than half of us were also ill, and there remained very few who enjoyed perfect health. Here our best medicine was good Greek wine, of which we had as many as sixty casks, with which many of us shortened the mournful time, and made themselves merry, while others, who were sick, wished for the happy hour [of death] to come. Thus, too, my lord the ambassador, and we who were sick, received the last holy unction from our priest, and commended ourselves to the Lord God.
When all things necessary for the campaign in Hungary were ready. Synan Pasha, on the 15th of August, after kissing the Sultan’s hand, and receiving the generalissimo’s flag and sabre, rode very magnificently out of the city past our house, accompanied by all the pashas and almost all the city. Before him rode his dervishlars and hodzalars, and also Mahomet’s friends in green vests. Next walked naked monks, holding each other by the hand, and turning round, crying out, Allah hu, till, through great exhaustion, they fell on the ground and were obliged to lie there; others wished him good fortune, at the top of their voices, and their priests, the poplaslars, went before him singing and bearing open books. Behind him rode about twenty-four iltzoglans, or sultan’s pages, on very handsome horses, all dressed in gold brocade; their stirrups, saddles, shields, and everything on their horses glittered with gold and precious stones, especially the lances and sabres set with jewels. It was, moreover, an extraordinarily beautiful, warm, and pleasant day, so that when the sun shone on those lads a great glitter was reflected from the gold and precious stones. Indeed, it was a wonderful sight, when, over and above that great pomp, a
