Monday, August 14, 1837.—I departed an hour before sunrise, and reached Beyrout in the evening, meeting on the road the half-broiled secretary, who, in consequence of a calm, had not reached his destination until twelve hours after Signora L. had sailed, the little wind there was being fair for her and foul for him.
Our ultimate intention in forming an engagement with Signora L., whom we had known for some years struggling in adversity, was to place her with Lady Hester Stanhope as housekeeper, a situation for which she was extremely well qualified.
August 18.—I remained in Beyrout the 16th and 17th, and returned to Dar Jôon on the 18th. I had hardly dismounted from my horse, when Lady Hester put a letter into my hands, by which I was summoned in the greatest haste to Mar Elias, to attend on Signora L., who, as soon as she had reached that place, had been taken ill with a brain-fever, arising from the fatigue of the voyage, exposure to the burning sun, and the circumstances incidental to Eastern travelling, which are so strange and foreign to European habits.
A messenger had been despatched, on the first intimation that Lady Hester Stanhope had received of Signora L.’s indisposition, to one Mustafa, a barber at Sayda, to betake himself to Mar Elias, and bleed her, and, when I arrived some hours afterwards, Lady Hester strongly recommended me to leave her case in Mustafa’s hands, as he was a surgeon as well as a barber, and highly esteemed in Sayda for his skill. She hinted, also, that European physicians, who applied the same course of treatment in the East which they were accustomed to prescribe in the north, must inevitably do more harm than good. I acquiesced in these observations with the best grace I could.
Saturday, August 19.—On reaching Mar Elias, I was informed that, on the morning of the 14th, when Signora L. arrived, she showed a marked oddity in her actions, to which, at first, little attention was paid; but that, in the succeeding night, she walked about in an unseemly manner, almost undressed, first in her own room and then in the quadrangle, to the great scandal and consternation of the inmates. The following morning, she cut off her hair, close to the roots, with her own hand; and her conduct at last excited so much alarm, that it was considered necessary to send for me without loss of time. The next day, which was the 16th, left no doubt of her brain being disordered, as she sung, and danced, and laughed, without intermission, saying and doing the most extravagant things. She had already been bled when I saw her, and her bed had been removed into the chapel, the most airy part of the dwelling. The bleeding, although continued until she fainted, had produced no effect; and in the night she tore off the bandages, with the loss of a still greater quantity of blood. A blister was put on her head, and medicine was administered; but certain things which I observed on the 20th and 21st, such as putting ice, not only on her head, but on her abdomen, administering pepper in powder, and a written paper macerated in water, as a charm, to drink, together with sundry superstitious and empirical remedies, induced me to ride over to Lady Hester, and to tell her I could have nothing to do with the treatment, unless Mustafa was instantly sent about his business. But Lady Hester Stanhope had lived so long in the East that charms, popular remedies, and quackery, were more in unison with her notions than rational and scholastic rules of nosology. She therefore replied that, as Signora L. had come to be in her service, she presumed she might direct what she chose to have done, and that she should confide her wholly to Hadj Mustafa’s care. I told her I disclaimed all responsibility as to the consequences. Lady Hester then despatched two men-servants to fetch from Jôon or Sayda whatever Mustafa might require, retaining him, at the same time, to remain in constant attendance on the poor invalid, with strict injunctions to spare no trouble nor money which the case might require.
August 23.—I went back to Mar Elias to make these arrangements known, and to tell the governess, Miss Longchamp, and the maids to let the Signora L. want for nothing. Miss L. was, night and day, at her bedside, and the maids assisted in turn. Everything was done that could be thought of to make her situation comfortable: but her case was now become one of maniacal delirium. She raved without intermission: she knew nobody; she closed her teeth, and refused the admission of food. If her arms were free for a moment, she tore her bandages, her garments, and the bedclothes; sometimes laughing and sometimes singing (but with much taste and execution) an Italian song, Nel cor più non mi sento, or else Malbrook. When she could, she rose from her bed, and danced on the floor, being apparently pleased to get on the cold stones. Sometimes she appeared to be dandling a child in her arms. Her arms moved perpetually. Now and then, her actions indicated satyriasis. Generally, she showed by her manner that the light was disagreeable to her, but nothing could make her pay attention to what was said to her. There was a copious and frothy expectoration; but the grinding of her teeth and straining of her eyes almost out of their sockets was fearful: and, in such moments of excitement, she repeatedly execrated certain frati, or friars, by name. It was necessary to have the room completely stripped of everything; for, such was her violence, that, one night, being left but a moment to herself, she loosened her arms, leaped out of bed, and tore a Leghorn hat, a parasol, and half a dozen frills, bandbox and all, to fritters.
August 24.—It was found necessary to make a strait-waistcoat for her. The governess, who saw everything that was administered, told me that Hadj Mohammed received secret instructions from Lady Hester Stanhope, with sundry packets.
August 29, Tuesday.—I rode over to Dar Jôon, and again protested against these proceedings; but, finding my views did not accord with Lady Hester’s, and that she could not see me again the next day, which was Wednesday, I returned to Mar Elias.
September 1.—A priest was sent for, and administered extreme unction to Signora L., who was now evidently sinking. For the first time, and only for a moment, she recovered her reason so far as to ask for water, “aqua, aqua!”—and to utter, “oime, oime!” “I am dying;” but, immediately afterwards, her intellects became disordered again. I was informed by the governess that about noon she appeared at the last gasp, on seeing which Hadj Mustafa jerked her pillow from under her head, threw it to a distance, and pulled her legs straight, which pulling he repeated each time she drew them up. This I learned was in accordance with the usages of the Mahometans.
September 2.—At nine o’clock in the morning, Signora L. died, and at five the same afternoon was buried in the Catholic burying-ground at Sayda, Lady Hester Stanhope’s secretary and myself following as chief mourners, with the French vice-consul and some French merchants from Sayda, who paid the last tribute to her memory. Before the body was removed, a monk, of the order of Terra Santa, and eight Maronite priests, collected from the town and villages adjoining, performed a funeral service over her corpse in the chapel where it lay. Thus ended this sad tragedy, with every mark of respect that grief at her loss on our part, and sympathy from the European residents at Sayda, could testify.