September 25th. In returning from Sayda I called at Mâlem Dubány’s house on my way, and found that the master of the house had just fled from his home, in consequence of a dispute with an aga of Sayda arising from the following circumstances. Mâlem Yusef Dubány’s warehouse and counting-house were in the caravansery, called Khan el Hummus, at the gate of which a man had planted himself selling rice by retail, which was an obstruction to the entrance. Dubány turned him away, and Mustafa Aga replaced him. As some anger had been shown by both parties in the dispute, Dubány thought proper to take refuge in the interior of Mount Lebanon until the decision on the rights of the caravansery could be obtained. Next day I learned that he was gone no farther than Khuska, a village one league off. On the 28th an order came from the pasha, confirming Dubány in what he had done, and he returned to his home. But this anecdote will serve to prove how precarious personal liberty is under the Turks, when an aga—a simple gentleman—not properly vested with the authority of a magistrate, could venture to menace a Christian who had offended him, and might do him some personal harm, as the sudden flight of Dubány out of his reach plainly argued.
On Sunday, the 29th, a polacca brig came to an anchor in the outer harbour, and about five o’clock Lady Hester arrived at the convent. She had almost freighted the vessel with oats, for Antioch is the only place that I heard of in Syria where they grew: nevertheless, oats were not approved of for horses by those natives who could get barley, which was preferred as more nourishing.
It will be necessary here to give a little account of Lady Hester’s voyage to Antioch, and of her residence there. But we will first bring the history of M. Boutin’s assassination to a conclusion, since it was much connected with this voyage.
It will be recollected that Lady Hester had sent into the Ansáry district, which is wholly mountainous, three persons who, after having made such researches as they could, returned to communicate their information to her ladyship. I never heard precisely what this information was; but she thought it sufficient to ground upon it an application to the pasha, that measures should be taken to bring the murderers to punishment. She had not, perhaps, reflected how very reluctant the pasha might be to require persons to be given up who would be refused to him: in which case, if he did not compel their obedience, his authority would be compromised.
The Ansárys inhabit that chain of mountains which runs as a continuation of Mount Lebanon, from Dayr Hamýry to Antioch, comprehended between the two parallels 34° 40´ and 36° 20´ north latitude. They are tributary to the pashas of Tripoli and Damascus, but their obedience is uncertain and their contempt of authority general, because necessarily suffered to go unpunished. In the centre of their mountains, they have certain strongholds, where the troops of the plains, which had been occasionally sent against them, had always been foiled. It was known in what village the murder had been committed; but to every order to give up the murderers some evasive answer had been returned. To Lady Hester’s urgent request, therefore, that more strenuous measures should be resorted to, the pasha replied civilly, but evasively, that the troops could not endure the cold mountains in the winter, but, when spring came, her wishes should be complied with.
When spring did come, Lady Hester failed not to remind the pasha of his promise; and I heard afterwards that an order to the same effect, originating in the French authorities at Constantinople, was sent him. But to the French none of the honour of revenging their countryman’s death belonged, for Lady Hester alone, by the information she had collected, could direct them where to march.[101] Whether, however, moved by her ladyship or by others, at last the pasha was roused to action; and, towards the middle of the year, troops were seen marching on the road to Tripoli. These troops were very generally impressed with the idea that it was Lady Hester who had caused them to march: for they said in the towns, as they went along, that they were ordered on the Syt’s business.
It was evident that the pasha meditated a formidable irruption into the Ansáry mountains; and the command was given to Mustafa Aga Berber, as governor of their district, and as, moreover, a brave officer, fit to cope with these mountaineers. The Ansárys are that people who, during the crusades, furnished those assassins who devoted themselves to certain death for the sake of destroying the enemies of their faith. The reader will recollect the old man of the mountain and all the traditions connected with that mysterious person, and he will then know those whom Berber was to attack.
Mustafa Aga Berber at last marched, and, entering the Ansáry mountains, carried fire and sword into their villages. It is supposed that, to the motives furnished him by the cause on which he went, he added personal hatred, on account of their religion; for Berber was a rigid Mahometan, and the Ansárys, being out of the pale of the Mahometan faith, are hated by the Turks so cordially that they are said to consider it meritorious to put an Ansáry to death. Berber, therefore, was going to a work of faith. I am ignorant of the details of his proceedings, but it came to my ears by general report that he burnt the villages of the assassins, sent several heads to the pasha as trophies of his victories, and several women to Tripoli as slaves. There was the tomb of a shaykh, who, for his sanctity, was held as a saint by the Ansárys: this he caused to be broken into, and the body or bones to be taken out and consumed by fire. He burnt also the house of shaykh Khalýl, who was a considerable personage among them. One of the places which he besieged was called Hamam. By some it was said that he was never able to get hold of the assassins themselves, and had substituted other heads for them, whilst others affirmed that the assassins were taken and put to death. Berber, however, returned triumphant to Tripoli: and it was soon afterwards that Lady Hester set out for Antioch.
When Berber was about to depart on this expedition, he wrote a letter to Lady Hester, saying that, as he was going to fight for her, it was but fair that she should arm her knight: accordingly, Lady Hester sent him a brace of handsome English pistols. Now that he was returned, we may suppose that Lady Hester was desirous of seeing him, and of learning the details of his expedition. On the 18th of July she embarked. The voyage was considered by most persons as connected with the Ansáry affair; but such as knew some circumstances of Lady Hester’s life imagined that she absented herself from Sayda to avoid the Princess of Wales. She herself always said that the real object of her journey to Antioch was to see Mr. Barker, in order to settle her money affairs: but, as on many other occasions, so on this, I was quite able to satisfy my mind as to her real motive, although she judged it prudent not to avow it. The hope of a little diversion to her mind might have formed a part; the wish of seeing Mr. Barker also had its weight; but the reason assigned respecting the Princess of Wales seems to me most correct: for Lady Hester probably knew, long before, that the Princess was coming to Jerusalem, and she might fear that, once in the country, she would extend her journey to Mar Elias; where such a visit would also have brought upon her so much expense as to induce her to go out of the way. But certainly no one but herself would ever have thought of taking refuge in the midst of the very people upon whose countrymen, perhaps whose relations, she had been the means of bringing such calamities.
When Lady Hester embarked at Sayda, the strand was covered with spectators. The vessel she had hired was a large shaktûr. Upon the ballast, which was sand, were laid some mats, and upon these her ladyship’s bed without any bedstead. At the head and foot, mats were put up as screens. Towards the stern was the heavy luggage, where lay the three women, and towards the stem was the favourite black horse, with the ass she was accustomed to ride. The vessel sailed the same evening, and on the following day at sunset Lady Hester was on shore at Tripoli, in the house that had been prepared for her at the strand, which is about a mile from the city.