[101] As a proof of this we here subjoin the translation of an extract from the Courrier Français, under date of April 29, 1830, and part of a sketch of Colonel Boutin’s life, which appeared in that newspaper.—“Towards the year 1811, Colonel Boutin received orders from the Emperor to visit the East. He was entrusted with a mission to explore Syria, to learn Arabic, and, at a fit opportunity, to penetrate into Arabia and describe that country. On that occasion he made the acquaintance of Pitt’s niece, Lady Hester Stanhope, subsequently crowned Queen of Palmyra by the Bedouins in 1821. He met from her with a most honourable reception, and, proud of her powerful protection, he was on the point of succeeding in his enterprise, when he was assassinated in the neighbourhood of Damascus by the Arabs, who sought to rob him of a bag of coins which he had in his possession. France knows how the murder of this illustrious traveller was avenged by her ladyship, who caused his assassins to be decapitated and obtained the restitution of his baggage, which she effected purely by her personal influence and efforts.” To this extract may be added another mark of the gratitude of the French nation, by whom her noble conduct was better appreciated than by her own countrymen. She received the thanks of the French Chamber of Deputies, after a speech made relative to this affair by the Comte Delaborde, and I regret that I have not been able to meet with the notice of it in the French newspapers of the day.
[102] In the same manner, Ibrahim, a groom who took over two horses which Lady Hester sent to the Duke of York and to Lord Ebrington, used to affirm that his Royal Highness the Duke shook hands with him, and that the Duchess danced with him.
[103] His name was Seraphim; and he spoke of Colonel Campbell as a person he knew at Elba, whither he had accompanied the Emperor Napoleon.
[104] Messieurs Stratton, Fuller, Idliff, and Rennell, had been here in their way from Greece to Egypt; as well as Lord Belmore and family.
[105] It never happened to me to see carpets in Turkey so large as those which, under the name of Turkey carpets, cover English dining-rooms.
[106] I was informed that, in the village of Trisolias, there was a woman, thirty-five years of age, with a tail. She was the daughter of a papas, named Yennion. My informant was the archimandrites, a man respectable from his situation and age. When entreated by me to allow me to make use of his name or to furnish me with a letter, as a means of seeing her, he refused both requests.
[107] He was, likewise, a knight of the holy sepulchre; having made good his pretensions to a noble descent (by money of documents) in the following manner. He asserted that his name, Brins, is but the Arabic manner of spelling Prince; there being no letter P in the alphabet of that language: and that his ancestors were princes of Tripoli, a principality erected in the time of the crusades. His plea was thought so good, that he was created a knight; and, as a proof of it, he showed me his diploma to that effect.
[108] One of the servants accused Andrea, the dragoman, as having prompted him to the theft. He described how he had effected it, how he carried the money to his house, and delivered it into Andrea’s hand, who recompensed him immediately for his trouble. Fortunately for Andrea, his wife that very night lay-in, and, as is usual in Greece, his house was full of friends, who bore witness to the falsehood of such testimony.
[109] About this time, by the Trieste newspapers, the news of Lord Stanhope’s death (on the 26th December, 1816) came to Cyprus. I forwarded the melancholy information to Lady Hester on the 2nd and 3rd of April.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original.
3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.