History of Raïs Hassan—His influence with Lady Hester Stanhope—Number of persons in her service—Number of animals in her stables—Her manner of disposing of those which were superannuated—Her belief in Magic and Demonology—Examples—Anecdotes of Mr. Brummell—Mr. H.—The Duc de R********—Lord St. Asaph—Lady Hester’s strictness with menials—Justified by their misconduct and vices—Zeyneb, the black slave—Annoyances to which Lady Hester was subjected—Her service not tolerable for Europeans—Her reasons for using plain furniture—Her detestation of sentimentality—Her general interference in every department of housewifery—Irregularities of the servants—Chastity, how defined in Turkey—Lady H.’s measures for enforcing it—Her opinion of a French traveller, and of M. Lascaris.
Dismissing these personal details, which have been mentioned solely as connecting links of the main narrative, I now resume my diary.
July 7.—I returned to Dar Jôon.
July 8.—The day after my arrival, before breakfast, Lady Hester Stanhope being yet in bed, a servant came for me. “I hope I have not disturbed you,” said she, when I entered her room; “but I wanted you just for a minute to say a word about Logmagi, whom I am going to send home for a week or two. Poor man! he is all devotedness to my service, but I must not ride a willing horse to death. He is liberal-minded, too, and charitable; not as your fine my lord is, who gives his five guineas to a somebody, and never feels the loss of his money; but one who, if he sees an old captain that he has known in his younger days, or one of his messmates, in distress, will pull off his cloak, ay, and his jacket too, and give them to him. When he hears any one praise me, his purse is open to him immediately.”
It is necessary that I should introduce my readers to this person, who played a very conspicuous part in Lady Hester Stanhope’s establishment, from the year 1832 until and after this my second visit to her in 1837 and 1838. It has already been related that, in returning to Europe in 1832, I took a passage from Sayda to Cyprus in a boat of the country, called a shaktôor, better known as a tartane lower down the Mediterranean. The master of this boat was a cheerful good-looking fellow, named Hassan el Logmagi, or Hassan the Diver, so called from his first outset in life as a sponge-diver. At the period when I engaged him, his employment lay in the coasting-trade from Sayda to Beyrout, Tripoli, Tyr, and the neighbouring ports. In the course of his motley existence he had been a porter, a fisherman, a diver, a common sailor, a slave, and a trader in small goods, visiting almost every port in the Mediterranean and Archipelago, buying at one what would sell at another, and thus become acquainted with many maritime cities of Turkey. Shortly subsequent to the date of his carrying us to Cyprus, Abdallah Pasha made him captain of an armed vessel in his service, and he then was entitled fully to the rank of Räis Hassan, or Captain Hassan, which he always afterwards bore.
Lady Hester Stanhope was accustomed to obtain information from all sorts of persons, as it suited her purpose; and, feeling some interest about our welfare after quitting her, she sent for Hassan, on his return to Sayda, to learn the particulars of the voyage. It would seem that his appearance and conversation pleased her: for, as soon as Abdallah Pasha was carried off a prisoner to Egypt, she took him into her service.
His person and manners were those of a handsome boatswain. He was boisterous and rude, entirely without education, for he could neither read nor write, but very shrewd, and, from his varied intercourse with mankind, a keen judge of character—at least, of the dark side of human nature. He was jovial in the highest degree, remarkably good-looking; and, for a day’s acquaintance, when matters of interest were out of the question, nobody who wished to be merry could desire a pleasanter fellow. Sinbad the sailor could not tell a more marvellous story.
It was matter of much surprise to the Europeans of Beyrout, and the natives in general, how such a man could be admitted for hours to Lady Hester Stanhope’s conversation, and the enjoyment of her intimate confidence; and it was a great marvel to all Sayda, Logmagi’s native place, and where, of course, his antecedents, as the French say, were well known, how he could have obtained so firm a footing where so many before him had slipped. The reason will be seen in the course of these pages, abundantly verifying what Lady Hester very often said, that it was in vain for people to attempt to investigate or speculate upon her motives for what she did; and that, if two people were placed in her room, one in one corner, and one in the other, all day long, she would manage her business in their presence so that they should be no wiser in the matter than if they had been a mile off. “Her intentions,” she would say, “were pure, but God only was the judge of that, and she cared not a fig what men thought.”
So it was; and on my arrival in Syria, I found Logmagi installed as purveyor, steward, emissary, and factotum. All transactions with the people of the country were carried on through his hands, and a most important part of his avocations was to keep Lady Hester constantly informed of all sorts of matters going on in Sayda and the surrounding country. Anecdotes of domestic affairs, of the government, news of every description, formed his budget every time he came up to Jôon; and, for this purpose, about half his time was spent in town, to be able to collect it. He was married, had two wives, and was building a new house principally at her ladyship’s expence.
The secret of Logmagi’s influence with Lady Hester might perhaps be traced to her reliance upon his apparent zeal in her service. She believed him to be thoroughly devoted to her, a belief which he well knew how to foster and sustain. He was too clever a courtier to eulogize her to her face, and, therefore, always made his advances by indirect means. He had been sent by her to Marseilles, to Constantinople, and to other distant places; and, according to Lady Hester’s account of what he told her on his return, there was not a person he came in contact with but had related some history of the Sultan’s admiration of her, of the Grand Vizir’s apprehension of her political influence, of the extent of her reputation, even in the very bazars, and of a hundred similar things calculated to flatter her vanity and love of fame. At Beyrout, at Tripoli, at Alexandria, he was sure to have met with a Tartar, or a sea-captain in some coffee-house, who said he had seen a pasha, or a great merchant, or a sheykh, or a somebody, who had declared he should not die contented, if he had not once beheld a woman of such extraordinary talents, or who had been so munificent to some distressed aga, or who had relieved, with such a liberal hand, some learned dervise: and, after having praised her charitable heart, he generally finished with a tale of distress of some family reduced almost to beggary, of some honest tradesman who wanted relief; and thus, striking the chords which always vibrated to Lady Hester’s generous heart, he was entrusted with large sums to distribute. He seldom went down to Sayda without being the bearer of one, two, three—nay, five thousand piasters at a time, to purchase provisions with, and to give away in donations.