Dear Ester (Late Afternoon, Day 1)

‘The important thing’, my late father used to say, ‘is to conquer your fear. If you do not, that vile emotion will bring you to your knees’. The incident that made me remember my father saying that occurred this afternoon. I had sat down at the desk to continue writing to you when I heard some noises just outside my door. I leapt up and listened. Something was happening in the hall… Screams and shouts and a general hullabaloo. At first, I thought it was the police, that the time had come for them to slap the handcuffs on me and drag me away. And how quickly they had come too! But why was I surprised? I was already expecting them and now here they were. Finally. They had arrived. I steeled myself and opened the door, expecting to see a mass of stern, hardened police faces but what I saw instead was a hotel maid staring at me in wide-eyed fright.

‘A fire!’ she shouted. ‘A fire has broken out, sir! Please, let's go downstairs!’

I suddenly began laughing. The poor woman did not know what was going on as she watched me double over with laughter. I eventually managed to pull myself together and we made our way down to the lobby. It was pandemonium downstairs, with ladies screaming and fainting everywhere… Thankfully, it was not a serious fire. The flames had not spread and once the fire had been put out, we were able to return to our rooms.

I did not return to my writing immediately. Hanging a few hand widths above the cupboard on the wall by my bed is a photograph in a silver frame. I have seen it many times but now, as I write to you, its significance dawns on me. It is a photograph of the Rue des Petit Champs, the street on which the Pera Palace can be found, taken on the 24th of July 1908. The little square is teeming with people and at the foot of the photo, in French, is the following: A march by military cadets on the 24 July 1908 celebrating the declaration of the new constitution.