Our enjoyment was not uninterrupted, however, for the whole journey was a chapter of accidents; one servant lost her turban; another her umbrella; a third rode a lazy hack, that lay down with her three times during the day; while, to complete the list of misfortunes, a young Austrian gentleman, resolving that our departure from Broussa should be signalized by some éclat, with a want of reflection which he afterwards bitterly repented, threw a rocket among the burning tobacco that he flung from his chibouk by the wayside, which exploded with a violence that unhorsed one lady of the party, and left us for some time in doubt whether she had not paid the penalty of his folly with her life.
There was a general halt as soon as it could be effected, for several of the animals were almost unmanageable from fright; when all those domestic remedies were applied which could be commanded at such a moment, in order to recover the sufferer from the deadly faint into which she had fallen; and, after the delay of about half an hour, when the serudjhe had duly emptied a bottle of water on the spot where the accident had taken place, in order to prevent its recurrence, the unfortunate lady was with considerable difficulty lifted once more upon her horse; and, with an attendant at her bridle-rein, resumed her journey.
Nor did our misadventures end here; for, just before we entered the town of Moudania, a gentleman, who was riding along with my father and myself, fell back a few paces to discharge his travelling pistols, when one of them burst in his hand nearly the whole length of the barrel, but fortunately without doing him any injury.
During our journey across the principal plain, we came in contact with a caravan, which had made a temporary halt by the wayside. It consisted of between forty and fifty camels, attended by their drivers, and accompanied by half a dozen formidable-looking dogs. I never encountered anything more picturesque. Some of the animals were browsing on the young shoots of the dwarf oak; others were standing lazily with their long necks bent downwards, and their eyes closed; while the more weary among them were lying on the earth, as though sinking under the weight of their burthens. Their drivers, a wild, ferocious-looking horde, were resting beneath the shade of some cloaks which they had stretched across the bushes, and smoking their chibouks; leaving the care of the drove to their watchful dogs. We uttered the brief but earnest salutation of the wilderness as we passed; and, then urging on our horses, the halt of the caravan was soon a distant object in the landscape.
A violent storm had been slowly gathering throughout the day; and we had scarcely taken possession of the house which had been secured for us at Moudania, when it burst over the town. The mountains of the opposite coast were covered with dense vapours, the sea beat violently against the houses that fringed the shore, the thunder rattled in long continued peals among the heights, the lightning danced along the foam-crested billows, and the narrow street became the channel of a torrent.
The rain had only partially abated when a priest was announced, who bore to my father and myself an invitation from the Archbishop, to whom our arrival had been already made known; and, weary as we were, we resolved to avail ourselves of it, accompanied by a gentleman and lady of the party, who were kind enough to offer themselves as interpreters.
The old palace, with its noble flights of marble stairs, and paintings in arabesque, delighted me; and there was a solemn twilight throughout the whole suite of apartments along which we passed, lined with serious-looking papas in attendance on His Holiness, that pleased me far better, travel-worn and weary as I was, than the gaud and glitter so usual in the residences of high personages in the East.
The Archbishop himself met us at the head of the last staircase; and, when we had kissed his hand, he led us forward to his reception-room; a vast sombre-looking apartment, richly painted and carved; surrounded on three sides by a divan of purple cloth, and provided with a second and lower sofa, for the convenience of those among the clergy to whom he gave audience. The expression of his countenance was intellectual rather than handsome, and he was singularly graceful in his movements; his flowing beard was beginning to show traces of age; but his clear quick eye and his placid brow almost belied the inference. He seemed eager to obtain political information; and was much interested in the insight which we were enabled to give him of the institutions and manufactures of England. His library was extremely limited, and entirely theological; and his knowledge was evidently rather the result of his shrewd sense and great natural talents than the effect of education. I never regretted more sincerely than on this occasion my ignorance of the Greek language; for the necessity of an interpreter deadens the wit and destroys the interest of a dialogue like that in which we were soon engaged; and many a remark or sentiment, that would pass current in common conversation, becomes mere impertinence and folly, when twice expressed.
Nothing could exceed the courtesy of our reception; and even the sweet, weak, milkless tea which was served to us, was kindly meant, as it was supposed to be in the English style; although individually I suffered severely from the mistake. But I was considerably amused by observing that the chibouks of the gentlemen, and the tea of the ladies, were both handed round by the young priests of the Archbishop’s household; who obeyed the clapping of his hands as instantaneously, and much more meekly, than an English footman answers the bell of his mistress.
Devoted from their birth to the service of the Church, the Greek Priests are educated in obedience and humility, and have all learnt to obey ere they are placed in a situation to command. Having taken orders, they are in some degree the masters of their actions, from the fact that there are two distinct classes of clergy, and that they are at liberty to make their own selection. The first, called the monastic clergy, cannot marry, but, entirely devoted to the duties of their profession, are eligible to fill its highest dignities; while the second, or worldly clergy, who are fettered by no restriction of the kind, cannot rise beyond the rank of rectors or parish priests. These latter are distinguished by the black handkerchief bound about their caps, which is never worn by the monastic order.