CHAPTER XII.

FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO ERZEROUM.

Life in Constantinople--Sir Collingwood Dickson--Visit to the Seraskierat--Roving Englishmen--A Typical Adventurer--War Correspondents--General Berdan--Colonel Valentine Baker--A Picnic on the Gulf of Ismet--On Board H.M.S. _Achilles_--The Turks as Paymasters--A Heavy Fee--Round the _Cafés Chantants_--An Invitation to Erzeroum--Road to Plevna closed--I join the Stafford House Ambulance--A Farewell Banquet--A Voyage in the Black Sea--Trebizond--In the Cradle of Humanity--The Road of Xenophon's Ten Thousand--Lazistan--Dog and Wolf--An Ancient Mining Town--The Valley of Pear Trees--Baiburt--Cross and Crescent in Former Days--A Mountain Road--Genoese Ruins--A Hasty Descent--On the Kopdagh--The Garden of Eden--First Glimpse of the Euphrates--Sir Arnold Kemball--Erzeroum at Last--English Doctors--Mr. Zohrab--Mukhtar Pasha--Organizing our Hospitals--Sunlight and Shadow--A Presage of Trouble 303