Damat Zade, the merchant whom I had awakened
the preceding night, presented to me a heavy purse of gold, and put upon
my finger a diamond ring of considerable value; each of the merchants
followed his example in making me rich presents; the magistrates also
sent me tokens of their approbation; and the grand vizier sent me a
diamond of the first water, with a line written by his own hand, 'To the
man who has saved Constantinople.' Excuse me, gentlemen, for the vanity
I seem to show in mentioning these circumstances. You desired to hear my
history, and I cannot, therefore, omit the principal circumstance of my
life. In the course of four-and-twenty hours I found myself raised, by
the munificent gratitude of the inhabitants of this city, to a state of
affluence far beyond what I had ever dreamed of attaining.
"I now took a house suited to my circumstances, and bought a few slaves.
As I was carrying my slaves home, I was met by a Jew, who stopped me,
saying, in his language, 'My lord, I see, has been purchasing slaves; I
could clothe them cheaply.' There was something mysterious in the manner
of this Jew, and I did not like his countenance; but I considered that I
ought not to be governed by caprice in my dealings, and that, if this man
could really clothe my slaves more cheaply than another, I ought not to
neglect his offer merely because I took a dislike to the cut of his
beard, the turn of his eye, or the tone of his voice.
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