The next day, very early in the morning, came this unhappy Ali Beg, with fifteen Turks of rank, to our house and knocked at the door. The clerk of the kitchen had previously had the key, but had then left it lying on a block in the kitchen. The cook, without asking anybody whether he was to open it or no, took the key in answer to the knocking, and opened the door to them. They then entered the house very quietly, and pushed unexpectedly into my lord’s room, at which my lord and we were all terrified. The principal chiaous immediately informed my lord, in Italian, that they had been sent with Ali Beg by the great Synan Pasha with orders that, whereas information had reached Synan that he was about to disclose all manner of plans of theirs, and to make known to his king what was passing at the court of their most mighty Emperor, he was, therefore, to allow his chancery to be opened, and not to hinder the said Ali Beg from examining everything, and that these, indeed, were the strict orders of the pasha.
My lord the ambassador, after hearing this speech out, ordered sweet beverages and sweetmeats to be brought, and requested them to sit down. He then replied to the order of the pasha to the following effect, saying how improper a thing it was that the chancery of the ambassador of the Roman emperor should be searched, and that on the bare calumny of such an untrustworthy rascal as his former steward. So, too, he immediately reproached him and set before his eyes how he had had the heart to forget his soul, his wife, and his children, and that he would surely not escape the vengeance of God. But the Turks who were present advised my lord not to reproach him, but to leave him
