I am well persuaded of the care you take of our house, and I beg you to hurry on the workmen, and that everything be done absolutely in accordance with my wife’s inclinations. Let the men put up the paper as she orders it, but let no one touch my room below, unless he can paint it perfectly in the Arab fashion.
After expressing surprise that Mohammed Kiaja, a supposed friend, is intriguing against him, and stating that if his return to Rosetta should create any difficulties or perils, it would be better to have them smoothed away while he is at a distance, he writes:
... J’ai dépensé ici 800 piastres; il est vrai que je les ai dépensés en des choses qui valent plus chez nous, et quand les dames auront pris ce qui les accommode, nous ferons faire de l’argent du reste; mais en attendant cela vous incommode; il faut en ce cas-là prendre de l’argent à intérêt pour mon compte, et disant que c’est pour moi pour ne pas prodiguer mon nom. Quand la cuisine est finie, il faut blanchir toute l’ancienne cuisine et autres endroits qui sont sur son niveau....
In a letter from Latackia, October 1, 1772, he speaks of projects promising great results; ‘broad rivers’ (he says) ‘are the sum of narrow streams.’ In a still later letter the project seems to refer to pearls and rich stuffs. The letter concludes thus:
Je vous prie de me faire faire, par Schieck Ali, un catalogue de tous mes livres arabes, turcs, et persans, qui sont manuscrits, et qu’il mette vis-à-vis de chacun le prix suivant qu’il les estime.
This indicates an approaching break up. The cause of it does not appear, except as far as can be made out in a letter from
Alexandrie, 13 oct. 1772.
... Je vois que M. Dormer veut rester à Rosette, et en ce cas je n’y resterai pas. J’ai dit autant à Madame, pour lui donner le tems de se retirer à Alexandrie avant mon arrivée. Je coucherai demain à Raimhé; dimanche à Aboukir, lundi à Etikon, et mardi, s’il plaît à Dieu, je serai à Rosette, et si j’y trouve M. Dormer je n’y resterai qu’autant qu’il faudra pour empaqueter quelques livres, car je ne veux pas rester dans la même ville avec M. Dormer. J’aurais été charmé de le voir ici, mais je ne veux pas le voir à Rosette; ainsi, mon cher, persuadez-le de partir immédiatement; car si je le trouve je n’y coucherai pas; cela est certain.
What the ground of dissension was that induced Montagu to declare that he would not remain in the same city with Dormer is not known. Whatever it was, the Egyptian home was broken up. The wife and her sister subsequently established themselves, temporarily, at Marseilles, definitively at Nancy. Montagu moved about the Continent in moody restlessness. In 1773 and the following year he settled for awhile in Venice. He lived in frequent retirement, and to all outward appearance in as truly a Turkish fashion as if he were a faithful child of Islam.
While Mr. Montagu was residing at Venice an illustrious traveller, the Duke of Hamilton, arrived in that city, under the care of his physician, Dr. John Moore, afterwards the author of ‘Zeluco,’ and the father of a glorious son, Sir John Moore the hero of Corunna. The Doctor had probably talked with his patron or ward about the more eccentric traveller, of whom he had more to say than most people as to the affair between Montagu and the Jew Payba, Moore having been official medical man at the English Embassy in France, when Lord Albemarle was ambassador, and Montagu was appealing to him for aid and protection. At Venice, the Duke, according to Moore, ‘had the curiosity’ (he does not say the courtesy) ‘to wait on this extraordinary man.’ ‘Montagu,’ says the Doctor, in his published letters,