But this was not the first time Lady Hester had resorted to this singular mode of punishment; some years before, a chastisement for similar frailties, not unlike that which Messâad underwent, as far as regarded the eyebrows, fell to the lot of a peasant girl in her ladyship’s service at a village called Mushmôoshy. This was in the year 1813. How fallible are the most clearsighted persons is the only comment which can be made on such unintentional errors!
For those who were not exempt from the common weaknesses of our nature she was a dangerous person to hold intercourse with. “Live at a distance from my lady,” General Loustaunau used to say to Mrs. M. (when she wanted to remove from Mar Elias to Dar Jôon, in order to be near me); “live at a distance, or you will find, to your cost, that her neighbourhood is a hell.” But be it said, to her honour, that it was from an unfeigned horror of everything mean, dishonest, or vicious, she so resolutely refused to keep terms with people who suffered themselves to be led into the commission of such acts; and her indignation descended with equal impartiality on friends and foes when they happened to deserve it. Her disposition to utter the truth, whether painful or disagreeable, overruled all other considerations.
Few people conversed with her, or received a letter from her, without being sensible of some expression or innuendo, which they were obliged to treat as a joke at the moment, but which was sure to leave its sting behind. Of upwards of a hundred letters which I have penned for her at her dictation to correspondents of every rank in life, there were few which did not contain some touch of merited sarcasm or reproof; except those which were expressly written to alleviate distress, or encourage the hopeful efforts of modest worth. Never was there so inflexible a judge, or one who would do what she thought right, come what would of it. Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum, might have been written on her escutcheon.
Sunday, February 25.—Having recovered her tranquillity, she was to-day all kindness. I mentioned to her the report rife in Beyrout respecting her death, as M. Guys had written it. She observed on it, “If I do die, those consuls, thank God, can have nothing to do with me! I am no English subject, and they have no right to seal up my effects. Why do I keep some of my servants, although I know them to be desperate rascals, but because they have one or two qualities useful to me? It would not do for every one to run the risk, but it will for me, who know how to manage them. For example: I have got two that I can depend upon for shooting a man, or giving a consul a good blow, if he dares to set his foot within my doors, so as to prevent his ever coming again; and such are what I want just now.”
She turned over in her mind how she could raise a little money, and bethought herself of Mr. Michael Tutungi, the Armenian, of Constantinople, who had formerly served her in the capacity of dragoman. To him she had written in 1836, offering him the same situation he had held before, and, on his promise to come, had forwarded to him 500 dollars for the expenses of his journey and for some commissions: but he subsequently declined the engagement, neither had he executed the commissions. She therefore desired me to draw a bill on him, payable to M. Guys’s order, and to request M. Guys to discount it; for, during my nettlerash, Lady Hester had given away the greatest part of the 1,190 piasters to a family ruined by the earthquake. It was in vain to represent to her that she was in want of the money herself: “I can’t help it,” she would say; “I am not mistress of myself on such occasions.”
Tuesday, February 27.—Lady Hester got up, went into her garden, and felt better. She had at last found out that repletion, arising even from what would be called small quantities of food and drink in health, was very injurious in sickness; and she had grown more moderate in her diet, not swallowing one liquid upon another, nor eating four or five times a day. Honey and butter mixed was now what she derived most benefit from, and spermaceti linctuses. The moment she found anything soothed her cough, she immediately sent off an order to Beyrout for an immense quantity of it, or to Europe, if at Beyrout it was not to be had: she was never satisfied that her medicine-chest was full enough. It will hardly be credited that of Epsom salts she had a cask full, of the size of a firkin. She masticated aniseeds as a remedy against dyspepsia, and smoked them sprinkled on the tobacco of her pipe: of course, they were very injurious to her, but it was idle to remonstrate.
February 29.—Lady Hester’s first topic of conversation to-day was her maids. “What a hywán [beast] is that Sâady!” she said: “when she awakes in the morning, she crawls on all-fours exactly like an animal. I am convinced she is nothing more: her back is only fit to carry a pair of panniers.” I agreed with her ladyship, and told her what I had seen her do the day before. With one springing lift she raised from the floor to her head a circular mankàl or chafingdish, two feet in diameter, and piled up with live coals—and, without holding it, but merely balancing it on her head, she stooped perpendicularly, and seized with her two hands another mankàl of baked earth of equal size, filled with live coals also, and, lifting it, carried them both at once into the drawing-room to warm the apartment. These are the feats of dexterity and strength in which Syrian women excel, and in which they far surpass all European maids.
March 1.—Monsieur Henry Guys, the French consul, having been advanced to the superior situation of Aleppo, and being about to quit our part of the country, arrived unexpectedly at Jôon to take his leave. It was Tuesday, and just after sunset, when he entered the gate. Lady Hester had, about a quarter of an hour before, hurried me away from her, as the sun was going to set, and it would have been unlucky, had I left her a minute after the sun was down. “I shall not see you to-morrow,” said she, “as it will be Wednesday:” therefore, when she was told that Monsieur Guys was come, it discomposed her very much, and she sent word that, whatever his business was, she could not see him until after sunset next day.
As M. Guys was thus transferred to me for twenty-four hours, I took the opportunity of letting him know how disquieted I felt at having such great responsibility on my shoulders, whilst Lady Hester was so ill, and surrounded by a set of servants whom I considered as so many cut-throats.
My position was extremely uncomfortable. Should Lady Hester die, I foresaw that I should be exposed, alone as I was, to many difficulties and dangers. The Druze insurrection afforded every facility to an assassin or robber for putting himself beyond the reach of justice: since, in about five or six hours, he could find a sure refuge from capture. He revived my spirits by assuring me I need be under no alarm. “All of them are known,” said he, “and have their families and relations hereabouts: that one circumstance must always be a check upon them. If they were not natives of the province, then I should say you were not safe among them. As for Lady Hester, you know her determined character—if she is resolved to keep them, you cannot help it. There is one,” added he, “whom I could wish not to be here; I thought him gone a year ago:” this was the one whom Lady Hester relied on for sending a bullet through the consul’s body.