When this act was reported to the Vizir, who was in an adjoining apartment, he sent for the Ambassador’s Dragoman and commanded him to tell his master that he must move his seat back where he had found it. The trembling Dragoman delivered the message and was bidden by the angry Ambassador to hold his tongue. Next the Vizir sent his own Dragoman, Dr. Mavrocordato, with whom Nointel maintained the closest friendship. In vain did the Greek try to soothe the enraged Frenchman, imploring him to moderate his temper and yield gracefully to the inevitable. Nothing could prevail over M. de Nointel’s obstinacy: the pride of the wig was pitted against the pride of the turban, and it must be remembered that both wigs and turbans were then at their zenith. In the end, Mavrocordato, finding argument useless, changed his tone and said, in Italian: “The Grand Vizir commands the chair to be placed below.” Nointel replied: “The Grand Vizir can command his chair: he cannot command me.” At that moment the Chaoush-bashi burst into the room, roaring, “_Calder, calder_--Take it away, take it away!”--and before he knew what was happening, Nointel found the stool snatched from under him. In an access of fury, his Excellency dashed out of the room, sword on shoulder, pushed his way through the throng, and, ordering the presents which he had brought to follow him, mounted his horse and departed, exciting, as he boasted, by his firmness, “the astonishment of the Turks and the joy of the French.” Kara Mustafa alone remained calm. His comment, when he heard that the Ambassador was gone, was one word: “_Gehennem_” (Let him go to Hell).[189]
One barbarous word, that can be shown to be authentic, is worth volumes of descriptive writing.
Such was the beginning of the celebrated “Affaire du Sofa”--a quarrel which drew the attention of all Europe and nearly led to a rupture between France and Turkey. The question arises: was Nointel justified in resenting so violently Kara Mustafa’s innovation? Here, more fitly perhaps than afterwards, we may discuss this question, and try to obtain that true perspective of things, without which there can be no true understanding of our story, nor any appreciation of the agitations and mortifications which its chief character underwent from that day onward for about eight months to come.