“Mr. Pitt having some intention of creating an Order of Merit, desired the cabinet ministers each to give their opinions in turn upon the coloured ribbon that should be used for the decoration. Among the rest, Lord Liverpool said he had prepared his, and that he would call in the evening to show it to him and me. He accordingly came. ‘You see,’ he observed with much self-complacency, ‘I have endeavoured to combine such colours as will flatter the national vanity. Here is red for the English flag, blue for liberty, and white to denote the purity of motive.’ There were several persons present, and some of the toadies were full of admiration. One cried, ‘Twas excellent;’ another, that ‘The king would be greatly pleased with it;’ a third, ‘You had better take it down to Windsor;’ and so on. ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘the king will be delighted with it. I myself think the colours charming; for I know exactly how they will look, as I have seen them very often.’ ‘Seen them!—where?’ asked Lord L. ‘Why, in the French soldiers’ cockades,’ answered I.
“Poor Lord Liverpool, who was a good sort of man, but who had been putting himself forward in a thing he was not fit for, and had stupidly overlooked the tri-coloured flag, was thunderstruck. ‘What shall I do, Lady Hester?’ cried he; ‘I have already got five hundred yards of ribbon made: what can I do with it?’ ‘Why,’ rejoined I, ‘it will serve, my lord, to tie up your breeches: for, you know, you have always such a load of papers in your breeches’ pockets, that I quite fear to see them some day fall down.’ And so it was, doctor; he used to ram his hands into his pockets, first on one side and then on the other, in search of some paper or another, just as if he was groping for an eel at the bottom of a pond.”
March 13.—The example set by Lady Hester Stanhope’s maid, the day she came and openly abused us, had a bad effect on Aysha, our black woman; and, at length, after putting up with much impertinence, we sent her back to her ladyship, with a note to say we could not manage her. Lady Hester seized the opportunity thus offered, of letting us feel how much our comfort would be rendered dependent on her pleasure: for we were informed, when looking out in the village for a maid to take the black’s place, that one of Lady Hester’s people had circulated a report that it would be dangerous for any one to serve us, because whoever did so ran a chance of being turned out of the village; adding, that great folks like her, when a thing displeased them, sometimes made an elephant of a flea. So we sent to a village about four miles off, and got a peasant girl; but she had not been with us twenty-four hours, when, frightened at what she heard, she went to the secretary to ask whether there was any danger likely to accrue to her by remaining in our service. A week passed on, and every day fresh reports were circulated, that some mischief was intended against us.
The reader will recollect that Lady Hester Stanhope, in one of her letters (see page 55), speaks of the repeated annoyances which the Emir Beshýr practised against her, by interdicting the village people from supplying her wants, and of the steps she was obliged to take, even of writing to our ambassador at Constantinople, in order to counteract them. It appears that his example was not lost upon her, and that she did not disdain to resort to the same measures against us. For a whole week she did not send the horse for me, nor hold any communication with me, so that I was precluded from making such representations to her as otherwise I could have done. In the mean time, we packed up our things, and resolved to depart as soon as we could.
March 21.—Our situation was now becoming more and more uncomfortable. We took long walks every day, talking over our troubles, and contriving how we should free ourselves from the thraldom under which we were suffering; for we were as effectually in prison as if we had been under bars and bolts. This may seem incomprehensible to Europeans; but, in the East, where the will of a powerful chieftain hangs like a spell over every individual within his reach, it is in vain to argue about people’s rights. Besides, out of consideration for Lady Hester Stanhope’s name, I did not wish to come to an open difference with her; and I could not say precisely that she sought to injure us, as, upon every occasion when I spent the day with her, she alleged the most plausible reasons for her conduct, invariably treating me individually with marked kindness. She was hostile to women; and, calling all their motives of action mere caprices, she engaged in a Quixotical warfare to set them down. “I would have done the same,” said she, “if it had been Sir —— —— and Lady ——, instead of you and Mrs. ——, had she been here, and chosen to lead him the same dance as she did when he took a house for her at Tunbridge Wells, and then she would not live in it, or when she rode across the lawn on a donkey during a dinner-party, just after he had excused her absence to the company on the score of indisposition. For what can be more absurd in a woman than to have followed you, as Mrs. —— has done, all this distance, when you came upon my affairs, and then to prevent you from acting in them in a way that would be useful to me and yourself?”
On the faith of Lady Hester’s long friendship for me, I had sailed from Europe with only money enough to pay our passage, and a few pounds over; I, therefore, was tied down to the spot until I had received a remittance from England, which after-reflection had made me order to be sent. On March 23rd, a letter from Cyprus announced the receipt, from Marseilles, of 2000 francs to my address. This sum was barely sufficient to defray our passage back; in addition to which, the personal opposition of Lady Hester Stanhope was yet to be overcome. No one in the village would dare to let his camels or mules to us, and I knew that, at Sayda, every consular agent would decline mixing himself up in any business against Lady Hester, apprehensive of the harassing consequences to which it would inevitably expose him: for it was well known that, in speaking of people who attempted to thwart her, her constant expression was, “If they want a devil, let them try me, and they shall have enough of it!”
March 24.—I was informed by Mr. Jasper Chasseaud, her ladyship’s secretary, that she had given him orders to say to such as applied for information, that she did not prevent any one from working for us; but that such as were employed by us in any capacity whatever were never to serve her again. This was tantamount to an excommunication.
April 1.—It was now ten or eleven days since I had seen Lady Hester, when I received a message from her to say she wished me to call on her; but, for the first time, she neglected to send a horse. However, I was resolved not to notice this omission, and so walked over to the Dar. She received me civilly. A long discussion began, during which her manner was haughty and her tone loud. It is not necessary to repeat all that passed; and the reader will already have become tired of these petty disputes, which can possess no general interest, except in so far as they help to illustrate the peculiar character of a lady, who, released from the control of law and opinion, which restrained the development of her natural temper in England, was here enabled to give free vent to her disposition with perfect impunity. After a time she grew calm. I then said I had made every preparation for my departure, and wished to set off before the season of the plague; for, as that malignant disease had been sporadic in the preceding year, it is well known in the Levant that, during the following one, it would probably prove general.
April 2.—I made out a list of medicines for Lady Hester Stanhope’s use, answered letters she had received from Europe, and remained with her until midnight. She related to me, at length, the whole of what she considered the mysterious affair of X.’s coming to this country. Her idea was, that the Duke of B******, together with the Duke of S***** and other arch-masons, having, at a meeting, talked over the neglect which Mr. Pitt’s friends and others showed her, and the loss which her political talents were of, in a place where she could not use them for the benefit of England, had resolved to send an emissary to see what her wants were, and to pay her debts. X. was chosen. “As to the man himself,” said Lady Hester, “I thought, by the manner in which he held his whip, that he must once have been a courier. When he was here, he took measurement of my rooms for paper, carpets, &c.; noted down my wants, and said they would all be attended to. I accordingly gave him a letter for the Duke of S*****, enclosing one for you, which was to be given to you only in the event of a proper provision being made for me. If X. took all these great people’s names in vain, it is odd that they never noticed it; for it might be, after all, nothing more than an intrigue of X.’s, who, having heard how successful Mr. F*****’s application had been, thought that, by means of letters from me, and by such interest, he could slip into a good place too.”
She then spoke of Lord St. Asaph, of Mr. Compton of Yorkshire, of Captain Blair, and others; also of her old servant, Mrs. Fry, who had served her so long and so faithfully, regretting she was not able to make her any allowance, owing to the unsettled state of her own affairs.