[T]hey could easily have been wearing euphoniums and woad for all the notice their quarry would have taken of them.

The Kastrinsios was charged with military duties and was responsible for a military unit (similar to that of a captain of the guard). When the Office became ecclesiastical in nature it was charged with the storage and safe keeping of ecclesiastical supplies and assisted in the vesting of the hierarchs. He would also bestow the divine blessing upon the congregation by sprinkling from the randistirion, and proclaim the arrival of His All Holiness the Patriarch with, Evlogison Thespota (Master Give The Blessing).

She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.

My mother had no choice; one did not turn down such an overture from the regent.