Having no longer any enemies to fear in the Syrian desert, Sheik Ibrahim parted company for a time from the Drayhy, and went to Hems to purchase merchandise and write to Europe. During our stay in that place he left me perfectly at liberty to seek amusement, and to recover from all my fatigues; and I made daily excursions into the country in company with some of my young friends, doubly enjoying this life of pleasure from its contrast with that which I had led amongst the Bedouins. But, alas! my joy was to be of short duration, and was soon converted into bitter anguish. A messenger, who had been to Aleppo to fetch remittances for M. Lascaris, brought me a letter from my mother, couched in terms of the deepest affliction, and announcing the death of my elder brother by the plague. Grief made her writing almost incoherent. She had been ignorant of my destiny for nearly the last three years, and conjured me, if still in existence, to go to her.
This dreadful intelligence deprived me of the use of my senses, and for three days I was unconscious where I was, and refused all nourishment. Thanks to the attentive care of M. Lascaris, I gradually recovered my recollection; but all that I could obtain from him was permission to write to my poor mother. Neither was I allowed to despatch my letter till the eve of our departure, for fear she should come herself to seek me. But I pass over the detail of my personal feelings, in which the reader can have no interest, to return to our travels.
The Drayhy having advertised us that he would shortly set out for the east, we hastened to join him, with three camels, two mares, and four guides, whom he had placed at our disposal. The day of our departure from Hems, I felt so extraordinary a weight upon my heart that I was tempted to regard it as a fatal presentiment. It struck me that I was advancing to a premature death. I made the best use, however, of my reasoning powers, and at length persuaded myself that the oppression I experienced resulted from the dejection into which my mother’s afflicting letter had plunged me. We set out on a journey of twenty hours, and though wearied by travelling the whole day, were persuaded by our guides not to halt till we had completed it. Nothing particular occurred till midnight; when growing drowsy from fatigue and the monotonous movement of the march, we were alarmed by a sudden cry from the advanced guide—“Rouse yourselves, and look well about you, for we are on the brink of a tremendous precipice!” The road was but a foot in breadth; on the right was a perpendicular mountain, and on the left the precipice called Wadi el Hail. I woke in surprise, rubbed my eyes, and reseized the bridle, which I had allowed to hang loosely over the neck of my mare. But this precaution, which ought to have saved me, was the very thing that had nearly caused my death; for the animal having stumbled against a stone, fear made me draw the reins too hastily. She reared, and in coming down lost her footing, stepped only on vacancy, and rolled over with her rider to the bottom of the precipice. What passed after that moment of agony I know only from Sheik Ibrahim, who has since told me, that he dismounted in terror, and endeavoured to distinguish the nature of the gulf in which I had disappeared; but the night was too dark,—the noise of my fall was the only notice he had of it, and he could discern nothing but an abyss beneath his feet. He then betook himself to weeping, and conjuring the guides to go down the precipice. But this they declared impossible in the darkness, assuring him moreover, that it would be useless trouble, since I must not only be certainly dead, but dashed to pieces against the points of the rocks. Whereupon he announced his resolution not to stir from the spot till the daylight should enable him to make his researches, and promised a hundred tallarins to whoever should recover my body, however mutilated it might be, as he could not, he said, consent to leave it a prey to wild beasts. He then sat down on the edge of the gulf, waiting in mournful despair for the first glimmerings of daylight.
No sooner were they perceptible, than the four men descended the abyss with much difficulty, and found me, insensible, suspended by my sash, my head downwards. The mare lay dead a few toises below, at the extremity of the ravine. I had ten wounds on my head, the flesh torn from my left arm, my ribs broken, and my legs scratched to the bone. I was deposited, without any sign of life, at the feet of Sheik Ibrahim, who threw himself upon me in tears. But having a little knowledge of medicine, and carrying always some valuable remedies about with him, he did not long abandon himself to a useless grief. Having satisfied himself, by the application of volatiles to the nostrils, that I was not absolutely dead, he placed me carefully on a camel, and retraced his steps as far as the village of El Habedin. During this short journey my body swelled prodigiously, without giving any other sign of life. The village sheik having placed me on a mattress, sent to Hems for a surgeon. For nine whole hours I remained perfectly insensible; and at the end of that time opened my eyes without the smallest perception of the objects around me, or recollection of what had befallen me. I felt as if under the influence of a dream, but without being sensible of pain. In this state I lay for four-and-twenty hours, and recovered from my lethargy only to suffer such indescribable agonies that I fancied it would have been better a hundredfold to have remained at the bottom of the precipice.
Sheik Ibrahim never quitted me for an instant, and offered the highest rewards to the surgeon in case he should succeed in saving me. The latter was zealous, but by no means skilful; and no amendment appearing at the expiration of thirty days, gangrene was apprehended. The Drayhy had visited me immediately on being informed of my accident; and he also wept over me, and offered rich presents to stimulate the surgeon’s efforts: but at the highest point of his sensibility he could not suppress his regret for the loss of his mare Abaige, who was of pure blood, and worth ten thousand piastres. Nevertheless, he was in real distress, as was Ibrahim; for they not only feared my loss, but foresaw in it the miscarriage of all their operations. I endeavoured to encourage them, telling them that I did not believe myself dying. But it was too true, that though, I should be spared, there was no probability of my being for a long while in a condition to travel.
The Drayhy was obliged to take leave of us to pursue his migration eastwards; and Sheik Ibrahim was in despair at seeing me grow daily worse. Hearing at length that a more skilful surgeon resided at El Dair Attia, he sent for him. The surgeon refused to come, requiring that the patient should be taken to him. I was therefore put upon a sort of litter in the best manner that could be contrived, and carried to him, at the hazard of expiring on the road. The new surgeon entirely changed the dressing of my wounds, and washed them with warm wine. Three months I stayed with him, suffering martyrdom, and a thousand times regretting the death I had escaped. I was then transported to the village of Nabek, where for three months longer I kept my bed. From that period I may date the actual commencement of my recovery, though it was retarded by frequent relapses. Upon the sight of a horse, for example, I fainted, and continued for a month in a state of extreme nervousness, which at length, and by degrees, I conquered: but I am bound to confess that to this moment the presence of that animal causes me a shudder; and I made a resolution never again to mount a horse, except in a case of absolute necessity.
My illness cost Sheik Ibrahim five hundred tallarins. But how shall I estimate his attentions, his paternal care! I am assuredly indebted to him for my life.
During my convalescence he learnt that our friend the Pacha of Damascus had been replaced by another, Soliman Selim. This news greatly disconcerted us, as it appeared indicative of the loss of our credit with the Turks.
Ten months had elapsed—a second spring was come, and we were expecting with impatience the arrival of the Bedouins, our allies, when, to our great joy, a courier announced their approach. We forwarded him in haste to the Drayhy, who liberally rewarded him for the good news he brought of my recovery, which produced universal joy in the camp, where I had long been supposed dead. We waited some days longer, till the tribe advanced nearer; and in the interval a singular story came to my knowledge, which I think worthy of insertion, as an illustration of Arab manners.
A merchant of Anatolia, escorted by fifty men, was leading ten thousand sheep to be sold at Damascus. On the road he made acquaintance with three Arabs, with one of whom he formed a close intimacy, and at parting was desired to swear fraternity with him. The merchant could not discover in what respect he, who was the proprietor of ten thousand sheep, and was escorted by fifty soldiers, could be benefitted by having a brother amongst the poor Bedouins; but the Bedouin, whose name was Chatti, was so importunate, that, to satisfy him, he consented to give him two piastres and a handful of tobacco as pledges of fraternity. Chatti divided the two piastres between his companions, saying, “Be ye witnesses that this man is become my brother.” They then separated, and the merchant thought no more of the matter, till, at a place called Ain el Alak, a party of Bedouins, superior in number to his escort, attacked and routed them, took possession of his sheep, and stripped him to his shirt; in which pitiable condition he arrived at Damascus, imprecating curses upon the Bedouins, and especially upon his pretended brother Chatti, whom he accused of betraying and selling him.