Towards evening the banner was hoisted on to the second gate beneath which were the dormitories of the high officers of state.  The generals meanwhile slept in the Hall of Audience, Damadzadi lay sick in the apartment of Prince Murad, and the Mufti and the Ulemas remained in the barracks of the bostanjis.  Sultan Achmed did not lie down all night long, but wandered about from room to room, impatiently inquiring after news outside.  He asked whether anyone had come from the host to his assistance? whether the people were assembling beneath the Sacred Green Banner? and the cold sweat stood out upon his forehead when, in reply to all his questions, he only received one crushing answer after another.  The watchers placed on the roof of the palace signified that the bivouac fires of the insurgents were now much nearer than they had been the night before, and that in the direction of Scutari not a single watch-fire was visible, from which it might be suspected that the army had broken up its camp, returned to Stambul, and made common cause with the insurgents.

Achmed himself ascended to the roof to persuade himself of the truth of these assertions, and wandered in a speechless agony of grief from apartment to apartment, constantly looking to see whether the Kiaja, the Kapudan, and the Grand Vizier were asleep or awake.  Only the Kapudan Pasha was able to sleep at all.  The Kiaja was all of an ague with apprehension, and the Grand Vizier was praying, not for himself indeed, but for the Sultan.  At last even the Kapudan was sorry for the Sultan who was so much distressed on their account.

“Why dost thou keep waking us so often, oh, my master?” said he, “we are still alive as thou seest.  Go and sleep in thy harem and trouble not thy soul about us any more, it is only the rebels who have to do with us now.  Allah Kerim!  Look upon us as already sleeping the sleep of eternity.  At the trump of the Angel of the Resurrection we also shall arise like the rest.”

And Achmed listened to the words of the Kapudan, and at dawn of day vanished from amongst them.  When they sought him in the early morning he had not yet come forth from his harem.

The four dignitaries knew very well what that signified.

Early in the morning, when the dawn was still red, Sulali Effendi and Ispirizade came for the Chief Mufti, and invited him to say the morning prayer with them.

The Ulemas were already all assembled together, and at the sight of them Abdullah burst into tears and sobs, and said to them in the midst of his lamentations: 

“Behold, I have brought my grey beard hither, and if it pleases you not that it has grown white in all pure and upright dealing, take it now and wash it in my blood; and if ye think that the few days Allah hath given me to be too many, then take me and put an end to them.”

Then all the Ulemas stood up and, raising their hands, exclaimed: 

“Allah preserve thee from this evil thing!”