Chapter X (1)

Mrs. ――――’s unwillingness to remain at Abra after Signora L.’s death――Beyrout fixed on as a residence――Lady H.’s account of her debts――Necessities to which she was reduced――Another version of her debts――Her extensive charities――Anecdote of Shaykh Omar-ed-dyn―― Usurious discount on Lady H.’s bills of exchange――Loss from the fluctuating value of money in the East――Estates supposed to have been bequeathed to Lady H.――Letters from Lady H. to M. Guys――She employs Sir Francis Burdett to inquire into the nature of the supposed bequests――Her opinion of Sir Francis――Letter to him――Lady H.’s diatribes on women――Mr. C.――Letter to Miss ―――― ――Letter to the Author.

Again the necessity occurs of introducing my personal affairs, in order to keep up the thread of our story. Madame L.’s melancholy disorder, and its fatal termination, had left such awful impressions on the females of my family, that they expressed an earnest wish to remove from a scene where every object excited some melancholy reflection. It was in vain they were told there was no other house in the country in which they could live so comfortably. Their answer was, that day and night they were haunted with the cries and frantic laugh of poor Madame L., and that they would prefer even the most wretched peasant’s cottage to remaining where they were. They represented also the forlorn state in which they were left during my absence at Lady Hester Stanhope’s for a week and a fortnight together, having nobody near them for a protector but General Loustaunau, a man now eighty-two years of age, impaired in intellect, and sinking into imbecility.

But Lady Hester had no consideration for all these womanish weaknesses. Her former animosity against Mrs. ―――― had not abated one jot. She held to our agreement, that my family was to be considered as strangers, with whom she had nothing to do; for, as I had brought them contrary to her wishes, I must look to them myself, without expecting any sympathy from her. I observed to her how much more convenient it would be for all parties if she would only lend me one of the cottages she had empty in the village of Jôon, which I could fit up for our temporary dwelling, and which, from its proximity, would save me so many journeys to and fro: but, as Cabôor had foretold, there was no reconciling these conflicting interests. At last she proposed an arrangement, to which I acceded much against my will, as I knew it would put her to great inconvenience. No news having yet arrived from England respecting the property supposed to have been bequeathed to her, she suggested that I should set off with my family to Beyrout or Cyprus, and live there until she had certain advice that money was forthcoming sufficient to pay her debts; when I could easily return and execute those services for her which she required of me. This plan was settled, as it appeared, finally.

In the mean time, Lady Hester had taken advantage of a leisure day to enter into the full particulars of her debts. I will therefore give some account of their origin, and show how it was that she who, during her residence in England after Mr. Pitt’s death, and during the many years I was with her in Turkey, was one of the most punctual and over-generous payers I ever knew, could have fallen into the opposite extreme, and have thus exposed herself to the degradation of having duns at her gate, and her name in the mouths of the moneyed men at Beyrout as a defaulter.

What I could recollect sufficiently well to write down the same night in Lady Hester’s own words was as follows:――“After the death of Mâalem Haym,” said she, “the celebrated Jewish seràf or banker to Abdallah Pasha of Acre, by whom he was strangled, all the Jews of the pashalik were amerced. Some of these came to me, and entreated me, for the love of God, to lend them money to satisfy the Pasha’s extortions, and save them from being bastinadoed, and perhaps worse. I was at that time low in purse myself, and could only give them 3,000 piasters, which was all I had. I subsequently lent them more, for which they gave me in payment damaged pieces of cloth, sixpenny pocket-handkerchiefs, and other goods, which of course I could not dispose of except at a ruinous loss. I knew I was cheated by them, but I was too proud to complain.

“Not long after this, Abdallah Pasha himself having been declared _firmanlee_ (or outlawed) by the Porte, six pashas, with their combined forces, were sent to besiege him in Acre. Provisions and animals became so scarce, that I was obliged to send people to buy camels in the desert, and then despatch them under the care of a Jew, of whom I had scarcely any knowledge, to buy corn for myself and the house. When at last, and partly by my means, Abdallah Pasha had obtained his pardon from the Porte, but upon condition of paying an immense fine, he pretended to sell his pipes, shawls, carpets, and jewels, to raise the money; for he was, or affected to be, so low in his treasury, that the _delàls_, or auctioneers, were to be seen hawking even his wearing-apparel in the bazar. Among other ways of meeting the demands of the Sultan, he applied to me to lend him as much money as I could possibly raise; and I, not doubting that he would repay me honourably, after drawing for what money I had at my disposal in England, applied to a usurious Christian of Beyrout, who, at an exorbitant rate of interest, furnished me with what I required. No sooner was the rate known which I was to pay for what I had borrowed, than Turks, Christians, and Jews, presented themselves with offers of loans to whatever extent I wished, all professing that their purses were at my disposal; that it was beneath a lady of my rank to discuss matters so paltry as money concerns; and that all they required was merely my signature to a scrap of paper, just acknowledging the debt. In this way I signed small bits of paper, it is true, but well and legally worded in Arabic, or Armenian, or Hebrew, which I could not read, and by which I bound myself to pay enormous interest, varying from 25 to 50 per cent.

“This was the real beginning of my debts and difficulties; for Abdallah Pasha gave me bills at thirty-one days’ sight on Constantinople, payment of which was deferred under one pretence or another for a year, whilst I, in the interim, was in such want of money, that I was reduced to a single _adlee_.[70] The worst of all was that, I don’t think the Pasha wanted it, but only pretended poverty to deceive the Porte. However, in consequence of his failing to repay me at the time agreed on, which repayment would have placed me immediately in a state of solvency, I found myself reduced absolutely to destitution. On one occasion, as I said, I was left without a farthing, and M. Loustaunau went off to M. Beaudin, who was at Damascus, and told him that, as he owed his advancement in life in part to me, he was bound to assist me in my extremity. M. Beaudin at first hesitated; M. Loustaunau insisted; and B. lent me 4,000 Spanish dollars, which I afterwards paid him.

“But this is not all. I was even obliged to send my best pelisse to be sold or pawned in the bazar at Sayda, and to sell to an Albanian soldier forty English guineas, which my brother had given me on parting at Gibraltar, and which I had saved in the shipwreck.

“Oh! doctor, about six months before Miss Williams’s death, I was reduced so low, that, had she died then, I should not have had money enough to bury her. Môosa, one of the best servants I ever had, and who died of the same fever that carried off Miss Williams, out of his own pocket bought oil for two or three months’ consumption, without my knowledge; telling Miss W., who afterwards told me, that it was not proper mylady should send for oil by pints and quarts like poor people, which, just then, I was compelled to do. Oh, Lord! when I think of it! One day, when I was walking up and down, not knowing how or where to turn, thinking I must shoot my horses from having nothing to feed them with, I heard the jingling of camels’ bells, and presently a servant came to say that there were some camels at the gate laden with barley. This seasonable supply for the horses was sent by some strangers, who had heard the condition I was in; and the last adlee that I had I gave to the camel-driver.”

Another time, Lady Hester gave me, in writing, a little memorandum of the state of her finances to read, which varies somewhat from her account by word of mouth, although agreeing in the main. It was as follows:

“My debts began in 1822――from 1822 to 1823; and, in a couple of years, I owed £3,000, not that I had actually borrowed that sum. I was obliged to take up money, owing to the revolutions in the country; I speak of the time in which there were three pachas, with an army, encamped before the gates of Acre, and when the Emir Beshýr, the governor of the mountain, had fled to Egypt; and such a number of persecuted people took refuge under my roof, that this caused me great expense. Expecting remittances from England at that time, which I never received, I placed the date of the bonds for the money which I borrowed, for only four and six months, at twenty-five per cent. This, with their interest and compound interest, and the loss upon the money which I was obliged to take at the price they chose to give it, amounted in three years to £3,000. Now, God knows what it is! My income would now only simply suffice, after paying the interest of these bonds, to pay my servants and tradespeople, and put a little provision in my house. You must understand that, when I drew for my pension upon Constantinople, I paid the dollars at 6 piasters or 6½; I received them at Beyrout at 10½, and repaid them again in the Metouali country and at Sayda, where I got my provisions, at 8½: therefore, I often lost 100 per cent. The house of Coutts and Co., since old Coutts’s death, desired me only to draw my drafts upon them through a merchant’s house at Constantinople, and there was a serious loss and inconvenience to me in doing so.

“It is the custom of this country, when persons cannot pay their debts, to place them under arrest by quartering soldiers upon them, who help themselves to everything that comes in their way until the debt is paid. I was resolved to submit myself to the custom of the country, rather than allow the interference of the English consul at that time, whom I detested. I thought it would save me the trouble of telling my story, and cast the reflection on the English name which it deserved. As things seemed as if they must come to a crisis, if I had no means afforded me to avoid it, I thought the more unequivocal it was the better: for my peace of mind then would not be harassed by the misfortunes of others, when I was a beggar myself. The means by which I should become so carried no reproach with them; therefore, I prepared my mind to submit myself to my fate with them. The only thing that stopped me was, I was waiting for an answer respecting the sale of a reversion; and then, if my application did not succeed, I determined to shoot my mares, that they might never fall into other hands, to part with Miss Williams and the rest of my establishment as soon as possible, and to leave this part of the world to be never more heard of, first putting into the hands of my creditors documents to enable them to get all I possessed into their power, and my pension, if they could: but this counted for nothing, as English justice and liberality would of course have deprived me of that.

“Such were my intentions, founded upon a determination not to make any explanation to my family, or receive any more reproaches; as I had already received enough. Whatever I had to say was to be said to the Americans, among whom I thought of going, that they, at least, might feel convinced that I inherited my grandfather’s spirit and high sense of honour; for I never have been in the habit of taking half measures.

“The number of my servants had been much talked of; but as these people often set off, four and five together, in the night, and as several were constantly absent upon leave to look after their families, whilst others were always upon the sick list, giving themselves fevers by over-eating, I could not possibly get on with fewer than I had: for five men here cannot do the work of one in Europe. What are called dragomans and secretaries are a description of persons even worse than the lower class――the idlest and most inefficient of human beings.

“As for the persecuted people who took refuge at my house, you must have heard, of course, of the revolution in the mountain about 1822. For half a day’s journey around me, all the inhabitants abandoned their houses to Turkish and Druze soldiers. I remained alone, tormented to death with miserable fugitives. Terrible storms and an unusual fall of snow destroyed a vast number of houses, and I had only two rooms remaining in mine which were at all habitable. Buildings and walls fell, and all the rest were deluged with water. My health, which was very bad, was rendered worse by the uncommon inclemency of the season, as snow has not been known to have fallen in the lower part of the mountain for thirty years. The cattle died of want, and the next harvest could not be got in for want of beasts of burthen.

“This was enough, and the rest you may imagine; and if you never heard half of this whilst you were in France, you must always recollect that what passes in the interior is but little known upon the coast; and a consul or a merchant, by his fireside, is little better acquainted with the state of affairs than they are at Marseilles.

“An old Druse had his head chained to his feet, and was thrown into a dungeon. Several villages, like little towns, were burnt, many women killed, and the property of most of my friends totally destroyed; whilst the unfortunate wives of considerable men were hiding themselves in the snow-mountains in disguise, trembling for their infant sons, whose fate, if got hold of, was pretty certain. The two lads, Hanah and Bootroos, and one of whom I had then the greatest confidence in, were constantly wandering about in search of these unhappy fugitives. I will not say any more; you may judge of my feelings and situation.”

* * * * *

Such was the rough statement Lady Hester gave me. She alludes in it to the persecuted people who took refuge under her roof: but, in her oral communication, she never said a word of having afforded an asylum to almost all the Franks in Sayda, who fled to her residence in a panic after the battle of Navarino, and many of whom she lodged and boarded until they could go back in safety: nor of the two hundred wretched beings whom she fed and clothed, housed, and protected, for nearly two years, after the sacking of Acre. She never said a word of her numerous acts of beneficence, nor of the indulgent forbearance she showed even to those who had wronged her. Here is an authentic case, among twenty similar ones which might be cited.

Shaykh Omar ed Dyn, a puritanical Mussulman, who kept a grocer’s shop in Sayda, was for many years her purveyor and bailiff; and when, for want of money, she had let her account run up to something considerable, he took her note of hand for the amount, and, at the end of the year, dunned her for payment. To quiet him, she gave him a fresh note of hand, which he required should be for double the amount. Then he begged of her a quarter of wheat, then another; then an entire piece of broad cloth; then this thing, then that, until he ultimately paid himself twice over. I well recollect, in 1831, when, one day, I was going down to Sayda, Lady Hester’s saying to me, “Don’t ride the chestnut horse,” (rather a valuable one) “for, if you do, as you must pass Shaykh Omar’s shop, he will beg it of me for his son, and I dare not refuse him.”

This man, on his death-bed――for he died some time during my absence――called his wife and children to his bedside, and said to them――“The Syt Mylady owes me a sum of money; you will find her note of hand among my papers: burn it. She has ever been a benefactress to me, and, if I die with a little property, it is from her generosity. You will here promise me never to urge the claim against her; for I have received double and treble its amount at her hands.” They made solemn asseverations, and, after his death, the eldest son went to Dar Jôon, and informed Lady Hester Stanhope of their father’s dying injunctions: often did the widow, too, repeat to her how sacred she held them. But it had come to Lady Hester’s certain knowledge that, notwithstanding all these professions, the duplicity and ingratitude which mark the natives of the country were exemplified in this instance, as well as in all others; for the widow had preserved the paper, and had twice attempted to sell it, once to an Englishman, and once to a townsman. Notwithstanding this, every year, at the Byràm, Lady Hester gave the widow, whom her son’s extravagance and inactivity in business had again reduced to narrow circumstances, a handsome sum of money.[71]

Lady Hester’s exceeding generous and charitable disposition was well known; and she was consequently besieged with tales of distress, with projects of important discoveries, which wanted nothing in the world to put them in motion but money, with secrets that could be entrusted only to her, with presents that were always sure to be paid for at treble their value. Her creditors assailed her with letters, messages, visits; and these she was obliged to silence by payments in part, and increase of interest.

But this was not all. During the Greek revolution, the Mediterranean was so infested by pirates, that it was dangerous for merchants in the Levant to make their remittances to Europe in specie, a state of things which so considerably increased the value of bills of exchange, that they were often bought up at a great premium. Yet, in the face of these notorious facts, Signor ――――, a merchant at Beyrout, used to cash many of Lady Hester’s bills on Messrs. Coutts and Co., of London, or on Messrs. Webb and Co., of Leghorn, at 35, 25, and 20 per cent. discount, when such paper was actually at a premium in the market. Mr. ―――― took 15, then 10, then 5 per cent. discount. At various periods, likewise, Lady Hester had had severe illnesses. There was no person about her, in whom she could put confidence, but Miss Williams, who was totally unacquainted with pecuniary affairs, and, of course, incapable of remedying the mischief, even if her innocent mind and artless character had not prevented her from suspecting it. At one time, Lady Hester had an Armenian steward, who kept his accounts in his own language: at another time, she had a Piedmontese, who went to Beyrout to negociate the bills, and must have known the nature of such transactions. Who can wonder, therefore, if all her concerns proved ruinous to her, surrounded as she was by adventurers and intriguers? Add to this, that various sorts of money are current in Turkey, as many, perhaps, as thirty, all fluctuating in value, and contributing still more to the complication of her distresses. It would hardly have been a matter of wonder, even under ordinary circumstances, that she should have been plunged into embarrassments; but, in the peculiarly perplexing situation in which she was placed, it was unavoidable.

I was witness to her signing a list of her creditors’ names, with the amount of her various responsibilities, at her request, in case, as she said, anything should befall her, that her creditors might know she never had the smallest intention of defrauding them, even of their usurious and unlawful gains. “When I get the money,” she added, “I shall pay them all just double what they lent me, and I think nobody can say that is unjust.”

All her creditors took 25 per cent. for the money they lent. Supposing Lady Hester had not made any difficulty on that head, and was willing to receive pecuniary assistance even at that loss, why nothing could be said about the matter. Gold was the commodity these merchants had to sell, and they made as much of it as they could; but she did not always get what she had bargained for: some of the lenders sent a part of the loan in coffee, rice, and in other merchandize. In most cases, the gold was not of full weight; for never was there a country in which money-clipping is carried on to a greater extent than in Turkey. And it is not fair to say that Jews are the only usurers: Mussulmans and Christians are just as bad, when the law, or other considerations, do not coerce them into honesty. Let us take, as an example, a Christian merchant of Beyrout.

Lady Hester Stanhope wanted to borrow £600; and she applied to Mr. ――――, in September, 1826, when the exchange was at 20 piasters the Spanish dollar: £200, consequently, are about equal to 1000 Spanish dollars; and £600 to 3000 or 60,000 Turkish piasters. Her ladyship drew on Messrs. Coutts and Co. for £600, at one year’s date. The merchant gives her for her bill, instead of 60,000 piasters, only 52,500, that is 17½ for the dollar instead of 20, which was the real exchange: he gains at once on the transaction, 7500 piasters, or £75. But the bill has a year to run: he, therefore, demands a bonus for his risk, and modestly requires 1000 dollars, or £200; and Lady Hester at last receives £325 for her £600. This sum is paid in _adlees_ of 16 piastres, _ghazis_ of 20, _roobeyas_ of 9, and sundry other current moneys; but, a week or two afterwards, the pasha issues a tariff, fixing a lower value than the current one on all the coinage of the empire, a step customary every year just before the taxes are gathered, by which the government gains a considerable increase of revenue. This is known to the merchant beforehand, who, having on his books a memorandum of the customary rates at which the money is annually set, or, which is more likely, having, for a consideration, obtained private information from the government secretaries what money will be rated lowest, takes care to make his rouleaus consist of what he is most desirous of ridding himself of: and Lady Hester finds that what she has received at 20 will only pass at 17¾, those at 9 only at 8¼, and so on; by which another serious loss is added to all the rest. But in August, 1837, her bill is delayed payment because Messrs. Coutts and Co. have not the certificate of her life for Michaelmas of that year, (delayed, probably, in consequence of Lord Palmerston’s measures) and she is compelled to ask time for six months more, which is granted on her signing a promissory note for an additional number of dollars in the same usurious proportion.

After this statement of her debts, Lady Hester next proceeded to explain how it was she had written to me in such haste to come over to Syria. It has already been mentioned that, in 1836, she had been informed, by one of her friends in England, that a considerable estate had been bequeathed to her, the knowledge of which was concealed from her by those privy to the bequest.

The beginning of this erroneous belief seems to date from the spring of 1836. In some letters which passed about that time between her ladyship and the Chevalier Henry Guys, French consul at Beyrout, which that gentleman kindly allows me to make use of, and which will best explain her feelings on the subject, it will be seen that she entertained no doubt on the subject, and was firmly persuaded that her friends, for the purpose of forcing her to come to England, kept her in ignorance of her good fortune, thinking that distress must eventually drive her back to her native country. These letters were transmitted to me at Nice, after my manuscript had been sent to England; but the narrative will suffer no interruption by their introduction here, and they serve to corroborate many portions of it.

_Lady H. Stanhope to the Chevalier Henry Guys, French
Consul at Beyrout._

Translated from the French.

[No date.]

Monsieur,

A thousand and a thousand pardons for having delayed so
long sending you the bills of exchange; but Logmagi has put
off his journey to Beyrout from day to day, and I too have
been in such a bad humour that I could not write.

After I had given Yuness the letters, I received one from
Sayda, from my Lord H******** written in such an agitated
manner, that it cost me two days to make it out. The date
of it is the 1st of September; then this date is scratched
out, and the month of December is put. He tells me that “he
went directly to get correct information about my money
matters, and that they excused themselves by saying, that
sometimes they did not know whether I was alive, which
was the reason of their being behind in their payments,”
&c., and such _bêtises_. About the other affair, he writes
nothing at all, only that he gives me to understand, if
I wish everything to go on well and as I desire, I must
return to England, and then there will be such fine doings,
&c. &c.

All this does not make me change my mind, but it delays
everything. If they won’t do me justice, they shall be
made to do it by force――by the law. Have the goodness to
put the enclosed letter to my Lord H********, under cover
to Coutts and Co., with a life certificate, for fear the
bills of exchange should not be presented soon enough.
Now that I enjoy a little quiet, I shall settle all these
matters, and all will do well, I hope, in the end; but the
excessive folly and blindness of those people astonish me,
and make me angry, because they place me in a very awkward
situation, where I must either be deprived of what is due
to me, or hurt their reputations. If this business becomes
known in England, it will make a great noise.

After having well examined my account, I find I have got
left about 400 and odd pounds sterling. Out of the £700,
you have £400, or thereabouts, in hand. Make up a bag
of 1000 dollars clear; keep 200 gazi for things I shall
want――(Yusef Boutàl, of Alexandria, will have a bill of
about 2000 piasters, which I will thank you, in due time,
to pay)――give the rest to Logmagi for commissions, and
send me by him some fresh bills of exchange for the £400
sterling.

* * * * *

God grant that the time may come, when I shall have it in
my power to return you, in some shape, a small measure
only of the politeness and attention I have received from
you.

Be assured, Monsieur, of my esteem and friendship.

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

Djoun, Sunday.

* * * * *

_The same to the same._

May 29, King Charles’s day.

Two words more, Monsieur, for Dr. ――――, and a letter for
Messrs. Coutts, which be good enough to forward. According
to the report of a Greek captain, it appears that a cousin
of mine, my lord N***** after having stopped a day or
two at Cyprus, is gone to the Carimanian coast, with the
intention of coming here afterwards. I hope he will not
come to disturb me in all I have got to say to you. He is
brother of the D―――― of B――――, that man who always thwarts
me in all my concerns, in the hope of making me quit this
country by compulsion. The father of this D―――― of B――――
spent for the Bourbons, all the time they were in England,
£25,000 a-year.

Logmagi has brought me the 6,000 piasters, which you have
had the goodness to advance me. We will settle all that on
your arrival here. In the mean time, monsieur, accept a
thousand thanks, and the assurance of my friendship.

H. L. STANHOPE.

_The same to the same._

[No date, but supposed to be June, 1836.]

Monsieur,

I am disposed always to put full confidence in you: here
is Coutts’s account, such as it is. The letter says
nothing――only that so much money has been paid in by such
a one, probably an agent of my brother’s son; but of that
I am not sure. Send me back the account when you have any
one coming here. No doubt I owe the payment of this sum to
Lord Hardwicke, who does not write until he has finished it
all. He is a man who has rendered me a thousand services,
without ever having made them known to me: but chance has
brought them to my knowledge. Wait――have a little patience:
God is great, and I have right on my side.

Tell me if there are any opportunities for Leghorn or
France: I wish to write to the Doctor.

Monday se’nnight.

Mansoor is going to Beyrout to do some commissions; but
he has such a bad memory, that I shall be no gainer by
his going in what I have to say to you. I am in want of a
drawing for two ceilings (one for my divàn-room,) after
your taste and ideas, composed of a circle in the centre
and a cornucopia at each corner; the remainder a trellis.
There must be also small arcades. These I should like
to be ornamented with _felák_[72] flowers (I don’t know
the French name); the circular centre may have ears of
corn, roses, pomegranates――I mean chiefly. My idea of a
cornucopia you will see in the annexed sketch.

I have just this moment received a very long letter from
Madame de Fériat, who is delighted with the permission
I have given her to come to me. She is making her
preparations, is selling her property, &c. I fancy she must
be a woman quite _unique._

I will write again on Sunday; but, before you let me hear
from you, will you make some inquiries about the character
of a Florentine who has written to me. Let me know what
kind of a man he is; what he is good for. I can never get
through all my business with Mansoor alone; still those
Franks are generally detestable. His name is Renecucci, or
something like it. Forgive me for troubling you so much,
and accept, monsieur, the sentiments of my regard and
respect.

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

Friday, 3 o’clock.

My express goes off now.

For the divàn-room of Madame F., I should like ornaments of
a musical character, flowers, &c.; for she seems to be very
fond of music and the fine arts.

Let me know whether the Spanish carpenter is out of employ
just at present.

* * * * *

_The same to the same._

Djoun, June 18, 1836.

Monsieur,

Your letter came to hand the 17th, in the evening, and
it is with pleasure that I see the extent of the interest
you are good enough to take in my affairs. Therefore, you
will be pleased to learn that what I intended to do will,
probably, be no longer necessary.

Very extraordinary circumstances have come to my knowledge,
which I cannot communicate to you by letter.

I am neither afraid of plague nor of anything else; so if
you believe, as I do, that everything is destiny, I should
like to have an opportunity of profiting by your counsel
touching certain things somewhat incredible, which have
been twice repeated to me by persons much attached to me,
but who are desirous of not being known.

Now I must speak to you about my money concerns. In the
course of fifteen or twenty days, I should like to have
three letters of exchange for 1000 dollars. If you have
not the money by you, you can give the bills to some of
the English merchants, with whom I will not have anything
to do, because they wish to have all my bills or none
at all; and, as I see that my affairs are likely to be
bettered, I shall have nobody but you. You served me well
in my misfortunes, and I wish you to see the end of them.
As I fear my letters may be stopped,[73] if my handwriting
were known, I will thank you to direct one of them to Mr.
A. Kinglake, adding the name of your banker at Paris or
Marseilles. I have left that one open: you will be good
enough to seal it, and put it, as well as the other to
My lord Hardwicke, under cover, directed to one of your
friends in England.

Adieu, monsieur, and pray accept the assurance of my esteem
and friendship.

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

PS. I have kept back my letter a day longer, having had
an express from Beyrout, to inform me that a medallion,
belonging to me, has been found at Cyprus――another proof of
the robberies committed in my house. However, for the
present, say nothing about it, until they have caught the
man who sold it.

* * * * *

The original letter is annexed, as a specimen of her ladyship’s French.

Djoun, le 18 Juin, 1836.

Monsieur,

Votre lettre m’a été remise le 17 au soir; et c’est
avec plaisir que je vois l’étendue de l’intérêt que vous
avez la bonté de prendre dans mes affaires. Vous serez ainsi
content d’apprendre que ce que je voulois faire ne sera
peut-être plus nécessaire. J’ai appris des circonstances
très extraordinaires, dont je ne pourrais vous faire part
par lettre. Je ne crains ni peste ni rien autre: ainsi, si
vous croyez, comme moi, que _tout est écrit_, je voudrois
bien avoir l’occasion de profiter de vos lumières touchant
des choses un peu incroyables, mais qui m’out été deux fois
répétées par des personnes qui me sont fort attachées, mais
qui désirent de ne pas se faire connôitré.

A-présent, il faut vous parler de mes affaires d’intérêt.
Dans le courant de 15 à 20 jours, je voudrois trois lettres
de change pour 1000 talaris. Si vous n’avez pas l’argent
chez vous, vous pouvez donner des lettres à quelqu’un
de ces Anglois, avec lesquels je n’aime pas me mêler,
parcequ’ils veulent avoir toutes mes lettres de change ou
point: mais comme je vois que mes affaires vont se bien
rétablir, je ne veux que _vous_. Vous m’avez bien servi
dans le malheur, et j’aime que vous voyez la fin.

Comme je crains que l’on arrête peut-être mes lettres, si
mon écriture est connue, je vous prie d’en adresser une à
Monsieur A. Kinglake, en ajoutant le nom de votre banquier
à Paris ou à Marseille. Je l’ai laissé ouverte. Vous la
cacheterez et vous la mettrez, ainsi que l’autre à Mylord
Hardwicke, sous enveloppe, adressée à un de vos amis en
Angleterre.

Adieu, monsieur, je vous ai beaucoup fatigué; mais
pardonnez moi, et agreez l’assurance de mon estime et de
mon amitié.

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

PS. J’ai gardé ma lettre un jour, ayant reçu un messager de
Beyrout, qui me parle d’une médaille trouvée à Chypre qui
m’appartient, autre preuve des voleurs dans ma maison. Mais
à present, il ne faut rien dire jusqu’à ce que l’on ait
attrapé celui qui l’a vendue.

J’ai fait une bêtise. J’ai adressé la lettre. Mes idées
sont toutes sur la médaille.

* * * * *

_The same to the same._

Djoun, July 3, 1836.

Monsieur,

I intended to have written to you yesterday, when your
letter reached me, to have told you that I have found out
still more robberies, and such intrigues!――but say nothing
for the present: only, I foresee, I shall be put to great
expense every way; and, if it does not inconvenience you to
wait for the amount of the bill that was protested, until
the £2,000 are paid into your bankers’ hands, it would
considerably advance my business.

I have had farther accounts about the money concealed from
me. Very good! When I get it, I shall give you plenty of
commissions for France.

How kind you are to think about my eyesight, which sickness
and trouble have so injured! Nevertheless, it is better
than it was last year.

I will send you back the book by the express who will go
for the money. What day would you like he should be with
you? Half of what the writer says is incorrect.[74] Before
I went to Palmyra, I made an excursion into the Desert with
Lascaris alone, keeping the doctor and the married servants,
under one pretext or another, from accompanying me. Lascaris
and I were pursued by the Fedâan Bedouins, who were hostile
to Mohammed el Fadi; and, although our horses never drank
for two days, we rode from ten in the morning until after
midnight, without eating or drinking, to get out of their
district. Then, again, the dispute between Lascaris and me
was about a groom, who, not knowing who he was, would not
let him enter my stables at Hamah. His pride would not stop
to listen to reason, and he ran away (_et il s’est enfuit_).
I met him several years afterwards at Tripoli, and he made
me cry for an hour by the excess of his grief, and the
excuses which he made me: so much so, that I, who hardly
ever shed tears, was astonished at myself. Poor man! There,
indeed, was a true courtier, with the most elegant manners,
and an inconceivable fund of knowledge, without pedantry. It
was not Napoleon that he was so much attached to; it was to
him who had the _portefeuille_. You know very well what he
did for him.

Accept, monsieur, the expression of my esteem and regard.

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

_The same to the same._

Djoun, August 14, 1836.

Monsieur,

I have succeeded, at last, in finding out the extent of
the intrigues against me. The intriguers thought to do me
a great deal of harm, but, thank God! they have done me a
great deal of good, as you will see hereafter. When the
hot days are over, you must pay me another visit, in order
for me to make you perfectly acquainted with everything,
and also to settle our accounts. Be not uneasy if you do
not receive any letters from your correspondent by the
packet-boat. At this season, all the great folks in England
are dispersed at their country-houses, and your friend,
perhaps, will defer writing to you until he gets your last
letters.

I have as yet no answer from the doctor since I last wrote
to him, but I understand his circumstances are not very
flourishing. Poor man, let him take courage: he shall be
better, ay, shall be well off, when I have put down those
――――.

In eight days, with your leave, I will send you the bill
of exchange for the £100, and you can send me the 200
_gazi_.[75] I sha’n’t torment you any more afterwards,
until I make you my principal banker and attorney, to
liquidate my debts, &c.

Accept, &c.

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

PS. The negro affair has not annoyed me much, but the
infamous conduct of those two maids torments me daily. One
of them has driven her father-in-law from his home, and
the other has been turned out of doors by the man’s wife
where she lived. I have always found that giving too much
education was only painting a character over, and that,
needs must, whatever is born in man will, sooner or later,
show itself. Too much education is what has spoiled France,
and has made the French monkey-philosophers, and the
English wicked brutes (_qui a rendu les François des singes
philosophes et les Anglois des méchantes bêtes_).

* * * * *

_The same to the same._

October, 1836.

Monsieur,

I cannot but think how kind you are to me, not even
to forget my business, when the presence of such a distinguished
personage[76] requires all your attention: but you are equal
to it all. Would to Heaven that the Prince was aware how
much France owes you! Indeed, he cannot fail of knowing it
during his cruise in the Levant, where everybody esteems you
so much: but I must hold my tongue, else you may be angry
with me.

Have the goodness to deliver the money sealed up to Yuness.
Enclosed are the bills of exchange, and the letter which
you allowed me to read.

* * * * *

_The same to the same._

Djoun, October 30, 1836.

Monsieur,

Hardly was I recovered from my migraine and inflammation
in my eyes, when, lo! all my people fall ill――the little
black girl and all――and I have been tormented and tired to
death: but, thank God, they are now all well again!

I have delayed writing to you, expecting always to have
letters by the steamer; but, when I reflect on it, I doubt
if I shall receive any until Parliament meets――at least,
that will be the excuse, and they will say that everybody
is just now out of town.

It will be curious to see how they will prove their
right to conceal from me that money had been left me. I
understand clearly that there are two legacies (one I
have been informed of by an indirect, but a very certain
channel, since I saw you); a considerable one and a small
one. If I were spiteful, I could make them repent of their
doings in a court of justice: but, even as it is, the
matter cannot be passed over without creating some noise in
the world.

I have twice advised Mr. Coutts that I should draw on him,
after the 10th of October, both for my pension and the
£950 which fell due in September; and, after the repeated
assurances which they have made, that, in future, they will
be punctual in their payments, I can’t think they will
play me any more tricks, especially when they will have so
much to do for me since the discovery which I have made.
Therefore, will you let me know if you have money enough by
you to cash a bill of £300, before the money from England
comes to hand. Of that amount, I wish you to keep 200 gazi
for expenses.

* * * * *

Lady Hester now told me that, having written ineffectually to a nobleman on the subject, she had turned over in her thoughts where she could find a fit person, in whom she could confide, to ascertain the truth of these matters, and to whom she could write, with the request that he would make the necessary inquiries. She had deliberated a long while whether it should be a lawyer, a man of business, or one of her old friends. Among the latter, from first to last, she added, “I have thought Sir Francis Burdett would be the one I could most assuredly confide in.” In speaking of him, she said, “He is a man of feeling, doctor, and he and I were always the best of friends. I recollect, when I told him how basely two or three people had behaved on Mr. Pitt’s death, he was ready to go beside himself: his hand went into the breast of his waistcoat and out again, as if he could not contain his indignation. What do you think?――would not he be the proper person? I always said Sir Francis was no democrat. He threw himself into the hands of the people merely that he might have an excuse of business to be out, or by himself. All the democrats that I have known were nothing but aristocrats at heart――ay, and worse than others. Even Horne Tooke was not a democrat――that I am sure of, by the court he always paid me, and by his constantly making so many civil speeches to me and of me. I have never known a man yet, if he was not to be bought, that was not a democrat from personal motives.”

In fine, it was resolved to write to Sir Francis, and a rough copy of a letter was drawn up by Lady Hester’s dictation, which, after some verbal alterations, she thought would do. Several remarks, quite foreign to the subject, were introduced, announcing the researches she had made as to the Eastern origin of the Irish and Scotch; and, as Lady Hester kept constantly saying to me, “Will this letter do? do you see anything that wants altering?” a question very usual with her when dictating letters, I forgot Gil Blas’s warning, and very distinctly expressed my apprehensions lest the introduction of the opinions about the affinity of the Irish and the Koreýsh should make Sir F. think her cracked. For, I observed, his studies, most probably, have never led him to investigate these subjects, which, thus introduced into a letter on business, might be made a handle for the ill-natured comments of people who disliked her. She thanked me, but retained them all, and only requested me to write them out fair. I did so, and inadvertently skipped a page, which, when the sheet was full, created some confusion in reading it. So, resolving to rewrite it, I merely submitted it to Lady Hester’s perusal, whilst I rode down to see my family. But I was there seized with a phlegmonous inflammation of my leg, which, in one night, from the irritation of the stirrup-leather (rudely made, as it always is in Turkey), assumed so alarming a character,[77] and was so painful, that I took to my bed and kept it eleven days. I wrote a note to Lady Hester, describing my situation, requesting her to send me the letter to Sir F. in order that I might write it over again: but, hearing that I suffered a great deal, she said it was not necessary; and, sealing the copy she had got, she despatched it by a foot-messenger to Beyrout to go by the steamboat.

September 12.――We were thus occupied until this day, with the exception of the many hours passed by Lady Hester in diatribes on women and their husbands; she endeavouring to prove that, in almost all possible cases, women should be simple automatons, moved by the will and guidance of their masters. Her fertile memory brought a vast number of cases to bear on her argument; cases which she had seen in high life during her time, where gentlemen, otherwise of estimable character, became the ridicule of society from suffering themselves to be ruled by their wives. But Lord F. was the one whose example she dwelt upon most strenuously.

“Women,” she would say, “must be one of three things. Either they are politicians and literary characters; or they must devote their time to dress, pleasure, and love; or, lastly, they must be fond of domestic affairs. I do not mean by domestic affairs a woman who sits working at her needle, scolding a couple of children, and sending her maid next door to the shop for all she wants: there is no trouble in that. What I mean is a yeoman’s wife, who takes care of the butter and cheese, sees the poultry-yard attended to, and looks to her husband’s comfort and interest. As for the advantage of passing your evenings with your family, which you urge as a reason for having them near you,” she remarked, “all sensible men that I have ever heard of take their meals with their wives, and then retire to their own room to read, write, or do what they have to do, or what best pleases them. If a man is a fox-hunter, he goes and talks with his huntsmen or the grooms, and very good company they are; if he is a tradesman, he goes into his shop; if a doctor, to his patients; but nobody is such a fool as to moider away his time in the slip-slop conversation of a pack of women.”[78]

I happened to observe that many clever men had not only passed their hours with their families, but even studied and wrote surrounded by them; and I named four or five that occurred to my recollection, one of whom was C――――. “Did you ever hear me say there were not more fools than one in the world?”――She rejoined, “As for Mr. C――――, I knew him; so you need not talk to me about him. Mrs. C――――! there was a woman!――Charles C. was one of the greatest _roués_ in London――always drunk. He was in the Blues, and took it into his head to fall in love with a Rt. Hble.――very ugly――but her relations would not let her marry him. Perhaps he wanted her money; he was very agreeable. Mr. C. lived in a very hugger-mugger sort of a way, with a maid of all work and a boy, and it was his daughter who did most things for him. Perhaps he was not rich enough to have another room to study in.”

In this sort of way would Lady Hester Stanhope argue on most subjects, running from one thing to another, and then, when you thought she had lost sight of her text, returning to it with some pithy observation, which generally settled the point to her own satisfaction.

September 29.――I remained at Mar Elias, confined with my bad leg, from the 13th until this day, when I returned to Jôon. Letters and messengers had, in the interim, been passing between M. Guys and Lady Hester Stanhope respecting a house which he was employed to hire for me and my family; but I had reason to think afterwards that she had no wish to get rid of us, as the house was reserved for the Baroness de Fériat, and the correspondence could tend to no other purpose than to throw odium upon Mrs. ―――― as a discontented and capricious woman.

During my confinement, Lady Hester Stanhope wrote the following letter to my daughter, then hardly out of her childhood.

_To Miss ――――_

Tuesday, before sunset, Sept. 19th, 1837.

I was pleased to find, my dear little Eugenia, that you
inherit your father’s good-will towards me. I must thank
you and Mademoiselle Longchamp for your kind offers of
assistance, but I must decline them, having taken a
determination not to have anything more to do with the
doctor’s family than if it did not exist in the country.
I should forget my situation and rank in life were I to
condescend to dispute and make daily explanations to my
inferiors. To avoid this, I must give up all thoughts of
making your acquaintance, although you are an object of
interest to me, as would be all the children of the doctor,
even if he had a hundred. Request him not to think about
my letters or anything else that relates to me; only let
him take care of his health. If I can be useful to a sick
person, nothing is unpleasant to me; but, when I cannot, or
rather am not, permitted to be, the history of the progress
of sores is not very agreeable. I do not wish to hear of
him till he is recovered. Writing must fatigue him, and I
would rather be without letters from you or him.

I have had a letter from M. Guys to-day, in which he tells
me he was thinking of taking a ride to see some houses to
hire for your family. I shall send to Beyrout on Thursday
before daylight, and the doctor’s letters will go by that
messenger. He had better write a few lines more to M. Guys,
to explain what situation and what sort of a house he would
like, as it would appear that I am grown a fool in my old
age, and neither know my right hand from my left.