ABSTRACT

The name of my boat was Ismailie. Two berths were found with difficulty in a second-class cabin containing in all six berths. I was again heavily veiled in an ample and old-fashioned charshaf of Granny’s, and my sons were disguised in the old suits of the gardener’s boys. In this guise we were smuggled into the boat by Miss Prime and the cavass of the Russian consulate. The anarchy of the city had made the police careless, and so I do not think it was as difficult as we supposed it would be. Miss Prime gave me a sewing-bag which she herself had made for me, containing all kinds of sewing-material. In the whole course of my life I have never received a more useful gift. The stockings and frocks I have darned and mended with its contents are beyond counting. I still keep it almost reverently. A large box was also smuggled into the depths of the boat. I myself could only carry a bundle which would be in keeping with the class to which my dress made me appear to belong, and which would therefore arouse no suspicion. Salih Zeki Bey gave me a letter from an Armenian professor addressed to some Armenian revolutionaries in Alexandria, and the boat started.