Chapter X (2)

The doctor is aware that he may command anything my house
contains which may be useful to him; but I shall neither
send him anything, nor inquire after him, as my messenger
was thus ill received:[79] and I do not think I can be
called upon to put my eyes out by writing, when I more than
want the sight I have left for my own affairs.

Believe me, dear little girl, yours sincerely,

H. L. S.

The frame of Lady Hester’s mind at this period may be further understood from the following letter, which was sent to me, with a secret injunction to read it to my wife.

_To Dr. ――――, at Mar Elias._

Djôon, Sept. 23, 1837.

Whilst waiting for M. Guys’ answer, I have some remarks to
make, worthy of your attention. I do not speak in wrath,
my dear doctor, but I do not see how, at this period, you
are to help yourself; and it is plain to perceive that you
will not be able in any way to accomplish the objects you
came for. Therefore, I should deem it as an act of folly
to stick you up as a sort of _maskara_[80] in the public
eye at Beyrout, merely to write a few letters. The whole of
my business M. Guys offered to undertake before I sent for
you, and to come here and write for me; but I had reasons
for wishing you to come, which no longer exist; for under
no circumstances do I see that you would be comfortable
near me, nor should I wish for it, either at present or
in future. Therefore, if you like to pass the winter at
Cyprus, where, perhaps, you would be more comfortable than
at Beyrout, you are at full liberty to do so. When my
affairs are settled, you might then, if Cyprus pleases you,
purchase a little _terre_ there, or return to Europe, as you
like best.

I am very glad that you wrote to M. Guys yourself; for I
had described a country-house near some village, and you
have described a sort of coffee-house near the gate of
the town. You talked to me of Mrs. ――――’s great love of
retirement (which I laughed at, at the time,) and therefore
she chooses a house upon the high road. But leave all that
childish vulgar stuff; I do not wish for a hasty answer,
as this subject requires reflection. Try and make yourself
comfortable, and I shall find means of settling my business
to my satisfaction; only I must have a clear and distinct
answer, that I may make arrangements accordingly.

Your sincerely,

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

PS. Should my messenger retard, it is for M. Guys to be
able to answer your letter about the house. I enclosed
your two letters to be forwarded to England. Do not fidget
yourself about me. I have made many awful sacrifices in my
life; surely I can make a small one, when I know what it
is. This is what distinguishes the truly great from the low
and vulgar.

* * * * *

On returning to the Dar, I remained there eight days. Our conversations turned principally, during this period, on her father’s seat at Chevening, the people in that neighbourhood, and the happiness of her early days there. She recollected the names of all the gentry thereabouts, of the farmers, as also of her father’s servants, and could tell anecdotes respecting them with such a minuteness of particulars, that the individuals, to their surprise, after the lapse of so many years, would have found she remembered more of them than they did of themselves.

FOOTNOTES:

[70] A piece of money worth 16 piasters.

[71] Shaykh Omar ed Dyn was a Turk of the old school; that
is, a man rigid in his religious observances, one
who knew not the taste of wines or spirits, and of
inconceivable cleanliness, in which points the modern
Syrians are somewhat remiss.

[72] The sunflower.

[73] Her ladyship appears, from having lived a long time
in Downing Street, to have acquired some knowledge
on a subject which has lately created such lively
discussions in the House of Commons.

[74] The book here meant is M. Lamartine’s “Souvenirs
de l’Orient.” What Lady Hester here refers to as
incorrect relates to her journey into the Desert with
Mr. Lascaris; about which, and about the dispute with
Mr. L. it is not likely that M. Lamartine could know
the particulars; nor does this in the least deprive M.
Lamartine of the just merit accorded to him, of having
been the first traveller to give Europe some accurate
notions about Lady Hester in her retirement.

[75] A coin of alloyed gold, of the size of a shilling.

[76] The Prince de Joinville, son of Louis Philippe.

[77] During the autumnal months in Syria, the bite of
a horsefly, a simple excoriation, even a musquito
bite, if scratched, will readily inflame, fester, and
sometimes become a wound.

[78] A great philosopher reasoned on this point like Lady
Hester. According to him: “La femme et le mari sont
bien destinés à vivre ensemble, mais non pas de la
même manière; ils doivent agir de concert, sans
faire les mêmes choses. La vie qui charmeroit l’un
seroit insupportable à l’autre; les inclinations que
leur donne la nature sont aussi diverses que les
fonctions qu’elle leur impose: leurs amusemens ne
différent pas moins que leurs devoirs; en un mot, tous
deux concourent au bonheur commun par des chemins
differens, et ce partage de travaux et de soins est le
plus fort lien de leur union.”――Let. xiv. 3_me_ partie
_Nouv. Hel._

[79] I had declined rather pettishly some articles of dress
which Lady Hester had sent me, and to this she alludes.

[80] Maskara means a sort of show. This Arabic word is
either derived from European languages, or they have
borrowed a corresponding expression from it.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

Page 78-87――The Emir Beshýr.

In relating these conversations, which place the character of the Emir Beshýr in so disadvantageous a light, it would be unfair not to call the attention of the reader to a work recently published (Memoirs of a Babylonian Princess), in which the Emir is held up as a model of all Christian virtues, and his reign as a reign of peace.

As a romance, the Memoirs of the Princess may challenge a comparison with many works of our best novelists. The authoress seems to have a most unbounded indulgence for the errors of others; but the Emir Beshýr, notwithstanding, must still be left with all his stains upon him, as a wily, sanguinary, and perfidious, but successful prince.

It is not pretended that Lady Hester Stanhope did not personally dislike the Emir Beshýr; and, as her hatreds were as cordial as her friendships, she never spared him when she spoke of him to others, whilst her language, no doubt, was at all times highly coloured: but, unhappily, there are too many notorious facts to justify the abuse she lavishes on him, as regards his cruelties; only, if it is any palliation of his conduct that he had to deal with chieftains who were as great adepts in machiavelism as himself, this excuse is conceded to him.

In vol. ii., p. 160, the Amira Asmar informs her readers that the Emir Beshýr had put his two nephews to death to punish their treason in attempting his downfall. Now everybody in Mount Lebanon knows that the nephews had their eyes put out, and, as it was affirmed, were subjected to the loss of organs equally dear to Oriental husbands with sight itself, but were not put to death, and possibly are living now.

In vol. ii., p. 158, we read, “The Emir had been in power forty years, and, by the firmness and liberality of his policy, had continued, during the long period, to consolidate the jarring and heterogeneous elements committed to his sway into something like a united body; insomuch that peace reigned in the mountain, and the Moslem thirsted not for the blood of his Christian fellow-subject. In short, Maronite, Motowli, Mahometan, and Druze, looked upon each other as brethren.” A little before this (vol. ii., p. 140), she tells us, “I was at length under the protection of a prince whose vigorous arm upheld the dignity of Christianity in the East, and bid its followers confess their God without fear.”

In another place (vol. ii., p. 187), we read, “Soon afterwards Lady Hester Stanhope rose, and, bidding us farewell, took her departure, attended by a large retinue. A spirited charger stood at the gate, champing the bit with fiery impatience. She put her foot in the stirrup, and, vaulting nimbly into the saddle, which she, after the Oriental fashion, bestrode like a man, started off at a rapid pace, galloping over rock and mountain.”

Vol. ii., page 203, will afford us one quotation more; and, whilst it must be a matter of regret to raise a doubt of the correctness of the Amira’s recollections, it still will be necessary to vindicate the present publication from being the vehicle of falsehoods. It is there said, “The Queen of Tadmor, as Lady Hester Stanhope was commonly called by all the Bedouin tribes, was on the most friendly terms with the Emir Beshýr and his family, and a constant visitant to the garden.”

It will be in our power to answer all these somewhat erroneous assertions, by relating the substance of a conversation with Lady Hester, not embodied in the text. The conversation was as follows:――

“What would you say, Doctor, if a monster should send his executioner to tear your little girl, Eugenia, from you, and put her to death? what would be your horror? Yet the Emir Beshýr was capable of this; for when the wretched and unfortunate wife of the Sheykh Beshýr was flying from the terrors that surrounded her, he issued an order that her boy should be torn asunder wherever found. I was by no means intimate or attached to that woman; but her misfortunes required that I should assist her, and humanity justified it, as she was, at the time, without a parra, and flying through the snow. She had four or five children, two of which were in prison at Acre with the father, (who was afterwards strangled there, as you know,) and one was suckling at her breast.

“The Emir will never forget or forgive what I did on that occasion; for with Hanah” (this was a poor blind peasant, about whom I had been speaking, and the mention of whom led to the conversation) “and another, who were but lads then, I thwarted all his detestable plans, although he had his myrmidons in all directions out in search of her. Hanah was nearly lost in the snow, and the effect of the glare on his sight he never recovered. Most people called me a fool for my pains, and trembled at the consequences for me in opposing a powerful prince; but I am not one of your quiet sort, who sit in a corner, and grunt and lament, because they are afraid to act. Humanity raised her voice, that I should endeavour to rescue these wretched orphans, and I did it. With the intrigues of these two rivals, the Emir and the Sheykh, I never meddled: I have never seen the one or the other since the death of Sulymàn Pasha.” Now Sulymàn Pasha died before 1822, consequently Lady Hester Stanhope could not have been intimate with the Emir, nor have mounted her horse at his gate subsequent to 1825, which, if my recollection serves me (for I copied the quotations and returned the book), is the date of the Amira’s anecdotes.

Page 106.――“The room bore no resemblance.”

In perusing these pages, the reader is requested to bear constantly in mind the distinction there is between the usages of the East and those of England. Reflections and observations, if made on some of the incidents in this work, which would apply with irresistible truth in our own country and would necessarily have much weight attached to them, fall still-born from the pen in relation to Orientals. This reservation is called for more particularly in reference to the scenes which pass in Lady Hester Stanhope’s bed-chamber.

At the word _bed-chamber_ we naturally figure to ourselves a four-post bedstead with tester and curtains, with paillasse, mattress, and feather bed, with marseilles quilt, and perhaps an eider-down one upon that, with a marble dressing-table and _lavabou_, and an endless display of rouge-pots, combs, hair-brushes, and the paraphernalia of a fashionable toilet-table. With one breath all this must be blown to the winds; Turkish ladies never know even the existence of such things. Some cupboard in a corner, or some brass-nailed box, contains whatever they want for cosmetical purposes, and a visit to the bath supplies all the rest.

In Eastern countries there is no room bearing even the name of bed-room; for there are no fixed bedsteads, no fixed washing-stands, no fixed dressing-tables. Every room is a saloon; and, when night comes, from a recess or niche in the thick walls of their houses, covered by a curtain, is drawn forth a wool mattress with a sheet, which are spread on the floor-matting. Upon this ready couch the lovely daughters of those favoured regions throw themselves dressed (let not this be lost sight of――dressed) very much in the same clothes as in the day-time, even to the turban, and draw over their persons a wadded quilt, to which is sewed the upper sheet, as a certain way of preventing it from shifting its position with reference to the quilt. Nothing else appears in the room, and ingress and egress is as free when ladies are in bed as at any other hour: hence the reason why the peasant spoken of at p. 62 of this volume so unceremoniously enters where Lady Hester is lying. In some houses, where the sofas are of sufficient breadth, even the mattress is dispensed with, and the quilt alone is all that is required for the night’s repose.

Lady Hester had adopted the same mode of sleeping. Her bed-room differed in nothing from the one described, excepting that, from an invincible repugnance to sleep on the floor, yet unable to procure a European bedstead, she had substituted in its place deal planks laid on trestles, which were stationary; and this was a constant source of difficulty and ridicule with the maids, whose prejudices against an immoveable bed never were entirely eradicated. On this she slept, attired as completely as when up, and the most scrupulous prudery could find no difference between her couch and her drawing-room sofa, unless it was that on one she lay, on the other she sat. Most often, however, when in conversation, she sat up in her bed, with a short pelisse over her shoulders, such as Polish ladies often wear. Her bath-room was her dressing-room.

In the early part of my life I was acquainted with the Prince C――――, Hospodar of Wallachia, who had fled from his principality to Geneva. I never shall forget the impression which an introduction to his daughter, a young princess, made on me, when (not for a medical visit, but for one of friendship) I was ushered into a bed-room and shook hands with her, seated in her bed, dressed in the way represented above as usual with the Turks. Guests went and came as if she had been in the drawing-room, and, no doubt, some two or three Europeans among the number were as much astonished as myself. But how frivolous and empty are the distinctions which men create between right and wrong, when weighed in the balance of reason! I have dined with a French countess (who had taken a temporary lodging in Paris) in her bed-room; yet she never dreamed of impropriety; but I have been told, had I inadvertently put my hat down on her bed instead of a chair, her _femme-de-chambre_ and she herself would have been scandalized at the imputation such an act conveyed.

Page 125.――“To see an angel.”

Say, were an angel near,
Should we not shrink with fear?
Burdened with sinfulness, death must ensue.
How can our passions brook,
Seraph! thy searching look:
Glances celestial, that pierce the soul through?
_From “The Mirror.”_

Page 162.――Lady Hamilton.

“Lady Hamilton was a woman **** **** whom Sir William H. fell in with here when he began to doat, and married when his doatage was confirmed: she is clever and artful, but a sad **.”――_Diaries and Correspondence of the Earl of Malmesbury_, v. iv. p. 214.

Page 270.――“P―――― of W――――, who was a sloven.”

“Argument with the Princess about her toilette; she piques herself on dressing quick; I disapprove this. She maintains her point; I, however, desire Madame Busche to explain to her that the Prince is very delicate, and that he expects a long and very careful ‘_toilette de propreté_,’ of which she has no idea. On the contrary, she neglects it sadly, and is _offensive_ from this neglect.”

In this extract from Lord Malmesbury’s Diary, it will be seen how accurate his observations were, and how well they tally with Lady Hester Stanhope’s, who must have had opportunities of knowing all this even better than his Lordship could.

His Lordship in his diary again returns to the subject. “I endeavoured,” (says he) “as far as was possible for a _man_, to inculcate the necessity of great and nice attention to every part of dress, as well as to what was hid as to what was seen. I knew she wore coarse petticoats, coarse shifts, and thread stockings, and these never well washed, or changed often enough.... It is remarkable how amazingly her education has been neglected, and how much her mother, although an English woman, was inattentive to it.”――_Diaries and Correspondence of the Earl of Malmesbury_, v. iii. pp. 207, 211.

END OF VOL. I.

FREDERICK SHOBERL, JUNIOR,
PRINTER TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT,
51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET, LONDON.

Transcriber’s Note:

Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of the chapter. Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged unless indicated below. Obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged.

Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added. Letters missing at line endings were added.

The following items were changed:

aad to and, footnote [26], line 2226
paralellogram to parallelogram, line 2389
unsustained to unstained, line 3822
inpressive to impressive, line 4294
steambout to steamboat, line 8237