Read "The Slaves of the Padishah" by Mór Jókai online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The gates of the seraglio were thrown wide open, the discordant, clanging, and ear-piercing music was put to silence by a thundering roll of drums, and twelve mounted cavasses with great trouble and difficulty began clearing a way for the corps of viziers among the thronging crowd, belabouring all they met in their path with stout cudgels and rhinoceros whips. The indolent, gaping crowd saw that it was going to be flogged, yet didn't stir a step to get out of the reach of the whips and bludgeons.
The members of the Divan dismounted from their horses in the courtyard and ascended the steps, which were guarded by a double row of Janissaries with drawn scimitars, the blue and yellow curtains of the assembly hall of the Divan were drawn aside before them, and the mysterious inner chamber -- the hearth and home of so much power and splendour, once upon a time -- lay open before them.