THE DEPOSITION OF ISMAIL PASHA. 225 fact, if not in name, a prisoner of State. He was pestered with constant applications for money from the Sultan and his Ministers ; he was debarred from communicating freely with his friends ; he was kept under perpetual surveillance. Suffering as he was from a serious liver complaint, he was refused permission to go to Carlsbad, his visits to w)iich on previous occasions had restored him to comparative health, and was advised to try the waters of Broussa.

He was powerless to escape, and knew that any sus-/ picion of his being anxious to get away would lead to increased isolation from the outer world. For eight! years he lived on, racked with pain, cut off from society, and haunted by the dread of the fate that!

might befall him, if for any reason, or indeed for no reason at all, he incurred the displeasure of the/ Commander of the Faithful.

It is a pleasure to me to record one incident connected with his death, which shows that, whatever his public record may have been, he had endeared himself to the members of his own domestic household. By his will he left his three surviving wives his executors.

The winding-up of the estate proved to be a very complicated matter. The widows were strongly advised by their lawyers not to act as executors, as by so doing, they, in accordance with Turkish law, would become personally responsible for all the debts of their husband's estate, which might probably have to be made good out of their private estates. But, with one accord, they refused to act upon this advice, Q