Napoleon's agent kept by the English Government! The story is delicious. What was the value of Lascaris in politics? but in the matter of duplicity he is truly unique. He feigns poverty, for one cannot well imagine a secret mission without substantial subsidies to support it, finds the means to interest Lady Hester in his case and to exhibit himself in a day to such advantage that she dreams of employing him in the interests of her own country.
But great enthusiasms have the brightness and the duration of fires of straw. Some weeks later, Lady Hester begins to think that Lascaris is a hare-brained fellow. If General Oakes is able to obtain some money for him, it will be a charity, for the unfortunate man is on thorns (the old fox continues the little comedy), but he must not be reckoned on; he is mad and will not be good for anything.... The cream of praises is beginning to turn. Finally, Lady Hester, saturated with the stories and jeremiads of Lascaris, gave him a handsome present to compensate him for his journey and invited him to remain with her. His part of interpreter stopped there, and having squeezed the lemon, she threw away the skin. It is an action in which women and statesmen excel. She was not to know the true figure of Lascaris until very much later, when Lamartine's book would have reached the East. What a miscalculation for her who pretended to discover the habits and character of people at first sight! To have been duped, she whom her divining instinct had never deceived! "It was not to Napoleon that he was so much attached," will she then say pensively in recalling the "humble demands"; "it was to him who held the pocket-book." And then, in a lapidary formula, she will endeavour to recover her prestige in the eyes of the sceptical doctor: "Lascar is had the heart of a Roman and the skill in intrigue of a Greek." But there are things which one invents afterwards, like those ambassadors who, in their Memoirs, attribute to themselves the merit of having foreseen the past.
Mahannah-el-Fadel had sent a Bedouin on an embassy to Hama. He demanded a visit from the "Queen's" doctor. Lady Hester hastened to consent, calculating that she would thus gain the emir's friendship and would permit the doctor to discover the route, to hire a lodging at Palmyra, to prepare the expedition—in a word.
The doctor knew that Lascaris was unwell, embittered, of a melancholy disposition. One night, summoned in haste by Madame Lascaris, he had been witness of a violent attack of epilepsy. Accordingly, in order to afford him some distraction, he offered to take him with him on the journey which he was going to make to the heart of the desert. Lascaris accepted and even confided to the doctor that for a long time past he had desired to visit Palmyra, and "had never been able to realise his project." He rejoiced therefore at this good fortune and proposed to abandon the world to plant cabbages in the ruins.
The little caravan, Meryon, Lascaris, the guide Hassan, all three wearing the Bedouin costume: white koumbaz, flowing trousers, clumsy red shoes, skin pelisses, orange and jade keffiye, left Hama on January 2, 1813. It is a date to retain in mind.
The tribes Beni Khaled and Hadydy, encountered by chance on the way, offered them the coffee of hospitality and a place under the open tents. Mahannah was on the point of striking his camp when they joined him, and they marched with him several days. On January 7, the encampment was established near Karyatein, and the snow slowly began to fall. The doctor would have liked to start for Palmyra, as the weather was becoming alarming, and the Bedouins were moving towards the South. But the old chief, stuffed with remedies, meant to be cured entirely. Nasr, speculating on some backsheesh, amused himself by terrorising him. At length, sensible that they might incur the resentment of Lady Hester, the Bedouins consented to their departure. The doctor spent a week at Palmyra, hired three huts in the north-east corner of the Temple of the Sun, and, on his return, was astounded to encounter in the Djebel Abyad, as frequented as Bond Street! some miles from the town, Giorgio, whom Lady Hester in alarm had despatched to look for him, with two guides. Bewildered and shivering with cold, the unfortunate men nearly succumbed to the tempest of snow which was raging over these desolate expanses. On January 26, they joyfully perceived the emir's tents.
Madame Lascaris, Fatalla Sazeghir, a young Christian of Aleppo, serving as dragoman, cicerone, spokesman, and young Catherine, or Katinko, followed them for some hours. Lascaris had conceived a grandiose project: that of transforming these desert wastes into vast khans crammed with merchandise. He had had his wife and his stores sent for immediately, but the cupidity never satisfied and incessantly reviving of his aggressive customers was to prove an insurmountable obstacle to his ingenious ideas. To gain the favours of Mahannah, Madame Lascaris had brought a complete costume, worth a great deal of money, in which in a moment the old man was dressed anew from head to foot. But all his sons, Nasr at their head, arrived, their appetites sharpened, to demand their share. It is better to give willingly what people are able to take by force! But it was clear that Lascaris's stock was to go there in its entirety. In proportion as they were enriched too quickly, they did not know how to keep their presents. Mahannah, being close to the fires, was warm, and threw his pelisse to a friend. A moment later, feeling the cold, he seized in the most natural way in the world a garment which was drying. The owners were obliged to watch their property!
Is not the hospitality accorded to strangers still the best source of the Bedouins' revenues? Hardly has the traveller passed a night in the tent of the sheik than the latter admires the beauty of his shawl. If he opens his trunks, a thousand prying eyes discover that he has spare linen and a store of tobacco. Does he leave his boots at the door, the host finds them better than his own, and, so thinking, slips them on. In short, after a week of this order of things, the traveller is more naked than a worm and less rich than Job!
On January 28, the doctor regained Hama, happy to be able at last to wash his hands and change his linen, which had not happened to him for four weeks. Giorgio had remained to accompany Lascaris to Palmyra, but their visit was very short.
Here there is a curious comparison to make between Dr. Meryon's journal and the recital of Fatalla Sazeghir, published by Lamartine. This Fatalla had a little collection of notes, which Lamartine bought, had translated, and himself put into French. This extraordinary mission of Lascaris is the leading thread which runs through these incongruous and astonishing adventures, like a needle through the complicated web of a piece of Byzantine embroidery.