This unheard-of stretch of insolence was set to rights by our old acquaintance[18] at Constantinople, who acted very well towards me. The Emir Beshýr, with all the art and meanness well known to him, has now become abjectly humble. One of his people told me that it was not his doings, but the work of ——, who had put it into his head; and, finding he had made a false calculation, and displeased great and small in the country by his vile conduct, he is humble enough, and repents having given me an opportunity of showing what I am. I am thus become more popular than ever, having shown an example of firmness and courage no one could calculate upon:—it was poor little David and the giant. But the God who defended David defended me from all the assassins by whom I was surrounded. Even water from the spring the beast would not let me have. The expense to get provisions brought in the night by people was enormous. Some risked their lives to serve me, and bring me food. One person only came openly, and that was a woman, saying she would die sooner than obey such atrocious orders, and called down curses on the Emir, the consuls, and all of them. This conduct was well worthy a follower of Ali.
The plague this year has carried off thousands of inhabitants at Damascus and Aleppo; it is now in the Mountain. There are all sorts of fevers, too, besides plague, and my medicine is nearly all gone; for all the world come to me for what they want. I have written to Mr. Allen, to beg he will give me a year’s credit for a little common medicine, and he sends you this letter. If there is war, how am I to get it? but I will run the chance.
A young seyd, a friend of mine, when riding one day in a solitary part of the mountain, heard the echo of a strange noise in the rocks. He listened, and, hearing it again, got off his horse to see what it was. To his surprise, in a hollow in the rock, he saw an old eagle, quite blind and unfledged by age. Perched by the eagle, he saw a carrion-crow feeding him. If the Almighty thus provides for the blind eagle, he will not forsake me: and the carrion-crow may look down with contempt on your countrymen.
I say this, because I have seen two doctors—they were English—and they tell me that, though my eyes are good, my nerves are destroyed, and that causes my blindness. Writing these few lines will be some days’ illness to me: but I make an effort, in order to assure you of the grief I have felt at being, I fear, the cause of your affairs being worse than if you had not known me. All I can say is, if God helps me, I shall not forget you. You can do nothing for me now; trust in God and think of the eagle. Remember! all is written: we can change nothing of our fate by lamenting and grumbling. Therefore, it is better to be like a true Turk, and do our duty to the last, and then beg of the believers in one God a bit of daily bread, and, if it comes not, die of want, which perhaps is as good a death as any other, and less painful. But never act contrary to the dictates of conscience, of honour, of nature, or of humanity.
What I shall do, or not do, is the business of no one; so on that head I shall say nothing. God is the disposer of all events. Do not write to me. First, I shall not get your letters; and, besides, I do not wish to hear a thousand lies: for you dare not write otherwise, I know, unless left to yourself. Leave everything to a great and all-powerful Being, who will empower me to act under all circumstances. I have had, as things are, reason to bless His mercy every day. No one else could get out of such difficulties of every kind unprotected by an Almighty’s hand. I have written these few lines with the hope of comforting you a little, and to let you see I have a soul, though my body is wasted to nothing, with anxiety, want of food, rest, &c. Don’t expect any more letters. If you wish to do me harm, you will talk of me and my affairs to fools, and strangers, and curious people: but it is now come to such a pass, that it little signifies what any one does or says. God bless you!
[Not signed.]
If Dr. Madden should call on Dr. Scott,[19] to talk Arabic and philosophy, it is I who sent him. Strange opinions are not for ignorant, vulgar people. Perhaps you may see Dr. Madden. Of private affairs, I only said to him that I was in debt.
Lady Hester Stanhope to Mr. Webb, banker, at Leghorn.
[Supposed date] October, 1827.
I thank you a thousand times, my dear sir, for the anxiety you express on my account; and, although surrounded by a hundred difficulties, I am cheerful, and, as I said before, the Turks behave very well to me. That old monster, the Emir Beshýr, is pretty quiet at this moment, at least as far as regards me: but he is reducing to beggary and to misery all who surround him. A real Turk is a manly, though rather violent, kind-hearted being, and, if he has confidence in you, very easy to deal with. I have often wondered at their gentlemanlike patience with low, blustering, vulgar men, who give themselves more airs than an ambassador, because chance has placed them as consul or agent in some dirty town not equal to a village in France; men who, in fact, in Europe, would scarcely have their bow returned in the street by a man of condition. It is the general conduct of these sort of people that has given the Orientals such a false idea of Europeans. The race of Christians here is of the vilest people in the world: not all totally without talent, but all born without principle, or one single good quality. Out of the great number of children, both boys and girls, which I have taken before they have changed their teeth, not one has turned out passable, and most of them have become vagabonds. If a poor man falls ill, and gives his wife a little trouble to wait upon him, she soon ends the business with a little poison; and, if a woman marries again, the husband casts off all her children by the former marriage, and she, without remorse, leaves them to die in a hovel, or abandons them under a tree to beg for subsistence. It was only last night that one of these wretched beings came to me, skin and bone, having been for thirty days ill of a fever. The very girls I have brought up with the greatest care have, when married, beaten their children of two years old so violently as to stun them; and one, from the blow she gave her child upon the back, caused the bowels to protrude more than a span. A man thinks nothing of taking up a stone as large as his head, and throwing it at his wife when she is with child. These are the beastly people that create the compassion of Europeans—a horrid race, that deserves to be exterminated from the face of the earth. What a contrast between these wretches and the wild Arabs, who will traverse burning sands barefooted, to receive the last breath of some kind relation or friend, who teach their children at the earliest period resignation and fortitude, and who always keep alive a spirit of emulation amongst them! They are the boldest people in the world, yet are endued with a tenderness quite poetic, and their kindness extends to all the brute creation by which they are surrounded. For myself, I have the greatest affection and confidence in these people: besides, I admire their diamond eyes, their fine teeth, and the grace and agility (without capers), which is peculiar to them alone. When one sees these people, one’s thoughts naturally revert to the time of Abraham, when man had not his head filled with all the false systems of the present day.