According to a common Turkish custom, the pasha had ordered his nearest relative to be arrested in his place.

This was the old father, who lay in prison till he died.
The capricious cruelty of Ismael was beyond anything I had ever heard of.

One day I was out shooting and was attacked by a dog whom I saluted with a charge of small birdshot, on which the owner made complaint to the pasha that I had peppered accidentally one of his children.

Ismael spread this report through the town, learning which I made him an official visit demanding a rectification and examination of the child, which was found without a scratch.

The pasha, furious at the humiliation of exposure, then threw the man into prison, and as he, Adam-like, accused his wife of concocting the charge, he ordered her also to prison for two weeks, without the slightest investigation, leaving three small children helpless.