[29] It will be recollected that Sulyman Pasha was originally a French corporal in Buonaparte’s army.
[30] A mustaby is an estrade, or raised stone bench, in shape what a shop-counter would be against a wall, made at the doors of houses in the East for people to sit cross-legged on to enjoy the fresh air, or sometimes at the doors of rooms for servants to sleep on as sentries to those within.
CHAPTER VIII.
Petty annoyances in hot countries—Lady Hester refuses Duke Maximilian’s portrait—She insists on my leaving her—Continuation of the negro Wellington’s case—Progress of the Druze insurrection—Destruction of locusts—Mysterious visit at the Dar—Reasons why Lady Hester kept daring fellows in her service—Russian spies—Dr. Lœve’s visit—Dangerous state of the country—Lady Hester’s dream—Her resolution to immure herself—Visit from Mr. M.—Visit from Colonel Hazeta and Dr. Mill—Letter from Lord Palmerston to Lady Hester—Her answer—Inexpediency of having consular agents not natives of the country they represent—Successes of the Druzes—Lady Hester’s belief in fortune-telling—Letter from Sir Francis Burdett—Colonel Needham’s property—Lord Coutts—Subscribers to pay Mr. Pitt’s debts—Fright from a serpent—Battle of Yanta—Sir N. Wraxall a peer—Discourse upon heads—A spy—Letter to the Duke Maximilian of Bavaria.
Lady Hester got up in the evening. The heat was now so great, that the covers of books, as they lay on the table, would curl up at the corners, and the joinings of furniture split. A host of a kind of small May-bugs made their appearance at sunset, and large cockchafers, impudent as is every description of bug, fly, or bird, in this country, kept us all in a state of petty warfare, which was succeeded, when bed-time came, by a sleepless contest with those horrid tormentors, the musquitoes.
Lady Hester spoke a good deal about the property supposed to be left her. “Those,” she said, “who wrote me word about it would not deceive me; they were persons I have perfect reliance on. They were afraid to write names; but when they said that this property was come to me from the two plainest persons of my acquaintance, those two must have been Lord K. and his wife.”
The duke had asked me, when I was with him, whether I thought Lady Hester would be displeased if he sent her his portrait from Europe. I answered, “She could not but be pleased to have what, next to seeing him, would best recall his highness to her mind.” But, when I told Lady Hester of this, she said, “No; I must write to him, and prevent his sending it.”
Sunday, June 10, 1838.—I rode down to Sayda, not aware of the duke’s departure, and I found, to my astonishment, that the duke, tents, and everybody had disappeared, except the poor black, Wellington; so now, having nothing to distract my attention, I went and conversed with him. He asked for a loose dressing-gown, warm stockings, as the cold struck up to his bowels from the stones, and a pillow for his head. This, together with tea and sugar, a teapot, and some other little things, were sent down to him.
Tuesday, June 12.—Lady Hester’s fever was somewhat abated. According to the date, the steamboat had arrived at Beyrout, and her expectations were wound up to a fearful height, in the hope that this time, at all events, a letter must have come from Sir Francis Burdett. Before noon, an express was announced: he was bearer of a letter to me to say that the steamboat had brought nothing. I knew not how to communicate the sad intelligence to her ladyship. When she heard it, she made a turn in her bed, and, with an exclamation of “Oh, Lord!” she said—“Doctor, the die is cast: the sooner you take yourself off, the better. I have no money—you can be of no use to me—I shall write no more letters, shall break up my establishment, wall up the gate, and, with a girl and a boy to wait on me, resign myself to my fate.—Let me have none of your foolish reasoning on the subject. Tell your family they may make their preparations, and in a fortnight’s time you must be gone. Who knows? perhaps Prince Pückler Muskau, after all his pretended interest about my affairs, has never sent the correspondence to Europe: he told you in three months we should see the letters in the papers; and yet the papers neither come, nor do we hear from him: and do you think, after this, one can have any confidence in anybody?”
Wednesday, June 13.—I was glad to pass twenty-four hours without seeing her ladyship; for she was in too melancholy a humour to derive consolation, except from her own reflections: there she was most sure to find relief; for, endued with a sanguine temperament, and always building castles in the air, her depression never was of long continuance. In the evening, when I went to her, she dwelt on the necessity of repose for me, now old age had come upon me, in order to reconcile me to a separation which she seemed to think would give me pain.