The affair was thus advocated with the utmost bitterness of party spirit on both sides. Constantine, finding that threats were thrown out against his life, stirred very little from home: and it was thought that resort would be had to the ambassador of Austria at Constantinople to decide on the case: but here another difficulty intervened. Whenever the consuls were at variance, the Turks took advantage of their quarrels, and it was only by their union that they could make a stand against them. The girl, therefore, was at last sacrificed to political reasons, and Constantine consented to pay a certain sum as her dowry to any one who would marry her. This, with the distribution of a few douceurs, quieted the outcry. A person was not long wanting, who offered himself as her husband; but his low rank in society and mercenary character precluded the unfortunate victim from the hopes of happiness for the rest of her life.
In 1812, when, as it was said at the instigation of the French ambassador, much persecution was exercised against the family of the Morûsis, at that time enjoying the highest dignities which the Porte awards to her Greek subjects, one of them, Prince George Morûsi, was banished to Cyprus, where he lived for a few weeks unmolested, and in great privacy. I was making a visit with Signor Vondiziano to a person named Bosovitch, inhabiting a large house at the strand of Larnaka, when, the conversation turning on beheading, a person who was present said, “It was on this sofa I saw the Prince George Morûsi so barbarously murdered;” and he proceeded to relate the way in which it was done. “We had just risen from dinner, and the prince had reseated himself to smoke his pipe, when a slight bustle was heard on the staircase, and an armed Turk, with two others behind, entered the room. They looked steadily for half a minute at us, and the prince, who beheld them, dropped his pipe, turned pale as ashes, and fell back almost inanimate: for he apprehended immediately what business they were come upon. The first Turk advanced to him, and shot him through the body. We were three of us present: we leaped from the sofa, and, as the murderers paid no attention to us, we got out of the room into the passage. There everything was in confusion; and, in the midst of it, the chaplain of the prince pulled me aside. ‘Secrete these things immediately,’ he said, and gave me a watch with some jewels and rings; all which I afterwards restored to the family at a proper time. Whilst this was doing, the Turks, to make their work sure, had strangled the prince with a girdle, and had dragged the body into the passage. They then retreated by the street door, no one daring to follow or cry after them.
“When they were out of sight, we went immediately to the governor, and told him what we had seen. He pretended astonishment and horror at the deed, and immediately gave orders to his police officers to search the town and bring the assassins before him. This farce was carried on some days, although every one knew that the soldiers were the governor’s men, and that he had authority from the Porte for what he had done.”
Let me now narrate a story of a different nature, and of a more innocent and enlivening cast. The conversation of Larnaka turned much upon it, as soon as Signor Constantine’s affair had blown over. Signor Brunoni’s history was singular. He was about to quit Cyprus for Italy, and was reputed to carry with him a fortune estimated at half a million of piasters, or £15,000 sterling.
An Italian by birth, he belonged originally to the fraternity of monks of St. Francis, called in the Levant the monks of the Holy Land. He was a lay brother; and, it is said, disgusted with his calling, he obtained from Rome a dispensation to throw off his frock. As soon as he returned to the world, he professed himself a doctor; and, being of a handsome presence and of insinuating manners, he established himself so effectually in the good-will of the people of Leucosia, the capital, that, at the end of twenty-five years, when he left the place to reside at Larnaka, on the sea-coast, he was escorted on his way to town by the principal inhabitants, as a testimony of the respect they bore him.
On coming to Larnaka he continued to exercise his profession, and, at the same time, turned merchant. But his neighbours were surprised to see that, on a sudden, he threw a capital into his business, superior to that of the oldest and wealthiest merchants. Shortly afterwards he sent his eldest son, a lad, to Italy, under pretence of giving him a good education; but reports soon reached the island that the son had purchased, in his father’s name, a large estate for some thousands of pounds. Many were the surmises and conjectures how he had amassed so much wealth, when at last a trifling circumstance led to the discovery. Signor Brunoni offered for sale to a friend a large silver lamp, saying it had been the property of the pope, but was sold during his holiness’s troubles, and had, from hand to hand, come into the possession of his son, who, thinking it would suit some devout person of Cyprus, had sent it to him. Some one, to whom it was shown, on examining the lamp, discovered on the back of it the name of Seneca, and recollected that a wealthy Venetian family of that name once flourished in Cyprus. He talked of the coincidence, until it was asked whether Signor Brunoni might not have found a hidden treasure: and then it was that, by degrees, the following account came to light. It appeared that, adjoining to his own residence at Leucosia, lived a poor single woman, in a small house, but which was her own property. This woman hired herself to Signor Brunoni as a servant; and, after living with him some years, she, in a moment of confidence, showed him some papers she had in a chest, which she had inherited from her father with the house. One of these was an indication to a treasure buried under the house. Brunoni pretended to take time to look over them, copied them, and secretly resolved to make the search. He first purchased the house for a trifle, then joined it to his own as a surgery, and succeeded, to his great joy, in finding what he was in search of.
The woman lived with him always afterwards, and, when he quitted the island, he settled a pension on her. But what renders the truth of the story more probable, if confirmation were wanting, is, that discoveries of this sort were by no means rare. Venetian families would transmit from Venice notices of treasures concealed by their ancestors in Cyprus, and left by them at their expulsion by the Turks in the fifteenth century. But a griping government, and the impossibility of searching houses and places which had passed into the hands of strangers, had prevented those entrusted with these documents from acting upon them. Instances occurred very frequently of several coins of the same stamp being offered for sale in quick succession. Many a man had been known to disappear on a sudden from the island, and it had been ascertained afterwards that he had fled from his country, to enjoy, without risk, the fruits of a fortunate discovery. For if it were but whispered that an Ottoman subject had found concealed treasures, the government claimed them; and the distrust which existed in the official authorities, lest a part should be withheld, often subjected the finder to blows and even torture.
It would appear affectation in my readers to say, that they do not feel a desire to know whether the women at Cyprus retain any of those charms and of that amiability which once drew down the protection of the goddess of beauty on the isle. I reluctantly confess that the favours of that deity were no longer so manifest as of old, although votaries were not wanting at her shrine; but yet some exceptions ought to be made.[106]
The voices of the Cypriot women had something in them peculiarly dissonant, and they all seemed to speak in a false tone, nor did use ever make these shrill accents agreeable. They were not, in general, beautiful, nor was their dress graceful, being in no sense calculated to display their shapes. Seen from behind, they resembled nothing so much as a horse in a mantua-maker’s show-room, with a dress appended to it. In their habits they were indolent; they were not good although niggardly housewives. They were oftener to be seen at the windows and doors of their houses than elsewhere, looking at passengers with the most idle curiosity. They were addicted to the grossest superstitions. For example: when oil is spilt from a lamp, a cruet, or otherwise, some dire misfortune is supposed to overhang the family; and, upon one occasion, having the misfortune to upset a lamp, I saw the eyes of the servants turned upon me, as on one whose presence foreboded evil. A neighbour would in vain attempt to obtain a light from the adjoining house, if applied for after sunset. These superstitions are harmless enough; but they become hurtful when they interfere with the cultivation of a useful study. Thus, a labourer on the estate of a gentleman of Larnaka struck upon the head of a statue, as he was ploughing. Curiosity induced him to clear away the soil from it; but when he saw the features (as it was of remarkably white marble), he took them for those of a spirit, and ran away. He bethought himself of going to the priest, who, hearing his story, accompanied him to the spot, and there found the head; which, under pretence of exorcising, he carried home, and presented to his patron, a Greek. His patron was proud of a handsome piece of ancient sculpture, and gave it a conspicuous situation in his house. It so happened, that, immediately afterwards, there was an epidemical disorder in Cyprus. The effects of it were felt in every house, and the possessor of the marble head did not escape. At last his sisters, unmarried ladies, who lived with him, conceived that the bust had brought the malady upon them. In vain he attempted to convince them of the absurdity of such a notion: they persisted, and he was obliged to give the bust away.
They rule their servants by caprice, and educate their children by fits of anger and indulgence.