Chapter VII (2)

1. In Mr. Pitts last illness I expressed, as my opinion,
that Sir Walter Farquhar did not understand the nature of
his complaint, and begged him to call in other physicians.
He replied, “Perhaps you are right, and such may be likewise
my own opinion; but, if it is the will of God, I shall
recover; and, if not, I shall be sorry that one of the last
actions of my life should be that of injuring the character
of a man who has acted to the best of his knowledge, and
hitherto manifested the greatest interest about my health
upon all occasions;”--therefore, nothing could be done with
him: but Farquhar was himself persuaded to call in Doctor
Bailey. Would it not be better to follow the example of that
noble-minded man, than cast a slur upon the character of one
who, unprepared for so difficult an accouchement, had
neither sufficient self-confidence nor judgment to extricate
himself in such a predicament? And all this will not recall
Mrs. K---- again to the world.

2. I enclose a paragraph from the papers last come to hand,
which, in addition to my knowledge of law, strengthens my
opinion that you may very likely prove unsuccessful.[28] You
will then have to reproach yourself for not having acted--I
will not say with the missionaries--with _Christian_
charity, but with that feeling which ought to belong, and
does belong, to many individuals, of whatever religion they
may profess.

Do not understand by this that I am making you any
reproaches; for the state of irritation you are in proceeds
from the frame of mind which this unfortunate circumstance
has caused, and which it is the duty of all those who call
themselves your friends or your well-wishers to point out to
you, that you may avoid future remorse when you see things
more calmly.

H. L. STANHOPE.

* * * * *

Saturday, June 2.--I rode down to the duke’s tents, to see him. The army surgeon in attendance on the black had reconsidered the case, and given in an opinion to the government secretary that it was one of typhus fever, supervening on a syphilitic taint, and, in consequence, his highness’s quarantine had been shortened to a fortnight. One must have lived in Turkey to know how such things are conducted there. The conversation with the duke and his suite turned for a while on Prince Pückler Muskau.

Sunday, June 3.--A letter was written by Lady Hester to Lord Brougham. Whilst considering what she should say, previous to dictating it, she observed that she was sorry she did not write to him before; “for,” added she, “he loves to have something to talk about that will make a noise, and he will take it ill, when he was so civil to me formerly, if I seem to forget him. An Englishman, who was here, and who knew him, one day said to me--‘What do you think of Lord Brougham’s principles?’--‘Why,’ answered I, ‘I think they are like mine--none at all.’ How he stared, doctor, until I added, ‘He has peculiar ones made for himself, as I have.’”

_To the Right Honourable Lord Brougham and Vaux._

Jôon, June 4th, 1838.

My Lord,

It is possible that, at times, your lordship may bear in
mind the kindness with which you treated me, for the sake of
those whom we mutually loved and admired, and the assistance
you afforded me in my private concerns, about seventeen
years ago: you will then, perhaps, not feel a little
surprised that, having got myself into a strange
predicament, I have been totally silent. It arose, my lord,
from supposing you in ill health. Receiving no newspapers
from England, and news from France being oftentimes much
retarded, I often owe the chief of my political information
to travellers; among whom was the Prince Pückler Muskau,
who, having heard of my affair before he saw me, advised me
immediately to write to your lordship. I gave him my reasons
for not having done so, and from him I received the
assurance that you were quite recovered, and again had
resumed your public duties. I have since read your most
beautiful speech on the slave-trade, and I congratulate the
country on your reappearance in the House.

Before this letter reaches you--for I have missed the last
packet--your lordship will have probably heard of the manner
in which her Majesty’s ministers have thought proper to
treat me, with her sanction. I have always been the greatest
of aristocrats; I was born so; yet no one is more tenacious
of the rights of men in every class of life. I have written
a very severe letter to the Queen, in which I have made her
Majesty understand I am no longer an English subject: for I
had sooner be the subject of a Hottentot chief than one to
be commanded by a woman * * * * * * * * * guided by a man
who possesses none of the qualities of his great patron, Mr.
Fox, except his _talens pour la débauche_:--if he had, he
would recollect that nobleman’s conduct to me after Mr.
Pitt’s death.

Although of a character violent to desperation, few persons,
I believe, have given more examples of forbearance than I
have done, both to those calling themselves my friends and
to those who rank among my enemies, from these simple
motives--either from my personal contempt of them or their
opinion, or from the knowledge that they were acting upon a
principle which they thought a meritorious one. But when a
crowned head, or a minister, ventures to cast a slur upon my
integrity (which I hope may vie with that which has ever
distinguished my ancestors) without any inquiries into
either facts or motives, and pretends to invest low venal
people with any authority over me or my concerns, I shall
repel the aggression with the energy it requires, and make
every sacrifice which circumstances may call for: and,
should starvation stare me in the face, it will not appal
me. These are my fixed determinations, and this is the
sovereign contempt I feel for * * * * * * and * * * * * *.
As things must have already taken some turn, I will not
request your lordship’s assistance: for I should not forgive
myself for either causing you trouble or anxiety. I shall
boldly follow my fate, as I always hitherto have done.

These few lines, therefore, are only to be considered as a
mark of personal respect towards your lordship, and as
affording me an opportunity of expressing my congratulations
for the restoration of your health; which, however, I hope
you will continue to _ménager_, as you will want a great
store of it in the bad times that are coming, and when the
value of men of your extraordinary talents and exertions
will be properly estimated.--I have the honour, my lord, to
be, with great truth and esteem, yours,

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

* * * * *

Monday, June 4.--A letter from the Pasha’s wife to Lady Hester took me down to Sayda to see the Pasha’s little daughter, an angelic child of about seven years of age, ill of a fever. The mother did not show herself; Madame Lapi, the lady of the Austrian referendary, and Madame Bertrand, a French lady, receiving me. The Pasha was absent at the camp in the Horàn. Sulyman Pasha, when appointed to the pashalik of Sayda, had found no house fit for a residence, and had caused a small, low palace to be built, which, if placed in the midst of a paddock, might have passed for a gentleman’s house of a thousand a year in England. In the three rooms I went through, to the one wherein the little girl was lying, there was, as is usual in Turkish houses, the utmost simplicity: but one thing struck me as indicative of the nationality of the master of the house[29]--a large French looking-glass; for I believe a person would with difficulty have found another mirror on the walls of a saloon all through Syria, excepting in a Frank house. The child was but slightly indisposed, and it is possible that mere feminine curiosity had induced her mother to send for me, that she might get a look through some peep-hole to see whether she should like to consult me for some complaint of her own: for such are the indirect ways of proceeding common in harýms, and such things had happened to me before. The Pasha’s wife was originally a Greek slave, bought during the horrors of the Greek revolution, when Turkish soldiers sold their prisoners into bondage. She had pleased him, and he eventually made her his wife. Report spoke highly of her beauty and her conduct.

Tuesday, June 5.--Logmagi had been sent for to rate the maids, who had been caught scaling the garden-wall before sunrise and going down to the spring, where they were seen with some one. As they never were permitted to leave the house, or the inner court, this violation of her ladyship’s orders, so contrary to Eastern propriety, which allows not of a woman’s being out of doors in the company of men, called for some chastisement, more especially when coupled with suspicious circumstances. One of these very maids had introduced herself the preceding night into a room, where she was forbidden to enter, and had been detected untying bundles of things and pieces of stuffs; so that it was apprehended there was a league with persons without to carry off stolen goods. Zezefôon was locked up, and sentenced to remain in durance until she learned to behave better.

Thursday, June 7.--A servant was despatched over-night with a letter and seven black doses, and directions how to take them, for the baron and six others of the suite, with a promise of eight more doses the next day for the duke and the rest.

This general drenching of fifteen travellers, which will make many persons laugh, was treated with the utmost seriousness by Lady Hester Stanhope. It was a rule with her, as has been said above, never to let any one pass through her hands without some potion or another; and truly it may be asserted that she has saved many from the fevers of the country by her sage foresight and precautions; but it was too comical when seven or eight at a time were to be physicked. To have heard Lady Hester and myself in conference, weighing the probabilities of under or over dosing the tall captain of the guards, the mild and delicately framed baron, and the royal stomach of his highness, would have been quite a comedy.

The servant had been ordered to arrive at midnight; the doses were to be administered at two in the morning; whilst I was to be down at the tents by noon to see if all had gone on properly. Accordingly, I mounted my horse after breakfast; but, being rather late, I did not get there until half-past two. What was my surprise, when the baron, advancing towards me, seized my hand. “Be not afraid,” said he; “we are out of quarantine, and have now no contagion about us. Upon the representation made, that our black Mameluke was lying ill of typhus fever only, the board of health at Beyrout has set us free. Let me take you to his royal highness, who now can receive you a little better than he has done.” I accordingly went with him behind the tombs, where we found the duke seated on a sofa in the open air, with his suite around him, and the place rolled and watered for coolness. He received me with great kindness and condescension, spoke in repeated terms of gratitude for Lady Hester’s attention to him, and said his first duty was to wait on her and thank her: he therefore charged me to let him know when she would permit him to pay his respects. Pipes and coffee were served; and, when I had time to look about me, I observed the manner in which they had bivouacked for some days past. Under the hedge, a few yards off, was an immense pile of burning live coals, on which the saucepans and boilers were placed, gipsy-fashion: in this differing from the manner of the country, where, when cooking in the open air is going on, temporary stoves are constructed with three or four square stones, which confine the ashes and make a draught. In the background I was surprised to see about half a dozen Italian tumblers, who were preparing for an exhibition of feats of leaping, &c. These were a troop, who had that very day arrived from Beyrout, and whom the prince had engaged to divert him. Soon after arrived the government secretary, the colonels of the different regiments in garrison, the Austrian referendary and his family, &c., to congratulate the duke on the termination of his confinement. The exhibition being over, I rose to take leave. The duke pressed me to stop and dine with him; but I pleaded my three hours’ ride back in the dark, and returned home.

Friday, June 8.--When I told Lady Hester that the duke was coming up, she sent the following letter to him:--

_To His Royal Highness Maximilian Duke of Bavaria._

Jôon, June 8, 1838.
Highness,

I cannot sufficiently appreciate the honour you intend me in
wishing to visit my hermitage: but permit me to impose these
conditions on you--that you say not a word more, neither you
nor the noblemen in your suite, of those trifling services
which you have so graciously and benevolently accepted.
Allow me also to acquaint your highness that, although I was
in my time a woman of the world, for these last twenty years
I have been nothing but a philosopher, who turns out of her
road for nobody. When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes,
he neither changed his dress nor moved his tub for him:
pardon me, prince, if I imitate his example.

There was a time when my house was passable: but now there
are many rooms in ruins for want of repairs--especially a
large pavilion in the garden, tumbling down from an
earthquake; so that I could not lodge more than three or
four persons at a time. What lodging I have for you is,
first of all, a little garden on the east side of my
residence, with a small saloon, and outside of the door two
mustabys,[30] where two persons might sleep. Adjoining the
saloon is a bed-room, and at the back of it a sleeping-room
for two valets, with mattresses on the floor, according to
the custom of the country. The saloon has a trellis in
front. Just out of the garden-gate is a little place to make
coffee, or boil water for shaving; and opposite to it is
another room for ordinary strangers, where two persons can
sleep, and where Count Tattenbach was lodged. For the other
servants there is room in one of the courtyards. As for my
own divàn, it has been in a ruinous state for some years,
and I inhabit at present a badly furnished little room.

I beg your highness will consider the little garden, and the
pavilion in it, which I have just mentioned, as your own,
until the ship which you expect arrives. You can make your
excursions in the mountain when you like. With you you can
bring two or three of the gentlemen of your suite, and these
can make room for others in their turn. Only, I hope that
the baron and Count Gaiety, as I call him (for, according to
what the doctor tells me, during all your misfortunes he has
always preserved his cheerfulness), will not come both
together, because I have got a great deal to say to each.
Thus, then, I shall expect your royal highness on Saturday
evening.

I have the honour to salute you, prince, with the most
perfect esteem and highest consideration, begging you to
accept, with your known nobleness, the welcome of the
dervise,

H. L. STANHOPE.

Saturday, June 9.--The morning came. Preparations for the reception of the duke had been going on all the day before. A lamb had been killed; beef had been sent for from Dayr el Kamar, the only place where it was sold; fruit and vegetables had come up from Sayda gardens, and Logmagi had sent fish; bills of fare had been made out for each meal by Lady Hester, as a guide to the cook; the silver spoons and forks had been given out; the servants had put on their best clothes, and all was bustle for the reception; for the duke’s liberality to all those who served him in any shape was very generally talked of, and this was an infallible spur to all the menials, who anticipated large vails. Mercenary wretches! whose God was a _bakshýsh_, and whose torpor, as Lady Hester often said, only two things could overcome--money, and a good flogging.

I waited on Lady Hester early. She told me she had passed a very bad night, that she was in a burning fever, and felt so ill it would be impossible to receive the duke. Her looks were pale, her skin parched and dry, her breathing short, and she complained of an increased pain in her side, which had entirely deprived her of rest. I felt her pulse, and encouraged her to hope that it was not so bad. “Doctor,” replied she, “it is nothing: it is when the thunder is in the air that you should feel it; my pulse beats then like two bullets, and if, at that moment, I were to meet a thousand men opposed to me, I should brave them all: but, when the storm is over, my pulse falls into its natural state, and all is quiet again. Anybody but you would say now I must be bled; and, whether you approve it or not, bled I shall be: so be so good as to raise no difficulties, and you must set off immediately to Dayr Mkhallas, with an apology to his highness; for I have neither breath nor strength enough to undergo the exertion of conversation, and put him off you must.”

I set off to the monastery, and found the duke surrounded by a numerous company. Nothing could equal his regret at Lady Hester’s indisposition. Lady Hester’s state requiring my immediate return, I hastened back. The bleeding did her good. About five in the afternoon, the duke and his party were seen passing on the high-road on their way back to Sayda. His object in leaving the seaside had been to see Lady Hester, and, disappointed in that, he returned immediately. Eventually, this contrariety proved fortunate for him. He had hardly reached his tents, when the English steamboat arrived; his passage had been agreed for, and the duke and his suite, but too happy to quit a country where he had met with so many vexations, and had been exposed to so much danger, were on board in half an hour after her arrival. The sick negro and four slaves, who had been purchased in Egypt, were left behind, under the care of Signor Lapi, with orders likewise to that gentleman that no expense or care should be spared to forward Wellington’s recovery.

FOOTNOTES:

[24] In all cities in Turkey, trades of the same kind are
always in the same street in a cluster. Thus, the
saddlers are in one street, the druggists or grocers in
another, the shoemakers in another: and it is customary
to say, when directing to a place in a town--“Close to
the goldsmiths’ bazar, beyond the corn market, before
you come to the Blacksmiths’ Street,” &c.

[25] What the traveller related to me had almost slipped
my memory; but having since met with it in an Arabic
book, I here translate it.

[26] The Mahometans, imbued with the persuasion that
whatever is the will of the Almighty must come to pass,
and that resignation to his decrees is their duty,
never refuse assistance to persons afflicted with
contagious maladies. Hence may be seen that marked
difference in their conduct and that of Christians
during the prevalence of the plague; the former
attending on the sick bed of their relatives, the
latter flying from them and leaving them to die through
neglect.

[27] Thus, while writing out these memorandums in August,
1839, I learn that the plague has re-appeared at
Jerusalem, Jaffa, and at other places, where, in 1838,
a few cases announced its presence. We shall see
whether a quarantine establishment will save Syria: I
think it will not. The Turkish authorities, when left
to themselves, invariably resist the introduction of
all quarantine regulations; or, at least, they did so
in the beginning of this century: it is only when the
preponderance of European influence, backed by orders
from their own government, compels submission, that
they unwillingly adopt them. But Mahomet Ali and
Ibrahim Pasha, when spoken of, are not to be considered
as Mahometans. Imbued with Machiavelian principles,
gathered from their intercourse with Europeans, they
were not slow to see that, in fit hands, a quarantine
establishment has little more to do with health than it
has with the growth of the sugar-cane, or any
extraneous employment. A Lazaretto, as conducted in
Piedmont or France, is no more nor less than a fiscal
measure and a legalized panoptikon. It is, first of
all, subsidiary to the Customs, and next, a most
efficient mode for staying travellers, crews of ships,
and all manner of moving things entering on a
territory, then and there to be enabled in cool
despotism to examine letters, pry into men’s business,
learn their opinions, destination, &c., and, finally,
to tax them in their money and substance, in the most
undisguised and complete manner yet invented by
designing rulers. Quarantine ought never to exist in a
free country, neither ought passports. A town properly
built, ventilated, and cleansed, will not foster
contagion, and passports do not facilitate the
detection of offenders. The plague still visits the
Levant, and Pichegru remained undiscovered in France
for two years, in spite of all the passports and all
the police of Buonaparte, his mortal enemy.

[28] This was the report of a suit in one of the county
courts of assize, wherein, under somewhat similar
circumstances, a surgeon was acquitted.

[29] It will be recollected that Sulyman Pasha was
originally a French corporal in Buonaparte’s army.

[30] A mustaby is an estrade, or raised stone bench, in
shape what a shop-counter would be against a wall, made
at the doors of houses in the East for people to sit
cross-legged on to enjoy the fresh air, or sometimes at
the doors of rooms for servants to sleep on as sentries
to those within.