Excerpt from Ayesha: The Maid of Kars We believe that it would have been unw1se to enter upon the story recorded in these pages at this present day, as matters now stand in Greece and Turkey. W1th the great communications in trade, war, travel, and nego tiation, which have been and are taking place With European nations, it might perhaps be imposmble for persons situated as Suleiman and Zabetta are supposed to have been, to have carried away an English child of im portance without detection. But, before the more recent amalgamation of nations took place, such was the rarity of travelling families in the East, and so vast the coasts and countries to which flight might be directed, that the pos sibility of the fact taking place upon which this tale is founded, we would fain flatter ourselves (with the view which we take of the case) would not be disputed. It may be said that a young Turk and a Greek nursery maid might fall in love with each other and welcome, but it might also be asked, wherefore kidnap the child The answer is, Suleiman being a bigot, was glad to be able to soothe his conscience by hatching a young Mussulman. Besides, were he impelled by cupidity, as he most likely was, every one knows how valuable a young girl is in the Mohamedan slave-market, particularly should she turn out a beauty, when her worth would be incalculable. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.