Travels in India (Tavernier) 32.2.5

32.2.5

Des Marests accepted this commission very willingly, and he would no doubt have had the good fortune to succeed if he had not been discovered by certain Turks, who accused him of having been seen examining the Seven Towers with too much attention, and with pencil in hand making a plan in order to accomplish afterwards some evil design. It had been sufficient to cause the destruction of this gentleman if M. de Cesi, the Ambassador of France, had not so arranged that the matter was promptly stifled by a present (this is in Turkey the most sovereign remedy in such troublesome matters), and by representing that he was a young gentleman who was travelling for his pleasure, and proposed going to Persia by the first opportunity he could meet with. It was not, however, the intention of the Sieur des Marests to go farther, and he was waiting his opportunity to return to Poland after having done all that was possible to get the Princes out of prison; but to escape from the hands of the Turks it was necessary to say that he was going to Persia, and to act in such a manner that he did in fact go thither. The Grand Seigneur had resolved never to give liberty to these Princes, but they were lucky enough at length to find means of winning over a young Turk, son of the Captain of the Seven Towers, to whom the father generally entrusted the keys to open and close the doors of the prison.