LETTER XXXVI.
The discovery to which I alluded in my last letter, surprised and grieved me very much; and indeed it astonished me the more, from the manner in which it was communicated.
One day I received a polite message from the British Consul, saying, he wished to speak to me as soon as possible, upon a business of great consequence. I thought at first, that it might be some plan for my proceeding on my journey—perhaps Company’s dispatches that had arrived to go over land; and at intervals, something like apprehensions of the true motive of his sending for me flew across my mind. I however went to him, when, after some little introductory conversation, he told me, that my host Mr. ——- had been with him that morning, laying before him a complaint of a most extraordinary and serious nature, of which, as it immediately concerned me, he thought himself bound to inform me, in order that I might either contradict so gross a calumny if it were untrue, or find means to avoid the obviously necessary result if founded in fact.
He then proceeded to relate to me, that Mr. ——- had informed him of a conspiracy having been meditated against his peace and honour, between his wife and the English gentleman whom he had entertained in his house; that their plan was nothing less than an elopement, and that he did not know how soon it might be carried into execution, if not timely prevented; and finally, that he had demanded the assistance of the Consul and his interest with the Turkish magistrate to prevent it, by granting him an armed force for the protection of his house.
I was much surprised to find that conversations so very guarded as ours were discovered, and more so that the aggrieved person did not think proper to speak to myself, and charge me in person with the offence; never reflecting the while, that all my ideas were military, and his merely commercial: I was also much at a loss to conjecture how he came to make the discovery—but this I found afterwards he owed to a female servant, who had been improvidently intrusted by her mistress with the secret.
Finding, however, that by whatever means he became acquainted with the affair, it was a certain fact that he was apprised of it, I directly acknowledged the whole truth with the utmost candour to the Consul; told him the affair step by step as it arose, assuring him (which I really thought to be the case) that pity for the Lady’s deplorable situation made me listen to such a measure; and that unlawful passion had so little to do with it, that in all our private conferences we had never transgressed the limits of purity; and that her person was, at least respecting me, and I firmly believed all mankind, spotless and inviolate. I added, that great allowances were to be made for a young creature barely eighteen years of age, consigned by the wickedness of avaricious parents to the embraces of a man of sixty-five; who, amiable and worthy though he was, in social intercourse with the world (which I knew him to be), was yet in the most indispensable point of connubial felicity so utterly defective, as necessarily to create disgust and abhorrence in a youthful mind. I remarked to him, that, in the forming of laws, it as plainly appeared on their face, who made them amongst the English, as it does on the face of the Gentoo laws, that they were made by the Bramins: for, as by the latter the penalty of a few puns[[2]] of couries (not value a shilling)[shilling)] is annexed to the perpetration of a crime, for which those of another class lose their lives; so, among us, it appears that our laws are made by the aged, the decrepid, the sensual, and the rich. Else it could never happen that there were in the same code, laws to punish marriage between the young and vigorous, and enable the brutality of a parent to take its full scope, and consign, as in the present instance, youth, beauty, health, and every personal attraction, to the arms of age, infirmity, and impotence. And I concluded by saying, that all parties aiding in such an unnatural confederacy should be punished.
[2]. Couries, a kind of small shells used in India, as a circulating medium in place of coin, in value much below the smallest copper coin—a Pun is a certain number of them.
The Consul fairly acknowledged there was too much truth in what I had said; but remarked withal, that it was rather a hazardous experiment, and he was sure it would be an endless one, to correct all the abuses to which the fallibility of man, and his incompetency to form any thing perfect, necessarily left society and their laws liable—that the law was written, and it was the duty of every individual to obey it—and that in cases of adultery, the offence could be justified on no solid grounds whatever, for, independent of the feelings of the husband, which perhaps were more poignant in old age than youth, the injury to his family was not to be got over, in probably giving to him an heir no way a-kin to him. “It would be right I think,” said he, “to stop such disproportionate matches; yet, once made, they should be as religiously observed inviolate as those of love, among which we almost as frequently, as in those of compulsion, see instances of infidelity. If you doubt this,” said he, “read the records of Doctors’ Commons.”
I agreed to the justice of what he said, at the same time assured him, that my intentions went no farther than wishing the Lady to be rescued from her thraldom, which I told him was dreadful.—“I am sure,” said the Consul, “that Mr. Campbell thinks so, because I am convinced he would not otherwise say so. But may not,” said he, smiling, “may not Mr. C. have deceived himself? these are things in which the passions are strangely apt to hoodwink the understanding. However,” continued he, breaking off pleasantly, “I must give you all the comfort that truth will allow me to do: I am sure that the poor Lady is condemned to great wretchedness; partly from my own observation, partly from public report, and partly from her own mouth: for you must know she has several times complained to me of her husband’s peevishness and tyranny; and even besought me to use my influence and authority to relieve her from her misery. Mr. ————,” continued he, “is a man whom on all other accounts I esteem, and value highly. In this instance he has erred, and I cannot pity him, even though he suffers all the torments of jealousy: and as there are laws for punishing with death premature intercourse with the sex, I cannot see, any more than you, why the sacrificing youth to extreme old age should not be equally punished, for I am sure it is equally unnatural, and still more injurious to a State. These are my sentiments,” continued he; “but let not this declaration induce you to think that I the less disapprove of your intermeddling. You have allowed me the privilege of a friend, and I will not suffer it to be made an empty one. You were more culpable than many young men would be; first, because you are married, and should, upon the common principle of doing as you would be done by, have refrained; and next, because you were enjoying the sweets of hospitality in his house, and should have dashed from his lips, rather than held to them, the deepest cup of bitterness.”
“But, my dear sir,” said I, “I do not attempt to justify—I only endeavour to mitigate the matter, and you will recollect that the very circumstance which in one point of view aggravates, in another alleviates the fault: the living in his house afforded those interviews, and exposed me to those temptations under which I was near sinking—I should never have sought them: but he must be more or less than man, that could have resisted them; and though I have a high sense of Mr. Consul’s strict honour and virtue, as well as prudence, he must excuse me, though I doubt whether he could himself have resisted so long and so effectually as I did. I am sure there are many who will censure, that could not.”
The Consul smiled, and, turning the discourse from its direct line, observed, that it was absolutely necessary I should desist, else he would be obliged to use his influence and power to protect Mr. ——-.
In answer to this, I gave him my honour in the first place, that I would proceed no farther in the business; and that, on the contrary, I was determined to set out upon my journey to India directly, if means could be contrived for my conveyance; adding, that I should consider it as a great favour, in addition to those I had already received at his hands, if he would contrive some means to set me forward in my route.
To this he answered, that as the making up of a caravan would be extravagantly expensive, he knew no means that were not attended with certain hardship and eventual danger; but finding me determined at almost any danger or hazard to set off, he proposed to send for a man who knew every resource in that way, and when he came would talk farther on the business; and in the mean time, recommended great circumspection to me while I continued at Mr. ————’s house, to which I very solemnly pledged my word.
Being now constrained by every consideration, as well of prudence and decency as of inclination, to leave Aleppo immediately: I determined that no common impediments should stop me, and waited with impatience the arrival of the person on whom the Consul rested his hopes of dispatching me.
He came in the evening, and after a conference with the Consul, he introduced him to me, and acquainted me that he was a Tartar, and one of the vast number of that description who are employed by the Turkish State in carrying dispatches from Court to the various Viceroys and Bashaws, and interchangably between them again; that they were men on whose fidelity the utmost reliance could be had; and that this man, who had an excellent character, had agreed to take me to Bagdad, provided I would submit to the disguise of a Tartar.
The agreement between us I entirely submitted to the discretion of the Consul, who had the goodness to settle it thus:—The Tartar was to deliver me safe at Bagdad; to supply me and my servant, who acted as interpreter, with an ample sufficiency of provisions and horses on the road; to exchange my horse for me as often as I pleased, and to go at such rate, whether faster or slower, as I thought proper: for this he was to receive one hundred pounds; and I further promised, as an encouragement to him, that if he acted to my satisfaction, I would, on our arrival at Bagdad, add a douceur of twenty pounds.
The next day he came, and I had a distinct view of this my new fellow traveller and supposed master, for in several places I was to pass for his slave. He was one of those striking character figures that a painter would like to take a sketch of—and methought Tartar was written legibly in every lineament of his countenance and person.—He was tall, muscular and bony—his figure bespoke great hardihood, strength and activity—nor could the trowsers which he wore conceal the Herculean texture of his limbs—his shoulders were expanded to an enormous breadth—he was unincumbered with flesh, or indeed rather extremely lean—his forehead, though partly concealed beneath his turban, was very high—his nose large, hooked, sharp, and prominent—a pair of small, fierce, black, penetrating eyes, barely separated by the nose, and a formidable pair of mustachios, which he carefully sleeked with pomatum into a point resembling an awl-blade, and which moved like the whiskers of a purring cat, with every word he spoke, gave a whimsical ferocity to the countenance, beyond the reach of description, and rendered him altogether as discouraging a confidential friend, as ever a Christian trusted his life to since Mahomet first set up the trade of a prophet. He surveyed me with great attention—opened his mouth two or three times like a gasping pike, as if to speak—stroaked his whiskers as often—and at last pronounced that he would undertake to conduct me; adding, in allusion to my black hair and dark complexion, that I looked more like a native, than any Frank he had ever seen. He ordered me to cut my hair quite short, to provide myself with a Tartar dress and cap, in the fashion of his own; and saying he would call on me in proper time, departed.
Thus equipped, we set out, not without great pain and regret on my part; pain at leaving a most beautiful young woman, whom I pitied and esteemed, subject to the resentment of a husband, at once jealous from nature, peevish from habit, and enraged from her open and unequivocal demonstrations of hatred; and regret at having been betrayed by situation into such a very serious dilemma.
After my departure from Aleppo, this affair was represented in a variety of unfavourable lights to the different new comers from England; and as a story is that commodity which of all others honest people do not love to steal any thing from, in its passage through their hands, it found its way in various forms (none of them however tending to soften it) to many of my friends and connections, those from whom of all others I wished to conceal it. Labouring under such calumnies, it cannot be considered as a violation of decorum, or unnecessary infraction upon delicacy, if I state the truth, in order, though I cannot acquit myself of censurable conduct, at least not silently to submit to unlimited calumny, and charges of crimes which I hope I have too much honour and integrity to commit.
I must add, that previous to my departure the Consul did every thing that it was possible for him to do, conducive to my safety and accommodation on the road, which as we were obliged to go to the city of Diarbeker, a great length out of our way, he observed would be long, dreary, fatiguing, and hazardous; he procured me from others, and gave me himself, a number of letters, and at parting desired me to comfort myself with the reflection, that when I arrived at my journey’s end, I should have to boast, that I went to India by a route never travelled by any European before.