The slave market was of course not unvisited, but the description in Don Juan is more indebted to the author’s fancy, than any of those other bright reflections of realities to which I have hitherto directed the attention of the reader.  The market now-a-days is in truth very uninteresting; few slaves are ever to be seen in it, and the place itself has an odious resemblance to Smithfield.  I imagine, therefore, that the trade in slaves is chiefly managed by private bargaining.  When there, I saw only two men for sale, whites, who appeared very little concerned about their destination, certainly not more than English rustics offering themselves for hire to the farmers at a fair or market.  Doubtless, there was a time when the slave market of Constantinople presented a different spectacle, but the trade itself has undergone a change—­the Christians are now interdicted from purchasing slaves.  The luxury of the guilt is reserved for the exclusive enjoyment of the Turks.  Still, as a description of things which may have been, Byron’s market is probable and curious.

   A crowd of shivering slaves of every nation
   And age and sex were in the market ranged,
   Each busy with the merchant in his station. 
   Poor creatures, their good looks were sadly changed.

   All save the blacks seem’d jaded with vexation,
   From friends, and home, and freedom far estranged. 
The negroes more philosophy displayed,
Used to it no doubt, as eels are to be flayed.

   Like a backgammon board, the place was dotted
   With whites and blacks in groups, on show for sale,
   Though rather more irregularly spotted;
   Some bought the jet, while others chose the pale.

   No lady e’er is ogled by a lover,
   Horse by a black-leg, broadcloth by a tailor,
   Fee by a counsel, felon by a jailer,

   As is a slave by his intended bidder. 
   ’Tis pleasant purchasing our fellow-creatures,
   And all are to be sold, if you consider
   Their passions, and are dext’rous, some by features
   Are bought up, others by a warlike leader;
   Some by a place, as tend their years or natures;
The most by ready cash, but all have prices,
From crowns to kicks, according to their vices.

The account of the interior of the seraglio in Don Juan is also only probably correct, and may have been drawn in several particulars from an inspection of some of the palaces, but the descriptions of the imperial harem are entirely fanciful.  I am persuaded, by different circumstances, that Byron could not have been in those sacred chambers of any of the seraglios.  At the time I was in Constantinople, only one of the imperial residences was accessible to strangers, and it was unfurnished.  The great seraglio was not accessible beyond the courts, except in those apartments where the Sultan receives his officers and visitors of state.  Indeed, the whole account