Eothen
by
A. W. Kinglake

Part 5 out of 5



but was now better known among diplomats by the important trust
committed to him at a period highly critical for the affairs of
Eastern Europe. I must not tell you his family name; my mention of
his title can do him no harm, for it is I, and I only, who have
conferred it, in consideration of the military and diplomatic
services performed under my own eyes.

The General as well as I was bound for Smyrna, and we agreed to
sail together in an Ionian brigantine. We did not charter the
vessel, but we made our arrangement with the captain upon such
terms that we could be put ashore upon any part of the coast that
we might choose. We sailed, and day after day the vessel lay
dawdling on the sea with calms and feeble breezes for her portion.
I myself was well repaid for the painful restlessness which such
weather occasions, because I gained from my companion a little of
that vast fund of interesting knowledge with which he was stored,
knowledge a thousand times the more highly to be prized since it
was not of the sort that is to be gathered from books, but only
from the lips of those who have acted a part in the world.

When after nine days of sailing, or trying to sail, we found
ourselves still hanging by the mainland to the north of the isle of
Cyprus, we determined to disembark at Satalieh, and to go on thence
by land. A light breeze favoured our purpose, and it was with
great delight that we neared the fragrant land, and saw our anchor
go down in the bay of Satalieh, within two or three hundred yards
of the shore.

The town of Satalieh {48} is the chief place of the Pashalic in
which it is situate, and its citadel is the residence of the Pasha.
We had scarcely dropped our anchor when a boat from the shore came
alongside with officers on board, who announced that the strictest
orders had been received for maintaining a quarantine of three
weeks against all vessels coming from Syria, and directed
accordingly that no one from the vessel should disembark. In reply
we sent a message to the Pasha, setting forth the rank and titles
of the General, and requiring permission to go ashore. After a
while the boat came again alongside, and the officers declaring
that the orders received from Constantinople were imperative and
unexceptional, formally enjoined us in the name of the Pasha to
abstain from any attempt to land.

I had been hitherto much less impatient of our slow voyage than my
gallant friend, but this opposition made the smooth sea seem to me
like a prison, from which I must and would break out. I had an
unbounded faith in the feebleness of Asiatic potentates, and I
proposed that we should set the Pasha at defiance. The General had
been worked up to a state of most painful agitation by the idea of
being driven from the shore which smiled so pleasantly before his
eyes, and he adopted my suggestion with rapture.

We determined to land.

To approach the sweet shore after a tedious voyage, and then to be
suddenly and unexpectedly prohibited from landing--this is so
maddening to the temper, that no one who had ever experienced the
trial would say that even the most violent impatience of such
restraint is wholly inexcusable. I am not going to pretend,
however, that the course which we chose to adopt on the occasion
can be perfectly justified. The impropriety of a traveller's
setting at naught the regulations of a foreign State is clear
enough, and the bad taste of compassing such a purpose by mere
gasconading is still more glaringly plain. I knew perfectly well
that if the Pasha understood his duty, and had energy enough to
perform it, he would order out a file of soldiers the moment we
landed, and cause us both to be shot upon the beach, without
allowing more contact than might be absolutely necessary for the
purpose of making us stand fire; but I also firmly believed that
the Pasha would not see the befitting line of conduct nearly so
well as I did, and that even if he did know his duty, he would
hardly succeed in finding resolution enough to perform it.

We ordered the boat to be got in readiness, and the officers on
shore seeing these preparations, gathered together a number of
guards, who assembled upon the sands. We saw that great excitement
prevailed, and that messengers were continually going to and fro
between the shore and the citadel. Our captain, out of compliment
to his Excellency, had provided the vessel with a Russian war-flag,
which he had hoisted alternately with the Union Jack, and we agreed
that we would attempt our disembarkation under this, the Russian
standard! I was glad when we came to that resolution, for I should
have been sorry to engage the honoured flag of England in such an
affair as that which we were undertaking. The Russian ensign was
therefore committed to one of the sailors, who took his station at
the stern of the boat. We gave particular instructions to the
captain of the brigantine, and when all was ready, the General and
I, with our respective servants, got into the boat, and were slowly
rowed towards the shore. The guards gathered together at the point
for which we were making, but when they saw that our boat went on
without altering her course, THEY CEASED TO STAND VERY STILL; none
of them ran away, or even shrank back, but they looked as if THE
PACK WERE BEING SHUFFLED, every man seeming desirous to change
places with his neighbour. They were still at their post, however,
when our oars went in, and the bow of our boat ran up--well up upon
the beach.

The General was lame by an honourable wound received at Borodino,
and could not without some assistance get out of the boat; I,
therefore, landed the first. My instructions to the captain were
attended to with the most perfect accuracy, for scarcely had my
foot indented the sand when the four six-pounders of the brigantine
quite gravely rolled out their brute thunder. Precisely as I had
expected, the guards and all the people who had gathered about them
gave way under the shock produced by the mere sound of guns, and we
were all allowed to disembark with the least molestation.

We immediately formed a little column, or rather, as I should have
called it, a procession, for we had no fighting aptitude in us, and
were only trying, as it were, how far we could go in frightening
full-grown children. First marched the sailor with the Russian
flag of war bravely flying in the breeze, then came the general and
I, then our servants, and lastly, if I rightly recollect, two more
of the brigantine's crew. Our flag-bearer so exulted in his
honourable office, and bore the colours aloft with so much of pomp
and dignity, that I found it exceedingly hard to keep a grave
countenance. We advanced towards the castle, but the people had
now had time to recover from the effect of the six-pounders (only
of course loaded with powder), and they could not help seeing not
only the numerical weakness of our party, but the very slight
amount of wealth and resource which it seemed to imply. They began
to hang round us more closely, and just as this reaction was
beginning the General, who was perfectly unacquainted with the
Asiatic character, thoughtlessly turned round in order to speak to
one of the servants. The effect of this slight move was magical.
The people thought we were going to give way, and instantly closed
round us. In two words, and with one touch, I showed my comrade
the danger he was running, and in the next instant we were both
advancing more pompously than ever. Some minutes afterwards there
was a second appearance of reaction, followed again by wavering and
indecision on the part of the Pasha's people, but at length it
seemed to be understood that we should go unmolested into the
audience hall.

Constant communication had been going on between the receding crowd
and the Pasha, and so when we reached the gates of the citadel we
saw that preparations were made for giving us an awe-striking
reception. Parting at once from the sailors and our servants, the
General and I were conducted into the audience hall; and there at
least I suppose the Pasha hoped that he would confound us by his
greatness. The hall was nothing more than a large whitewashed
room. Oriental potentates have a pride in that sort of simplicity,
when they can contrast it with the exhibition of power, and this
the Pasha was able to do, for the lower end of the hall was filled
with his officers. These men, of whom I thought there were about
fifty or sixty, were all handsomely, though plainly, dressed in the
military frockcoats of Europe; they stood in mass and so as to
present a hollow semicircular front towards the upper end of the
hall at which the Pasha sat; they opened a narrow lane for us when
we entered, and as soon as we had passed they again closed up their
ranks. An attempt was made to induce us to remain at a respectful
distance from his mightiness. To have yielded in this point would
have have been fatal to our success, perhaps to our lives; but the
General and I had already determined upon the place which we should
take, and we rudely pushed on towards the upper end of the hall.

Upon the divan, and close up against the right hand corner of the
room, there sat the Pasha, his limbs gathered in, the whole
creature coiled up like an adder. His cheeks were deadly pale, and
his lips perhaps had turned white, for without moving a muscle the
man impressed me with an immense idea of the wrath within him. He
kept his eyes inexorably fixed as if upon vacancy, and with the
look of a man accustomed to refuse the prayers of those who sue for
life. We soon discomposed him, however, from this studied fixity
of feature, for we marched straight up to the divan and sat down,
the Russian close to the Pasha, and I by the side of the Russian.
This act astonished the attendants, and plainly disconcerted the
Pasha. He could no longer maintain the glassy stillness of the
eyes which he had affected, and evidently became much agitated. At
the feet of the satrap there stood a trembling Italian.

This man was a sort of medico in the potentate's service, and now
in the absence of our attendants he was to act as interpreter. The
Pasha caused him to tell us that we had openly defied his
authority, and had forced our way on shore in the teeth of his own
officers.

Up to this time I had been the planner of the enterprise, but now
that the moment had come when all would depend upon able and
earnest speechifying, I felt at once the immense superiority of my
gallant friend, and gladly left to him the whole conduct of this
discussion. Indeed he had vast advantages over me, not only by his
superior command of language and his far more spirited style of
address, but also in his consciousness of a good cause; for whilst
I felt myself completely in the wrong, his Excellency had really
worked himself up to believe that the Pasha's refusal to permit our
landing was a gross outrage and insult. Therefore, without
deigning to defend our conduct he at once commenced a spirited
attack upon the Pasha. The poor Italian doctor translated one or
two sentences to the Pasha, but he evidently mitigated their
import. The Russian, growing warm, insisted upon his attack with
redoubled energy and spirit; but the medico, instead of
translating, began to shake violently with terror, and at last he
came out with his non ardisco, and fairly confessed that he dared
not interpret fierce words to his master.

Now then, at a time when everything seemed to depend upon the
effect of speech, we were left without an interpreter.

But this very circumstance, which at first appeared so
unfavourable, turned out to be advantageous. The General, finding
that he could not have his words translated, ceased to speak in
Italian, and recurred to his accustomed French; he became eloquent.
No one present except myself understood one syllable of what he was
saying, but he had drawn forth his passport, and the energy and
violence with which, as he spoke, he pointed to the graven Eagle of
all the Russias, began to make an impression. The Pasha saw at his
side a man not only free from every the least pang of fear, but
raging, as it seemed, with just indignation, and thenceforward he
plainly began to think that, in some way or other (he could not
tell how) he must certainly have been in the wrong. In a little
time he was so much shaken that the Italian ventured to resume his
interpretation, and my comrade had again the opportunity of
pressing his attack upon the Pasha. His argument, if I rightly
recollect its import, was to this effect: "If the vilest Jews were
to come into the harbour, you would but forbid them to land, and
force them to perform quarantine; yet this is the very course, O
Pasha, which your rash officers dared to think of adopting with
US!--those mad and reckless men would have actually dealt towards a
Russian general officer and an English gentleman as if they had
been wretched Israelites! Never--never will we submit to such an
indignity. His Imperial Majesty knows how to protect his nobles
from insult, and would never endure that a General of his army
should be treated in matter of quarantine as though he were a mere
Eastern Jew!" This argument told with great effect. The Pasha
fairly admitted that he felt its weight, and he now only struggled
to obtain such a compromise as might partly save his dignity. He
wanted us to perform a quarantine of one day for form's sake, and
in order to show his people that he was not utterly defied; but
finding that we were inexorable, he not only abandoned his attempt,
but promised to supply us with horses.

When the discussion had arrived at this happy conclusion
tchibouques and coffee were brought, and we passed, I think, nearly
an hour in friendly conversation. The Pasha, it now appeared, had
once been a prisoner of war in Russia, and a conviction of the
Emperor's vast power, necessarily acquired during this captivity,
made him perhaps more alive than an untravelled Turk would have
been to the force of my comrade's eloquence.

The Pasha now gave us a generous feast. Our promised horses were
brought without much delay. I gained my loved saddle once more,
and when the moon got up and touched the heights of Taurus, we were
joyfully winding our way through the first of his rugged defiles.



APPENDIX--THE HOME OF LADY HESTER STANHOPE



It was late when we came in sight of two high conical hills, on one
of which stands the village of Djouni, on the other a circular
wall, over which dark trees were waving; and this was the place in
which Lady Hester Stanhope had finished her strange and eventful
career. It had formerly been a convent, but the Pasha of Sidon had
given it to the "prophet-lady," who converted its naked walls into
a palace, and its wilderness into gardens.

The sun was setting as we entered the enclosure, and we were soon
scattered about the outer court, picketing our horses, rubbing down
their foaming flanks, and washing out their wounds. The buildings
that constituted the palace were of a very scattered and
complicated description, covering a wide space, but only one storey
in height: courts and gardens, stables and sleeping-rooms, halls
of audience and ladies' bowers, were strangely intermingled. Heavy
weeds were growing everywhere among the open portals, and we forced
our way with difficulty through a tangle of roses and jasmine to
the inner court; here choice flowers once bloomed, and fountains
played in marble basins, but now was presented a scene of the most
melancholy desolation. As the watchfire blazed up, its gleam fell
upon masses of honeysuckle and woodbine, on white, mouldering walls
beneath, and dark, waving trees above; while the group of
mountaineers who gathered round its light, with their long beards
and vivid dresses, completed the strange picture.

The clang of sword and spear resounded through the long galleries;
horses neighed among bowers and boudoirs; strange figures hurried
to and fro among the colonnades, shouting in Arabic, English, and
Italian; the fire crackled, the startled bats flapped their heavy
wings, and the growl of distant thunder filled up the pauses in the
rough symphony.

Our dinner was spread on the floor in Lady Hester's favourite
apartment; her deathbed was our sideboard, her furniture our fuel,
her name our conversation. Almost before the meal was ended two of
our party had dropped asleep over their trenchers from fatigue; the
Druses had retired from the haunted precincts to their village; and
W-, L-, and I went out into the garden to smoke our pipes by Lady
Hester's lonely tomb. About midnight we fell asleep upon the
ground, wrapped in our capotes, and dreamed of ladies and tombs and
prophets till the neighing of our horses announced the dawn.

After a hurried breakfast on fragments of the last night's repast
we strolled out over the extensive gardens. Here many a broken
arbour and trellis, bending under masses of jasmine and
honeysuckle, show the care and taste that were once lavished on
this wild but beautiful hermitage: a garden-house, surrounded by
an enclosure of roses run wild, lies in the midst of a grove of
myrtle and bay trees. This was Lady Hester's favourite resort
during her lifetime; and now, within its silent enclosure,


"After life's fitful fever she sleeps well."


The hand of ruin has dealt very sparingly with all these
interesting relics; the Pasha's power by day, and the fear of
spirits by night, keep off marauders; and though we made free with
broken benches and fallen doorposts for fuel, we reverently
abstained from displacing anything in the establishment except a
few roses, which there was no living thing but bees and
nightingales to regret. It was one of the most striking and
interesting spots I ever witnessed: its silence and beauty, its
richness and desolation, lent to it a touching and mysterious
character, that suited well the memory of that strange hermit-lady
who has made it a place of pilgrimage, even in Palestine. {49}

The Pasha of Sidon presented Lady Hester with the deserted convent
of Mar Elias on her arrival in his country, and this she soon
converted into a fortress, garrisoned by a band of Albanians: her
only attendants besides were her doctor, her secretary, and some
female slaves. Public rumour soon busied itself with such a
personage, and exaggerated her influence and power. It is even
said that she was crowned Queen of the East at Palmyra by fifty
thousand Arabs. She certainly exercised almost despotic power in
her neighbourhood on the mountain; and what was perhaps the most
remarkable proof of her talents, she prevailed on some Jews to
advance large sums of money to her on her note of hand. She lived
for many years, beset with difficulties and anxieties, but to the
last she held on gallantly: even when confined to her bed and
dying she sought for no companionship or comfort but such as she
could find in her own powerful, though unmanageable, mind.

Mr. Moore, our consul at Beyrout, hearing she was ill, rode over
the mountains to visit her, accompanied by Mr. Thomson, the
American missionary. It was evening when they arrived, and a
profound silence was over all the palace. No one met them; they
lighted their own lamps in the outer court, and passed unquestioned
through court and gallery until they came to where SHE lay. A
corpse was the only inhabitant of the palace, and the isolation
from her kind which she had sought so long was indeed complete.
That morning thirty-seven servants had watched every motion of her
eye: its spell once darkened by death, every one fled with such
plunder as they could secure. A little girl, adopted by her and
maintained for years, took her watch and some papers on which she
had set peculiar value. Neither the child nor the property were
ever seen again. Not a single thing was left in the room where she
lay dead, except the ornaments upon her person. No one had
ventured to touch these; even in death she seemed able to protect
herself. At midnight her countryman and the missionary carried her
out by torchlight to a spot in the garden that had been formerly
her favourite resort, and here they buried the self-exiled lady.--
From "THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS," by Eliot Warburton.



Footnotes:

{1} A "compromised" person is one who has been in contact with
people or things supposed to be capable of conveying infection. As
a general rule the whole Ottoman Empire lies constantly under this
terrible ban. The "yellow flag" is the ensign of the quarantine
establishment.

{2} The narghile is a water-pipe upon the plan of the hookah, but
more gracefully fashioned; the smoke is drawn by a very long
flexible tube, that winds its snake-like way from the vase to the
lips of the beatified smoker.

{3} That is, if he stands up at all. Oriental etiquette would not
warrant his rising, unless his visitor were supposed to be at least
his equal in point of rank and station.

{4} The continual marriages of these people with the chosen
beauties of Georgia and Circassia have overpowered the original
ugliness of their Tatar ancestors.

{5} There is almost always a breeze either from the Marmora or
from the Black Sea, that passes along the course of the Bosphorus.

{6} The yashmak, you know, is not a mere semi-transparent veil,
but rather a good substantial petticoat applied to the face; it
thoroughly conceals all the features, except the eyes; the way of
withdrawing it is by pulling it down.

{7} The "pipe of tranquillity" is a tchibouque too long to be
conveniently carried on a journey; the possession of it therefore
implies that its owner is stationary, or at all events, that he is
enjoying a long repose from travel.

{8} The Jews of Smyrna are poor, and having little merchandise of
their own to dispose of, they are sadly importunate in offering
their services as intermediaries: their troublesome conduct has
led to the custom of beating them in the open streets. It is usual
for Europeans to carry long sticks with them, for the express
purpose of keeping off the chosen people. I always felt ashamed to
strike the poor fellows myself, but I confess to the amusement with
which I witnessed the observance of this custom by other people.
The Jew seldom got hurt much, for he was always expecting the blow,
and was ready to recede from it the moment it came: one could not
help being rather gratified at seeing him bound away so nimbly,
with his long robes floating out in the air, and then again wheel
round, and return with fresh importunities.

{9} Marriages in the East are arranged by professed match-makers;
many of these, I believe, are Jewesses.

{10} A Greek woman wears her whole fortune upon her person in the
shape of jewels or gold coins; I believe that this mode of
investment is adopted in great measure for safety's sake. It has
the advantage of enabling a suitor to RECKON as well as to admire
the objects of his affection.

{11} St. Nicholas is the great patron of Greek sailors. A small
picture of him enclosed in a glass case is hung up like a barometer
at one end of the cabin.

{12} Hanmer.

{13} ". . . ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo
Thure calent arae, sertisque recentibus halant."
- Aeneid, i, 415.

{14} The writer advises that none should attempt to read the
following account of the late Lady Hester Stanhope except those who
may already chance to feel an interest in the personage to whom it
relates. The chapter (which has been written and printed for the
reasons mentioned in the preface) is chiefly filled with the
detailed conversation, or rather discourse, of a highly eccentric
gentlewoman.

{15} Historically "fainting"; the death did not occur until long
afterwards.

{16} I am told that in youth she was exceedingly sallow.

{17} This was my impression at the time of writing the above
passage, an impression created by the popular and uncontradicted
accounts of the matter, as well as by the tenor of Lady Hester's
conversation. I have now some reason to think that I was deceived,
and that her sway in the desert was much more limited than I had
supposed. She seems to have had from the Bedouins a fair five
hundred pounds' worth of respect, and not much more.

{18} She spoke it, I dare say, in English; the words would not be
the less effective for being spoken in an unknown tongue. Lady
Hester, I believe, never learnt to speak the Arabic with a perfect
accent.

{19} The proceedings thus described to me by Lady Hester as having
taken place during her illness, were afterwards re-enacted at the
time of her death. Since I wrote the words to which this note is
appended, I received from Warburton an interesting account of the
heroine's death, or rather the circumstances attending the
discovery of the event; and I caused it to be printed in the former
editions of this work. I must now give up the borrowed ornament,
and omit my extract from my friend's letter, for the rightful owner
has reprinted it in "The Crescent and the Cross." I know what a
sacrifice I am making, for in noticing the first edition of this
book reviewers turned aside from the text to the note, and remarked
upon the interesting information which Warburton's letter
contained. [This narrative is reproduced in an Appendix to the
present edition.]

{20} In a letter which I afterwards received from Lady Hester, she
mentioned incidentally Lord Hardwicke, and said that he was "the
kindest-hearted man existing--a most manly, firm character. He
comes from a good breed--all the Yorkes excellent, with ANCIENT
French blood in their veins." The under scoring of the word
"ancient" is by the writer of the letter, who had certainly no
great love or veneration for the French of the present day: she
did not consider them as descended from her favourite stock.

{21} It is said that deaf people can hear what is said concerning
themselves, and it would seem that those who live without books or
newspapers know all that is written about them. Lady Hester
Stanhope, though not admitting a book or newspaper into her
fortress, seems to have known the way in which M. Lamartine
mentioned her in his book, for in a letter which she wrote to me
after my return to England she says, "Although neglected, as
Monsieur le M." (referring, as I believe, to M. Lamartine)
"describes, and without books, yet my head is organised to supply
the want of them as well as acquired knowledge."

{22} I have been recently told that this Italian's pretensions to
the healing art were thoroughly unfounded. My informant is a
gentleman who enjoyed during many years the esteem and confidence
of Lady Hester Stanhope: his adventures in the Levant were most
curious and interesting.

{23} The Greek Church does not recognise this as the true
sanctuary, and many Protestants look upon all the traditions by
which it is attempted to ascertain the holy places of Palestine as
utterly fabulous. For myself, I do not mean either to affirm or
deny the correctness of the opinion which has fixed upon this as
the true site, but merely to mention it as a belief entertained
without question by my brethren of the Latin Church, whose guest I
was at the time. It would be a great aggravation of the trouble of
writing about these matters if I were to stop in the midst of every
sentence for the purpose of saying "so called" or "so it is said,"
and would besides sound very ungraciously: yet I am anxious to be
literally true in all I write. Now, thus it is that I mean to get
over my difficulty. Whenever in this great bundle of papers or
book (if book it is to be) you see any words about matters of
religion which would seem to involve the assertion of my own
opinion, you are to understand me just as if one or other of the
qualifying phrases above mentioned had been actually inserted in
every sentence. My general direction for you to construe me thus
will render all that I write as strictly and actually true as if I
had every time lugged in a formal declaration of the fact that I
was merely expressing the notions of other people.

{24} "Vino d'oro."

{25} Shereef.

{26} Tennyson.

{27} The other three cities held holy by Jews are Jerusalem,
Hebron, and Safet.

{28} Hadj a pilgrim.

{29} Milnes cleverly goes to the French for the exact word which
conveys the impression produced by the voice of the Arabs, and
calls them "un peuple criard."

{30} There is some semblance of bravado in my manner of talking
about the plague. I have been more careful to describe the terrors
of other people than my own. The truth is, that during the whole
period of my stay at Cairo I remained thoroughly impressed with a
sense of my danger. I may almost say, that I lived in perpetual
apprehension, for even in sleep, as I fancy, there remained with me
some faint notion of the peril with which I was encompassed. But
fear does not necessarily damp the spirits; on the contrary, it
will often operate as an excitement, giving rise to unusual
animation, and thus it affected me. If I had not been surrounded
at this time by new faces, new scenes, and new sounds, the effect
produced upon my mind by one unceasing cause of alarm might have
been very different. As it was, the eagerness with which I pursued
my rambles among the wonders of Egypt was sharpened and increased
by the sting of the fear of death. Thus my account of the matter
plainly conveys an impression that I remained at Cairo without
losing my cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits. And this is the
truth, but it is also true, as I have freely confessed, that my
sense of danger during the whole period was lively and continuous.


{31} Anglice for "je le sais." These answers of mine, as given
above, are not meant as specimens of mere French, but of that fine,
terse, nervous, Continental English with which I and my compatriots
make our way through Europe. This language, by-the-bye, is one
possessing great force and energy, and is not without its
literature, a literature of the very highest order. Where will you
find more sturdy specimens of downright, honest, and noble English
than in the Duke of Wellington's "French" despatches?

{32} The import of the word "compromised," when used in reference
to contagion, is explained on page 18.

{33} It is said, that when a Mussulman finds himself attacked by
the plague he goes and takes a bath. The couches on which the
bathers recline would carry infection, according to the notions of
the Europeans. Whenever, therefore, I took the bath at Cairo
(except the first time of my doing so) I avoided that part of the
luxury which consists in being "put up to dry" upon a kind of bed.

{34} Mehemet Ali invited the Mamelukes to a feast, and murdered
them whilst preparing to enter the banquet hall.

{35} It is not strictly lawful to sell WHITE slaves to a
Christian.

{36} The difficulty was occasioned by the immense exertions which
the Pasha was making to collect camels for military purposes.

{37} Herodotus, in an after age, stood by with his note-book, and
got, as he thought, the exact returns of all the rations served
out.

{38} See Milman's "History of the Jews," first edition.

{39} This is an appellation not implying blame, but merit; the
"lies" which it purports to affiliate are feints and cunning
stratagems, rather than the baser kind of falsehoods. The
expression, in short, has nearly the same meaning as the English
word "Yorkshireman."

{40} The 29th of April.

{41} These are the names given by the Prophet to certain chapters
of the Koran.

{43} It was after the interview which I am talking of, and not
from the Jews themselves, that I learnt this fact.

{44} An enterprising American traveller, Mr. Everett, lately
conceived the bold project of penetrating to the University of
Oxford, and this notwithstanding that he had been in his infancy
(they begin very young those Americans) an Unitarian preacher.
Having a notion, it seems, that the ambassadorial character would
protect him from insult, he adopted the stratagem of procuring
credentials from his Government as Minister Plenipotentiary at the
Court of her Britannic Majesty; he also wore the exact costume of a
Trinitarian. But all his contrivances were vain; Oxford disdained,
and rejected, and insulted him (not because he represented a
swindling community, but) because that his infantine sermons were
strictly remembered against him; the enterprise failed.

{45} The rose-trees which I saw were all of the kind we call
"damask"; they grow to an immense height and size.

{46} A dragoman never interprets in terms the courteous language
of the East.

{47} A title signifying transcender or conqueror of Satalieh.

{48} Spelt "Attalia" and sometimes "Adalia" in English books and
maps.

{49} While Lady Hester Stanhope lived, although numbers visited
the convent, she almost invariably refused admittance to strangers.
She assigned as a reason the use which M. de Lamartine had made of
his interview. Mrs. T., who passed some weeks at Djouni, told me,
that when Lady Hester read his account of this interview, she
exclaimed, "It is all false; we did not converse together for more
than five minutes; but no matter, no traveller hereafter shall
betray or forge my conversation." The author of "Eothen," however,
was her guest, and has given us an interesting account of his visit
in his brilliant volume.






 


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