They had no confidential correspondence with Ali Bey, though they might have safely trusted him as he would have trusted them; but neither of them were provided with proper negotiators, nor did they ever understand one another till it was too late, and till their enemies, taking advantage of their tardiness, had rendered the first and great scheme impossible.
Carlo Rozetti, a Venetian merchant, a young man of capacity and intrigue, had for some years governed the Bey absolutely. Had such a man been on board the fleet with a commission, after receiving instructions from Petersburgh, the Ottoman empire in Egypt was at an end.
The Bey, with all his good sense and understanding, was still a mamaluke, and had the principles of a slave. Three men of different religions possessed his confidence and governed his councils all at a time. The one was a Greek, the other a Jew, and the third an Egyptian Copht, his secretary. It would have required a great deal of discernment and penetration to have determined which of these was the most worthless, or most likely to betray him.
The secretary, whose name was Risk, had the address to supplant the other two at the time they thought themselves at the pinnacle of their glory; over-awing every Turk, and robbing every Christian, the Greek was banished from Egypt, and the Jew bastinadoed to death. Such is the tenure of Egyptian ministers.
Risk professed astrology, and the Bey, like all other Turks, believed in it implicitly, and to this folly he sacrificed his own good understanding; and Risk, probably in pay to Constantinople, led him from one wild scheme to another, till he undid him--by the stars.
The apparatus of instruments that were opened at the custom-house of Alexandria, prepossessed Risk in favour of my superior knowledge in astrology.
The Jew, who was master of the custom-house, was not only ordered to refrain from touching or taking them out of their places (a great mortification to a Turkish custom-house, where every thing is handed about and shewn) but an order from the Bey also arrived that they should be sent to me without duty or fees, because they were not merchandise.
I was very thankful for that favour, not for the sake of saving the dues at the custom-house, but because I was excused from having them taken out of their cases by rough and violent hands, which certainly would have broken something.