LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1836, 10 January 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE BLACK FLAG : OR TRUE UNTO DEATH.

At Smyrna there exists a large Christian population, and in especial a number of wealthy European merchants, whose white villas and terraced gardens stud the shores of the sweeping bay. One of the richest and most respected of these was Mr Lisle, and with his only daughter, whom I frequently met at dances or picnic parties I fell in love, and presently found my love returned, Annie— my own Annie ! Even after all these years the memory of her bright eyes, of that sweet voice that to my ear was music, ot that love-y, iuno;ent face, comes back to me as if all the dreary time had been a dream The course of true love in our case, as in so many others, had not at first run smoothly. Mr and Mrs Lisle had different views for their daughter than to let her mar' y a handsome yonng fellow with but a hundred a vear beyond his pay. And I cannot blame them. I was, in a worldly point of view, a sadly ineligible suitor, and it was only when Annie gr w pale and wan, and her bright looks and girlir h spirits began to fade, that her parents were induced to accept me as a son-in law. When onoe onr betrothal was a settled thing, wo were the happiest of the happy, secure of the enduring affection of each other, and with the fairest prospects opening out before ns, sicca Mr Lisle’s intention was, so ston as Annie and I wore married, to take me into partnership, and, in time, to make over to me the management of his London house of business. Then it was that alarming rumours of an outbreak of plague at Constantinople came t> our ears in Smyrna. It had been brought overland, so it was said, by some Persian merchants, and was raging in the capital, and thence spreading into the provinoiea. Now S-noyroa, nestling on its hillside, and with none of those swampy pastures and cave jungles near it which are nnrseriea of fever in the Levant, is one of the most healthy of O ientl citie s ; nevertheless few hoped, and none believed, that we should escape oar share of the coming visitation. Annie, in particular, was mrvouslv anxious regarding tho pestilence so near our gates. She was sure, she said, tho plague would come ; swe, too, that she should die of it. I, who feared it but little, did my best to laugh her out ot her apprehensions.

Weeks e’apred, and nothing occurred to justify the fears which had prevailed when that the report of sickness at Constantinople was hi nited abroad. One day, however, while in company with the English Consul aid a couple of onr travelling countrymen, rarities in the east in these diys, when the swift packets of the P. and O. were as yet undreamed of, I was rambling through the baziara of the town, then as ever, crowded with supple Jews and greasy Armenians, fierce-eyed mountaineers with an armoury of doggers and pistols around their waists, and patient tnrhaned traders who told their amh-r beads while wai' ing for customers. I heard a hoarse shout rise nprn the scltry summer air. My companions looked around surprised, so oddly did such an Joutcry suit wi h the usual sleepy turn and t oppressed murmur of the place. "It is nothing,’ said the Consul, who had been twenty years at S’myrna, and was a hackneyed - bscrver of the Giienlal eights and sounds that to tbo re t of us were yrt new anti fresh. And then we strolled on. gazing at the motley throng, and the camels passing by in ghostly

il!e and vvi;h noiseless tread, until a second shout, and a third aroused our omosity and made us hurry to the gate < f the bazaar, where \v® found curse’ves mingling with a crowd that filled overi hilly street and open space, all eyes bent towur's the rea, while ejacalat'ons of dismay and koran verses re soundet on all rides. ‘Hy Jove, but it is !’ exo aimed the C mtul, as he broucht his pocket t- loscope to btar npnn the object of the popular rerntiny; ‘it’s the '■tvmbonl mail-b at coming in with a black flag flying. They’ve got the plague on board—never a donht of it.’

We, too, could plainly see fha sailing packet which afforded them the only means of postal commanicttlion with Coi sfuutincple, a largo barque, standing into the hay, under a eloud of canvas, and with the fatal black flag at her main peak. As she approached, rosaries were told, prayers muttered, and a perceptible shudder ran through the crowd, while the consul, as ho closed his glass, muttered to us, ‘ It’s an ugly job, but we must hope for the best. The vessel is making for the lazaretto, and the quarantine regulations are strict enough, if observed, to prevent mischief. Tlo worst of it is, that bribery and backsheesh ride roughshod over all rules.’ So far as I was concerned, my only anxiety was for the alarm which tho arrival of the grisly visitant would occasion to Annie Lisle. As early na my duties would permit I rode out to Bournabat, to break the news to my betrothed us gently as I could, but ill-tidings, as I found, had once again proved their unwelcome ability to fly fast, and tho little foreign colony was all astir with the excitement caused by the intelligence. I found Annie very pale and frightened, Mr Lisle serious, and Mrs Lisle annoyed. Having done my best to comfort Annie, I rode back to Smyrna. To my surprise, at tho door of the house in which I lodged stood a swarthy sergeant, whom I knew well, leaning against the door-post of creamy marble, and smoking his long chibouque with its stem of lilac-wood and its bowl of yellow Tchorlou clay. * "Why, Selim, what is the matter ? ’ I asked. * Orders, English lord, from tho general himself,’ answered the sergeant, saluting respectfully ; ‘you are wanted, effendi, to go at once to the lazaret, and take command of the guard stationed there. It has been doubled, and we have chosen the best men, Bismillah, to make up tho number. As he spoke, he held out to me a paper covered with crabbed Turkish characters, whereby I was duly called upon to exercise all proper vigilance with regard to the custody of the voyvgers in quarantine, and to prevent all unauthorised communication between them and the shore, &n. It was a tedi-ua and disagreeable ta k, but not one wh ; ch I could justly complain of having assigned to me, since we were, just then, very short of efficient office-*, colonel and majors being absent on the very clastic leave then granted by the Scraskierate to those who had full purses or Court influence, and a few hardworking captains ani subalterns being left to drudge through the round of regimental routine. ‘They have the plague among them, poor wretches V said I, as I accompanied the sergeant to the wharf whr-re a boat was in waiting to convey us to the lazaietto. ‘Yes, English eff udi,’ rep l ied Selim, with a Mussulman’s serene philoaor hy ; * and, if it be heaven’s will, the Armenian g avediggers will soon be busy in Smyrna. Two meichants, with their goods, have found means to bribe the quarantine guardians, and have git themselves rows 1 ashore. But, unless it be writt-n on our forehead*, not a hair of our heads, as you know, effendi. can come to harm. This was start ing news, and it was fully confirmed by the raw subaltern whom I came to relieve, and who was terribly frightened lest the general should select him as a scapegoat for the sics of his subordinates.

‘A man cannot be all eyes, fffendi.” said the poor fellow, apologetically, as he stepp d into hia boat, and I, who knew how potent is bribery in the East, could not help pitying him, great as might have bean the mischief of which be had inadvertently been the c»use. Although doubtful as to whether I might not, according to the homely adage, be busy in shutting the door when the steed was stolon, I neglected no precaution, doubling sentries, eftablishing patrols, and sead.ng a muatet-ibot across the bows of any boat that hovered suspiciously near the secluded spot of which I was temporary custodian. 1 here are pleasanter places than the old lazaret cf Smyrna a patch of rocky ground near th- Point, palisadced to keep it from the meadows beyond, where sheep fed and buffaloes browsed, and partially occupied by two ranges of tnmble-down boi'dings in the larger of which, with the guardians who waited on them, were lodged the detained travellers, while the other was assigned to the officer and soldiers on guard. Of the passengers on board the Stambonl packet I saw nothing, and only heard, briefly, from from the overwork "d Greek doctor, that two were dead and three dying, but that the others, as from some appa-ent caprice of the disorder often happens, shows no signs of having caught the epidemic. ‘ They have it, hot and hot, in bmjrna, now,’ said the young captain who came, on the sixth day, to relieve me of my troublesome task ; ‘ three hundred died on Wednesday, and four hundred, they say, yesterday but on my word. Carew, you look ill yourself. If I were you, as soon as I got back to quarters, I would see the doctor.’