and going to the aga, thanked him and the rest of the guards for the kindness and favour they had shown us, and promised (and also afterwards fulfilled our promise) to send them handsome knives, and the aga a striking-clock. The aga then had us conducted to the English ambassador at Galata, who received us in a friendly manner, and ordered a bath to be prepared for us, that we might be cleansed from the filthy condition in which we were. After the bath we visited the Catholic churches, of which there are seven in Galata, and gave thanks to the Lord God for our deliverance from so exceeding cruel an imprisonment, fervently beseeching Him to be our Guide and Gracious Protector to our own dear country.
About that time Sultan Mehemet marched with great pomp from Constantinople, with all his court and his principal warriors, and having had tents pitched before the city, rested there several days according to custom, waiting for more soldiers. For several pashas from Egypt, Palestine, Cairo, and other lands beyond sea, were still marching up with their armies, and they were waiting for them. Verily, we might gaze and wonder at the beautiful order which the Turks kept while pitching the tents, the camp being so extensive that no one could see to the end of it. Mehemet Pasha marched an hour before midnight with 50,000 men, always keeping a day’s journey before the Emperor and the main army, and had the roads put in order, and tents pitched for the Sultan and the principal officers of the army, so that all the tents were changed and pitched before the Sultan came up, and stood in readiness, measured out into streets foursquare, like a fortress, with bastions and trenches.
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