CHAPTERIX.
Vessel hired for Dr. M.’s departure—Lady Hester’s intention of writing her Memoirs—Letter from Lady Hester to Sir Francis Burdett—From Lady Hester to Count Wilsensheim—Events of the Druze insurrection—Inexpediency of M. Guys’s removal from Beyrout—Letter from Dr. M. to Count Wilsensheim—Letter from Lady Hester Stanhope to the Baron de Busech—Lady Hester immured—Principal reason of Dr. M.’s return to Europe—His adieux—Passage to Cyprus—Reception by Signor Baldassare Mattei—Provisions in Cyprus—Mademoiselle Longchamps—Letter from Lady Hester to Dr. M.—Commissions—Second Letter from Lady Hester to Dr. M.—Third Letter from Lady Hester to Dr. M.—Advice—Obligations—Violence of temper—Mr. U.—General Loustaunau—Logmagi and the muleteer—Fourth Letter from Lady Hester to Dr. M.—Correspondence of the first Lord Chatham—Lady Hester’s death—Conclusion.
Monday, July 16.—I went to Beyrout to see Monsieur Jorelle, the chancellor and chief interpreter of the French consulate (whose lady has inspired the pen of M. Lamartine in some beautiful lines to be found in hisSouvenirs de l’Orient), in order to makethe necessary arrangements for Lady Hester’s letters, should any come, and to acquaint him and others with her extraordinary resolution to immure herself. I executed her orders and delivered her message punctually; but, I must say, I did not believe she would put such a determination into execution. However, I was much deceived; for, on my return to Jôon, I found she had already employed Logmagi to hire a boat to convey me and my family to Cyprus, seeing I took no steps to do so myself. Now, therefore, that her mind was made up, and knowing that, when that was the case, nothing on earth could shake her resolution, I employed the short space that remained in setting her house in order, in writing her letters, and in taking her instructions for such things as would be useful to her in Europe.
I rode down to Sayda to see the vessel which had been hired. It was a small schooner of Castel Rosso, with a Greek crew, the most cut-throat looking dogs I ever beheld. The passage-money had been agreed for by Logmagi at one thousand piasters, for a run of one hundred miles—a round sum of money for the distance in that country, where a single passenger often goes across in a trading-vessel for two piasters, or about ten-pence English. The captain accompanied me to M. Conti’s, the French agent, where an agreement was drawn up that he was to remain inwaiting fifteen days, at the expiration of which time, I, (if not ready to sail,) was to pay him thirty piasters a day for as many days as he was kept over his time. The sinister looks of the captain made me almost afraid to close the bargain with him. He had eyes protruding from their sockets so far, that, when he was arguing about the price of the passage, they stood out just as if the cavity of the skull had been puffed up with wind: and Lady Hester had, on some occasion, told me that was a sign of a murderer. I recollected, too, that it was in just such a schooner, a few years before, four or five Europeans had been murdered and thrown overboard in a passage from Syria to Cyprus;[34]and, coupling these circumstances together, I felt uneasy. It is true, the man was known to Monsieur Conti, as having once brought a freight of deals to Sayda; but only once. Logmagi, too, assured me he had frequented his house at Castel Rosso; and I was aware that, if I expressed any apprehensions to Lady Hester Stanhope, she would call them frivolous. I therefore signed the paper, and it was left to be registered in the chancery, for which the fees charged to the captain, as he told me afterwards, were some thirty or forty piasters. I was so far right in my conjectures about the captain’s murdering propensities,that, when we were on our passage, he related a story of his having been one of the crew of a vessel which took a Turkish ship, every one of which was butchered in cold blood.
My family was made acquainted with what I had done, and the business of packing began on the morrow.
The following days I was by Lady Hester’s bedside from three to five hours every morning, and after dinner in the saloon with her from eight or half-past eight until twelve, one, or two o’clock. She repeated over again many of her stories with a view of impressing them, as I suppose, on my memory: for, having told her one day that if she would give herself the trouble of writing her Memoirs, she might pay her debts from the sale of such a work, she only laughed, and said, “Ah, well! when I get better, I shall tell you a few more anecdotes to make a book of, since you think it would be so profitable:” and, whenever, after dictating a letter, I wrote it out fairly, and gave the foul copy, together with the fair one, to her, she would take the latter, and say, “You may keep the other:” or, if she had reasons for wishing the contents to remain a secret, she would take them both, and put them by in her portfolio, and then I heard no more of the foul copy. It was thus she sometimes told me Eastern stories, after I had made some accidental observations on the charm that these little stories seemed to possessfor European readers, as was manifested in the praises bestowed on those in M. Lamartine’s work. Had her health been good, and had the course of events gone on peaceably, I am inclined to think she would have listened to my suggestion, and have dictated her memoirs to me. On some occasions, it was her custom to say—“Now, don’t go and write that down:” on others, “You have kept no copy of such and such a letter of mine,” and “You have destroyed such a paper; give me your word:” when I was obliged to answer categorically.
I was at last worn out with fatigue from long sittings and these various occupations, not the least of which was to put her affairs in such order, that, when she shut herself up, she should be in want of nothing, have nothing to pay, nothing to write, meet with no interruptions to her seclusion, and be dead to the world. All this I did, as far as I was able.
July 20.—Lady Hester dictated the following letter to Sir Francis Burdett, in answer to the one she had received on the 6th ultimo.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Sir Francis Burdett, Bart.
Jôon, July 20, 1838.My dear Burdett,I am no fool, neither are you: but you might pass for one, if in good earnest you did not understand myletter. You tell me what is self-evident—that I have no right to inherit Colonel Needham’s property, &c.: neither had your daughter any right to inherit Mr. Coutts’s property: but, in all probability, his wife, being aware that you and your family stood high in his estimation, paid that compliment to his memory. Lord Kilmorey, who had no children, being aware of General Needham’s partiality towards Mr. Pitt, might, by his will, have allowed the property to return to the remaining branch of the Pitt family. Do not be afraid that I am going to give you any fresh trouble about this affair, notwithstanding I believe that you were some time hatching this stupid answer; but I do not owe you any grudge, as I know that it does not come from you:—I know where it comes from.A lion of the desert, being caught in the huntsman’s net, called in vain to the beasts of the field to assist him, and received from them about as shuffling an answer as I have received from you, and previously from Lord H********. A little field mouse gnawed the master-knot, and called to the lion to make a great effort, which burst the noose, and out came the lion stronger than ever.I am now about building up every avenue to my premises, and there shall wait with patience, immured within the walls, till it please God to send me a little mouse: and whoever presumes to force my retirement,by scaling my walls or anything of the like, will be received by me as Lord Camelford would have received them.Hester Lucy Stanhope.[35]
Jôon, July 20, 1838.
My dear Burdett,
I am no fool, neither are you: but you might pass for one, if in good earnest you did not understand myletter. You tell me what is self-evident—that I have no right to inherit Colonel Needham’s property, &c.: neither had your daughter any right to inherit Mr. Coutts’s property: but, in all probability, his wife, being aware that you and your family stood high in his estimation, paid that compliment to his memory. Lord Kilmorey, who had no children, being aware of General Needham’s partiality towards Mr. Pitt, might, by his will, have allowed the property to return to the remaining branch of the Pitt family. Do not be afraid that I am going to give you any fresh trouble about this affair, notwithstanding I believe that you were some time hatching this stupid answer; but I do not owe you any grudge, as I know that it does not come from you:—I know where it comes from.
A lion of the desert, being caught in the huntsman’s net, called in vain to the beasts of the field to assist him, and received from them about as shuffling an answer as I have received from you, and previously from Lord H********. A little field mouse gnawed the master-knot, and called to the lion to make a great effort, which burst the noose, and out came the lion stronger than ever.
I am now about building up every avenue to my premises, and there shall wait with patience, immured within the walls, till it please God to send me a little mouse: and whoever presumes to force my retirement,by scaling my walls or anything of the like, will be received by me as Lord Camelford would have received them.
Hester Lucy Stanhope.[35]
Tuesday, July 24.—Her ladyship dictated another letter to Count Wilsensheim. It was written in French, like all those addressed to foreigners, but which have all been given translated: for the style of Lady Hester’s French was composed of Anglicisms, and, in turning them into her native tongue, the very expressions which she would have used seemed naturally to present themselves.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Count Wilsensheim, Chamberlainto His Imperial Majesty, &c. &c.
Jôon, June 24, 1838.Sir Count,I have delayed answering your amiable letter until I thought your voyage was over. I am happy that his Royal Highness quitted this country when he did; not because of the plague—the season was gone bythis year for that—but because of the aspect of affairs, and of the Druze insurrection, which has grown considerably hotter, and which would have made it impossible to travel with any comfort.Ibrahim Pasha began the war in the Horàn with forty-five thousand men; the Druzes had but seven thousand, assisted by some tribes of the Arabs of the Desert. Ibrahim Pasha has lost thirty thousand, between Nizàm troops (as they are called), Sugmans, and Albanians, without reckoning the wounded. The Druze army, I believe, does not at present exceed two thousand five hundred men: but each man of that two thousand five hundred is singly worth twenty. The last seat of the war was about fourteen leagues distant in a strait line from my residence. The Druzes, after having well beaten Ibrahim Pasha and killed some of his officers, retreated to the Horàn, pursued by the Pasha.You no doubt are aware that his Highness the Pasha, in concert with the Emir Beshýr, disarmed the Druzes some time ago by a stratagem, which gave the government means to take their sons as conscripts for thenizàm. After that, they, in like manner, disarmed the Christians: but necessity has compelled the pasha lately to give them their arms again, in order to enable the son of the Emir Beshýr to join the pasha’s forces with a reinforcement of Christians,which he stood in need of to garrison the skirts of the mountain on the side of the Bkâa. The Druzes killed a great many of these Christians, and they could have annihilated them: but they said to them, “You are not to blame: it goes against us to exterminate you, for we have always lived with you on friendly terms; but we will slay without pity every Christian we find in arms, excepting those of the mountain.”The French government has done an imprudent thing in removing Mr. Consul Guys from his post at Beyrout; because that gentleman had very extensive connexions amongst the bishops and priests, and all the numerous sects of Christians found on Mount Lebanon; and, by his information and experience, had means of giving them good advice. For, if by chance those Christians gave heed to bad counsel, it might not be impossible that half the Franks who inhabit this country would be massacred by the Nabloosians, the Druzes, the Ansaréas, the Ishmäelites, the Shemsíahs, the Kelbías, and the Koords in general, who occupy the country between Mount Lebanon and Aleppo on the side of Gebel el Segaun, not far from Antioch.As I know how to speak no language but that of the Orientals, you will forgive me, Sir Count, if I call you the Pope’s Grand Vizir. It devolves, therefore, on you to think of a way to make Monsieur Guysreturn to the post which he has just quitted:—a thing, in my opinion, very necessary both for the safety of the country, and of the Europeans in it. I have a great esteem for Monsieur Guys, but I see him so seldom, that, whether he is far or near, it is pretty much the same to me. As for the Christians here, I do not interest myself more about them than about other men—perhaps less; not on account of their religion, but of their qualities, of which egotism and perfidy are marked characteristics in most of them. As a religion is with me neither more nor less than a costume of adoration, it is all one whether it is green, white, blue, or black. To me it is all the same whether a man prostrates himself before a piece of wood, or before a cockle-shell, as the Metoualis do, provided his heart addresses itself to the Almighty.Perhaps for saying this, you will have me crucified by the Pope: never mind—if it is my lot, I shall not repine; since, whatever is decreed must necessarily happen: but it is not necessary, for all that, by a want of policy, to make civil wars break out, which would do no good to anybody, and which would not turn to any account, even for those who stirred them up: neither is it proper to remove those to a distance, who have the means of pacifying the disputants, should the case require it.If I had had the happiness of seeing you, I wouldhave asked you if you had ever seen the prophecy of a certain Pope, whose leaden coffin was found about seventy years ago: that prophecy has great analogy with some Oriental ones.Hester Lucy Stanhope.
Jôon, June 24, 1838.
Sir Count,
I have delayed answering your amiable letter until I thought your voyage was over. I am happy that his Royal Highness quitted this country when he did; not because of the plague—the season was gone bythis year for that—but because of the aspect of affairs, and of the Druze insurrection, which has grown considerably hotter, and which would have made it impossible to travel with any comfort.
Ibrahim Pasha began the war in the Horàn with forty-five thousand men; the Druzes had but seven thousand, assisted by some tribes of the Arabs of the Desert. Ibrahim Pasha has lost thirty thousand, between Nizàm troops (as they are called), Sugmans, and Albanians, without reckoning the wounded. The Druze army, I believe, does not at present exceed two thousand five hundred men: but each man of that two thousand five hundred is singly worth twenty. The last seat of the war was about fourteen leagues distant in a strait line from my residence. The Druzes, after having well beaten Ibrahim Pasha and killed some of his officers, retreated to the Horàn, pursued by the Pasha.
You no doubt are aware that his Highness the Pasha, in concert with the Emir Beshýr, disarmed the Druzes some time ago by a stratagem, which gave the government means to take their sons as conscripts for thenizàm. After that, they, in like manner, disarmed the Christians: but necessity has compelled the pasha lately to give them their arms again, in order to enable the son of the Emir Beshýr to join the pasha’s forces with a reinforcement of Christians,which he stood in need of to garrison the skirts of the mountain on the side of the Bkâa. The Druzes killed a great many of these Christians, and they could have annihilated them: but they said to them, “You are not to blame: it goes against us to exterminate you, for we have always lived with you on friendly terms; but we will slay without pity every Christian we find in arms, excepting those of the mountain.”
The French government has done an imprudent thing in removing Mr. Consul Guys from his post at Beyrout; because that gentleman had very extensive connexions amongst the bishops and priests, and all the numerous sects of Christians found on Mount Lebanon; and, by his information and experience, had means of giving them good advice. For, if by chance those Christians gave heed to bad counsel, it might not be impossible that half the Franks who inhabit this country would be massacred by the Nabloosians, the Druzes, the Ansaréas, the Ishmäelites, the Shemsíahs, the Kelbías, and the Koords in general, who occupy the country between Mount Lebanon and Aleppo on the side of Gebel el Segaun, not far from Antioch.
As I know how to speak no language but that of the Orientals, you will forgive me, Sir Count, if I call you the Pope’s Grand Vizir. It devolves, therefore, on you to think of a way to make Monsieur Guysreturn to the post which he has just quitted:—a thing, in my opinion, very necessary both for the safety of the country, and of the Europeans in it. I have a great esteem for Monsieur Guys, but I see him so seldom, that, whether he is far or near, it is pretty much the same to me. As for the Christians here, I do not interest myself more about them than about other men—perhaps less; not on account of their religion, but of their qualities, of which egotism and perfidy are marked characteristics in most of them. As a religion is with me neither more nor less than a costume of adoration, it is all one whether it is green, white, blue, or black. To me it is all the same whether a man prostrates himself before a piece of wood, or before a cockle-shell, as the Metoualis do, provided his heart addresses itself to the Almighty.
Perhaps for saying this, you will have me crucified by the Pope: never mind—if it is my lot, I shall not repine; since, whatever is decreed must necessarily happen: but it is not necessary, for all that, by a want of policy, to make civil wars break out, which would do no good to anybody, and which would not turn to any account, even for those who stirred them up: neither is it proper to remove those to a distance, who have the means of pacifying the disputants, should the case require it.
If I had had the happiness of seeing you, I wouldhave asked you if you had ever seen the prophecy of a certain Pope, whose leaden coffin was found about seventy years ago: that prophecy has great analogy with some Oriental ones.
Hester Lucy Stanhope.
Lady Hester wished me also to write to the count, to let him know how it happened that Prince Pückler Muskau had been entrusted with the correspondence between herself, Lord Palmerston, his grace the Duke of Wellington, &c., &c.,: and also, as much had been said of the prince’s way of travelling at the expense of Mahomet Ali Pasha, to assure him, the count, that the prince showed no signs of stinginess when at Jôon. The next day, being Wednesday, when I could not see Lady Hester, I executed her wish.
Dr. M. to Count Wilsensheim.
Jôon, July 25, 1838.Sir Count,[36]As you appear to take a lively interest in whatever regards Lady Hester Stanhope, I hope, on that account,you will excuse me, if I join to her ladyship’s letter a few words from myself, to place in their true light some circumstances which might otherwise appear extraordinary to you.In consequence of the proceedings instituted against her ladyship by the English government, Lady Hester has resolved to shut herself up in her house, to wall up the entrance, and to bury herself, as one would say, in a tomb, until those, who have attempted to cast a stain on her integrity (the rightful inheritance, as she affirms, of the Pitt family), shall, by a signal reparation, have washed it out. She is in the act of reducing her establishment to her strict wants by discharging her servants. I myself am on the point of my departure for Europe, forced by her ladyship to go,but deeply regretting that I must leave her without a single European near her person, and without a single servant in whom she has confidence. My uneasiness, however, does not extend so far as to fear for her personal safety, although the war between the Druzes and the Pasha rages more fiercely than ever: because I know the firmness and intrepidity of her character, the resources of her mind, and the respect and dread in which the two hostile parties hold her.It is probable that her ladyship’s grievances will find their way into the public papers; for Prince Pückler Muskau, when on his visit here, was so struck with the indignities of which she continued to be the victim, that he was resolved to give some true details of it to the public. Her ladyship had found in him a man at once intelligent and kind; ready indeed to offer her his assistance to a greater extent than she was willing to accept in everything relative to her affairs.It is very extraordinary that, at that time, Lady Hester knew nothing of the avarice imputed to him, of which it was impossible she could have the least suspicion; for his stay at her house was marked by a degree of liberality in everything befitting a prince, and absolutely at variance with the reports spread about him in the places through which he has passed—reports, which astonished her ladyship as muchas they did me, since nothing of the kind was seen here.Thank God! I leave her in better health, and lively as always, just as if nothing had happened.I have the honour to be, Sir Count,Your most obedient humble servant,——
Jôon, July 25, 1838.
Sir Count,[36]
As you appear to take a lively interest in whatever regards Lady Hester Stanhope, I hope, on that account,you will excuse me, if I join to her ladyship’s letter a few words from myself, to place in their true light some circumstances which might otherwise appear extraordinary to you.
In consequence of the proceedings instituted against her ladyship by the English government, Lady Hester has resolved to shut herself up in her house, to wall up the entrance, and to bury herself, as one would say, in a tomb, until those, who have attempted to cast a stain on her integrity (the rightful inheritance, as she affirms, of the Pitt family), shall, by a signal reparation, have washed it out. She is in the act of reducing her establishment to her strict wants by discharging her servants. I myself am on the point of my departure for Europe, forced by her ladyship to go,but deeply regretting that I must leave her without a single European near her person, and without a single servant in whom she has confidence. My uneasiness, however, does not extend so far as to fear for her personal safety, although the war between the Druzes and the Pasha rages more fiercely than ever: because I know the firmness and intrepidity of her character, the resources of her mind, and the respect and dread in which the two hostile parties hold her.
It is probable that her ladyship’s grievances will find their way into the public papers; for Prince Pückler Muskau, when on his visit here, was so struck with the indignities of which she continued to be the victim, that he was resolved to give some true details of it to the public. Her ladyship had found in him a man at once intelligent and kind; ready indeed to offer her his assistance to a greater extent than she was willing to accept in everything relative to her affairs.
It is very extraordinary that, at that time, Lady Hester knew nothing of the avarice imputed to him, of which it was impossible she could have the least suspicion; for his stay at her house was marked by a degree of liberality in everything befitting a prince, and absolutely at variance with the reports spread about him in the places through which he has passed—reports, which astonished her ladyship as muchas they did me, since nothing of the kind was seen here.
Thank God! I leave her in better health, and lively as always, just as if nothing had happened.
I have the honour to be, Sir Count,Your most obedient humble servant,——
Sunday, July 29.—The last letter which Lady Hester wrote before I left her was the following, to Charles Baron de Busech:—
Jôon, July 29, 1838.Sir Baron,Mortified as I was that circumstances prevented me from felicitating you in person on the re-establishment of your health, I am nevertheless rejoiced that you all hastened to quit Syria, seeing that the warfare between Ibrahim Pasha and the Druzes has become exceeding rancorous, and would have made travelling through the country far from agreeable. The scene of action has lately been at Rashéyah, where the Druzes have performed miracles. The Emir Beshýr’s son marched with a reinforcement to assist Ibrahim Pasha, and of this the Druzes killed just enough in the twinkling of an eye to convince the whole body that, if they, the Druzes, had not chosen to recollect they were fighting with neighbours, they could have exterminatedthem. The Emir’s son had his horse killed under him, and that prince took refuge very quickly in the mountain.When the Druzes found out that the Pasha’s artillery in the valleys cut them up dreadfully, and that personal courage was of no value, they retreated to the Horàn, where the inequality of the ground was more favourable to them. At this moment, Ibrahim Pasha is in pursuit of them, and has given orders to his Bedouin robbers, whom he brought from Egypt (a tribe which is called the Hanâdy), to run down the greatest hero the Druzes have got, and to bring him alive; being so struck with the courage of the man, that he would willingly employ him in his own service. Poor Pasha! I fancy he has made a bad calculation, in thinking that one of the family of Arriàn, men accustomed like their ancestors to rule with sovereign authority in their castle at Gendal, would ever become a vile slave to save his wife. Shibly el Arriàn is not only a hero in battle but a Demosthenes in council: he makes even the great tremble by the language he holds.[37]An order has just been issued by the Emir Beshýr to search the dwellings of the Druzes afresh for concealed arms, and to take from them their horses: this is, at best, a great piece of imprudence, because, seeing that many of the cavaliers would sooner fly than give up their horses, he will thus increase the number of insurgents in the Horàn. Ibrahim Pasha with the wreck of his army, of which he has lost full thirty thousand without counting the wounded, cannot, if he does not soon make peace and come to some composition, do much more with the Druzes.This is the state of affairs at this present moment; but it is difficult to get at the truth. Even your friend L., if he knows anything, dares not avow it: but what such sort of people know is so little—their information is so confined—they are all so ignorant of the true character, of the projects, and of the resources of the different races that inhabit Syria—that the reasonings they make are about as false as a fairy tale.I have the honour to be, Sir Baron,With all esteem and consideration,Yours,H. L. Stanhope.
Jôon, July 29, 1838.
Sir Baron,
Mortified as I was that circumstances prevented me from felicitating you in person on the re-establishment of your health, I am nevertheless rejoiced that you all hastened to quit Syria, seeing that the warfare between Ibrahim Pasha and the Druzes has become exceeding rancorous, and would have made travelling through the country far from agreeable. The scene of action has lately been at Rashéyah, where the Druzes have performed miracles. The Emir Beshýr’s son marched with a reinforcement to assist Ibrahim Pasha, and of this the Druzes killed just enough in the twinkling of an eye to convince the whole body that, if they, the Druzes, had not chosen to recollect they were fighting with neighbours, they could have exterminatedthem. The Emir’s son had his horse killed under him, and that prince took refuge very quickly in the mountain.
When the Druzes found out that the Pasha’s artillery in the valleys cut them up dreadfully, and that personal courage was of no value, they retreated to the Horàn, where the inequality of the ground was more favourable to them. At this moment, Ibrahim Pasha is in pursuit of them, and has given orders to his Bedouin robbers, whom he brought from Egypt (a tribe which is called the Hanâdy), to run down the greatest hero the Druzes have got, and to bring him alive; being so struck with the courage of the man, that he would willingly employ him in his own service. Poor Pasha! I fancy he has made a bad calculation, in thinking that one of the family of Arriàn, men accustomed like their ancestors to rule with sovereign authority in their castle at Gendal, would ever become a vile slave to save his wife. Shibly el Arriàn is not only a hero in battle but a Demosthenes in council: he makes even the great tremble by the language he holds.[37]
An order has just been issued by the Emir Beshýr to search the dwellings of the Druzes afresh for concealed arms, and to take from them their horses: this is, at best, a great piece of imprudence, because, seeing that many of the cavaliers would sooner fly than give up their horses, he will thus increase the number of insurgents in the Horàn. Ibrahim Pasha with the wreck of his army, of which he has lost full thirty thousand without counting the wounded, cannot, if he does not soon make peace and come to some composition, do much more with the Druzes.
This is the state of affairs at this present moment; but it is difficult to get at the truth. Even your friend L., if he knows anything, dares not avow it: but what such sort of people know is so little—their information is so confined—they are all so ignorant of the true character, of the projects, and of the resources of the different races that inhabit Syria—that the reasonings they make are about as false as a fairy tale.
I have the honour to be, Sir Baron,With all esteem and consideration,Yours,H. L. Stanhope.
Monday, July 30.—The mason had been sent for from Sayda, and stones and materials had been collected for walling-up the gateway. Lady Hesterdrew out on paper the exact manner in which she wished it to be done. It was a screen, which completely masked the gateway, and left a side opening just large enough for a cow or an ass laden with water to enter. I superintended this work of self-inhumation, the like of which never entered woman’s mind before. It was an affair of two days, Monday and Tuesday.
Tuesday, July 31.—To-day, I spoke to Lady Hester medically for the last time. Her pulse had recovered much of its wonted strength, and although there were periods when she coughed violently, still the struggles of a naturally good constitution and powerful lungs had enabled her to hold out against the most formidable attack of pulmonary catarrh that I had ever seen a human being withstand.
Thursday, August 2.—As no letters came from Prince Pückler Muskau, and as it was evident some reason had prevented him from fulfilling his promise of publishing Lady Hester’s correspondence, she now gave me her final instructions on that head. I am disposed to believe it was the strong desire that possessed her to ensure the publication of her letters in the newspapers, which, amidst much hesitation and wavering, made her decide on my departure; for she knew she could rely on me, and the publicity of her grievances now seemed to be the paramount object in herthoughts. Her anxiety on this point was so great that, lest any accident might happen to the MS. by shipwreck or otherwise, she had a second copy made of the whole correspondence, which was to be left with her, whilst I retained the originals.
Her own conviction was that her constitution was invulnerable—she thought she should yet live to see her enemies confounded, the Sultan triumphant, her debts paid, and an ample income at her disposal. She dwelt with the same apparent confidence as ever on the approaching advent of the Mehedi, and still looked on her mare, Leila, as destined to bear him, with herself on Lûlû by his side. “I shall not die in my bed,” she would say, “and I had rather not; my brother did not, and I have always had a feeling that my end would be in blood: that does not frighten me in the least.”
From August the 1st until the 6th, I was too much employed to take notes. On the fourth, the fifteen days agreed on with the captain were at an end, and he became importunate for our departure. But, now that the moment of separation had arrived, Lady Hester had some misgivings, and seemed to wish to defer it: I accordingly paid a first day’s forfeit, then a second, then a third. At last, however, on Monday, August the 6th, 1838, I took an affectionate leave of her, and never saw her more.
On quitting her I said—“It is better that I should not see you to-morrow, even though I should not set off early.”—“You do right,” she replied: “let this be our parting.”—“But you have no money,” I observed: “how will you do for your current expenses?”—“It’s true,” she answered; “I must thank you to lend me 2000 piasters before you go, and I’ll repay you as soon as I can: send them in by Ibrahim—he’s an honest lad, and, even if he knew it was money, would not touch it. But, however, you had better put two or three things of no value in a little basket, and a cup and saucer, or something that weighs, as if you sent them for my use, and then the gold will lie underneath unsuspected.” This was done, and I would have sent more (for I had twice as much more by me), but when I proposed to do so her ladyship objected—remarking, “You may be blown out of your course, and be obliged to remain days and days at some port where you may want it for the necessaries of life. Two thousand will do, and, if I want more, Logmagi, I am sure, will raise me as much.”
August 7.—It was eleven in the day before we could get everything ready. As we quitted the terrace, where we had passed nearly fifteen months, my wife and daughter shed tears. The black girl, Zezefôon, was seen looking after us from the garden-wall, where she, or the other maids, had kept watch from thedawn. Our servants walked by our side to Sayda, and the secretary accompanied us.
When we were about two miles on the road, a servant was descried running after us. My heart beat—I knew not what might have happened: but his business was merely to deliver a bag he had on his shoulders, in which was a small Turkey carpet for spreading on the cabin-floor in the vessel: this Lady Hester had sent, with a message that perhaps we might find it serviceable in the passage. Even to the last moment did her kind consideration for our comforts manifest itself.
We embarked under the escort of Logmagi, amidst a crowd of persons who had collected on the strand. On board we found the entire hold neatly partitioned off by mats, which had been done by Logmagi’s care, and mats spread on the ballast; so that we had spacious and convenient berths for all the party. The schooner was fir-built, and quite new: whether this was the reason that she abounded in cockroaches I know not, or whether it was the extreme heat or her cargo that had introduced them; but there were thousands and thousands crawling in every direction, and this annoyance, added to the burning sun, made the passage far from pleasant. Our captain was named Kyriaco Candevíti, and the vessel the Thrasybulus. On Friday at sunset we anchored in Cyprus roads, andon Saturday morning were received on the seashore by our excellent and generous friend, Signor Baldassare Mattei, at the door of his marine villa, into which he ushered us, and, in the true spirit of Eastern hospitality, made himself our guest, and insisted on it that we were from that moment in our own mansion. It was the same house we had inhabited in 1832.
We remained in Cyprus three weeks, delighted with the kindness of the Europeans and natives, and revelling in the abundance for which that happy island is so famous. We were luxuriously supplied with sweet and water melons, grapes, figs, pomegranates, and other fruits, of a flavour and size passing belief. Partridges were at 2½d.each, hares at6d., a loaf of bread of the size of a quart basin at 1½d., mutton at 2d.a pound, a fine hen for 5d., and so in proportion of other things, with the exception of fish, which was rather dear.
Finding here the same vessel that had carried us to Europe in 1832 and still commanded by the same master, we took our passage by her for 1000 frs. board included, and on the 30th of August set sail. Our voyage was prosperous, and, reaching the port of Marseilles on the 7th of October, we disembarked on the 8th in the afternoon, and entered the lazaretto, where we performed quarantine for fifteen days. Then, resting ourselves for a week in a hotel at Marseilles,during which time I transmitted a copy of the correspondence to England to be inserted in the newspapers, and, leaving Miss Longchamps with her friends, we betook ourselves to Nice, where we arrived on the 2nd of November, having been absent a little more than seventeen months. In mentioning the name of Mademoiselle Longchamps for the last time, I must, even at the risk of offending her extreme delicacy, bear testimony to her amiable cheerfulness of character under all our difficulties, to her rare conversational powers, her exemplary but unobtrusive piety, and those numberless good qualities, which a close acquaintance under trying circumstances gave us such peculiar opportunities of discovering.
After my arrival at Nice, I received letters from Lady Hester about once a month, up to the time of her death. The first was dated September 30, 1838.
Dear Doctor,I cannot answer to-night the letters I have just received from you (from Cyprus), but must say two words to clear up what, to anybody but yourself, would appear but too extraordinary. The messenger, sent by Monsieur Jorelle, arrived at the moment my dinner was set before me: I looked at the direction of the letters, and gave them to Zezefôon to put by in thesame room until I had dined. When I wanted them, one of yours was not to be found; and she turned the room upside down, always with her usual impudence asking if she ate letters, &c.;—you know what beasts they all are. It cannot be lost; but where she has stuffed it God knows! Yesterday she lost a piece of fine cloth in the same way, which is not yet found:—to-morrow something else. You know them but too well, and also their impudent conduct, when they find they are in the wrong.The prince is gone to Europe. I hope soon to hear of your safe arrival in France, and I shall write to you by the next Vapour.[38]Yours sincerely,H. L. Stanhope.
Dear Doctor,
I cannot answer to-night the letters I have just received from you (from Cyprus), but must say two words to clear up what, to anybody but yourself, would appear but too extraordinary. The messenger, sent by Monsieur Jorelle, arrived at the moment my dinner was set before me: I looked at the direction of the letters, and gave them to Zezefôon to put by in thesame room until I had dined. When I wanted them, one of yours was not to be found; and she turned the room upside down, always with her usual impudence asking if she ate letters, &c.;—you know what beasts they all are. It cannot be lost; but where she has stuffed it God knows! Yesterday she lost a piece of fine cloth in the same way, which is not yet found:—to-morrow something else. You know them but too well, and also their impudent conduct, when they find they are in the wrong.
The prince is gone to Europe. I hope soon to hear of your safe arrival in France, and I shall write to you by the next Vapour.[38]
Yours sincerely,H. L. Stanhope.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Dr. M.
Jôon, October 22, 1838.Dear Doctor,I hope soon to hear of your safe arrival at Marseilles, and take the first opportunity of repaying you the 2,000 piasters, for the loan of which I am very much obliged to you. I enclose a bill on Coutts for £50—twenty for you and thirty for commissions.What I immediately want (and, supposing you are at Nice, if procured by your friend, Captain Pardoe, will be better, as he understands these things), is—Some dried cherries and Burgundy apricots, simply dried like raisins, if such are to be had at Marseilles, eight or ten pounds of each;Small covered pans for milk;Three wire blinds for the milk-room, fine, that flies cannot enter, each three spans square, or about half an ell;Some wire covers for the milk-pans;Pots and jugs of different sizes;A supply of yellow and red earthenware.I forgot to ask you, when you were here, if there were kettles in iron like tin ones, and coffee-pots: for they would be of great use, as tin is destroyed in a day, and a large boiler would stand better on the fire than a tin kettle—for always, I mean—and better for my kitchen: better also for the milkboy, to wash up his pots and pans. I want too some iron spoons, and some wooden ladles and skimmers.I should like to have Miss Pardoe’s book on Constantinople, if it is come out, for strangers; for, I fear, I never could get through with it myself, no more than the others you have sent me; but I must trust to chance. This just puts me in mind that one of the books I should like to have would be Graham’sDomestic Medicine—a good Red Book (Peerage, I mean)—and the book about the Prince of Wales, George the Fourth.I have found out a person who can occasionally read French to me: so, if there was any very pleasing French book, you might send it—but no Bonapartes, &c., or “present times”—and a littlebrochureor two upon baking, pastry, gardening, &c.:—some haricot seeds, and also dahlias of different colours.Are there no iron candlesticks for lamps, for the servants to work by at night? for my new people shall work like other servants: besides, in out-of-door rooms, there are no lamps to see by, and those thick glass globes, with two or three burners, would be useful. Add, also, some inkstands of thick glass, with a tray of tin or japan, like a coffee-tray.I should think it right of you to send a line of certificate to Lord H., in case he should want it, just saying, “I have had a letter from Lady Hester Stanhope, in which she requests me to give your lordship, in writing, my opinion of her health,” &c.; then the essence of the said certificate to be (if you think so) “that, having known Lady Hester nearly thirty years, I can safely say that I never have yet seen such a constitution; that the most severe illnesses often have not appeared to attack or impair the stamina of it; that,” &c. &c.I have had a very kind letter from the Prince [Pückler Muskau]; he is gone to Europe, or, at least, is on his way: his slaves, &c., went by Leghorn. He says, there were difficulties respecting the Queen’s letter in Germany; but he has another plan. He desires to be kindly remembered to you.If I inquire about your health, or that of your family, it will be in my own way, with interest, and perhaps giving some opinion, which, as usual, may be taken ill: so I shall say nothing, either now or hereafter, on that subject. I strained my eyes to write a long letter, now before me, about your complaint on the chest; but I shall burn it. Everybody is laid up here; Logmagi with a bad fever, as also Mustafa and the cowboy; Mohammed with a fit of the gout, unable to walk or stir: Fatôom, half with whims, always under the coverlet; Zezefôon ill, but keeping to her work. The early rain has caused illness everywhere.Arriàn’s troops being so diminished, and his resources failing, owing to want of assistance from the other Druzes, who hung back after Ibrahim Pasha’s declaration that he would burn all Druze property in the mountain, he has surrendered, they say severely wounded by the Arabs of his party for being a traitor in their eyes. Affairs are, therefore, a little quiet in that quarter for the present; but, towards Aleppo, the Kûrds and Turkmans are very troublesome, and everyone seems alarmed. Corn has risen to a terrible price, and barley there is none: though some, they say, has been brought to Beyrout.Twenty-five thousand purses have been found with the cheating Yazjees,[39]who are in a sad position. Four or five hundred families will be implicated in this business, and ruined by their want of honesty. The mountain is in a very disturbed state; but my habitation is well walled in, and the weight of all on poor me; for Logmagi is at Sayda. No letters from England.So far till to-day; afterwards I shall not be able to give you any account of myself, as I suffer so by writing. The spectacles always cause me such a vast pain, that I cannot stand it: and, besides, it lasts all day, or next day. I was going to say, pray save your eyes, and do not read so much useless trash: but I forgot—I will never give you any more advice.Mr. M., whom you did not see at Cyprus, has offered to serve me as secretary and to arrange my servants, he living at his own expense at Jôon or someother village; but, as he refused all salary, I could not do otherwise than refuse his offer.This is my last long letter.Yours sincerely,H. L. S.PS.—The steamer is expected in two days—perhaps it may bring news.
Jôon, October 22, 1838.
Dear Doctor,
I hope soon to hear of your safe arrival at Marseilles, and take the first opportunity of repaying you the 2,000 piasters, for the loan of which I am very much obliged to you. I enclose a bill on Coutts for £50—twenty for you and thirty for commissions.
What I immediately want (and, supposing you are at Nice, if procured by your friend, Captain Pardoe, will be better, as he understands these things), is—
Some dried cherries and Burgundy apricots, simply dried like raisins, if such are to be had at Marseilles, eight or ten pounds of each;
Small covered pans for milk;
Three wire blinds for the milk-room, fine, that flies cannot enter, each three spans square, or about half an ell;
Some wire covers for the milk-pans;
Pots and jugs of different sizes;
A supply of yellow and red earthenware.
I forgot to ask you, when you were here, if there were kettles in iron like tin ones, and coffee-pots: for they would be of great use, as tin is destroyed in a day, and a large boiler would stand better on the fire than a tin kettle—for always, I mean—and better for my kitchen: better also for the milkboy, to wash up his pots and pans. I want too some iron spoons, and some wooden ladles and skimmers.
I should like to have Miss Pardoe’s book on Constantinople, if it is come out, for strangers; for, I fear, I never could get through with it myself, no more than the others you have sent me; but I must trust to chance. This just puts me in mind that one of the books I should like to have would be Graham’sDomestic Medicine—a good Red Book (Peerage, I mean)—and the book about the Prince of Wales, George the Fourth.
I have found out a person who can occasionally read French to me: so, if there was any very pleasing French book, you might send it—but no Bonapartes, &c., or “present times”—and a littlebrochureor two upon baking, pastry, gardening, &c.:—some haricot seeds, and also dahlias of different colours.
Are there no iron candlesticks for lamps, for the servants to work by at night? for my new people shall work like other servants: besides, in out-of-door rooms, there are no lamps to see by, and those thick glass globes, with two or three burners, would be useful. Add, also, some inkstands of thick glass, with a tray of tin or japan, like a coffee-tray.
I should think it right of you to send a line of certificate to Lord H., in case he should want it, just saying, “I have had a letter from Lady Hester Stanhope, in which she requests me to give your lordship, in writing, my opinion of her health,” &c.; then the essence of the said certificate to be (if you think so) “that, having known Lady Hester nearly thirty years, I can safely say that I never have yet seen such a constitution; that the most severe illnesses often have not appeared to attack or impair the stamina of it; that,” &c. &c.
I have had a very kind letter from the Prince [Pückler Muskau]; he is gone to Europe, or, at least, is on his way: his slaves, &c., went by Leghorn. He says, there were difficulties respecting the Queen’s letter in Germany; but he has another plan. He desires to be kindly remembered to you.
If I inquire about your health, or that of your family, it will be in my own way, with interest, and perhaps giving some opinion, which, as usual, may be taken ill: so I shall say nothing, either now or hereafter, on that subject. I strained my eyes to write a long letter, now before me, about your complaint on the chest; but I shall burn it. Everybody is laid up here; Logmagi with a bad fever, as also Mustafa and the cowboy; Mohammed with a fit of the gout, unable to walk or stir: Fatôom, half with whims, always under the coverlet; Zezefôon ill, but keeping to her work. The early rain has caused illness everywhere.
Arriàn’s troops being so diminished, and his resources failing, owing to want of assistance from the other Druzes, who hung back after Ibrahim Pasha’s declaration that he would burn all Druze property in the mountain, he has surrendered, they say severely wounded by the Arabs of his party for being a traitor in their eyes. Affairs are, therefore, a little quiet in that quarter for the present; but, towards Aleppo, the Kûrds and Turkmans are very troublesome, and everyone seems alarmed. Corn has risen to a terrible price, and barley there is none: though some, they say, has been brought to Beyrout.
Twenty-five thousand purses have been found with the cheating Yazjees,[39]who are in a sad position. Four or five hundred families will be implicated in this business, and ruined by their want of honesty. The mountain is in a very disturbed state; but my habitation is well walled in, and the weight of all on poor me; for Logmagi is at Sayda. No letters from England.
So far till to-day; afterwards I shall not be able to give you any account of myself, as I suffer so by writing. The spectacles always cause me such a vast pain, that I cannot stand it: and, besides, it lasts all day, or next day. I was going to say, pray save your eyes, and do not read so much useless trash: but I forgot—I will never give you any more advice.
Mr. M., whom you did not see at Cyprus, has offered to serve me as secretary and to arrange my servants, he living at his own expense at Jôon or someother village; but, as he refused all salary, I could not do otherwise than refuse his offer.
This is my last long letter.
Yours sincerely,H. L. S.
PS.—The steamer is expected in two days—perhaps it may bring news.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Dr. M.
Jôon, February 9, 1839.You need not tremble this time, my dear doctor, for I am not displeased with you. The “Sir William Knighton”[40]is not worth looking into, and “Love” is not amongst them. The book of medicine is clear and well written.I have to thank you for a vast deal of trouble you have given yourself: all in the end will turn out well, I hope. I have written a few lines in answer to the “Morning Chronicle,” which you will afterwards see in “Galignani,” without doubt.What a simpleton you are sometimes! Leave my systems to me, and adopt those of your own; butdon’t blame mine, as you have done, without knowing the reason of them.Miss Pardoe’s book I have not yet looked into. The one[41]you sent me is interesting only to those who were acquainted with the persons named:—all mock taste, mock feeling, &c.; but that is the fashion. “I am this—I am that:” who ever talked such empty stuff formerly?Iwas never named by a well-bred person.There has been a vast deal of rain this year; but not very cold: the house nearly as usual. My cough continues—my spirits the same.A hyena came into the garden the other day, and Ibrahim Beytàr killed it with only a bludgeon, and brought me the skin: it is the first wild beast of the kind that has been so daring this winter. The dogs frightened the animal so much on the outside that it scaled the wall.Let me hear when you leave Nice. I should think England would be a very unpleasantséjourin the present state of affairs; Switzerland, perhaps, more healthy, cheaper, and more agreeable, until you see distinctly the turn things take and my affairs settled. You do not mention your health; therefore, I hope it is not to be complained of at this moment.Shut up, as I am, I can have no news:—advice youtake ill, and call it scolding. I am too much obliged to Captain Pardoe for having undertaken my commissions. I have safely received the stockings you had the attention to send me. * * * *You must promise to state to me fairly the impression my affairs make with the English, and what sort, what class of English.Arriàn has been bribed, and is now raising a regiment of two thousand for Ibrahim Pasha. There will be hard work here ere long. It appears thekurkuby[uproar] about money was certainly the disgusting examination into the private affairs of officers in the navy at the Admiralty, and of the army at the Horse Guards: it has disgusted every one, and roused a feeling about me.[Not signed.]
Jôon, February 9, 1839.
You need not tremble this time, my dear doctor, for I am not displeased with you. The “Sir William Knighton”[40]is not worth looking into, and “Love” is not amongst them. The book of medicine is clear and well written.
I have to thank you for a vast deal of trouble you have given yourself: all in the end will turn out well, I hope. I have written a few lines in answer to the “Morning Chronicle,” which you will afterwards see in “Galignani,” without doubt.
What a simpleton you are sometimes! Leave my systems to me, and adopt those of your own; butdon’t blame mine, as you have done, without knowing the reason of them.
Miss Pardoe’s book I have not yet looked into. The one[41]you sent me is interesting only to those who were acquainted with the persons named:—all mock taste, mock feeling, &c.; but that is the fashion. “I am this—I am that:” who ever talked such empty stuff formerly?Iwas never named by a well-bred person.
There has been a vast deal of rain this year; but not very cold: the house nearly as usual. My cough continues—my spirits the same.
A hyena came into the garden the other day, and Ibrahim Beytàr killed it with only a bludgeon, and brought me the skin: it is the first wild beast of the kind that has been so daring this winter. The dogs frightened the animal so much on the outside that it scaled the wall.
Let me hear when you leave Nice. I should think England would be a very unpleasantséjourin the present state of affairs; Switzerland, perhaps, more healthy, cheaper, and more agreeable, until you see distinctly the turn things take and my affairs settled. You do not mention your health; therefore, I hope it is not to be complained of at this moment.
Shut up, as I am, I can have no news:—advice youtake ill, and call it scolding. I am too much obliged to Captain Pardoe for having undertaken my commissions. I have safely received the stockings you had the attention to send me. * * * *
You must promise to state to me fairly the impression my affairs make with the English, and what sort, what class of English.
Arriàn has been bribed, and is now raising a regiment of two thousand for Ibrahim Pasha. There will be hard work here ere long. It appears thekurkuby[uproar] about money was certainly the disgusting examination into the private affairs of officers in the navy at the Admiralty, and of the army at the Horse Guards: it has disgusted every one, and roused a feeling about me.
[Not signed.]
Lady Hester Stanhope to Dr. M.
Jôon, March 11, 1839.I send you something to get put into a newspaper: I think it is not bad. Some day, I shall write amanifesto, which will be superb, and open people’s eyes in all directions. * * * * *I would have sent you Sir William Knighton’swork; but I suppose you can get it where you are, and it would not amuse you: it speaks of nothing but common-place things. He has kept only—or, at least, they have published only—formal letters, and which throw little light on anything.Miss Pardoe is very excellent upon many subjects; only there is too much of what the English like—stars, winds, black shades, soft sounds, &c. The Arabic story you ask me for, I have already dictated to the prince. I know many others; but they are too long. Are you going to write a book?I believe your eyes and ears will be opened too late. You will then see, to your cost, that admonitions (called scoldings) were the highest compliment I could pay a man in your situation, by endeavouring to raise his mind to the altitude necessary to exist (one may say) in a wreck of worlds. If you were so uneasy at Jôon, how will your nerves bear what you will be doomed to see? but, when this time comes, no more advice from me to you or any one: let all pick their way, and abide by the consequences. Words are nothing: the hearts of men must be cleansed of all the vain idle stuff they now cherish as a sort of safeguard or escape-boat to evils of all kind. If the naked savage, who has the feelings of a man, is not in highfavour with the Almighty, and placed in a higher situation (if he continues to do his duty) than the educated mylord, the pedant, the gentleman, as it is called, without either conscience, talent, or money, I know nothing; and you may reproach me hereafter in the harshest possible terms.It is a very mean spirit which fears obligation: we are under obligations of the most serious nature every day to the horse, the ass, the cow, &c. All the stuff persons now call spirit are the vulgar ideas of the lowest and least philosophical of human beings. What should I think of my deserted self, were I to constantly talk to Logmagi of obligation? I am proud to acknowledge all I owe to his zeal and obedience.I am contented with the violence of my own character: it draws a line for me between friends and enemies.There is at this moment a greatkirkuby[uproar or disturbance,]—seizing recruits for thenizàm, and entering by force into all sorts of houses to seek for arms.Will you see that I receive a dozen pair of spectacles like those you wear, six or seven of fine quality, and the others common black ones but with clear glasses: and a dozen like what I wear—not expensive.Always employ me if I can be useful to you here. I expect to hear from you. When do you think of leaving Nice? My affair will not finish quickly, I am afraid. Your friend U. will get on: he is all information, energy, and talent; but the times are gone by for people to go the beaten track, and all is too late. In less than a year, it is more than probable that all the world will be at war.The Prophet [General Loustaunau] is most comfortable in his new habitation: I have planted shrubs for him round the windows, divided the room in two, and made all new with an excellent sofa.I must tell you a story about Logmagi. He was reproaching one of themukers[muleteers] about some neglect of his duty—only abusing him, never touching him—when the fellow ran and fetched his pistol, which he presented at Logmagi to shoot him. Logmagi, with a wonderful presence of mind, vulgar perhaps, (but every one in his way—themukerwas a vulgar man), turned into his face not his own face, and said—“No honest man would meet a blackguard face to face—that was hiskhurge” [match]. The bystanders roared with laughter, and the man ran away.Quickly, by the steamer, the spectacles. Seven pair of white ones, long; five others, long too, but like those you wear, black and light.[No signature.]
Jôon, March 11, 1839.
I send you something to get put into a newspaper: I think it is not bad. Some day, I shall write amanifesto, which will be superb, and open people’s eyes in all directions. * * * * *
I would have sent you Sir William Knighton’swork; but I suppose you can get it where you are, and it would not amuse you: it speaks of nothing but common-place things. He has kept only—or, at least, they have published only—formal letters, and which throw little light on anything.
Miss Pardoe is very excellent upon many subjects; only there is too much of what the English like—stars, winds, black shades, soft sounds, &c. The Arabic story you ask me for, I have already dictated to the prince. I know many others; but they are too long. Are you going to write a book?
I believe your eyes and ears will be opened too late. You will then see, to your cost, that admonitions (called scoldings) were the highest compliment I could pay a man in your situation, by endeavouring to raise his mind to the altitude necessary to exist (one may say) in a wreck of worlds. If you were so uneasy at Jôon, how will your nerves bear what you will be doomed to see? but, when this time comes, no more advice from me to you or any one: let all pick their way, and abide by the consequences. Words are nothing: the hearts of men must be cleansed of all the vain idle stuff they now cherish as a sort of safeguard or escape-boat to evils of all kind. If the naked savage, who has the feelings of a man, is not in highfavour with the Almighty, and placed in a higher situation (if he continues to do his duty) than the educated mylord, the pedant, the gentleman, as it is called, without either conscience, talent, or money, I know nothing; and you may reproach me hereafter in the harshest possible terms.
It is a very mean spirit which fears obligation: we are under obligations of the most serious nature every day to the horse, the ass, the cow, &c. All the stuff persons now call spirit are the vulgar ideas of the lowest and least philosophical of human beings. What should I think of my deserted self, were I to constantly talk to Logmagi of obligation? I am proud to acknowledge all I owe to his zeal and obedience.
I am contented with the violence of my own character: it draws a line for me between friends and enemies.
There is at this moment a greatkirkuby[uproar or disturbance,]—seizing recruits for thenizàm, and entering by force into all sorts of houses to seek for arms.
Will you see that I receive a dozen pair of spectacles like those you wear, six or seven of fine quality, and the others common black ones but with clear glasses: and a dozen like what I wear—not expensive.
Always employ me if I can be useful to you here. I expect to hear from you. When do you think of leaving Nice? My affair will not finish quickly, I am afraid. Your friend U. will get on: he is all information, energy, and talent; but the times are gone by for people to go the beaten track, and all is too late. In less than a year, it is more than probable that all the world will be at war.
The Prophet [General Loustaunau] is most comfortable in his new habitation: I have planted shrubs for him round the windows, divided the room in two, and made all new with an excellent sofa.
I must tell you a story about Logmagi. He was reproaching one of themukers[muleteers] about some neglect of his duty—only abusing him, never touching him—when the fellow ran and fetched his pistol, which he presented at Logmagi to shoot him. Logmagi, with a wonderful presence of mind, vulgar perhaps, (but every one in his way—themukerwas a vulgar man), turned into his face not his own face, and said—“No honest man would meet a blackguard face to face—that was hiskhurge” [match]. The bystanders roared with laughter, and the man ran away.
Quickly, by the steamer, the spectacles. Seven pair of white ones, long; five others, long too, but like those you wear, black and light.
[No signature.]
Lady Hester Stanhope to Dr. M.
Jôon, May 6, 1839.The Vapour is expected in a few days. I am much better, but not yet well enough to make a little drawing, necessary to explain something I want you to get done for me. * * * * *Thank God for my nerves:—would you sleep alone in a room with this girl [Zezefoon]? And, besides she told me, the other day, that she had only teeth for those who displeased her, and therefore you see she is not ashamed of herself: but I think no more of her than of a little babe, and sleep on quietly. All in the house have made wry faces after this affair—even Logmagi, who would not like to be bitten a second time.I did not write to you before I had answered the “Morning Chronicle;” for I feared that perhaps my letter to you might be read, and so spoil all.As yet, all things remain as before: what strange people! No answer from any one. Not one Englishman has set his foot in Syria since this business.Some one—I suppose you—sent me the “Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.” It isIwho could give a true and most extraordinary history of all those transactions.The book is all stuff. The duchess (Lord Edward’s mother) was my particular friend, as was also his aunt: I was intimate with all the family, and knew that noted Pamela. All the books I see make me sick—only catch-penny nonsense.A thousand thanks for the promise of my grandfather’s letters; but the book will be all spoilt, by being edited by young men. First, they are totally ignorant of the politics of my grandfather’s age; secondly, of the style of the language used at that period; and absolutely ignorant of his secret reasons and intentions, and thereal, or apparent footing he was upon with many people, friends and foes. I know all that from my grandmother, who was his secretary, and, Coutts used to say, the cleverestmanof her time, in politics, business, &c. Even the late Lord Chatham, his son, had but an imperfect idea of all that took place; for he was either absent, or, when not so, taken up by dissipation; for no man was ever more admired or sought after. Pringle’s father, I suppose, is dead, and this is the son—Harriet Elliott’s son. At twenty, she married an officer, nearly fifty, I should think * * but who was, I believe, a very honourable, respectable man.Do not keep reproaching yourself about leaving me; it did not depend on you to stay: also, do not put into your head that you have the seeds of the maladyyou named to me. * * * * I hope to hear that you are better.H. L. S.I have written a sad, stupid letter, but I have no news—shut up.
Jôon, May 6, 1839.
The Vapour is expected in a few days. I am much better, but not yet well enough to make a little drawing, necessary to explain something I want you to get done for me. * * * * *
Thank God for my nerves:—would you sleep alone in a room with this girl [Zezefoon]? And, besides she told me, the other day, that she had only teeth for those who displeased her, and therefore you see she is not ashamed of herself: but I think no more of her than of a little babe, and sleep on quietly. All in the house have made wry faces after this affair—even Logmagi, who would not like to be bitten a second time.
I did not write to you before I had answered the “Morning Chronicle;” for I feared that perhaps my letter to you might be read, and so spoil all.
As yet, all things remain as before: what strange people! No answer from any one. Not one Englishman has set his foot in Syria since this business.
Some one—I suppose you—sent me the “Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.” It isIwho could give a true and most extraordinary history of all those transactions.The book is all stuff. The duchess (Lord Edward’s mother) was my particular friend, as was also his aunt: I was intimate with all the family, and knew that noted Pamela. All the books I see make me sick—only catch-penny nonsense.
A thousand thanks for the promise of my grandfather’s letters; but the book will be all spoilt, by being edited by young men. First, they are totally ignorant of the politics of my grandfather’s age; secondly, of the style of the language used at that period; and absolutely ignorant of his secret reasons and intentions, and thereal, or apparent footing he was upon with many people, friends and foes. I know all that from my grandmother, who was his secretary, and, Coutts used to say, the cleverestmanof her time, in politics, business, &c. Even the late Lord Chatham, his son, had but an imperfect idea of all that took place; for he was either absent, or, when not so, taken up by dissipation; for no man was ever more admired or sought after. Pringle’s father, I suppose, is dead, and this is the son—Harriet Elliott’s son. At twenty, she married an officer, nearly fifty, I should think * * but who was, I believe, a very honourable, respectable man.
Do not keep reproaching yourself about leaving me; it did not depend on you to stay: also, do not put into your head that you have the seeds of the maladyyou named to me. * * * * I hope to hear that you are better.
H. L. S.
I have written a sad, stupid letter, but I have no news—shut up.
This was the last letter I ever received from her ladyship. She died in June following,Ἄταφος, ἄκλαυτος, ἄφιλος, ἀνυμεναιος[42]everybody being in ignorance of her approaching end, except the servants immediately about her. She had no Frank or European near her, and Lunardi, who was coming out to her from Leghorn, reached Beyrout unfortunately too late. “The news[43]of her death was conveyed to Beyrout in a few hours, and the English consul, Mr. Moore, and the Rev. Mr. Thomson, an American missionary, went to Jôon, to bury her. Her emaciated corpse was interred in the same grave where the body of Captain Loustaunau had been placed, some years before, in her own garden: this was according to her desire, expressed to Logmagi before her death.” Reports were spread that her furniture,plate, and other valuables, had been plundered, and much stress was laid on the circumstance that not even her watch was found: but she had no watch, and only a dozen and a half of silver spoons and forks. Fatôom, it is said, died two days before her mistress.
I have now brought this melancholy, but, I hope, not uninteresting, narrative to a conclusion. Upon a review of the incidents detailed in these pages—the vicissitudes of an extraordinary life, beginning in pomp and power, and closing in pecuniary difficulties and neglect—the reader can scarcely fail to be touched with profound sympathy at the altered fortunes of a remarkable woman, even if nothing else in the history of Lady Hester Stanhope should awaken his emotions. No lady of her age and station ever underwent such afflicting changes.
In early life she enjoyed the entire confidence of her uncle, Mr. Pitt; and many of the secret functions of government, most of the important measures of his administration, much of the patronage vested in the office which he filled, and the complete control of his domestic establishment, either passed through her hands or was directly influenced by her counsels. During this eventful period, her clear insight into human nature enabled her frequently to thwart theintrigues and expose the designs of interested men, who swarmed about the avenues of the court and the cabinet. But it was not possible for one, endued with a courageous spirit and integrity like hers, to engage in such conspicuous scenes without exciting the bitterest animosities; and accordingly we find that, while she was openly hostile to some and maintained a less evident but persevering resistance to others, dealing out affronts where she thought them likely to tell with effect, or foiling subtile machinations on the one hand by counterplots artfully combined on the other, she raised up a host of enemies for herself, who only waited a fit opportunity to take their full revenge. In the assertion of that fearless rectitude which despises personal consequences, she overlooked the dangers which were growing up around her. Forgetting, as is usual, in the delirium of power, the uncertainty of all human greatness, the wheel of fortune went round, and, by the premature death of Mr. Pitt, she was precipitated, at once and irrecoverably, from the pinnacle of ambition into comparative obscurity, and was destined to wear out her existence in solitude and exile.
But her virtues were sterling, and gave a sort of lustre to her fall. She carried with her into exile and in adversity the same stern consistency and the same high principles which had all along regulated her conduct.Incapable of abasing herself by meanness, she was sustained in her reverses by the fortitude which she derived from a clear conscience. If in her exaltation she had been bold, proud, and uncompromising, she had likewise shown herself disinterested and generous, firm in her convictions, insensible to the allurements of flattery or wealth, just, self-devoted, an open foe, a grateful friend, and a kind and most affectionate relative:—qualities which ennoble even where nobility is not. Caressed by royalty, surrounded by sycophants, a theme for the illustrations of poetry and painting, she resisted all those blandishments so alluring and so difficult to withstand, and has not left behind her one single memorial of any of the weaknesses incidental to human vanity under circumstances of such powerful temptation. No prince led her in his train; no mercenary laureat succeeded in bribing her by his praises; and no portrait of her person, attractive as it might have been in the bloom of her youth and beauty, is, as far as I have means of knowing, in existence. The good old king extolled her, Mr. Pitt confided in her, the aristocratic party toadied her, republicans admired her, and ladies envied her. Never was an elevation so dazzling, or a fall so clouded by the gloom of disappointment and neglect.
But there is yet a moral to be drawn from her life which is pregnant with serious reflections. That shewas more unhappy in her solitude than, in her unbending nature, she would stoop to avow, this diary of the last years of her existence but too plainly demonstrates. Although she derived consolation in retirement from the retrospect of the part she had played in her prosperity, yet her mind was embittered by some undefined but acute sense of past errors; and, although her buoyant spirits usually bore her up against the weight by which she was oppressed, still there were moments of poignant grief when all efforts at resistance were vain, and her very soul groaned within her. She was ambitious, and her ambition had been foiled; she loved irresponsible command, but the time had come when those over whom she had ruled defied her; she was dictatorial and exacting, but she had lost the talisman[44]of that influence which alone makes people tolerate control, when it interferes with the freedom of thought and action. She had neglected to secure wealth while she had it in her power; but the feelings which prompted her princely munificence were as warm as ever, now that the means were gone which enabled her to gratify them. Her mind was in a perpetual struggle between delusive schemes and incompetent resources. She incurred debts, and she was doomed to feel the degradationconsequent on them. She entertained visionary projects of aggrandizement, and was met by the derision of the world. She spurned the conventional rules of that society in which she had been bred, and perhaps violated propriety in the realization of a singularity in which she gloried.Therewas the rock on which she was finally wrecked: for, as Madame de Staël somewhere says, a man may brave the censures of society, but a woman must accommodate herself to them. She was thought to defy her own nation, and they hurled the defiance back upon her. She held in contempt the gentler qualities of her own sex, who, in return, were not slow to resent the masculine characteristics on which she presumed to maintain her assumed position. She carried with her from England the disposition to conciliate, by kindness and forbearance, the fidelity and obedience of her domestics: but she was eventually led into undue harshness towards them, which became more and more exaggerated in her by the idleness, the ignorance, and irritating vices of her Eastern household.
Another important lesson may be gleaned from her life. We have a favourable opportunity of observing, in her example, how far the human understanding may, by its own natural powers unassisted by books, work its way to celebrity. Her intellects were soacute that she had little difficulty in comprehending all the moral and political questions discussed in her presence, and she consequently gathered information from very superior sources, as she enjoyed the intimacy of first-rate men. Still she had but narrow views of general policy, of the rights of mankind, in fine, of politics and ethics in the abstract; inasmuch as the discussions, which were carried on before her, were the debates of parties and sects, having immediate reference merely to certain men and certain questions, rather than presenting enlightened and comprehensive considerations grounded on philosophical principles. But it was here that her profound knowledge of mankind came into play; and this it was which impressed on her sayings and counsels the stamp of pre-eminent sagacity. Intercourse with the world, however, or even with cabinet ministers, although it may render us accomplished diplomatists, cannot make us statesmen, in the true acceptation of the word—least of all can it make us teachers and philosophers. We cannot solve a problem in mathematics, unless we have previously traced the steps which lead to it one by one; nor can we ever arrive at precision on any subject until we have mastered its elements and made ourselves acquainted with the results of antecedent investigations. In this, therefore, lay the grand defect of Lady Hester’seducation. She was not only wanting, as almost all women are, in the philosophical power of generalization, but her reading was literally so circumscribed, that her deficiency in what may be called book-learning often amounted to absolute ignorance. She said she despised books; but it was simply because she was never made aware how much valuable information they contain. She trusted everything to intuitive perception. Her constant denial of the utility of study, founded on the conviction that education does not alter men’s characters or change their innate disposition, is wholly independent of that other proposition, which recognizes knowledge as an edifice seated on a height, to which we must climb step by step, taking care that each fundamental truth, in the ascent, shall be laid down with certainty, in order to secure the solidity of the superincumbent materials. She disowned alike the benefits of learning and the necessity of the progressive acquisition of knowledge. Her ladyship jumped to conclusions in perfect ignorance of the researches and discoveries of previous inquirers.
Lady Hester possessed none of the more graceful accomplishments of her sex:—not from inability to acquire them, for her remarks on music, painting, and other fine arts, were always striking and apposite; but because she preferred occupying her mind onmatters more congenial to her peculiar tastes. It cannot be doubted that she had all the opportunities usually afforded to the children of the nobility for the culture of the mind in liberal pursuits and attainments; but she took no delight in such things, and only spoke of them slightly and incidentally.
Popular opinion has ascribed the eccentricities of Lady Hester Stanhope to a crazed brain:[45]it is not for me to venture upon a question of so delicate a nature. Lucius Junius Brutus was supposed to be insane, and played the part of an idiot until the proper time arrived for casting away the mask. Hamlet enacts madness for a purpose: and some writers go so far as to assert that Mahomet was insane, and that no enthusiast of a high order can achieve his ends and gain over proselytes to his views without a tincture ofinsanity. The dream of Lady Hester’s life was sway and dominion—how to obtain the one or the other was the difficulty; for she was born a subject, and excluded by her sex from vice-royalties and governments: with the genius of a hero, she could neither take the command of fleets or armies, nor preside in the councils of state. How far then she may have contemplated the possibility of acquiring power by endeavouring to establish a superstitious belief amongst those around her, and, through them, over a wider range, that she possessed supernatural gifts; how far she may have tried to help out this design by professing implicit faith in strange and absurd legends and traditions, visions, and tales; and how far the delusion, originally taken up for a purpose, may have ultimately re-acted upon her own mind—these are speculations which I leave to others; but, whilst I decline, from motives of delicacy, and in deference to the public, from whose award the decree must finally come, to pronounce any opinion on Lady Hester Stanhope’s perfect sanity, I do not feel myself precluded from calling the reader’s attention to one striking point of evidence in favour of it, which extends, like a vein of pure ore, through the whole course of her varied career.
I have depicted, somewhat minutely, and without ostentation or disguise, her ladyship’s habitual deportmentand language towards her visitors, her household, and myself. I have introduced all those, who have patiently followed me in these pages, into her sanctuary; have let them join in her conversations; have, as I hope, induced them to listen to her improbable stories of witchcraft and astrology; and have shared their incredulity in her supernatural mission: but I would now invite them to weigh against these seeming hallucinations the remarkable fact, that, in all her epistolary correspondence, down to the close of her life, not one aberration of intellect occurs. It is as if she had said to herself—“Those who come to glean ridicule from my words, and presume to fathom my purposes, will I make fools of and confound: they shall go away loaded with a cargo of their own choosing, and shall retail countless absurdities in their books to amuse the world for awhile: but, when the time shall be accomplished, these absurdities shall rebound on themselves; for I will challenge the most diligent research to gather any from my writings, and then, who will believe that I uttered them, except to make the unworthy hearers ridiculous?” The fact is, she may have spoken a great many strange things, but she has written none. I am in possession of a letter of hers, drawn up with attention on a very serious subject in the very plenitude of her mental powers; but I declare that it presents no superiority,either in style or composition, over the productions of her later years: neither do her familiar letters, from first to last, leave an opening for the most critical caviller to say that, down to the day of her death, she manifested any decline of reason, or disclosed one jot less of that sound sense or those discriminating powers which had made her the admiration of some of the leading characters of her times. Her letter to the Duke Maximilian of Bavaria breathes as much delicacy of sentiment as if it had issued from her boudoir in Downing Street: her condolence with the Beyrout merchant is more profound in reasoning, though less epigrammatic, than that of Servius Sulpicius to Cicero on the death of his daughter Tullia; and her appeal to the good feeling of her countrymen against the uncalled-for interference of the Foreign Office in her private affairs is inferior to no production of our ablest combatants against the abuses of authority.
One point more remains to be touched upon. Lady Hester Stanhope, the advocate of the divine right of sovereigns, the stickler for the exclusive privileges of the aristocracy, she, who treated with ineffable ridicule and disdain the presumption of people, who, belonging to the class of commoners, set up claims of equality with the noble born, was herself weak enough to betray irritation, and even resentment, towards that still higher power in the state to which our allegianceis ever due. Of our beloved Queen, to whose sacred majesty she did homage in the abstract, she could not forbear speaking irreverently on many occasions. The letter which she wrote to her Majesty, in reference to the sequestration of her pension, was as unpardonable in diction as it was unjustifiable in substance. But great allowances are to be made for her; and they alone, who know the trying circumstances in which she was placed, can feel the full force of the plea that might be alleged in mitigation of her offence.
My task is done:—it has been one of no ordinary difficulty. I have had to undeceive the world respecting the real life of a distinguished woman, who, in her day, occupied a large share of its attention, and whose ill-defined celebrity was based chiefly on the accounts of travellers, written no doubt in good faith, but in grievous ignorance of the truth. I have had to remove the veil which shrouded her existence, to disperse the imaginary attributes with which the fancy of most readers had invested her, to dissipate the splendour thrown over her retirement, and to substitute unpleasant facts for Eastern fables. Let it not be suspected that, in doing this, I have overstepped the bounds of professional confidence or violated the sacred intimacies of domestic life.
My object has been to vindicate the fame of a persecuted lady, whose memory I honour, and most ofwhose actions have been misrepresented; and, in pursuing this object with frankness and integrity, I have only fulfilled a plain duty, imposed upon me by her constant denunciations of the injustice which the English had done to the purity of her motives—a duty distinctly enjoined by her frequent appeals to me that I should make public some circumstances of her life, which might set them right, and correct their judgment concerning her conduct. Using as much as possible her own words (indeed I may sayentirely), I have unavoidably introduced the names of many individuals yet alive, and of others but lately removed from the scene of ambition, envy, and political strife. The utmost delicacy consistent with the utmost candour has been observed in a task which presented such a dilemma of difficulties; and, if any persons should feel hurt at any of the disclosures in this work, I can assure them that, due regard being had to the state of mental irritation to which wounded feelings had brought Lady Hester Stanhope, they will do no wrong in considering all the acrimonious passages they may detect in these pages merely as a scene out of “Timon of Athens”—a burst of spleen against mankind, produced by a long series of mortifications, wrongs, and disappointments.