My Lord,
It is possible that, at times, your lordship may bear in mind the kindness with which you treated me, for the sake of those whom we mutually loved and admired, and the assistance you afforded me in my private concerns, about seventeen years ago: you will then, perhaps, not feel a little surprised that, having got myself into a strange predicament, I have been totally silent. It arose, my lord, from supposing you in ill health. Receiving no newspapers from England, and news from France being oftentimes much retarded, I often owe the chief of my political information to travellers; among whom was the Prince Pückler Muskau, who, having heard of my affair before he saw me, advised me immediately to write to your lordship. I gave him my reasons for not having done so, and from him I received the assurance that you were quite recovered, and again had resumed your public duties. I have since read your most beautiful speech on the slave-trade, and I congratulate the country on your reappearance in the House.
Before this letter reaches you—for I have missed the last packet—your lordship will have probably heard of the manner in which her Majesty’s ministers have thought proper to treat me, with her sanction. I have always been the greatest of aristocrats; I was born so; yet no one is more tenacious of the rights of men in every class of life. I have written a very severe letter to the Queen, in which I have made her Majesty understand I am no longer an English subject: for I had sooner be the subject of a Hottentot chief than one to be commanded by a woman * * * * * * * * * guided by a man who possesses none of the qualities of his great patron, Mr. Fox, except his talens pour la débauche:—if he had, he would recollect that nobleman’s conduct to me after Mr. Pitt’s death.
Although of a character violent to desperation, few persons, I believe, have given more examples of forbearance than I have done, both to those calling themselves my friends and to those who rank among my enemies, from these simple motives—either from my personal contempt of them or their opinion, or from the knowledge that they were acting upon a principle which they thought a meritorious one. But when a crowned head, or a minister, ventures to cast a slur upon my integrity (which I hope may vie with that which has ever distinguished my ancestors) without any inquiries into either facts or motives, and pretends to invest low venal people with any authority over me or my concerns, I shall repel the aggression with the energy it requires, and make every sacrifice which circumstances may call for: and, should starvation stare me in the face, it will not appal me. These are my fixed determinations, and this is the sovereign contempt I feel for * * * * * * and * * * * * *. As things must have already taken some turn, I will not request your lordship’s assistance: for I should not forgive myself for either causing you trouble or anxiety. I shall boldly follow my fate, as I always hitherto have done.
These few lines, therefore, are only to be considered as a mark of personal respect towards your lordship, and as affording me an opportunity of expressing my congratulations for the restoration of your health; which, however, I hope you will continue to ménager, as you will want a great store of it in the bad times that are coming, and when the value of men of your extraordinary talents and exertions will be properly estimated.—I have the honour, my lord, to be, with great truth and esteem, yours,
Hester Lucy Stanhope.
Monday, June 4.—A letter from the Pasha’s wife to Lady Hester took me down to Sayda to see the Pasha’s little daughter, an angelic child of about seven years of age, ill of a fever. The mother did not show herself; Madame Lapi, the lady of the Austrian referendary, and Madame Bertrand, a French lady, receiving me. The Pasha was absent at the camp in the Horàn. Sulyman Pasha, when appointed to the pashalik of Sayda, had found no house fit for a residence, and had caused a small, low palace to be built, which, if placed in the midst of a paddock, might have passed for a gentleman’s house of a thousand a year in England. In the three rooms I went through, to the one wherein the little girl was lying, there was, as is usual in Turkish houses, the utmost simplicity: but one thing struck me as indicative of the nationality of the master of the house[29]—a large French looking-glass; for I believe a person would with difficulty have found another mirror on the walls of a saloon all through Syria, excepting in a Frank house. The child was but slightly indisposed, and it is possible that mere feminine curiosity had induced her mother to send for me, that she might get a look through some peep-hole to see whether she should like to consult me for some complaint of her own: for such are the indirect ways of proceeding common in harýms, and such things had happened to me before. The Pasha’s wife was originally a Greek slave, bought during the horrors of the Greek revolution, when Turkish soldiers sold their prisoners into bondage. She had pleased him, and he eventually made her his wife. Report spoke highly of her beauty and her conduct.
Tuesday, June 5.—Logmagi had been sent for to rate the maids, who had been caught scaling the garden-wall before sunrise and going down to the spring, where they were seen with some one. As they never were permitted to leave the house, or the inner court, this violation of her ladyship’s orders, so contrary to Eastern propriety, which allows not of a woman’s being out of doors in the company of men, called for some chastisement, more especially when coupled with suspicious circumstances. One of these very maids had introduced herself the preceding night into a room, where she was forbidden to enter, and had been detected untying bundles of things and pieces of stuffs; so that it was apprehended there was a league with persons without to carry off stolen goods. Zezefôon was locked up, and sentenced to remain in durance until she learned to behave better.
Thursday, June 7.—A servant was despatched over-night with a letter and seven black doses, and directions how to take them, for the baron and six others of the suite, with a promise of eight more doses the next day for the duke and the rest.