The account which she gives of the Turkish mobilization in the days
that immediately followed is graphic enough: "Soldiers armed to the
teeth pass," she writes, "driving before them villagers to be enlisted.
The boys all look terrified. Patriotism means nothing to them; they
loathe their Government and are frightened to death at the thought of
becoming Turkish soldiers, who are treated like dogs. Those who can,
fly and hide themselves in the mountains. At present the Lebanon is
full of such fugitives, and, being very desperate and nearly mad with
fright and hunger, they are quite dangerous to meet. I am told they
hide like animals in the grass and bushes and live on wild cucumbers.
Poor things."
Then German officers arrived on the scene and things grew rapidly
worse. "The commandeering in town," writes the countess, "is rapidly
bringing about the utter financial ruin of many families. To-day
every house was ordered to provide a hundred blankets or to pay a sum
equivalent to their value. Those who cannot comply are thrown into
prison. From the store at which I buy my provisions they have taken
$2,500 worth of rice, sugar and coffee, the poor man's entire stock,
without paying him a penny or even giving him a receipt. He is ruined.
From another store they have taken carpets and rugs valued at $1,000
which are, I am told, destined for the private households of the
officers! The same is, no doubt, the destination of $1,500 worth of
ladies' silk stockings, linen and dresses, which were also commandeered!
"A commission visited the manager of a firm of automatic pistols and
took away 800 without paying for them, leaving the rest. Two days later
the manager was arrested, under the pretext that he had purposely
hidden the arms which the commission had not taken. They put him into
prison, and only after a week's incarceration, his family having paid
£50 to the Government, was released. Meanwhile he has not had a receipt
for his guns."
Eventually the countess managed to escape from Damascus to Bayreuth,
where she had hoped to find a friend in the Vali, or Governor, there,
who had treated her with great consideration at the time of her arrival
in Syria. Upon instructions from Damascus, however, he kept her a
virtual prisoner, and when later her trunks were examined and the
photographs and notes she had made while on her expedition discovered
she was in imminent danger of being shot as a Russian secret agent. The
Russian consul, who was himself in danger and had made one fruitless
effort to escape, was unable to assist her.
She found her best friends, then, in the officers of the American
men-of-war _North Carolina_ and _Tennessee_, which were lying off the
town. They gave her good counsel and helped to keep her spirits up.
After some weeks of agonizing uncertainty it was decided that the
countess should merely be expelled from the country, and she was given
an hour to get aboard of a vessel which was sailing for Egypt.