To have done with this subject altogether, it may be as well to say here how it terminated. Lady Hester, on her return to Mar Elias, sent her secretary to the emir Beshýr, who translated to him as well Sir Sydney’s letters intended for him as her ladyship’s answers, and then gave him the presents. The emir, as might be supposed, did not like to be lectured about his nephews, whom he had barbarously mutilated. But this was of little note in comparison with the mischief which a supposed league with European nations would do him in the eyes of the Porte; and, had it not been for Lady Hester’s prudence, he felt that his head would soon have been no longer on his shoulders. The presents he received; but, contrary to his usual custom of showing everything that he had, which was curious or foreign, to people who went to see him, these he never exhibited to a soul.
Lady Hester thought that the ebony dressing-box would best befit the Shaykh Beshýr’s wife, who was young and coquettish: but the shaykh, fearful of being mixed up in such a business, returned it immediately, and never mentioned the giver’s name.
Sir S. Smith never passed in Syria for a man of talent. He spent a good deal of money, and always carried his point by bakshyshes, or presents. Yet, with a squadron to back him, he failed in raising himself a reputation; and, as for a politician, he was considered a miserable one; for, when he interfered in Gezzàr’s war with the Emir Beshýr, and took that prince on board his ship, to save him from the hands of Gezzàr, he knew not that he was lending protection to a man who afterwards showed himself to be one of the most sanguinary tyrants of modern times. Gezzàr Pasha said, “Here is a man who comes and attempts to destroy in a day what I have been labouring to effect for fifteen years,” and he was right; for, now that the plan was consolidated, the expediency was manifest, and the emir and shaykh Beshýr were as completely under the thumb of the pasha as two servants; which, however abject a situation in the abstract, is what, by the nature of their tenure from the Porte, they were required to be.
Some persons will blame Lady Hester for disclosing a private correspondence to the Zäym; but, when Sir Sydney had said that he had written to Constantinople and to the emir, she knew it must soon be blown. Besides, from the strange rhodomontades of Signor Coschich, it was necessary to tell the truth, or to incur the suspicion of being an emissary and a spy.
On the 23rd of March, in the morning, we left Häyfa. The weather was cloudy, and a misty rain now and then fell. In four hours we arrived at Aatlyt, but here an accident happened which damped our joy for the evening. Turkish cavalry are accustomed, on all occasions of festivity, to show their feats of horsemanship, one of which is to fire off their carbines at each other in a full gallop. Just before reaching the encampment at Aatlyt, a soldier, among others who were merrily disposed, galloped up close to his comrade, when, firing his carbine, the wadding lodged in the shoulders of a handsome youth of fifteen, the son of the bin bashi, or colonel. I was immediately called to him, and found an ill-looking wound in the deltoid muscle, but it was superficial, and there was nothing serious to be apprehended. I bound up the wound, and the young man went the following morning to his mother at Nazareth, where, as I afterwards heard, he speedily recovered.[46]
Lady Hester was lodged in a cottage, to avoid the repetition of the inconveniences suffered at Häyfa. Whilst supper was cooking by Um Risk, a serpent, unperceived by her, entwined itself round her naked leg. I had seen other proofs of courage in this withered old woman, but was astonished most at this. She felt the serpent, and, looking down, calmly seized it by the neck, held it so until she had unwound the tail, and then killed it.
On the 24th we departed for Tontura, where we arrived in two hours. We observed several Arabs under tents pasturing their flocks. Here we experienced much civility from the shaykh. As our encampment, next day, was to be among the ruins of Cæsarea, camels laden with rice, bread, fuel, and other necessaries, were sent forward; for Cæsarea, a ruined place, could furnish nothing but water. From Tontura to Cæsarea proved a distance of two hours’ march.[47] We reached it on the afternoon of the 25th. As the night threatened to be very tempestuous, Lady Hester’s tent was planted under the vault of a ruin, our horses were stabled in caves, and every preparation was made to guarantee us from the inclemency of the weather. We experienced, in fact, a storm not less dreadful than that at Häyfa; and those who had not ventured to brave it on the former occasion, now, having no town to flee to, were much worse off. Our squadron of horse soldiers lay exposed to the wind and rain, without any covering but broken walls, and Signor Catafago was so terrified, that he wished himself safe back at his house in Acre. Ruins are very uncomfortable places to encamp in, under the most favourable circumstances, owing to the reptiles which are continually crawling about.[48]
The 25th continued too rainy to allow of resuming the journey, or even of examining the ruins among which we were encamped. One of the Hawàry soldiers took this favourable moment for being bled, having, as he told me, neglected to undergo his annual spring venesection before quitting Acre. Accordingly, he seated himself on a stone in the air; and, as is generally pretended to be done by the barbers of the country when they bleed a person, begged me to let the blood spout until I saw it change to a good colour.
On the 26th, we had fine weather, and struck our tents. We arrived at Um Khaled. The shaykh called to mind our passage three years before, and complimented me on my beard. The peasants were turned out of their cottages, compelled to remove every article of furniture, and moreover to sweep the cottages for our reception. I got my breakfast early, and, accompanied by a courier, proceeded on before to Mharrem. We passed the sandy tract called Abu Zabûrrah, which, to a traveller in an unprotected state, is not a place devoid of danger. A pasha named Ismael was stripped and robbed by the Arabs at this spot; and, in Gezzàr pasha’s time, a patrole was kept here. It was no slight proof of the good government of the reigning pasha, that the greatest security prevailed in every part of his pashalik.
At Mharrem, the shaykh immediately pointed out the sanctuary of the saint as the best place for lodging us; and indeed the building was more respectable than those which usually cover the sepulchres of the santons of Islamism. Lady Hester arrived soon afterwards. I renewed my acquaintance with such of the peasants as recollected us in our former journey. We now had an opportunity of judging of the moroseness of men, and of their disposition to inflict pain where they can. On the former occasion we paid largely for every thing, but were served reluctantly, and were by no means well treated: whereas now, when every article was furnished by requisition, the utmost alacrity and apparent good-will was demonstrated, although they received nothing but blows in payment.