ABSTRACT
About this time there was a ludicrous incident at the gate leading to the square [in Tophana, very near Constantinople]. A woman and a boy tried to come to an understanding with one another, but the thing was difficult, as the boy talked Turkish and the woman talked English. She was one of the soldiers’ wives from Scutari trying to find her way back. She had given the boy a piastre to guide her, but she could not tell him where she wished to go. However the woman got over the difficulty in true soldier fashion. She advanced into the middle of the square, crying out, “Is there any one here who understands English?” And having by this means secured the help of a dragoman who instructed the boy, she marched triumphantly off to Tophana stairs. It is to be hoped that she succeeded in joining her regiment.
