Murad the Unlucky and Other Tales | Page 8

feeding, and the cursed

animal gave me so violent a kick on the head that I could not help
roaring aloud.
"My cries awakened those who slept in the tent near which the mule
was feeding. Provoked at being disturbed, the soldiers were ready
enough to think ill of me, and they took it for granted that I was a thief,
who had stolen the ring I pretended to have just found. The ring was
taken from me by force, and the next day I was bastinadoed for having
found it; the officer persisting in the belief that stripes would make me
confess where I had concealed certain other articles of value which had
lately been missed in the camp. All this was the consequence of my
being in a hurry to light my pipe and of my having put the ring on a
finger that was too little for it, which no one but Murad the Unlucky
would have done.
"When I was able to walk again, after my wounds were healed, I went
into one of the tents distinguished by a red flag, having been told that
these were coffee-houses. Whilst I was drinking coffee I heard a
stranger near me complaining that he had not been able to recover a
valuable ring he had lost, although he had caused his loss to be
published for three days by the public crier, offering a reward of two
hundred sequins to whoever should restore it. I guessed that this was
the very ring which I had unfortunately found. I addressed myself to the
stranger, and promised to point out to him the person who had forced it
from me. The stranger recovered his ring, and, being convinced that I
had acted honestly, he made me a present of two hundred sequins, as
some amends for the punishment which I had unjustly suffered on his
account.
"Now you would imagine that this purse of gold was advantageous to
me. Far the contrary; it was the cause of new misfortunes.
"One night, when I thought that the soldiers who were in the same tent
with me were all fast asleep, I indulged myself in the pleasure of
counting my treasure. The next day I was invited by my companions to
drink sherbet with them. What they mixed with the sherbet which I
drank I know not, but I could not resist the drowsiness it brought on. I
fell into a profound slumber, and when I awoke, I found myself lying
under a date-tree, at some distance from the camp.
"The first thing I thought of when I came to my recollection was my
purse of sequins. The purse I found still safe in my girdle; but on

opening it, I perceived that it was filled with pebbles, and not a single
sequin was left. I had no doubt that I had been robbed by the soldiers
with whom I had drunk sherbet, and I am certain that some of them
must have been awake the night I counted my money; otherwise, as I
had never trusted the secret of my riches to any one, they could not
have suspected me of possessing any property; for ever since I kept
company with them I had appeared to be in great indigence.
"I applied in vain to the superior officers for redress: the soldiers
protested they were innocent; no positive proof appeared against them,
and I gained nothing by my complaint but ridicule and ill-will. I called
myself, in the first transport of my grief, by that name which, since my
arrival in Egypt, I had avoided to pronounce: I called myself Murad the
Unlucky. The name and the story ran through the camp, and I was
accosted, afterwards, very frequently, by this appellation. Some, indeed,
varied their wit by calling me Murad with the purse of pebbles.
"All that I had yet suffered is nothing compared to my succeeding
misfortunes.
"It was the custom at this time, in the Turkish camp, for the soldiers to
amuse themselves with firing at a mark. The superior officers
remonstrated against this dangerous practice, but ineffectually.
Sometimes a party of soldiers would stop firing for a few minutes, after
a message was brought them from their commanders, and then they
would begin again, in defiance of all orders. Such was the want of
discipline in our army, that this disobedience went unpunished. In the
meantime, the frequency of the danger made most men totally
regardless of it. I have seen tents pierced with bullets, in which parties
were quietly seated smoking their pipes, whilst those without were
preparing to take fresh aim at the red flag on the top.
"This apathy proceeded, in some, from unconquerable indolence of
body; in others, from the intoxication produced by the fumes