Petty annoyances in hot countries--Lady Hester refuses Duke
Maximilian’s portrait--She insists on my leaving her--Continuation of
the negro Wellington’s case--Progress of the Druze insurrection--
Destruction of locusts--Mysterious visit at the Dar--Reasons why Lady
Hester kept daring fellows in her service--Russian spies--Dr. Lœve’s
visit--Dangerous state of the country--Lady Hester’s dream--Her
resolution to immure herself--Visit from Mr. M.--Visit from Colonel
Hazeta and Dr. Mill--Letter from Lord Palmerston to Lady Hester--Her
answer--Inexpediency of having consular agents not natives of the
country they represent--Successes of the Druzes--Lady Hester’s belief
in fortune-telling--Letter from Sir Francis Burdett--Colonel Needham’s
property--Lord Coutts--Subscribers to pay Mr. Pitt’s debts--Fright
from a serpent--Battle of Yanta--Sir N. Wraxall a peer--Discourse upon
heads--A spy--Letter to the Duke Maximilian of Bavaria.
Lady Hester got up in the evening. The heat was now so great, that the
covers of books, as they lay on the table, would curl up at the
corners, and the joinings of furniture split. A host of a kind of
small May-bugs made their appearance at sunset, and large cockchafers,
impudent as is every description of bug, fly, or bird, in this
country, kept us all in a state of petty warfare, which was succeeded,
when bed-time came, by a sleepless contest with those horrid
tormentors, the musquitoes.
Lady Hester spoke a good deal about the property supposed to be left
her. “Those,” she said, “who wrote me word about it would not deceive
me; they were persons I have perfect reliance on. They were afraid to
write names; but when they said that this property was come to me from
the two plainest persons of my acquaintance, those two must have been
Lord K. and his wife.”
The duke had asked me, when I was with him, whether I thought Lady
Hester would be displeased if he sent her his portrait from Europe. I
answered, “She could not but be pleased to have what, next to seeing
him, would best recall his highness to her mind.” But, when I told
Lady Hester of this, she said, “No; I must write to him, and prevent
his sending it.”
Sunday, June 10, 1838.--I rode down to Sayda, not aware of the duke’s
departure, and I found, to my astonishment, that the duke, tents, and
everybody had disappeared, except the poor black, Wellington; so now,
having nothing to distract my attention, I went and conversed with
him. He asked for a loose dressing-gown, warm stockings, as the cold
struck up to his bowels from the stones, and a pillow for his head.
This, together with tea and sugar, a teapot, and some other little
things, were sent down to him.
Tuesday, June 12.--Lady Hester’s fever was somewhat abated. According
to the date, the steamboat had arrived at Beyrout, and her
expectations were wound up to a fearful height, in the hope that this
time, at all events, a letter must have come from Sir Francis Burdett.
Before noon, an express was announced: he was bearer of a letter to me
to say that the steamboat had brought nothing. I knew not how to
communicate the sad intelligence to her ladyship. When she heard it,
she made a turn in her bed, and, with an exclamation of “Oh, Lord!”
she said--“Doctor, the die is cast: the sooner you take yourself off,
the better. I have no money--you can be of no use to me--I shall write
no more letters, shall break up my establishment, wall up the gate,
and, with a girl and a boy to wait on me, resign myself to my
fate.--Let me have none of your foolish reasoning on the subject. Tell
your family they may make their preparations, and in a fortnight’s
time you must be gone. Who knows? perhaps Prince Pückler Muskau, after
all his pretended interest about my affairs, has never sent the
correspondence to Europe: he told you in three months we should see
the letters in the papers; and yet the papers neither come, nor do we
hear from him: and do you think, after this, one can have any
confidence in anybody?”
Wednesday, June 13.--I was glad to pass twenty-four hours without
seeing her ladyship; for she was in too melancholy a humour to derive
consolation, except from her own reflections: there she was most sure
to find relief; for, endued with a sanguine temperament, and always
building castles in the air, her depression never was of long
continuance. In the evening, when I went to her, she dwelt on the
necessity of repose for me, now old age had come upon me, in order to
reconcile me to a separation which she seemed to think would give me
pain.
Thursday, June 14.--I rode down to see Wellington, the black. His
quarantine was to last in all forty days. He was alone in the building
before described, called the Shemaôony, lying with his mattress on the
stones, in the open air, and with an invalided soldier to attend on
him, who of course was condemned to the same length of quarantine as
himself. Wellington thanked me for the things which had been sent him.
“Ah, sir,” said he, “this is not like my own country. At New York I
should, even in a hospital, be attended by a good nurse; I should have
my comfortable cup of tea, my bread pudding; and what the doctor
ordered me would be properly administered: but that man” (pointing to
the soldier) “wants to kill me. He is tired of being as it were in
prison, and last night he beat me--yes, he beat me, ill as I am,
because I woke him to assist me in my helplessness. My swelling is
broken too; and it wants rags and plasters, and I have not strength to
dress it myself; for I am so weak! look, see how my arms and legs are
reduced in size. Tell that lady who is so kind to me, that, when I get
well, I will bring her some of the beads and cockle-shells, and other
curiosities I bought at Jerusalem; and I have got some fine cotton
stockings that I brought from New York,”--“Oh! but Wellington,” said
I, interrupting him, “the lady is not in need of such things, although
your feelings are not the less creditable on that account. She is a
great lady, like the wife of your President, and she loves to do good
to everybody.” “God bless her!” cried the poor fellow; “and it was so
thoughtful of her to send me this soft pillow to put under my back,
when I only asked for one for my head; for, do you know, it was the
very thing I wanted, I have got such sores down my backbone from lying
so long in the same position! Will you be so good as to explain to
that man that he must make a fire, and boil the water here, when I
want tea? for Lufloofy brings the water from the town, and it is quite
cold before he gets here. And do, sir, tell him he is not to beat
me--but no! perhaps you had better not; for in the night he will be
revenged on me, and who is to help me here? Oh, sir, if you knew what
I suffer! I have not had a clean shirt, until those you sent me, since
the day of our reaching this place.”
On leaving Wellington, I rode into Sayda, and going to Signor Lapi,
where I found the governor’s secretary, I told them how the soldier
maltreated the poor sick man. He immediately provided another
attendant, an old Christian, named Anastasius, and, accompanying me to
the Shemaôony himself, he menaced the soldier with a good
bastinadoing, ordered him to the corner of the building farthest
removed from Wellington’s bed, and threatened to have him shot if he
dared molest either the black or Anastasius. Having settled this
affair, I went to one of the city baths, called Hamàm el Gidýd, where
I was obliged to hurry myself greatly to make way for the women, who,
their time being come, were raising a clamour about the door. Baths
are generally open for men until noon, and for women until sunset.
To-day news had come that the Druzes had advanced as far as Hasbéyah
and Rashéyah about a day’s journey from Sayda; that they had killed
the governor, and had spread consternation throughout the district.
This news was confirmed by Khosrô Effendi and Selim Effendi, two
gentlemen in the governor’s service.
On my return, I had occasion to witness the successful results of the
Emir Beshýr’s measure for the destruction of the locusts. Immense
swarms of these insects had come from the south-east, and settled for
many leagues around during the month of ----, laying their eggs in
holes in the ground, which they bore, as far as I could observe, with
a sort of auger, which nature has sheathed in their tails. Their eggs
form a small cylinder about as big as a maggot, and in minute
appearance like an ear of Turkey corn, all the little eggs, as so many
pins’ heads, lying in rows with that beautiful uniformity so constant
in all the works of the Creator. How many of these conglomerate little
masses each female locust lays I know not, but those I handled were
enough to equal in size a hazel-nut, and, united by some glutinous
matter, they are hatched about May. But no sooner had the swarms laid
their eggs, than, to prevent their hatching, an order was enforced all
through the district where the locusts had settled, obliging every
member of a family above a certain age to bring for so many days (say)
half a gallon of eggs to the village green, where, lighted faggots
being thrown on them, they were consumed. The order was in full force
for, probably, three weeks, until it was supposed that the greatest
part of the eggs had been dug up and destroyed. The peasants know by
certain signs where the females have laid their eggs: but the utmost
vigilance may overlook some ovaries; and, as each clot of the size of
a nut may produce 5,000 locusts (for the peasants told me that each
separate cluster of the size of a maggot contained more than a hundred
eggs), it may be easily imagined how they swarm as soon as they are
hatched. What one first sees is a black heap, about the size of the
brim of a coalheaver’s hat. A day or two after the heap spreads for
some yards round, and consists of little black grasshopper-like
things, all jumping here and there with such dazzling agility as to
fatigue the eye. Soon afterwards they begin to march in one direction,
and to eat; and then they spread so widely through a whole province
that a person may ride for leagues and leagues, and his horse will
never put a foot to the ground without crushing three or four at a
step: it is then the peasants rush to their fields, if fortunate
enough to meet the vanguard of this formidable and destructive army.
With hoes, shovels, pickaxes and the like, they dig a trench as deep
as time will permit across their march, and there, as the locusts,
which never turn aside for anything, enter, they bury, burn, and crush
them, until exhaustion compels them to desist, or until, as was the
case this year, from previous destruction of the eggs, and from
having only partial swarms to contend with, they succeed in nearly
annihilating them. When they fly, the whole village population comes
out with kettles, pots, and pans, and, by an incessant din, tries to
prevent their settling. The greatest enemy to locusts is a high wind,
which carries them to the sea and drowns them, or, opposing their
course, drives them back to the desert, probably to perish for want of
sustenance.
In the evening, Lady Hester was in very low spirits. She said many
unpleasant things to me, calling it frankness. She made a long tirade
on my obstinacy in not listening to her prophetic voice. She
said--“Wherever you go, you will regret not having followed my
counsels, whether in Syria or in Europe. I should not,” she added,
“have bestowed so much time on you, but I wish you well, and am sorry
you will not put yourself in my train. You can be of no use to me, for
I shall want persons of determination, judgment, and courage--neither
of which you possess: but I know from what cause all your errors
come--from having given up your liberty to a woman.”--Such was her
opinion of what she called the slavery of marriage.
Monday, June 18.--I was mounting my horse to go to Sayda, when a
person on a sorry nag, dressed in the nizàm dress, passed my gate,
followed by a servant. “Good morning,” said I, in Arabic (for it is a
sin almost not to give a good day to friend or stranger in these
countries), and, receiving a reply in the same language, I concluded
he was some officer of the Pasha’s come on business, and I rode off.
On arriving at Sayda, I was asked if I had met a Frank on the road,
and replied no; until, by the description, I learned that the person
in the nizàm dress was a European. “Of what nation he is,” said my
informant, “I can’t tell; we spoke to him in three or four languages,
but it was all the same to him--he answered fluently in all. There is
his lodging” (and he pointed to a small tent pitched in the middle of
the khan quadrangle); “for we told him we had not a room to give him,
owing to the earthquake; but he said he preferred being near us to
going into the town, and so there he slept. When he wanted a guide up
to mylady’s house, we told him that he must first send to ask
permission to visit her; but he maintained there was no occasion for
that; so we left him to his own course.”
According to the news that I collected, the signs of the times were
rather alarming. Whilst I was holding the above conversation, a
peasant entered the khan gate with a brace of pistols in his girdle.
“There they are,” whispered a Turk to me. “A fortnight ago, that
peasant would have no more dared to come into town with his arms--but
now they hang them on a peg in their cottages, especially in and about
Nablôos, and set the soldiers and the pasha at defiance; and the
garrison here is as mute as a mouse. God knows how things will turn
out! In the mountain there is even a fanatic shaykh who goes about
haranguing the people, advising them to pay no more _miri_ to Ibrahim
Pasha. A man, too, has been murdered on the Beyrout road.”
When I returned to the Dar in the evening, I saw Lady Hester. Nothing
was said about the stranger’s arrival, although, by the stranger’s
garden-door being open, I knew he was installed there; but, according
to the etiquette observed in the house, I made no inquiries, judging
that this was to be a mysterious visit, with which I had nothing to
do; so I went home. It must appear very strange to the reader, that
there should be a European so near to me, who would have to dine alone
when I would willingly have had his company; yet, without seriously
offending Lady Hester, I could neither invite him, nor even pay him a
visit--but such was her character. With her everything must be secret,
and everything exclusive; and if ever there was a being who would have
appropriated all authority to herself, and have shouldered out the
rest of mankind from the enjoyment of any privilege but such as she
thought fit to concede, it was Lady Hester Stanhope.
Tuesday, June 19.--This morning the conversation turned on the Druze
insurrection. Lady Hester now assumed the air of a person who, having
made extraordinary prophecies, saw that the time of their
accomplishment had arrived. “I foretold all this,” said she: “in a
short time you will not be able to ride from here to Sayda; the
country will be overrun with armed men; but I shall be as cool, from
first to last, as at a _fête_. All the cowards may go: I want only
those who can send a ball where I direct them. Why do I keep such men
as Seyd Ahmed and some others? because I know they would mind no more
killing a score of people than eating their dinner. You wanted me to
get rid of them, and blamed my _tubba_ [disposition] because I had
such fellows about me, whose plots you are afraid of:--why, yes, they
were uneasy and troublesome, because they had nothing to do: but I
knew the time would come when they would be useful, as you will see.”
Finding that Lady Hester seemed, for some unknown reason, to wish for
my absence, I took my leave of her until Wednesday evening.
Wednesday, June 20.--I rose rather late, and was told by my family
that a curious figure of a European on a mule, followed by a servant
dressed as a sailor, and coming from Lady Hester’s house, had passed
our gate just before, with two mule-loads of luggage, altogether
bearing the appearance of a travelling pedlar. “What can this mean?”
thought I: “this cannot be the stranger I heard of in Sayda, for he
was dressed in the costume of the country; but perhaps this is some
travelling merchant, who has been to show his European wares to her
ladyship.”
Sunset came, and, after dinner, I joined Lady Hester. She began, as I
entered the saloon, with--“Well, doctor, I have got rid of him.”--“Of
whom!” I asked. “Oh!” rejoined she, “such a deep one!--a Russian spy
from the embassy at Constantinople: but he got nothing out of me,
although he tried in all sorts of ways. I as good as told him he was a
spy: and the Russians employ such clever men, that I thought it best
you should not see him; for he would have pumped you without your
suspecting his design, and have been more than a match for you. I dare
say he is affronted because I packed him off so soon. I told him his
fortune. You should have seen his splaws and have heard him talk--it
was quite a comedy. He asked me if it was true that I could describe a
person’s character merely by looking at him. ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘and,
although I don’t see very well, and the candles give a very bad light,
I will describe yours, if you like,’ and, without giving him time to
stop me, I hit it off so exactly, that he exclaimed--‘Really, my lady,
it is quite, quite wonderful!’ But, now he is gone, I must tell you
that there is another person here--a sort of _savant_. Here, take this
little book which he has given to me; but, you know, I don’t pretend
to understand such things; it is something he has written about
hieroglyphics: look at it, and then go and sit a little with him.”
After casting my eye over the work, I went to the strangers’ garden,
and introduced myself. It was Dr. Lœve, the great orientalist and
linguist, whom the newspapers had designated as librarian to his royal
highness the D. of S., although I had thought that another gentleman
of the medical profession held that honourable post. His knowledge of
tongues was prodigious. I passed an hour or two with him, whilst he
explained some of the objects of his Eastern researches. One thing
struck me very forcibly, that, of all Europeans who study the
literature of the East, the Jew has a decided advantage, inasmuch as
his school studies in Hebrew render the transition to Arabic a step of
no more difficulty than from Latin to Italian.
When I went back to Lady Hester, and told her that Dr. Lœve, as I
thought, had been sent out at the expense of one of the oriental
societies, or else at that of the Duke of S., and that he had spoken
very highly of his royal highness’s library and learning, Lady Hester
halloed out--“Oh! Lord, doctor--the D. of S. learned! If I were to see
him, I would tell him when and where he was laid across his horse
drunk.--But I loved all the princes--all, except George the
Fourth;--they were so lively, so good-natured;--people who would laugh
at a straw.”
Thursday, June 21.--I rode down to Shemaôony to see Wellington, but
not without some misgivings; for the groom who accompanied me related
several things which made me suspect that the road was no longer safe.
He had heard that between Tyr and Acre there was no passing: “and,”
said he, “what is to prevent any desperate villain, or gang of
villains, from attacking anybody anywhere? Our very governors hardly
dare stir out of the towns; and who is to go in pursuit of robbers
now? They know that; for the country is ready to rise, and in four or
five days we shall perhaps see strange doings.”
After visiting the black, whose state was far from improving, I
entered Sayda. I learned that from some villages a hundred and fifty
horsemen had marched off the preceding night to join the insurgents;
that, at Garýfy, a distance of four hours from Jôon, cattle had been
carried off; that between Acre and Sayda travelling had become
dangerous. At a village called Helliléah, the people had shut up
their houses, and taken refuge in the city: nay, the monks of Dayr el
Mkhallas had packed up their valuables and church ornaments, and sent
them to Sayda. The people in the gardens had also taken the alarm, and
no longer slept there, as is customary in the summer season.
When I got back to the Dar, I told all this news to Lady Hester
Stanhope. “Oh!” said she, “that’s not all--the people of Jôon are in a
fright, and were going to desert the village; and Fatôom has been
asking leave to bring her mother’s cow into my cow-house: but I sent
word over to them to remain where they were, and that no harm should
come to them.”
M. Guys, before setting off to Aleppo, had raised on a bill of her
ladyship’s 27,000 piasters: these were in the house. “Would it be
right,” said I, “to pay the servants the six months’ wages due to
them, so that, if anything happens, each person may take care of his
own?”--“Oh!” answered Lady Hester, “I don’t fear; I would throw all my
doors open, if the Druzes were on the outside, and should not be
afraid that anybody would touch me.”
My family in the mean time remained in total ignorance of what was
going on around them; they ate, drank, slept, and walked out, totally
unconscious of danger. I did not apprehend that these reports would
come to their ears, for they understood very little Arabic, and, even
if they had, the Arabs, generally speaking, have so much tact in
knowing when they ought to be silent, that I thought myself safe in
that respect: but I was mistaken. An old chattering washerwoman, in
bringing home the linen, began a long speech, addressing herself to
me, as I was smoking at the door, about the risk that women ran in
being away from any habitation in these lawless times. “Do you know,”
said she, “there are deserters in the woods and disabled soldiers in
the high roads? And it was but yesterday that those ladies were an
hour’s distance off in the forest, that leads to the river: for some
neighbours of mine, who had taken their grists to the water-mill, saw
them. By the Prophet! you do wrong to let them go so far. We had
yesterday two of Ibrahim Pasha’s soldiers in the village begging, each
with one hand only; for the Druzes had taken them prisoners and cut
off their right hands;[31] but though they can’t fight, they are very
dangerous men: for, you see, they are Egyptians.” The woman talked
with much vehemence, and, although I silenced her, by answering that I
would inquire into it, she had said enough to excite suspicion, in
those who stood by listening, that something was not right, and I was
obliged to disclose part of the truth.
Friday, June 22.--Lady Hester dictated a very uncivil letter to Signor
Lapi, the Austrian referendary, in which she said things as if coming
from me. It was not an unusual way with her to employ my name to
repeat her opinions, by which people were offended, who afterwards
vented their spite in some way or another: it was one of her many
manœuvres to keep people aloof from each other when it suited her
purposes. Twenty years before, I had a serious quarrel with Shaykh
Ibrahim (Mr. Burckhardt) in the same way, she not having so high an
opinion of that gentleman as people in general had: but this was
independent of his literary merits, and on different grounds.
Lady Hester related to me a dream that some one had had about her, in
which a hand waving over her head, and several crowned heads humbled
before her, were interpreted to indicate the greatness that just now,
as she flattered herself, awaited her. What reason she had for
thinking that relief from all her troubles was near at hand the reader
has had opportunity of judging. She was always disposed, however, to
see things in their brightest aspect--yesterday plunged into
difficulties, and to-day extricating herself, if not in reality at
least in imagination. “I am,” said she, “like the man in the Eastern
story, who, imprisoned in a dungeon, and nearly starved to death,
found in a poor sailor an old acquaintance, who conveyed to him
secretly a basin of warm soup: but, just as he was putting it to his
mouth, a rat fell from the ceiling, and knocked it out of his hand.
Reduced thus to the lowest pitch of wretchedness, and seeing nothing
left for him but to die, at the critical moment came a firmán from
Constantinople to cut off the head of the pasha who had thrown him
into prison, and he was saved. So it is with me: I cannot be worse off
than I am; I shall, therefore, when the next steamboat comes, see what
it brings; and, if I hear no news about the property that was left me,
I shall get rid of you and everybody, and of all the women; and, with
one black slave and Logmagi, I shall order the gateway to be walled
up, leaving only room enough for my cows to go in and out to pasture,
and I shall have no communication with any human being. I shall write
to Lord Palmerston before you go, and tell him that, as he has thrown
an aspersion on my name, I shall remain walled in here until he
publicly removes it: and if he, or anybody, writes to me, there will
be no answer; for, when you are gone, I shall have nobody to write for
me.--This sort of life perhaps will suit me best, after all. I have
often wished that I could have a room in my garden, and, lying there
with only some necessary covering, slip from my bed as I was into my
garden, and after a turn or two slip back again: I do assure you I
should neither be low-spirited nor dull.”
To-day a letter was brought from an English traveller, Mr. M., to Lady
Hester, the purport of which was that a gentleman of an ancient and
honourable family was desirous of paying his respects to her. Lady
Hester asked me to go down to Sayda, to call on him and say she should
be happy to see him: accordingly, next morning, I went. I found a
gentleman, of about forty or forty-two years of age, installed at the
customary lodging of the English, and, after delivering my message and
conversing with him a little while, I left him to see Wellington, the
black, and go in search of news. I learned from Khosrô Effendi, the
government secretary, that one of Ibrahim’s regiments, sent to quell
the rising in Hasbéyah and Rashéyah, had been compelled, by the
superior numbers of the insurgents, to shut themselves up in the
castle, and were there closely besieged, expecting a reinforcement
from Damascus to their relief.[32]
Towards Jerusalem some manifestations of rising had been made, and
nearer to Jôon some bodies of insurgents, in their way from different
villages to join the main body in Rashéyah and the Horàn, had, in
passing Btedýn, the Emir Beshýr’s residence, uttered loud and reviling
menaces and cries. The Emir, being deprived of arms to put his
dependants in a state of defence, had sent to Beyrout to demand 400
muskets, and had induced the Patriarch of the Maronite Christians to
assemble some of the chief shaykhs, and to bind them with an oath not
to join the Druzes. He had despatched couriers to the Metoualy country
(the mountains running parallel with the sea from Sayda to Acre, and
in some measure a continuation of Mount Lebanon), calling on the
chieftains to hold their allegiance to Ibrahim Pasha. But it was
considered that all these were measures of little use, should the
Christians and Metoualis see a chance of expelling their oppressors.
The inhabitants of the peaceable villages kept themselves in readiness
on the first alarm to fly to the towns for security. Looking, however,
dispassionately at the probabilities of success between the rival
parties, it is not likely, considering that the Egyptian satrap holds
all the strong places, that the Druzes can do anything more than carry
on a harassing warfare, unless powerful aid comes from without, and
ships of war blockade Acre, Beyrout, and the other ports.[33]
I saw Wellington: his case presented little hope. Dysentery had
supervened, and, feeble as he already was, I judged it impossible that
he could survive.
Sunday, June 24.--Mr. M. came up, and remained, I forget whether two
or three days. He told me he was of Trinity College, Cambridge, but
had been a long time abroad. Lady Hester said of him, “I like to
converse with such people as are what you call country squires--one
hears a great many anecdotes from them. Sometimes he makes very
sensible remarks, and sometimes he is very strange. He asked me if I
knew the Emir Beshýr; and, when I was giving him some information
about him, all of a sudden he asked me if I liked dancing when I lived
in England. He goes from one thing to another, like a dog in a fair:”
(I laughed):--“yes, doctor, just like a dog that goes from one booth
to another, sniffing here and there, and stealing gingerbread nuts.
When he sat with me in the evening, he was constantly turning his head
to the window, which was open, as if he thought somebody was coming in
that way.”
Tuesday, June 26.--Mr. M. went away.
Wednesday, June 27.--A letter came from two more travellers, dated
from the quarantine ground, where the black lay ill. Colonel Hazeta,
the writer, informed her ladyship that he had travelled overland from
Calcutta, and was commissioned to deliver to her a letter from her
nephew, Colonel T. Taylor; but he alleged the impossibility of being
the bearer of it himself, owing to the necessity he was under of
proceeding onward to Beyrout, and performing his quarantine there. He
was accompanied by Dr. Mill.
Thursday, June 28.--I received a note, acquainting me with the death
of Wellington, and I rode down to inform myself of the circumstances
of his end. By Signor Lapi’s care he was decently interred in the
Catholic burial-ground at Sayda. What religion he was of I never heard
him say; but he was what is called a pious youth, and told me his
mother had brought him up in the practice of virtue and godliness;
and, from what I saw of him, I believe he spoke truly; for he was of
great singleness of mind, artless, ingenuous, and grateful to the
duke, his master, and to Lady Hester, for the kindnesses they had
shown him. But who shall console his poor mother!
I collected a little news, from which the Pasha’s affairs seemed to
wear a better aspect. He had marched, it was said, with two regiments
and some field-pieces against the rebels at Hasbéyah, and had sacked
the place. The Horàn, it was reported, was also reduced to obedience.
Friday, June 29.--To-day Lady Hester wrote a letter to Lord
Palmerston, in answer to one she had received from him, which I shall
first transcribe.
_Lord Palmerston to Lady Hester Stanhope._
Foreign Office, April 25, 1838.
Madam,
I am commanded by the Queen to acquaint you that I have laid
before her Majesty your letter of the 12th of February, of
this year.
It has been my duty to explain to her Majesty the circumstances
which may be supposed to have led to your writing that
letter; and I have now to state to your ladyship that any
communications which have been made to you on the matters to
which your letter refers, either through the friends of your
family or through her Majesty’s agent and consul-general at
Alexandria, have been suggested by nothing but a desire to
save your ladyship from the embarrassments which might
arise, if the parties who have claims upon you were to call
upon the consul-general to act according to the strict line
of his duty, under the capitulations between Great Britain
and the Porte.
I have the honour to be, madam, your ladyship’s most obedient
humble servant,
PALMERSTON.
* * * * *
_Lady Hester Stanhope to Lord Palmerston._
Jôon, Mount Lebanon, July 1, 1838.
My Lord,
If your diplomatic despatches are as obscure as the one
which now lies before me, it is no wonder that England
should cease to have that proud preponderance in her foreign
relations which she once could boast of.
Your lordship tells me that you have thought it your duty to
explain to the Queen the subject which caused me to address
her Majesty: I should have thought, my lord, that it would
have been your duty to have made those explanations prior to
having taken the liberty of using her Majesty’s name, and
alienated from her and her country a subject, who, the great
and small must acknowledge, (however painful it may be to
some) has raised the English name in the East higher than
any one has yet done, besides having made many philosophical
researches of every description for the advantage of human
nature at large, and this without having spent one farthing
of the public money. Whatever may be the surprise created in
the minds of statesmen of the old school respecting the
conduct of government towards me, I am not myself in the
least astonished; for, when the son of a king, with a view
of enlightening his own mind and the world in general, had
devoted part of his private fortune to the purchase of a
most invaluable library at Hamburgh, he was flatly refused
an exemption from the custom-house duties; but, if report
speaks true, had an application been made to pass bandboxes,
millinery, inimitable wigs, and invaluable rouge, it would
have been instantly granted by her Majesty’s ministers, if
we may judge by precedents. Therefore, my lord, I have
nothing to complain of; yet I shall go on fighting my
battles, campaign after campaign.
Your lordship gives me to understand that the insult which I
have received was considerately bestowed upon me to avoid
some dreadful, unnameable misfortune which was pending over
my head. I am ready to meet with courage and resignation
every misfortune it may please God to visit me with, but
certainly not insult from man. If I can be accused of high
crimes and misdemeanours, and that I am to stand in dread of
the punishment thereof, let me be tried, as I believe I have
a right to be, by my peers; if not, then by the voice of the
people. Disliking the English because they are no longer
English--no longer that hardy, honest, bold people that they
were in former times--yet, as some few of this race must
remain, I should rely in confidence upon their integrity and
justice, when my case had been fully examined.
It is but fair to make your lordship aware, that, if by the
next packet there is nothing definitively settled respecting
my affairs, and that I am not cleared in the eyes of the
world of aspersions, intentionally or unintentionally thrown
upon me, I shall break up my household and build up the
entrance-gate to my premises: there remaining, as if I was
in a tomb, till my character has been done justice to, and a
public acknowledgment put in the papers, signed and sealed
by those who have aspersed me. There is no trifling with
those who have Pitt blood in their veins upon the subject of
integrity, nor expecting that their spirit would ever yield
to the impertinent interference of consular authority.
Meanly endeavouring (as Colonel Campbell has attempted to
do) to make the origin of this business an application of
the Viceroy of Egypt to the English Government, I must,
without having made any inquiries upon the subject,
exculpate his highness from so low a proceeding. His known
liberality in all such cases, from the highest to the lowest
class of persons, is such as to make one the more regret his
extraordinary and reprehensible conduct towards his great
master, and that such a man should become totally blinded by
vanity and ambition, which must in the end prove his
perdition--an opinion I have loudly given from the
beginning.
Your lordship talks to me of the capitulations with the
Sublime Porte: what has that to do with a private
individual’s having exceeded his finances in trying to do
good? If there is any punishment for that, you had better
begin with your ambassadors, who have often indebted
themselves at the different courts of Europe as well as at
Constantinople. I myself am so attached to the Sultan, that,
were the reward of such conduct that of losing my head, I
should kiss the sabre wielded by so mighty a hand, yet, at
the same time, treat with the most ineffable contempt your
trumpery agents, as I shall never admit of their having the
smallest power over me--if I did, I should belie my origin.
HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.
* * * * *
Here let me ask the reader whether Lady Hester had not indeed a right
to be indignant with the minister who then directed the foreign
affairs of the country, for the illiberal manner in which he gratified
his spleen and mortified vanity. He had not the power of directly
stopping the payment of her pension, it being a parliamentary grant;
but he had recourse to the unworthy artifice of directing his agent
not to sign the certificate of her life, without which her pension
could not be paid. Nothing can be added to the well-merited
castigation inflicted upon him, and he has brought down upon himself
the condemnation of all men of good breeding and generous sentiment.
What his present feelings on the subject may be it is impossible to
say; but I would fain hope that there are few who are disposed to envy
him, much less to follow his example.
This day an English sloop of war hove-to off Sayda. The captain of her
sent for the English consular agent alongside, and what took place on
this occasion may serve as an example of the necessity of having
Englishmen, and not foreigners, as consular agents in distant
countries. The precise object that the captain of the sloop had in
view of course can only be known to himself; but what queries he put
to Mr. Abella, the agent, and what answers he received, very soon
transpired. Since, how could it be otherwise, when the agent was a
native of Syria, and understood no language but Arabic? Being,
therefore, summoned to the ship, which he could not go aboard, as she
could not communicate with persons from the shore until her bill of
health had been examined by the health officers, he was first of all
compelled to take some one as an interpreter between the captain and
himself, and then to hold his parley from the boat to the ship’s
quarter; but, as the interpreter might only speak Italian, and the
captain only English, a third aid is required, and we will suppose an
officer to be called, who takes the question from the captain’s mouth
in English, repeats it in Italian to the agent’s interpreter, who
translates it into Arabic; and then the answer goes back through the
same channels: so that it must necessarily happen that the sense and
the wording undergo a material change. But there is yet a greater
evil. If the questions relate to matters of importance, as the
progress of the Druze insurrection (for example), or the probability
of Ibrahim Pasha’s success or defeat, how is the consular agent, so
circumstanced, to give a faithful account? for, should he divulge
matters unfavourable to the Pasha’s cause, his well-being, and perhaps
his life, may be endangered: since, although he himself, as an agent
in the English service, receives a certain protection, he may have
brothers and relations who are at the Pasha’s mercy: nay, he himself,
perhaps an agent to-day and dismissed to-morrow, may be left to cope
with powerful enemies for the rest of his life.
Now, the French government secures Frenchmen for consuls and agents,
and the English government, one would think, ought to act on the same
principle. Let it not be said that men could not be found--native
Englishmen--willing to banish themselves to these countries, and that
for a very trifling salary. Among the half-pay officers of the army
and navy might be selected numbers, who, even for so small a stipend
as two hundred a year, would willingly accept such situations; because
a very short residence would show them that, with economy, a hundred a
year in the Levant is equivalent to two at home.
In affairs, where the conflicting interests of English and Mahometans,
or disputes between travellers and natives, are to be settled, it is
absurd to suppose that an agent, accustomed to cringe and fawn to the
Turks all his life, will, or can, ever obtain redress for the party
whose country he represents: it is impossible!
Saturday, June 30.--Lady Hester had sent to Dayr el Kamar for old
Pierre, and he arrived this day. He brought news of a very different
nature from that which I had learned at Sayda on the preceding
Thursday. Ibrahim Pasha had been defeated by the insurgents, and had
retreated as far as Zahly, a burgh overlooking the Bkâa, on the
north-east slope of Mount Lebanon. In consequence of this, the road
from Dayr el Kamar to Damascus was too dangerous to pass, and all the
muleteers were stopped at those two places, afraid to cross the
intervening plain.
I was surprised in the evening, when conversing with her ladyship, to
see how the strongest minds are borne into the regions of fancy by
what, with people of common sense, would be considered as mere
visionary absurdities. I believe I have related elsewhere how a
person, having gained the confidence of Lady Hester, told her he knew
of a book that foretold the destinies of persons, which book he
procured at her desire, and out of it offered to answer any questions
she chose to put about anybody. “I would not,” said Lady Hester, when
narrating the story, “ask him what would happen in Syria, because I
conceive the course of events may be predicted by a man of great
sagacity in any country, where he has cast a wistful eye on things
passing around him; but I fixed on you, and asked him, ‘What is the
doctor doing in Europe?’ The man opened his book, and read, and
explained thus:--‘I see an elderly person sitting up in his bed, and
by the bed-side a young woman kneeling, whilst she entreats and
implores the elderly person not to take some journey, or go on some
voyage,’ which of the two he could not precisely say. Now, doctor,
that you know was exactly the case: for did not Mrs. M. some one day
cry and beg of you not to go and join me? I am sure it was so. I next
asked him about myself. He consulted his book, and said, I was to be
witness to great battles, or be near where they were fought, and that
one of the contests would be so bloody that, on one side, not a person
would be left to tell the story: this battle, moreover, was to be
fought on a plain three miles long and three broad, near Zahly, and
upon Mount Lebanon. But,” added Lady Hester, “I never could find any
solution to this prophecy until now; and the battle between Ibrahim
Pasha and the insurgents clearly was the one meant. Neither could I
discover where the plain was three miles long, and three broad, and I
sent people to the neighbourhood of Zahly; but nobody knew anything of
such a place, until at last information was brought me that there
existed a plain as described in the heart of the mountain, like a
basin, and which was shut out from the rest of the world. The book
also said that a boy of royal blood would come from distant regions,
would kiss my stirrup, and place himself under my guidance. All this
was prophesied some years ago, and I always interpreted the bed-scene
as relating to Mrs. M. That came to pass; for, though you will not
confess it, I am sure it was so; and now the other part has been
fulfilled too.”
In the course of the day, Lady Hester received a letter from Dr. Mill
and Colonel Hazeta, to say that their quarantine was over, and that
they would be at Jôon on the 1st of July.
Sunday, July 1.--They arrived early in the morning. After they had
breakfasted, I received a note from Dr. Mill to say that he was about
to read the morning prayers in his room, and to invite me and any
others so disposed to join him.
These gentlemen remained two days, but a press of business prevented
me from making memorandums. They always went together, when Lady
Hester sent word she was ready to receive them: and this vexed her a
great deal. Dr. Mill’s profound knowledge of languages, and his
extensive reading, had given her hopes that she might have cleared up
some difficulties respecting Eastern history, and have discussed
certain religious points about which she had not perfectly made up her
mind; but Colonel Hazeta, who was a man of the world, and could take
no part in abstruse subjects, was a barrier to such conversation.
Friday, July 6.--Lady Hester was very low spirited, and her cough
troublesome. She was unable to converse, and I left her at ten in the
evening. Ali, the messenger, had gone to Beyrout two or three days
before to carry the letter to Lord Palmerston, and to await the
arrival of the steamboat, which was expected. His delay in returning
had created great despondency in her; and, as the air was balmy and
serene and it was a moonlight night, I sat on my terrace, which
overlooked the path by which Ali must pass, fondly hoping that he
would make his appearance with the long looked-for letter from Sir
Francis Burdett. Presently I heard the dogs bark, and saw _Freeky_,
the stoutest of our mastiffs, and generally the leader, rush towards
the brow of the mountain which overlooked the valley through which Ali
must come. Their barking grew fainter, and on a sudden ceased, and I
then knew they had met some one belonging to the household. In about a
quarter of an hour I recognized Ali, who, entering the gate, delivered
his oilskin portfolio to me, and, under a cover to myself from the
French chancellor, I found a packet for Lady Hester. I immediately
sent it to her, and waited anxiously for the morning to learn what
good news it brought.
Saturday, July 7.--It was Sir Francis Burdett’s long-expected,
long-procrastinated answer, the delay of which had caused so many
wretched nights and days to poor Lady Hester, and prevented her from
forming any settled plans. Alas! now that it was come, it proved very
unsatisfactory; yet, notwithstanding, Lady Hester invented a thousand
excuses for him. “It is evident, doctor,” said she, “that he could not
write what he wanted to write: he wishes me all the happiness that a
mortal can share, but says not a word that I did not know before. I
have told you that Colonel Needham left Mr. Pitt a large property in
Ireland by his will; but it so happened that Mr. Pitt died three days
before Colonel Needham, and consequently the death of the legatee
before the testator, in a legal point of view, put an end to the
right. I knew that as well as he did; but that was not what I inquired
about: for when Lord Kilmorey died, to whom the property went, I
supposed that, as it was originally intended for Mr. Pitt, he might
have said, ‘As I have no children, this may as well revert to where it
was originally intended to go:--’ just as Mrs. Coutts did not get her
property from Mr. Coutts, but with the understanding that it was to be
left afterwards to some of his grandchildren. One time, when Lady B.
was so odd in her conduct, Mr. C. had some thoughts of making his
grandson his heir, and asked me to get him created Lord C.; but the
pride of Lord Bute, and other reasons, prevented this.”
She went on. “I dare say Sir Francis was puzzled how to act. He was
afraid some of my relations would say, ‘What business have you to
interfere in family affairs?’ and so perhaps, thinking he might get
into a duel, or some unpleasant business, he writes in an evasive
manner. But never mind! when the _correspondence_ gets into the
newspapers, somebody will be found somewhere who will know something
about the matter. Why, doctor, when Mr. Pitt died, there were people
from the bank who came to tell me of the money he had there, and
advised me to take it--they came twice: I suppose it was money
somebody had put in for him. But how Sir Nathaniel Wraxall could ever
get into his head that Lord C. lent him any, I can’t imagine--a man
who was so stingy, that nothing ever was like it. No! when Mr. Pitt
went out of office, six great men subscribed a sum to pay his debts,
but Lord C. was not one of them.”
Sunday, July 8.--To-day was marked by a little fright not uncommon in
these countries. Mrs. M. was reading the morning service with the
children, when, on looking up, she observed, outside of the window,
which was open, an immense number of sparrows making sharp cries,
fluttering about the terrace, and hovering round some object, which
she immediately perceived to be the body of a huge serpent, hanging in
one coil from the rafters of the terrace, and suspended by the head
and the tail. Sayd Ahmed, the porter, or Black Beard, as he was
usually called from that large jet black appendage to his chin, was
known to be a deadly enemy to serpents, and my wife had the presence
of mind to say to one of the children, “Steal gently out of the door,
without alarming the serpent, and run and call Black Beard here
directly, telling him what he is wanted for, that he may bring some
weapon with him.” John did as he was bid, and, not finding him in the
lodge, called the first servant he saw. No less than seven ran
together; and the cook, who had seized the porter’s blunderbuss, which
was kept ready loaded on a peg, advanced to where the serpent was yet
hanging precisely in the same position, aimed at it, and shot it
through the body. The serpent fell, and was soon killed by blows from
the bludgeons of the others. It proved, on measurement, to be seven
feet and a half long: its colour was dark brown, somewhat mottled
along the back, and gray under the belly: and it was the largest,
excepting the boa-constrictor exhibited by T. Gully, that I had ever
seen.
The alarm excited by this enormous reptile was scarcely over, when,
two or three hours after sunset, a man was seen crouching under the
garden-wall, about two hundred yards from the house; and my family,
who supposed it was a deserter, or a robber concealing himself for
some wicked purpose, informed me of it: but, as the dogs did not bark,
I knew he must be one of the people, come there to receive stolen
goods from the maids. Probably he saw he was observed, for he made off
through the vines which grew thickly round the place.
News was brought that Ibrahim Pasha had enticed the insurgents into
the plain, attacked them at a village called _Yanta_, near the Bkâa,
and killed and wounded nearly a thousand men; for the Druzes had no
artillery, and, being undisciplined, were no match for regular troops
in an open country. The Emir Beshýr, in the mean time, although it was
said that he had been repeatedly summoned to take the field, was
either unwilling or afraid to stir from his palace.
I read out of Wraxall’s Memoirs a page or two, which set Lady Hester
talking, in her usual way, about old times. She related several
anecdotes of the last Lord Chatham, of Lord Camden, of Lord
Harrington, and of her father, but I forbear repeating them. “I dare
say,” said she, “I have seen Sir Nathaniel when he dined at Mr.
Pitt’s; but there came so many of them, one after another, rap, tap,
tap, rap, tap, tap! and, as soon as the last entered, dinner was
served immediately: I could not know every body. If I had known him, I
would have made him a peer, he writes so well, and his opinions and
remarks are so just! I don’t agree with him in one thing: the late
Lord Chatham was not exactly like his father. His nose was more
pointed, and my grandfather’s was thicker in the bone towards the top,
and with more of a bump.”
When Lady Hester assumed the Turkish dress, she had her head shaved,
as it is not possible to wear the red fez and a turban in any comfort
with the hair on. The conversation led her to speak of heads; when,
on a sudden, she pulled off her turban, fez and all, and told me to
examine her skull. Having no precise knowledge of phrenology, I could
only make very general observations: but the examination, no doubt,
would have been an excellent study for a craniologist. The frontal
bone certainly was prominent: but, with this exception, and a marked
cavity in the temporal bones, the skull was remarkably smooth in
carrying the hand over it, and pleasing to the eye from its perfect
form; perfect, as we should say of a cupola that crowned an edifice
with admirable proportions.
She asked me, laughing, if I could see the thieving propensity
strongly marked. Then she said, “I don’t think there are any
improprieties; do say!”--“People,” she added, “have told me the
fighting bump is as big as a lion’s:”--I felt it, but it did not
correspond with the assertion. The general appearance was this: her
head was somewhat small, her features somewhat long; her ear was by no
means handsome, being rather large and the convolutions of it
irregular.
After she had put her turban on again, she observed, “It is an
erroneous opinion that a big head always denotes much sense. I knew a
countess, who put her husband to the blush by her ignorance every day
of her life. She would read and pore over a book, in order to get
ready something learned to say at dinner-time, and yet was sure to
make some blunder. Thus, for example, she would be talking of a
sea-fight, and then go to ancient history, and say something of the
battle of Actium, where Scipio Africanus distinguished himself. ‘No,
my dear,’ the husband would say, ‘you don’t mean Scipio--you forget,’
and so on. Well, this countess I recollect seeing at Dobree’s, the
hatter in Bond Street:--he made the best beavers of any man in London,
and generally charged half a guinea more than anybody else; but he was
terribly impudent. She was trying on a beaver, the largest in the
shop, and it would not fit her; and she was saying she must have it
made larger, when Dobree gave it a blow with his measure, and knocked
it off the counter, saying, ‘Ma’am, why, do you think I make hats half
a yard in diameter? there ought to be no head that there hat won’t
fit.’ Her head was enormous, doctor, spreading out all round here”
(and Lady Hester put the forefinger and thumb of each hand in a
semicircle to each temple), “so she was a pretty good proof that big
heads have no memory. Your head is the same, and you have no memory
whatever--were you always so from a boy?... Now I have reflected, and
there was Mr. Coutts; he had a small head, but what a memory! and
what sharpness and intelligence! Mr. Fox’s was small in proportion to
his face: Mr. Pitt’s was neither small nor large: Lord Chatham, my
grandfather’s, was large.
“The fact is, as it appears to me, that size has nothing to do with
it, but all depends on the building of the skull; just as, in the
making of a cupola or a dome, if the hemisphere is constructed in a
proper way, it will render an echo, and, if any error is made in the
arch, sound is no longer propagated in it: so, a skull, formed in a
certain way, with the brain lodged in it, seems to give just echoes to
the senses, and to form what is called a good understanding. All
depends on construction, not size; and a little head, well made, will
have twenty times the sense of a great one, badly built.”
Monday, July 9.--I went to Sayda. On my way I passed a man on foot,
raggedly dressed, evidently weary with walking, and come from a
distance: the walking groom who was with me loitered behind, and a
recognition seemed to take place between them: they talked together
for about a quarter of an hour, and then the groom resumed his
station. “Do you know that poor wretch?” said I: “where does he come
from?”--“He is a sort of kinsman of mine,” replied the lad; “for he
was once a farrier’s boy like myself, and we are both nicknamed _el
beitàr_: he is just come from Damascus, or thereabouts.”--“How?” said
I: “I thought the road was impassable.”--“So it is,” quoth the groom;
“but he was not fool enough, I dare say, to come by the road: there
are plenty of by-paths across the country.”--“Is there no news of the
Pasha and the Druzes?” asked I. “Humph!” said the groom; “he does not
dare to tell me if there is; but what he has let out is pretty much
what was known already. A battle has been fought at Yanta, and things
go badly.”
At night, on returning to the Dar, I was much surprised to see the
same pauper sitting on the mustaby in front of the porter’s lodge.
Logmagi was smoking his _narkeely_, and, seeing me stare at the man,
observed, with a quiet air--“Here is a pretty fellow! come to offer
himself as a cook; but I think he would hardly make a scullion:
however, I suppose I must mention it to her felicity the Syt.” I
immediately guessed the matter; he had been sent as a spy to the camp.
This was Lady Hester’s way.
Her ladyship had now made up her mind to execute her threat of walling
up her gateway. “You can be no longer of any use to me,” said she to
me, “and therefore had better go as soon as you can, before the bad
weather comes on. As for my health, I am as well, I dare say, as I
shall be, and nothing that I can take of you European doctors will
make me better; so don’t fidget yourself on my account. All that
remains to do now is to fill up the few days you have left in doing
some necessary things for me. Let me see--I must write to the Duke
Maximilian, to Count Wilsensheim (and you too had better write to him,
or to the baron, that they may not think you left me unprotected; for
you know how apt people are to put bad constructions on everything)--
and then there must be a letter to Prince Pückler Muskau, and one to
Sir Francis Burdett, besides a short one to Mr. Moore. And then you
must pay the servants, and send them away: but that we will talk about
afterwards. I shall keep none but the two boys, a man to fetch water,
the gardener, and the girls. But you had better go to Sayda, and see
about a vessel for carrying you to Cyprus. I should not like you to
sail from Beyrout; for those people will be only bothering you about
my debts, and at present there is nothing to be said but what has been
said already. You must send, too, for a mason to come and wall up the
gateway.”
Tuesday, July 10.--I did not go to Sayda to see about a boat, for I
was resolved not to leave Lady Hester unless she insisted on it. The
morning was employed in writing the following letter to the Duke
Maximilian:--
Jôon, July 10, 1838.
My Lord Duke,
As the period of my sufferings and humiliation is not yet
over, it would be unseemly in me to draw upon myself such an
honour as you intend me in sending your royal highness’s
portrait. If it is a proof of your friendship for me, as I
flatter myself in believing it to be, allow me, by the same
title, to ask a favour of you, which I hope you will not
consider too bold.
At no distant time the world will be convulsed with
extraordinary phenomena and horrible scourges, which will
bring about changes in everything: it is then that I ask
permission to address your royal highness with that freedom
I am known for, without fear of displeasing you. Ideas
bought by painful experience, and knowledge picked up on a
path covered with thorns, may perhaps, at a crisis which
will be without example, prove useful to your royal
highness.
I will not recall the painful recollection of a moment when
a high fever obliged me to sacrifice the honour and pleasure
of making your personal acquaintance.
Be pleased, my lord duke, to accept the assurance of my
highest consideration and esteem, and my prayers that your
royal highness will soon be restored to the bosom of your
family.
HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.
I send my cordial salutations to your royal highness’s
suite.
FOOTNOTES:
[31] This is the _parole_ that the Druzes take of their
prisoners, to ensure their not fighting again.
[32] Hasbéyah and Rashéyah are two districts, situate
midway between Tyr and Damascus, and comprehended in
30° 15′ and 33° 39′ N. lat. on the western flank of
Gebel es Shaykh, the vast hump of Antilebanon: they
are a part of the Cœle-syria of the Greeks and Romans.
In Hasbéyah is the source of the Jordan. The castle,
I believe, is one of the many yet remaining from the
days of the Crusaders.
[33] The loss of the battle of Nasib somewhat altered the
nature of these calculations. Had the Turks won that
battle, all Syria would have united to expel Ibrahim
Pasha; as it was, future conjunctures alone could
enable them yet to display their hostile feelings
against an innovator, who had few or no partisans in a
country too primitive in its manners to rejoice in the
introduction of a demi-civilization. This was written
in July, 1839. The exploits of the English armaments,
sent to expel Ibrahim Pasha from Syria, have since
confirmed these details, which are left as they were
first penned, although now necessarily devoid of all
interest.