DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53553#0320
286
une affaire d’honneur^ qu’il faut arranger en regie. Ayez la
bonte, citoyen Russe,” addressing himself to Perninoff, “ de
prefer votre epee a Eupator, atin que tons les deux se battent
scion les loix d’honneur et de gentilshommes.” Unfortu-
nately, Mehemed, in exposing his hand to attack his an-
tagonist, had, by an unlucky discovery, given the latter fresh
and more just cause of offence: Eupator, on espying his
own ring, on Mehemed’s finger, exclaimed, with a vio-
lence scarcely to be expected from a newly revived man,
“ Why, the assassin has robbed me of my ring too! Per-
haps, that too, was one of thy wife’s wedding gifts, of which,
no doubt, thou canst produce the title-deeds. To Rome I
will have the highwayman conducted, to have his brains
beat out on the Gemonian steps.”
I thought it high time now to put a stop to the endless
quid proquo’s, which had hitherto arisen from poor Eupator’s
ignorance of his uncommon, nay, unparalleled, situation.
As a preliminary step, I addressed Mehemed-Aga in Ita-
lian, to entreat his forbearance; and after having received
from him an assurance, under the solemn pledge of the grand
signor’s beard, that he would not only calm his present an-
ger, but on no account recur to future acts of violence, I
endeavoured gradually, and with all the caution Eupator’s
delicate situation required, to acquaint and familiarize him
with the real posture of his affairs. It was no easy task to
persuade him, that, since (what he called) his yesterday’s
slumber, a space of time exceeding seventeen centuries
had intervened ; that of the generation he had quitted, not
a vestige was left; that of the nations, governments, and
religious faiths which then existed, scarcely a trace remained ;
nay, that, but for the works of a few authors who wrote
about his time, accidentally preserved; and some relics of
the perfect plastic arts and of coins, as well as of the beau-
tiful and solid architecture of his age, which confirmed the
fidelity
une affaire d’honneur^ qu’il faut arranger en regie. Ayez la
bonte, citoyen Russe,” addressing himself to Perninoff, “ de
prefer votre epee a Eupator, atin que tons les deux se battent
scion les loix d’honneur et de gentilshommes.” Unfortu-
nately, Mehemed, in exposing his hand to attack his an-
tagonist, had, by an unlucky discovery, given the latter fresh
and more just cause of offence: Eupator, on espying his
own ring, on Mehemed’s finger, exclaimed, with a vio-
lence scarcely to be expected from a newly revived man,
“ Why, the assassin has robbed me of my ring too! Per-
haps, that too, was one of thy wife’s wedding gifts, of which,
no doubt, thou canst produce the title-deeds. To Rome I
will have the highwayman conducted, to have his brains
beat out on the Gemonian steps.”
I thought it high time now to put a stop to the endless
quid proquo’s, which had hitherto arisen from poor Eupator’s
ignorance of his uncommon, nay, unparalleled, situation.
As a preliminary step, I addressed Mehemed-Aga in Ita-
lian, to entreat his forbearance; and after having received
from him an assurance, under the solemn pledge of the grand
signor’s beard, that he would not only calm his present an-
ger, but on no account recur to future acts of violence, I
endeavoured gradually, and with all the caution Eupator’s
delicate situation required, to acquaint and familiarize him
with the real posture of his affairs. It was no easy task to
persuade him, that, since (what he called) his yesterday’s
slumber, a space of time exceeding seventeen centuries
had intervened ; that of the generation he had quitted, not
a vestige was left; that of the nations, governments, and
religious faiths which then existed, scarcely a trace remained ;
nay, that, but for the works of a few authors who wrote
about his time, accidentally preserved; and some relics of
the perfect plastic arts and of coins, as well as of the beau-
tiful and solid architecture of his age, which confirmed the
fidelity