other, nor interchanged farther greeting with tongue or hand. "It is thus," cried Macgubb, "that Scotchmen should meet in a far foreign land. -I must welcome as much as auld Galloway claims in this moustached infidel here.-Knowest thou not thy cousin ?" and clasping Wulik in his arms, he exclaimed," Lord! how like an unbeliever ye look!-Come, welcome me with words, man,—give me a text of the Koran, if ye canna mind a mouthful of Scotch." Wulik sprang to his feet, regardless of his wound, and returned, with a murmur of joy little short of a scream, the embrace of his cousin. Suwarrow smiled, and said, "I like to see nature taking men into her own hands; how becoming this outburst of affection is. I have ever observed that strong emotion has something of elegance either of action or expression about it. So my Moslem enemy is become a Christian,-I like him not the worse, though I have conquered but a lord instead of a Vizier."-" Suwarrow," said Lord Dalveen," the meanest of my house is nobler than the highest slave in Constantinople, and I would rather be, as I am, the prisoner of a fierce brave man, than rule, as I have done, over serfs and eunuchs." "Lord!" said Macgubb with a laugh, " I wotna which is worst,-a Russian barbarian or a Turkish slave? Here am I Christian born, and weel educated, for I penetrated into Dilworth as far as notation,-here am I, half-choked on horseflesh and half-suffocated in train-oil, fighting for cannie Katherine. Then here again,-saw ye ever sic a sight?-a gallant chief of Scotland, ane of the auldest, bauldest names in the land, making a world's-wonder of himself, with his turban and mustaches, and a text of the Koran atween his teeth." Suwarrow smiled, pinched the ear of the Galwegian, and said, " Well, well, be seated; Vizier, push the wine about; drink, drink, my good Admiral, and get rid of these dark looks; taste, my merry mariner, and thou too, Wulik; wine is the sovereign salve, that sinks to a soldier's sore; drink, drink; I shall be back in the bursting of a shell." And, slinging his sword over his shoulder, he hastened from the tent. Lord Dalveen looked steadfastly at Paul, and said in a mild and kindly tone, "By what strange chances human actions are directed! and how mutable is human passion! My folly drove you from Scotland, where you would never have risen higher than a man before the mast, and your own good sense and well-directed bravery have raised you to eminence and renown. My folly was to be the foundation of your fame ;-there is a fate in all things which nothing can control. Here I find you in high rank and command, with something of sorrow and forgiveness in your looks for one who has deeply wronged you." "Lord Dalveen," said Paul gravely, 66 my looks express my feelings. I have long since ceased to think of you but with something like VOL. III. S sorrow of heart,-for who can control the course to which they are fated ? and it is wisest to sail with the current as smoothly as we can. Fate has, however, been in a frolicsome mood when she put you in a vizier's turban."-" My story is a common one and soon told," replied Dalveen :— "I was found at sea by a rover,-I fought our ship to the last spar, was made captive, was thought handsome by the Bashaw of Imlack's lady,—was found to be brave by her lord,-cut my way with my scimitar amongst the Russians to the notice of the Vizier, obtained a small command-was victorious with that, obtained a larger-was victorious with that too, the soldiers began to love me,-the janizaries refused to follow any other leader,—the Vizier wished to reward my courage with the bowstring, he experienced the Turkish necklace himself, curiously applied by the hands of two Walachians, his command was given to me,luck's all, the battle's lost, and I am a captive. -So there have I given you a full and succinct history of the rise and fall of Vizier Dalveen.” As he concluded his story, Suwarrow entered the tent, threw his sword on the floor, and taking out a piece of paper soiled with gunpowder, held a pen dipt in ink over it, and muttered," Well, Oczakow has cost me a threemonths' siege;-let me see, let me see,-sat down with seventy thousand men,-re-enforcements thirty thousand,-slain outright in the siege, before the storming, fifteen thousand three hundred and odd,-those heathen hounds are good gunners. Wounded and since dead six thousand seven hundred and sixty-three; my doctors are unskilful,-a lecture from the knout would be beneficial. Then the slaughter in this bloody brush to-day, say ten thousand,-not one body less;-add to that the storming just now,-the breaches are wide, so the resistance may cost but a thousand, how much in all, how much in all ?” -He pondered a little with a confused brow, and exclaimed," Confound arithmetic, and those who invented it! The Turks are defeated, and Oczakow is yours;'-that will do, that will do." -And these were the opening words of Suwarrow's despatch to the Empress of Russia. CHAPTER X. They call me Katherine that do talk of me. THE Sound of battle had for some time ceased, and nothing was heard save the groan of the wounded, when the roar of an hundred pieces of artillery shook sea and land, and startled all who were present except Suwarrow himself. "Nay, Vizier," said the Marshal, "this is no new battle, thy Turks are too well beaten for that; it is but the concluding flourish of the trumpet to the labours of the day. Oczakow is about to change masters. The petticoat has conquered the turban; the Russian Kate will keep the good town in spite of all the crooked swords, crescents, and caponised captains, that the seed of Mahomet can muster!”—“ Marshal," replied the Vizier, "win it and wear it. Fame reports your Empress to be no admirer of those gentlemen of the haram with the sweet and delicate voices, and that she loves the laugh of a |