Modeste Mignon
MODESTE MIGNON By HONORE DE BALZAC Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley DEDICATION To a Polish Lady. Daughter of an enslaved land, angel through love, witch through fancy, child by faith, aged by experience, man in brain, woman in heart, giant by hope, mother through sorrows, poet in thy dreams, --to _thee_ belongs this book, in which thy love, thy fancy, thy
to by the rebels, and the simple explanation given by the Turkish
officials, would tend to impart to their story the greater appearance of
truth. Had the Turks, moreover, wished to avenge the deaths of their
soldiers, or to vent their hatred of the Christians, they would have
maltreated the people of the first villages at which they arrived, in
place of marching seven miles through a difficult country to the borders
of a district which had for two years defied their efforts at reduction.
The implication of the villagers in the numerous murders which had
occurred was proved by the discovery of some of the Turkish bayonets at
Beronschitzi, while they actually made an offer to restore the property
of the murdered aide-de-camp, provided a reward was paid for them. They
even sent a list of the effects to Ali Pacha, with the sum which they
demanded for the restoration of each article.
I venture to give these details even at the risk of incurring the charge
of too great prolixity, as hitherto a one-sided account only has been
given to the world. Every channel of information, whether it be the
telegraph from Ragusa or the Slavonic press, does its best to mislead
the general public, by exciting sympathy for the Christians, as unjust
as it is undeserved. Even in the affair in question much stir was made
by the Slavish newspapers about the death of seven Christians, while, as
Dervisch Pacha very fairly complained, no notice was taken of the murder
of thirty-seven Mussulmans during the same period.
Another event, which afforded a handle for the ill-wishers of Turkey,
MODESTE MIGNON By HONORE DE BALZAC Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley DEDICATION To a Polish Lady. Daughter of an enslaved land, angel through love, witch through fancy, child by faith, aged by experience, man in brain, woman in heart, giant by hope, mother through sorrows, poet in thy dreams, --to _thee_ belongs this book, in which thy love, thy fancy, thy