Dimitri descended to Athens; the monk went back to his bees; our new
masters pushed us into the path which led to the camp of their king.
Mrs. Simons rebelled and refused to stir a step. The brigands threatened
to carry her in their arms; she declared that she would not let them
carry her. But her daughter talked her into a more tractable frame of
mind, telling that she would find the table spread and that she would be
invited to breakfast by Hadgi-Stavros. Mary-Ann was more surprised than
frightened. The followers who had come to arrest us, had acted with a
certain courtesy; they had not searched us, and they had kept their
hands from their prisoners. Instead of turning our pockets wrong side
out, they had asked us to put down our money and valuables ourselves;
they made no remark about the ladies' ear-rings and they did not even
ask them to take off their gloves. We were far, it seemed, from those
highwaymen in Spain and Italy who cut off a finger to get a ring and who
tear out an ear-ring to possess themselves of a diamond or pearl. All
these misfortunes were reduced to the payment of a ransom; yet was it
not probable that we might be delivered without it? How could one
imagine that Hadgi-Stavros would be able to hold us with impunity, at
five leagues from the capital, from the court, from the Greek army, from
her Britannic Majesty's battalion, at an English station. Thus reasoned
Mary-Ann. As for me--I, involuntarily, thought of those two little
daughters whom Mistra went to seek, and I was sad. I feared that Mrs.
Simons, in her obstinate patriotism, only exposed her daughter to some
great danger, and I promised myself that I would enlighten her as to her
position. We walked in a narrow path, single file, separated from each
other by our disagreeable companions. The journey seemed to me to be
interminable, and I asked more than ten times, if we would not soon be
there. The road was frightful; in the crevices of the bare rock an oak
sapling struggled for life, or a thorny bush scratched our legs. The
victorious bandits manifested no joy, and their triumphal march
resembled a funeral parade. They silently smoked cigarettes as large as
one's finger.
They did not speak; one, only, now and then hummed a sort of tune. Those
people are as lugubrious as a ruin.
About eleven o'clock, a fierce barking announced the neighborhood of the
camp. Ten or a dozen enormous dogs rushed out and hurled themselves upon
us, showing all their teeth. Our captors drove them back with stones,
and after a quarter of an hour of hostilities, peace was declared. These
inhospitable monsters were the advance sentinels of the King of the
Mountains. They scent the soldiers as a contrabandist's dog scents a
custom-house officer. But that is not all, and their zeal is so great,
that they, occasionally, devoured an inoffensive shepherd, a lost
traveler, or even one of Hadgi-Stavros' band. The King kept them, as the
old Sultans kept their Janissaries, with the perpetual fear of falling
a victim to them.
The King's camp was a plateau of seven or eight hundred metres in
extent. I searched everywhere for our captors' tents. The brigands were
not sybarites, and they slept under the sky on the 30th of April. I saw
neither heaps of spoils nor a display of treasures, nothing which one
would hope to find at the headquarters of a band of brigands.
Hadgi-Stavros took upon himself the sale of the plunder; each man
received his pay in silver and used it according to his fancy. Some put
their money into commerce, others invested in mortgages on houses in
Athens, while others bought land in their villages; no one squandered
the proceeds of theft. Our arrival interrupted the morning meal of
twenty-five or thirty men, who hastened to meet us, bread and cheese in
hand. The Chief furnished his band with food: the men received, every
day, a ration of bread, oil, wine, cheese, caviare, piment (wine mixed
with honey and spices), bitter olives, and meat when their religion
permitted. Gourmands who wish for mallows and other green food, can pick
these dainties on the mountains. Brigands, as some other classes of
people, rarely light a fire for their repasts; they eat their food cold,
and their vegetables uncooked. I noticed that everyone was religiously
observing the law of abstinence. We were on the eve of the celebration
of the Ascension, and these good people, of whom the most innocent had
at least the life of one man on his conscience, would not touch a
mouthful of meat. Holding up two Englishwomen, at the point of a
musket, seemed an insignificant sin; Mrs. Simons had very greatly sinned
in eating the cold meat, the Wednesday before Ascension. The men who had
escorted us, satisfied the curiosity of their comrades. They were
overwhelmed with questions and they answered them all. They put down in
a pile, the booty they had secured, and my silver watch scored yet
another success, which added to my pride. Mary-Ann's little gold watch
was less noticed. In that first interview, public attention fell upon my
watch, and it reflected a little on me. In the eyes of these simple men,
the owner of such an imposing piece of silver could be no less than a
lord.
The bandits' curiosity was annoying, but not insolent. They did not
treat us harshly. They knew that we were in their hands and that we
would be exchanged, sooner or later, for a certain number of gold
pieces; but they did not think that they ought to avail themselves of
that circumstance to maltreat us, or show a lack of respect. Good sense,
that imperishable spirit of the Greeks, told them that we represented a
different race, and one, to a certain degree, superior. Victorious
barbarians render a secret homage to a conquered civilized people. Many
of these men saw for the first time, the European dress. These walked
around us, as the inhabitants of the new world around Columbus'
Spaniards. They furtively felt my coat, to see of what material it was
made. They would have been happy to have examined the articles of my
clothing, one by one. Perhaps, even, they would have liked to break me
in two or three pieces, in order to study the inner mechanism of a
lord, but I am sure that they would have done it with profuse excuses,
and not without asking pardon for the liberty.
Mrs. Simons soon lost patience; she did not like to be examined so
closely by these cheese-eaters, who offered her no breakfast. No one
likes to be made a spectacle of. The role of "living curiosity" very
much displeased the good woman, although she had filled it
advantageously in all countries of the globe. As for Mary-Ann, she was
overcome with fatigue. A ride of six hours, hunger, emotion, surprise,
had worn out this delicate creature. Imagine this young girl, brought up
delicately, accustomed to walk on carpets, or upon the velvety turf of
parks. Her shoes were already nearly off her feet, worn out by the
roughness of the path, and the bushes had torn her dress. Only the
evening before she had taken tea in the parlors of the English Legation,
while looking over the beautiful albums belonging to Mr. Wyse. She now
found herself transported into a frightful country, in the midst of a
crowd of savages, and she had not the consolation of saying: "It is a
dream!" because she was neither in bed, nor even seated, but standing,
in great despair, on her two weary little feet.
A band now surrounded us, which rendered our position intolerable. It
was not a band of thieves; it was worse. The Greeks carry upon their
persons a whole menagerie of little animals, agile, capricious, not
seizable, who cling to them night and day, give them occupation even
when asleep, and by their jumps and their stings, accelerate the action
of the mind, and the circulation of the blood. The fleas of the
brigands, of which I can show some specimens in my Entomological
collection, are very much larger, stronger and more agile than their
city cousins; the open country air possesses virtue so powerful! I soon
perceived that they were not content with their lot, and that they found
more to their taste, the fine skin of a young German than the tough hide
of their masters. An emigrating army settled upon me. I felt, at first,
an uneasy sensation around the ankles: it was the declaration of war.
Two minutes later, an advance guard threw itself upon the calf of my
right leg; it reached my knee. I was out-flanked, and all resistance
became useless. If I had been alone, I might have been more successful
in the combat.
I dared neither complain nor defend myself; I heroically hid my sorrows
and did not raise my eyes.
At last, at the end of my patience, and determined to escape, by flight,
from the pests, I demanded to be taken before the King. This recalled
our guides to their duty. They asked the whereabouts of Hadgi-Stavros.
The reply was that he was at work in his offices.
"At last," said Mrs. Simons, "I can seat myself in an easy chair."
She took my arm, offered hers to her daughter, and walked, with a
deliberate step, in the direction in which the crowd conducted us. The
offices were not far from the camp, and we reached them in five minutes.
The offices of the King resembled other offices, as the bandits' camp
was like to other camps. There were neither tables, chairs nor
furniture of any sort. Hadgi-Stavros was seated, tailor-fashion, upon a
square of carpet, under the shade of a fir tree. Four secretaries and
two servants sat around him.
A young boy of sixteen or eighteen, was incessantly occupied in filling,
lighting and cleaning his master's chibouk. He wore at his belt a
tobacco bag, embroidered with gold and fine pearls, and a pair of silver
tongs, used for taking out coals. Another servant passed his days
preparing cups of coffee, glasses of water and syrup, destined for the
royal mouth.
The secretaries, seated on the bare rock, wrote with cut reeds, upon
their knees. Each of them had a long copper box containing reeds, a
knife and an inkstand. Some tin cylinders, like those in which soldiers
keep their papers, served as a place of safety for their archives. The
paper was not poor, for the reason that each sheet bore in capitals the
word "Bath."
The King was an old man, marvelously well-preserved, straight, thin,
supple as a steel spring, clean and shining as a new sword. His long,
white mustaches hung over the chin, like two marble stalactites. The
rest of his face was scrupulously shaved, the cranium bare as far as the
occiput, where a great mass of white hair flowed down from under his
bonnet. The expression of his face was calm and reflective. A pair of
small, clear blue eyes, and a square-cut chin denoted an inflexible
will. His face was long, and the many long wrinkles added to its length.
Every fold in his forehead seemed to break in the middle and diverge
toward the meeting of his eyebrows; two wide and deep furrows descended
to the corners of the lips, as if the weight of the mustaches dragged
down the muscles of the face. I have seen a great number of
septuagenarians, I have even dissected one who would have attained a
hundred, if the diligence from Osnabruck had not passed over his body;
but I never remembered having seen an old man fresher and more robust
than Hadgi-Stavros.
He wore the dress of Tino and all the islands of the Archipelago. His
red bonnet formed a large fold around his forehead. He wore a black
vest, heavily embroidered with black silk, immense blue trousers which
must have taken twenty metres of cotton stuff, and large boots of Russia
leather, solid yet supple. The only richness about his costume, was a
belt decked with gold and precious stones, worth two or three thousand
francs. Thrust in it, was a purse of embroidered cashmere, a Damascus
blade in a silver sheath, a long pistol, mounted with gold and rubies,
and a ramrod, similarly decorated.
Immovable in the midst of his secretaries, the King moved only his lips
and his fingers; his lips to dictate his letters, his fingers to tell
off the beads of his rosary. It was one of those beautiful milk-white
amber rosaries which serve, not only to mark the number of prayers, but
to amuse the solemn idleness of the Turks.
He raised his head at our approach, divined, by a glance, what had
brought us to him, and said, with a gravity, not at all ironical; "You
are very welcome! Be seated."
"Monsieur," cried Mrs. Simons, "I am English, and----"
He interrupted the discourse: "All in good time," he said; "I am
occupied." He spoke in Greek and Mrs. Simons understood only English,
but the King's face was so expressive, that the good woman easily
comprehended what he meant without the aid of an interpreter. We sat
down on the ground. Fifteen or twenty brigands crouched around us, and
the King, who had no secrets to hide, dictated family letters as well as
those pertaining to business. The leader of the band which had arrested
us, went to him and whispered in his ear. He haughtily answered: "What
of that? I am doing nothing wrong, and the whole world is welcome to
hear me. Go, seat thyself; Thou, Spiro, write: it is to my daughter."
After he had vigorously blown his nose, he dictated in a grave, yet
sweet voice:
"My Dear Child:
"The preceptress of the school writes to me that thy health is much
improved and that the severe cold with which thou wast troubled,
has left thee with the cold winter weather. But she is not pleased
with thy lack of application, and complains that thou hast done
nothing with thy studies during the month of April. Mme. Mavros
writes that thou hast become distrait, and that thou sittest with
thy elbow on thy book, thy eyes looking at nothing, as if thou wert
thinking of something else. I know that it is unnecessary to tell
thee to work assiduously. Follow the example of my life. If I had
taken it easy, as many do, I should never have reached the position
which I occupy in society. I wish to have thee worthy of me, that
is why I make great sacrifices for thy education. Thou knowest
that I have never refused thee the masters nor the books for which
thou hast asked; but my money must profit by it. The set of 'Walter
Scott,' has arrived at Piraeus, also the 'Robinson,' and all the
other English books thou hast said that thou didst wish to read;
have our friends in the Rue d'Hèrmes get them from the Custom-House
for thee. Thou wilt receive, at the same time, the bracelet which
thou desirest, and that steel machine for puffing out thy skirts.
If the piano from Vienna is not as good as thou toldest me, and it
seems necessary that thou shouldst have another, thou shalt have
it. I shall do one or two villages, after the sales of the harvest,
and the Devil will be against me, if I cannot find enough money for
a pretty piano. I think, as thou dost, that thou must learn music.
Use thy Sundays in the way I have told thee, and profit by the
kindness of our friends. Thou must learn to speak French, English,
and above all, German. Because, thou art not to live forever in
this ridiculous country, and I would rather see thee dead than
married to a Greek. Daughter of a King, thou shouldst, by right,
marry a Prince. I do not mean, a prince of smugglers, like all our
Fanariot families, who pride themselves on their descent from
Oriental emperors, and whom I would not have for servants; but a
Prince, reigning and crowned. One can find some very good ones in
Germany, and my fortune will enable me to choose one of them. If
these Germans come to reign in this country, I do not see why thou
canst not reign there, in thy turn. Make haste, then, to learn the
language, and tell me in thy next letter of the progress thou hast
made. My child, I embrace thee tenderly, and I send thee, with thy
quarter's allowance, my paternal blessing."
Mrs. Simons leaned toward me and whispered: "Is he dictating our
sentence to his brigands?"