In the mean time, Lady Hester had taken advantage of a leisure day to enter into the full particulars of her debts. I will therefore give some account of their origin, and show how it was that she who, during her residence in England after Mr. Pitt’s death, and during the many years I was with her in Turkey, was one of the most punctual and over-generous payers I ever knew, could have fallen into the opposite extreme, and have thus exposed herself to the degradation of having duns at her gate, and her name in the mouths of the moneyed men at Beyrout as a defaulter.
What I could recollect sufficiently well to write down the same night in Lady Hester’s own words was as follows:—“After the death of Mâalem Haym,” said she, “the celebrated Jewish seràf or banker to Abdallah Pasha of Acre, by whom he was strangled, all the Jews of the pashalik were amerced. Some of these came to me, and entreated me, for the love of God, to lend them money to satisfy the Pasha’s extortions, and save them from being bastinadoed, and perhaps worse. I was at that time low in purse myself, and could only give them 3,000 piasters, which was all I had. I subsequently lent them more, for which they gave me in payment damaged pieces of cloth, sixpenny pocket-handkerchiefs, and other goods, which of course I could not dispose of except at a ruinous loss. I knew I was cheated by them, but I was too proud to complain.
“Not long after this, Abdallah Pasha himself having been declared firmanlee (or outlawed) by the Porte, six pashas, with their combined forces, were sent to besiege him in Acre. Provisions and animals became so scarce, that I was obliged to send people to buy camels in the desert, and then despatch them under the care of a Jew, of whom I had scarcely any knowledge, to buy corn for myself and the house. When at last, and partly by my means, Abdallah Pasha had obtained his pardon from the Porte, but upon condition of paying an immense fine, he pretended to sell his pipes, shawls, carpets, and jewels, to raise the money; for he was, or affected to be, so low in his treasury, that the delàls, or auctioneers, were to be seen hawking even his wearing-apparel in the bazar. Among other ways of meeting the demands of the Sultan, he applied to me to lend him as much money as I could possibly raise; and I, not doubting that he would repay me honourably, after drawing for what money I had at my disposal in England, applied to a usurious Christian of Beyrout, who, at an exorbitant rate of interest, furnished me with what I required. No sooner was the rate known which I was to pay for what I had borrowed, than Turks, Christians, and Jews, presented themselves with offers of loans to whatever extent I wished, all professing that their purses were at my disposal; that it was beneath a lady of my rank to discuss matters so paltry as money concerns; and that all they required was merely my signature to a scrap of paper, just acknowledging the debt. In this way I signed small bits of paper, it is true, but well and legally worded in Arabic, or Armenian, or Hebrew, which I could not read, and by which I bound myself to pay enormous interest, varying from 25 to 50 per cent.
“This was the real beginning of my debts and difficulties; for Abdallah Pasha gave me bills at thirty-one days’ sight on Constantinople, payment of which was deferred under one pretence or another for a year, whilst I, in the interim, was in such want of money, that I was reduced to a single adlee.[70] The worst of all was that, I don’t think the Pasha wanted it, but only pretended poverty to deceive the Porte. However, in consequence of his failing to repay me at the time agreed on, which repayment would have placed me immediately in a state of solvency, I found myself reduced absolutely to destitution. On one occasion, as I said, I was left without a farthing, and M. Loustaunau went off to M. Beaudin, who was at Damascus, and told him that, as he owed his advancement in life in part to me, he was bound to assist me in my extremity. M. Beaudin at first hesitated; M. Loustaunau insisted; and B. lent me 4,000 Spanish dollars, which I afterwards paid him.
“But this is not all. I was even obliged to send my best pelisse to be sold or pawned in the bazar at Sayda, and to sell to an Albanian soldier forty English guineas, which my brother had given me on parting at Gibraltar, and which I had saved in the shipwreck.
“Oh! doctor, about six months before Miss Williams’s death, I was reduced so low, that, had she died then, I should not have had money enough to bury her. Môosa, one of the best servants I ever had, and who died of the same fever that carried off Miss Williams, out of his own pocket bought oil for two or three months’ consumption, without my knowledge; telling Miss W., who afterwards told me, that it was not proper mylady should send for oil by pints and quarts like poor people, which, just then, I was compelled to do. Oh, Lord! when I think of it! One day, when I was walking up and down, not knowing how or where to turn, thinking I must shoot my horses from having nothing to feed them with, I heard the jingling of camels’ bells, and presently a servant came to say that there were some camels at the gate laden with barley. This seasonable supply for the horses was sent by some strangers, who had heard the condition I was in; and the last adlee that I had I gave to the camel-driver.”
Another time, Lady Hester gave me, in writing, a little memorandum of the state of her finances to read, which varies somewhat from her account by word of mouth, although agreeing in the main. It was as follows:
“My debts began in 1822—from 1822 to 1823; and, in a couple of years, I owed £3,000, not that I had actually borrowed that sum. I was obliged to take up money, owing to the revolutions in the country; I speak of the time in which there were three pachas, with an army, encamped before the gates of Acre, and when the Emir Beshýr, the governor of the mountain, had fled to Egypt; and such a number of persecuted people took refuge under my roof, that this caused me great expense. Expecting remittances from England at that time, which I never received, I placed the date of the bonds for the money which I borrowed, for only four and six months, at twenty-five per cent. This, with their interest and compound interest, and the loss upon the money which I was obliged to take at the price they chose to give it, amounted in three years to £3,000. Now, God knows what it is! My income would now only simply suffice, after paying the interest of these bonds, to pay my servants and tradespeople, and put a little provision in my house. You must understand that, when I drew for my pension upon Constantinople, I paid the dollars at 6 piasters or 6½; I received them at Beyrout at 10½, and repaid them again in the Metouali country and at Sayda, where I got my provisions, at 8½: therefore, I often lost 100 per cent. The house of Coutts and Co., since old Coutts’s death, desired me only to draw my drafts upon them through a merchant’s house at Constantinople, and there was a serious loss and inconvenience to me in doing so.
“It is the custom of this country, when persons cannot pay their debts, to place them under arrest by quartering soldiers upon them, who help themselves to everything that comes in their way until the debt is paid. I was resolved to submit myself to the custom of the country, rather than allow the interference of the English consul at that time, whom I detested. I thought it would save me the trouble of telling my story, and cast the reflection on the English name which it deserved. As things seemed as if they must come to a crisis, if I had no means afforded me to avoid it, I thought the more unequivocal it was the better: for my peace of mind then would not be harassed by the misfortunes of others, when I was a beggar myself. The means by which I should become so carried no reproach with them; therefore, I prepared my mind to submit myself to my fate with them. The only thing that stopped me was, I was waiting for an answer respecting the sale of a reversion; and then, if my application did not succeed, I determined to shoot my mares, that they might never fall into other hands, to part with Miss Williams and the rest of my establishment as soon as possible, and to leave this part of the world to be never more heard of, first putting into the hands of my creditors documents to enable them to get all I possessed into their power, and my pension, if they could: but this counted for nothing, as English justice and liberality would of course have deprived me of that.
“Such were my intentions, founded upon a determination not to make any explanation to my family, or receive any more reproaches; as I had already received enough. Whatever I had to say was to be said to the Americans, among whom I thought of going, that they, at least, might feel convinced that I inherited my grandfather’s spirit and high sense of honour; for I never have been in the habit of taking half measures.