His complaint was pulmonary, and his intervals of ease were few. When I paid my evening visits, an attendant, in waiting in the antechamber, would lead me to the door of the room where he was sitting, and, drawing aside the red cloth curtain embroidered in gold, would in a low whisper tell me to enter. The salute to a great personage in the East, on entering his presence, is by walking up to him, and kissing the hem of his garment or his hand, when he makes a sign to him who enters to sit down. All this was dispensed with from me, as a foreigner; but I saw it done by every one else. When seated, I was asked how I did, and how her Presence, or her Felicity, the dame, the emiry[39] did, which civility I acknowledged by a προσκύνησις.[40] I might then look round the room, and, in dumb show, by carrying my hand to my mouth and forehead, recognize those whom I knew. There were generally present the chief men of the place; such as the mufti, the divan effendi, some ulemas, and always Mâlem Haym, the Jew seràf, the minister, that wonderful man who was present everywhere, and directed everything. The pasha was seated in an arm-chair (a very uncommon thing unless in illness) and on each side of him stood a page, one holding a pocket-handkerchief, and the other a small vase to spit in. The rest of the party were seated on the floor: for who would dare sit on the sofas when the pasha himself did not? who, so to say, would presume to sit higher than the pasha!
Awful indeed was the moment of feeling the pulse, when it was necessary to render an account of every pulsation: and how is it possible not to dissimulate on such occasions? At every favourable turn which manifested itself, happiness and complacency seemed to illumine every countenance, and a bystander would have said, “The pasha will be well to-morrow.” When the visit was over, I was generally taken into another room by Haym, to confer with Abdallah Bey, the pasha’s son.[41] Here I found the young lord, sitting between two venerable shaykhs, who were expounding to him the Koran, or commenting on some abstruse points of faith. When with the bey, pipes and coffee were served to me, the latter of which alone was given me in the pasha’s presence. The state of his father’s health was then inquired into, plans for the next day were devised, and so the cure was conducted.
On one occasion, when ushered into Abdallah Bey’s room, I observed an unusual degree of gaiety in the conversation. Inquiring the reason of this from one sitting by me, I was told that the bey had, in the course of that day, made a very clever throw with his girýd or javelin, on horseback, and that nothing had since been talked of but his great skill as a perfect cavalier.
Soon after our arrival at Acre, the weather became fine for a few days, and it was resolved to remove Ali Pasha to a pavilion which he had built a few miles from the city. I rode over to see him, accompanied by the kumrûkgi or collector of the customs, Ayûb Aga, who was very attentive to me during my stay at Acre. There was an extensive garden round the pavilion; a thing of easy creation in Syria, where, as was the case here, copious springs and running streams were found. It was from this spot that the aqueduct, destroyed by the French in their invasion of Syria, conveyed water to Acre. But Ali Pasha received no benefit from his removal, and was soon conveyed back again.
In relating the case of the pasha, I am forgetting Lady Hester, who was now ready to depart for Ascalon. In compliance with the orders contained in the firmans of the Sublime Porte, she was honoured with distinctions usually paid to princes only. In addition to her own six tents, about twenty more were furnished, one of which was of vast magnitude, and under which Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales slept, on her journey to and from Jerusalem. As a part of the alleged misconduct of that princess was said to have taken place beneath it, and as its particular shape excited some discussion in the House of Lords, a sketch of it is annexed.
PRINCESS OF WALES’S TENT.
This tent was double, like the calix and corolla of a flower inverted, the same post supporting both; and, when planted, the distance between the two at the bottom was about twelve feet. It was of a green colour on the outside, studded with yellow flowers and stars. In the centre of the inner tent was placed a sofa, behind which, and bisecting the tent, was suspended a curtain made of broad bands of satin of the most vivid colours. Nothing could be more showy or more elegant. There were twenty-two akáms or tent-pitchers to accompany us, headed by one Mohammed, a person whose activity, as I afterwards heard, made him conspicuous in the suite of Her Royal Highness not less than in that of Lady Hester. There was a meshalgy to bear the night-torch, being the iron skeleton of a tub fixed on a long pole, in which pieces of tarpaulin are thrown from time to time to burn. A sakka, with two mules at his disposal carrying vast leather skins, was to supply water. Twelve mules carried the luggage; twelve camels the tents. The attendants were on mules: Mr. Catafago, Mâlem Musa, the two dragomans, and myself, on horseback. Last of all, to Lady Hester was appropriated what, in Arabic, is called a takhterwàn, or tukht, a tilted palanquin, covered with crimson cloth, and having in front six large gilded balls, glittering in the sun. The palanquin was carried by two mules, which were changed every two hours. In front of the palanquin were led her ladyship’s mare and her favourite ass, in case she preferred riding. One hundred of the Hawàry cavalry[42] escorted us, and three treasury messengers preceded, as couriers to arrange stations and to make provision for so many persons. I had almost forgotten the Zäym and the persons composing his suite, who added considerably to our numbers.
On the 18th of March, the cavalcade left Acre, and, to the astonishment but admiration of every one, Lady Hester rode her ass; nor did she, on any future day, make use of the palanquin. I remained behind one day to attend to the effect of certain remedies which I had prescribed for the pasha, who, on my taking leave of him, ordered his khasnadàr or treasurer to send me a purse of money.[43]
On the 19th it blew a strong equinoctial gale: but, as Lady Hester had said she should wait my coming at the first station, I resolved to depart in spite of the weather. It was afternoon before I had finished my affairs, when I set off, taking with me an Hawáry horseman for my escort. As I rode along the sea-shore, the wind swept the dust in clouds, and the waves, contending with the swollen streams of the two rivers which I had to pass, formed quicksands in their beds, with a counter-current, which made the fords very dangerous: whilst the hail cut our horses’ faces, so that with difficulty they could be forced on. The horseman who accompanied me vented his spleen in muttering complaints against the English, who always would travel at such extraordinary seasons, when every sensible person remained in-doors.[44]