weather induced our boatmen to take advantage of this break in our agreement, and on landing we had given them instructions to get ready another boat. In our absence however our things had been removed into the new boat. We resigned ourselves to the plunder of the greater part of our provisions; but our large sack of charcoal had, after a moderate consumption, fallen to such exiguity of proportions as made us rather angry, and a red morocco case, containing a portable table service in German silver, was also missing. As may be well supposed some sharp words passed on the occasion, and I discovered the charcoal very neatly concealed under a mat in the bottom of their own boat. But the table service was no where to be found. Had we remained and made known our case to Genge Aga, I have no doubt but that the bastinado would have put all matters to rights; but as this would have detained us another day, and we were in great fear of the Danube icing up, we thought it better to start at once and make a subsequent complaint in writing; but from that day to this I have seen nothing of my case. Our new boatmen were Bosniacs from the Save, muscular, well dressed men, and the boat was good; but the strong easterly winds increasing in violence, we made very little progress, and long before we reached the village at which we had intended to stop at sunset, in accordance with the advice of Genge Aga, black night came on, with the wind howling louder than ever, and a shot being fired from the shore, the bullet of which grazed the turban of the steersman, we had to lie to at another karaoul, and nearing the shore were roughly apostrophised by a negro in Asiatic costume with a long Kurdish lance in his hand. But never was there such an 'open Sesame' as the buyurdi; we were again civilly dismissed, with the pleasant intelligence that there was no further karaoul for some miles. But the elements were still more hostile than ever, the wind blew ahead-the boat danced up and down on the black waters and made little or no progress.—It was midnight and we were still opposite the same rock where we had been an hour ago,—the mangal blazed with the extraordinary ventilation, but threatened every moment to upset and make a conflagration of the boat. So menaced by the three elements of fire, wind and water, the boatmen had nothing for it but to pull ashore at the first hamlet that could be descried in the darkness. An hour after midnight, after another long pull up the hill, we arrived at the hamlet or village of Wadin, between Rahova and Nicopoli. CHAPTER VI. ADVENTURES IN BULGARIA. The people were all asleep in the village, and the only sound that broke in upon the wailing of the wind was the angry bark of the wolf-like dogs that kept watch in the farm enclosures of wattling, between which we went to the house assigned us by the Kiahia, whom the boatmen had first knocked up; so we entered a hut with mud walls, lighted by a piece of pitch pine which the woman held in her hand. The people of this village were neither Turks nor Bulgarians, but Daco Romans, alias Wallachians, speaking a language which, although mixed with some Slaavic words, is essentially Roman, and nearer to the classical Latin than either vulgar Italian, French or Spanish. The fine classical features of the matron, the amphora on a shelf near the wall, the sandals the peasants wore on their feet, the words of necessity spoken on the occasion, lumen, focu, vinu, and the ragged toga of the spokeswoman might almost have passed for a scene in a pauperised Roman or Neapolitan village in the environs of Fondi and Terracina; but the sleepy man is not disposed to be critical; and happy to have got ashore without accident, the poor woman having swept out a clean corner for our quilts and pelisses, I slept soundly until day. Next morning, the strong easterly winds continuing to blow, we were compelled to remain where we were; a strange crew in so small a place: a Diplomatic Attaché, who proved to be a most agreeable travelling companion, a Man of Letters, author of these sheets, the Bosniac boatmen, the Daco Roman family, and some Turkish soldiers billeted there, all crammed into a house that had no chair or table, with light communicated by the chimney and the door. Poor Pat in his cabin is an aristocrat compared to the Roman of Bulgaria, for when he stuffs a hat in a broken pane to keep out the cold, it is evident proof that his house has a window. Having made up my mind to a winter embracing every physical discomfort that the imagination can conceive, I resigned myself to my fate as I best could, for here we spent two mortal days waiting the convenience of the winds, but not only did they not abate, but masses of ice accumulating on the Danube, a prosecution of the voyage was impossible. So the men had to pull their boat high and dry on shore, and we had to bethink of prosecuting the journey by land. But in the mean time the attentive and considerate Genge Aga of Rahova, having got intelligence that the Russians had put out a new gun above Nicopoli, had sent a Zabtieh, or mounted trooper, by land after us to warn us of the danger and assist us in prosecuting our journey by land. Truly if Turkish communications were on a level with Turkish kindness, attention and consideration, the Ottoman Empire would be the pleasantest country to travel in; the consciousness of the deficiency of the facilities which the country affords for travellers is an incitement to a redoubled attention on the part of the authorities. Our intention was to have pushed on for Nicopoli;-but on consultation it was found that for want of bridges, and the difficulty the ferry boats at the mouths of the tributary rivers would meet with from the ice, it would be impossible to take the lower road to Rustchuk,—and thus we must strike up high and dry into Upper Bulgaria. No horses were to be had here, so we hired a cart drawn by four oxen and commenced our painful journey in deep snow. The animals lowing, grumbling and labouring, sent up a thick column of breath in the rarefied air as they steadily dragged us up steep acclivities, and then half sliding on all fours-the cart giving us many a nervous moment as it swayed to the right and left-we descended the hills again. At length at nightfall, to my agreeable surprise and as a contrast to the lodging of the night before, the horse police led the way into a large country residence with numerous farming outhouses embosomed in a grove of gigantic horse chestnuts; their long bare branches bending and rustling in the keen easterly breeze. This proved to be one of the numerous chifflicks of the wealthy Genge Aga whose steward came out to see who were the travellers. The gens d'armes whispered a few words to this personage and we were forthwith shewn into a comfortable carpeted room, where we found sitting various other military and rural persons, friends, employés and guests of the opulent proprietor, and a good Turkish dinner making its appearance as darkness closed and the lights were brought in. I felt like the mariner having the comforts of a home after a narrow escape from shipwreck. All the company were Arnaouts-one of them a captain of soldiers quartered in the village on his way from Albania to join the head quarters of Omer Pasha-an athletic, fine looking man, but with a defect in his speech so that all his r's were l's, and a man who accompanied him had |