I have dismantled my ships, having no farther occasion for them, owing to the pacification of Europe. I have written to the Prince Regent of Portugal, whom I had induced to take refuge in America, that he may now return to his capital: and, after having paid a visit to the son of the king of England, I am come to Vienna to assist at the Congress. Mr. Fiott, an English gentleman, has informed me that you are ready to furnish me with fifteen hundred men: I have just now occasion for them, to subjugate the Barbaresque pirates, who impede the transmission of corn from Egypt to Christendom; so Captain Ismael, Mahomet Ali’s envoy to Malta, has told me.
I send your highness a dressing-box, containing a few trifles for your ladies (N.B. This dressing-box was in ebony, studded in steel, furnished with pins and needles, thread, &c.); also a black cloak for yourself, or for the officer you may choose to appoint commander of your troops. To these things I have joined a pair of pistols, with an Arabic inscription partly defaced.
Lady Hester disapproved of the whole plan, from beginning to end, and answered Sir Sydney’s letters as follows:—She told him, that to send for troops from the Emir Beshýr was endangering that prince’s life; as he was employing the force of one province against another, both being parts of the same empire. Such a thing could only be done by a direct application to the sultan, enforcing the request by saying that, if he would not lend his aid to stop the piracy of his subjects, then other measures would be resorted to. Alluding to the flags which he had sent, and which were no more than so many German stuff shawls, she asked him, who was the king of pocket-handkerchiefs? She said, the mountaineers would fight very well on their own dunghill, when they had their mountain to retreat upon; but that they would never quit their firesides.
Lady Hester might have added likewise, that the Emir had too many enemies of his own to dare to send his troops away; nor could he, as he wanted a seaport in his own territory, have embarked them without permission from the pasha of Acre.
Of her own and Sir Sydney’s letters she sent copies to Mr. Liston, English ambassador at Constantinople; and to Mr. Barker, English consul at Aleppo; desiring the latter to stop all letters passing through his hands, which he supposed to come from Sir Sydney to the Emir Beshýr.
She then wrote to the Emir himself, to say, when her journey to Ascalon was over, she would see him on business of importance.
There was great indelicacy in Sir Sydney’s conduct in sending such a man, giving out wherever he went that he was to take charge of Lady Hester, and conduct her back to Europe.
The perusal of these papers and the necessary deliberation upon them lasted until morning. In the mean time, Signor Thomaso Coschich (for so the Dalmatian was called) had made but a poor supper, and could not conceal his discontent, when the servants told him no wine was ever served up at Lady Hester’s table when she was travelling with Turks.
When daylight came, I gathered, by reports already in circulation among the people, that Signor Coschich had arrived at Acre after my departure; that he had addressed himself to Mâlem Haym with an exaggerated story of the importance of his mission, alleging that he bore despatches declaratory of war between Turkey and Russia, in which England would take a part, and that he was, therefore, come to convey Lady Hester to a place of safety; with many other strange inventions of a hardy cast: upon which Mâlem Haym had caused the town gates to be opened after the usual hour, and a treasury messenger had been ordered to conduct him to Häyfa. The imprudence of such conversation induced Lady Hester to get rid of him forthwith. She accordingly ordered a halt at Häyfa; and, stopping there three days, she wrote answers to Sir Sydney Smith’s despatches, laying open the whole transaction to Derwish Mustafa Aga, in order to set his mind at ease on a subject which must otherwise have excited a multitude of suspicions. When the answers were prepared, Signor Coschich was ordered to depart; and instructions were given him to ship himself for Cyprus as speedily as possible. The courage of this man on the sea, nevertheless, was wonderful. He had crossed the Mediterranean, in the most perilous part of the year, in a boat no bigger than a nutshell; so that, on entering Larnarka roads, in Cyprus, seafaring men would scarcely credit their eyes. He had quarrelled with his guides on the road from Tripoli, exposing himself more than once to be assassinated.
Upon examining the different articles which Sir Sydney Smith had sent as presents, farther incongruities were discovered. The pistols were of Persian make: this was sending coals to Newcastle; for, when Turks ask for pistols from England, it is English pistols they want. There was an abah made of black satin, with Sir Sydney’s arms emblazoned on the shoulders on a white ground. He seems to have known as little of the dress of the country as he did of its politics or religion. A satin abah could no more be worn by a man in Syria, than a pair of chintz breeches by a man in England.