[30] I was once speaking of the great results which might be expected from Messrs. Beck and Moore’s successful investigation of the natural phenomena of the Dead Sea: but Lady Hester damped my admiration of those gentlemen’s hazardous undertaking, by exclaiming that all English travellers were a pack of fools, and that they entirely neglected the objects that ought to be inquired into. “There are none of them,” said she, “that know half as much as I do. I’ll venture to say they never heard of the forty doors, all opening by one key, in which are locked the forty wise men who expect the Murdah. Didn’t I tell you the story the other day?” I answered, if she had, I must have forgotten it, which was fortunate, as I was always reluctant to show my dissent from her opinions; having, by experience, learned how necessary it was to proceed cautiously in doing so. “Yes, so it is,” rejoined Lady Hester: “I talk for half a day to you, wasting my breath and lungs, and there you sit like a stock or a stone—no understanding, no conviction!”
[31] The korbàsh is a thong of the raw hide of the buffalo or rhinoceros, about the length of a hand-whip, and cut tapering in a similar form. In the hand of a powerful flagellant it becomes an instrument of great torture.
[32] There is a strong resemblance between Lady Hester’s character of the Duke of Wellington and that of Frederick the Great of Prussia: for see what Lord Malmesbury says of the latter, in his Diaries and Correspondence, vol. i., p. 8:—
“His fort is not so much his courage, nor what we generally understand by conduct; but it consists in a surprising discernment, in the day of battle, how to gain the most advantageous ground, where to place the proper sort of arms, whether horse or foot, and in the quickest coup d’œil to distinguish the weak part of the enemy.”
[33] Several lines are here wanting, owing to a half sheet of paper having been lost in the confusion created by fumigating papers in quarantine. They were highly complimentary to his grace, and their omission is to be regretted.
CHAPTER IX.
Lady Hester in an alcove in her garden—Lucky days observed by her—Consuls’ rights—Mischief caused by Sir F. B.’s neglect in answering Lady Hester’s Letters—Rashes common in Syria—Visit of an unknown Englishman—Story of Hanah Messâad—Lady Hester’s love of truth—Report of her death—Michael Tutungi—Visit from the Chevalier Guys—His reception at Dayr el Mkhallas—Punishment of the shepherd, Câasem—Holyday of the Korbàn Byràm—Fatôon’s accouchement—Lady Hester’s aversion to consular interference—Evenings at Jôon—Old Pierre—Saady.
Friday, February 16, 1838.—About two in the afternoon, on going to pay my visit to Lady Hester Stanhope, I proceeded to her bed-room, thinking, as usual, to find her there, but was told by her maids she was gone into the garden. The day was overcast, and there was every appearance of rain. I found her standing in one of the garden-walks, leaning on her stick (such as those which elderly ladies were accustomed formerly to use in England, and perhaps may now), and pale as a ghost. “Doctor,” said she, “I have got out of my room that those beasts may clean it? but, if you don’t go to them, they’ll steal everything.” After expressing my fears that she had chosen a bad day to come out, I left her. I saw her room put into as much order as the confusion in it would admit of. It was crowded with bundles one upon another, as before, which she dared not put into any other part of the house, lest they should be stolen.
Independent of her desire to be more clean and comfortable, I guessed at once why she had left her bed-room to go into the garden. It was the struggle which the sick often make—the resolution of an unsubdued spirit, that finds corporeal ailments weighing down the body, whilst the mind is yet unsubdued. It was Friday too, the day in all the week she held as most auspicious.
When I returned into the garden, I found her lying on a sofa, in a beautiful alcove, one of three or four that embellished her garden, and an attendant standing with his hands folded across his breast, in an attitude of respect before her. At these moments, she always wore the air of a Sultaness. In this very alcove, how often had she acted the queen, issued her orders, summoned delinquents before her, and enjoyed the semblance of that absolute power, which was the latent ambition of her heart! Hence it was that she at last got rid of all European servants, because they would not submit to arbitrary punishments, but would persist in raising their voices in self-justification. With the Turks it was not so. Accustomed, in the courts of governors and Pashas, to implicit obedience and submission, they resigned themselves to her rule as a matter of course. In transferring, however, their servility to her, as their mistress, they also transferred the vices and dangers which servility engenders: namely, lying, theft, sycophancy, intrigue, and treachery.