Mrs. ——’s unwillingness to remain at Abra after Signora L.’s death—Beyrout fixed on as a residence—Lady H.’s account of her debts—Necessities to which she was reduced—Another version of her debts—Her extensive charities—Anecdote of Shaykh Omar-ed-dyn—Usurious discount on Lady H.’s bills of exchange—Loss from the fluctuating value of money in the East—Estates supposed to have been bequeathed to Lady H.—Letters from Lady H. to M. Guys—She employs Sir Francis Burdett to inquire into the nature of the supposed bequests—Her opinion of Sir Francis—Letter to him—Lady H.’s diatribes on women—Mr. C.—Letter to Miss —— —Letter to the Author.

Again the necessity occurs of introducing my personal affairs, in order to keep up the thread of our story. Madame L.’s melancholy disorder, and its fatal termination, had left such awful impressions on the females of my family, that they expressed an earnest wish to remove from a scene where every object excited some melancholy reflection. It was in vain they were told there was no other house in the country in which they could live so comfortably. Their answer was, that day and night they were haunted with the cries and frantic laugh of poor Madame L., and that they would prefer even the most wretched peasant’s cottage to remaining where they were. They represented also the forlorn state in which they were left during my absence at Lady Hester Stanhope’s for a week and a fortnight together, having nobody near them for a protector but General Loustaunau, a man now eighty-two years of age, impaired in intellect, and sinking into imbecility.

But Lady Hester had no consideration for all these womanish weaknesses. Her former animosity against Mrs. —— had not abated one jot. She held to our agreement, that my family was to be considered as strangers, with whom she had nothing to do; for, as I had brought them contrary to her wishes, I must look to them myself, without expecting any sympathy from her. I observed to her how much more convenient it would be for all parties if she would only lend me one of the cottages she had empty in the village of Jôon, which I could fit up for our temporary dwelling, and which, from its proximity, would save me so many journeys to and fro: but, as Cabôor had foretold, there was no reconciling these conflicting interests. At last she proposed an arrangement, to which I acceded much against my will, as I knew it would put her to great inconvenience. No news having yet arrived from England respecting the property supposed to have been bequeathed to her, she suggested that I should set off with my family to Beyrout or Cyprus, and live there until she had certain advice that money was forthcoming sufficient to pay her debts; when I could easily return and execute those services for her which she required of me. This plan was settled, as it appeared, finally.

In the mean time, Lady Hester had taken advantage of a leisure day to enter into the full particulars of her debts. I will therefore give some account of their origin, and show how it was that she who, during her residence in England after Mr. Pitt’s death, and during the many years I was with her in Turkey, was one of the most punctual and over-generous payers I ever knew, could have fallen into the opposite extreme, and have thus exposed herself to the degradation of having duns at her gate, and her name in the mouths of the moneyed men at Beyrout as a defaulter.

What I could recollect sufficiently well to write down the same night in Lady Hester’s own words was as follows:—“After the death of Mâalem Haym,” said she, “the celebrated Jewish seràf or banker to Abdallah Pasha of Acre, by whom he was strangled, all the Jews of the pashalik were amerced. Some of these came to me, and entreated me, for the love of God, to lend them money to satisfy the Pasha’s extortions, and save them from being bastinadoed, and perhaps worse. I was at that time low in purse myself, and could only give them 3,000 piasters, which was all I had. I subsequently lent them more, for which they gave me in payment damaged pieces of cloth, sixpenny pocket-handkerchiefs, and other goods, which of course I could not dispose of except at a ruinous loss. I knew I was cheated by them, but I was too proud to complain.

“Not long after this, Abdallah Pasha himself having been declared firmanlee (or outlawed) by the Porte, six pashas, with their combined forces, were sent to besiege him in Acre. Provisions and animals became so scarce, that I was obliged to send people to buy camels in the desert, and then despatch them under the care of a Jew, of whom I had scarcely any knowledge, to buy corn for myself and the house. When at last, and partly by my means, Abdallah Pasha had obtained his pardon from the Porte, but upon condition of paying an immense fine, he pretended to sell his pipes, shawls, carpets, and jewels, to raise the money; for he was, or affected to be, so low in his treasury, that the delàls, or auctioneers, were to be seen hawking even his wearing-apparel in the bazar. Among other ways of meeting the demands of the Sultan, he applied to me to lend him as much money as I could possibly raise; and I, not doubting that he would repay me honourably, after drawing for what money I had at my disposal in England, applied to a usurious Christian of Beyrout, who, at an exorbitant rate of interest, furnished me with what I required. No sooner was the rate known which I was to pay for what I had borrowed, than Turks, Christians, and Jews, presented themselves with offers of loans to whatever extent I wished, all professing that their purses were at my disposal; that it was beneath a lady of my rank to discuss matters so paltry as money concerns; and that all they required was merely my signature to a scrap of paper, just acknowledging the debt. In this way I signed small bits of paper, it is true, but well and legally worded in Arabic, or Armenian, or Hebrew, which I could not read, and by which I bound myself to pay enormous interest, varying from 25 to 50 per cent.

“This was the real beginning of my debts and difficulties; for Abdallah Pasha gave me bills at thirty-one days’ sight on Constantinople, payment of which was deferred under one pretence or another for a year, whilst I, in the interim, was in such want of money, that I was reduced to a single adlee.[70] The worst of all was that, I don’t think the Pasha wanted it, but only pretended poverty to deceive the Porte. However, in consequence of his failing to repay me at the time agreed on, which repayment would have placed me immediately in a state of solvency, I found myself reduced absolutely to destitution. On one occasion, as I said, I was left without a farthing, and M. Loustaunau went off to M. Beaudin, who was at Damascus, and told him that, as he owed his advancement in life in part to me, he was bound to assist me in my extremity. M. Beaudin at first hesitated; M. Loustaunau insisted; and B. lent me 4,000 Spanish dollars, which I afterwards paid him.

“But this is not all. I was even obliged to send my best pelisse to be sold or pawned in the bazar at Sayda, and to sell to an Albanian soldier forty English guineas, which my brother had given me on parting at Gibraltar, and which I had saved in the shipwreck.

“Oh! doctor, about six months before Miss Williams’s death, I was reduced so low, that, had she died then, I should not have had money enough to bury her. Môosa, one of the best servants I ever had, and who died of the same fever that carried off Miss Williams, out of his own pocket bought oil for two or three months’ consumption, without my knowledge; telling Miss W., who afterwards told me, that it was not proper mylady should send for oil by pints and quarts like poor people, which, just then, I was compelled to do. Oh, Lord! when I think of it! One day, when I was walking up and down, not knowing how or where to turn, thinking I must shoot my horses from having nothing to feed them with, I heard the jingling of camels’ bells, and presently a servant came to say that there were some camels at the gate laden with barley. This seasonable supply for the horses was sent by some strangers, who had heard the condition I was in; and the last adlee that I had I gave to the camel-driver.”

Another time, Lady Hester gave me, in writing, a little memorandum of the state of her finances to read, which varies somewhat from her account by word of mouth, although agreeing in the main. It was as follows:

“My debts began in 1822—from 1822 to 1823; and, in a couple of years, I owed £3,000, not that I had actually borrowed that sum. I was obliged to take up money, owing to the revolutions in the country; I speak of the time in which there were three pachas, with an army, encamped before the gates of Acre, and when the Emir Beshýr, the governor of the mountain, had fled to Egypt; and such a number of persecuted people took refuge under my roof, that this caused me great expense. Expecting remittances from England at that time, which I never received, I placed the date of the bonds for the money which I borrowed, for only four and six months, at twenty-five per cent. This, with their interest and compound interest, and the loss upon the money which I was obliged to take at the price they chose to give it, amounted in three years to £3,000. Now, God knows what it is! My income would now only simply suffice, after paying the interest of these bonds, to pay my servants and tradespeople, and put a little provision in my house. You must understand that, when I drew for my pension upon Constantinople, I paid the dollars at 6 piasters or 6½; I received them at Beyrout at 10½, and repaid them again in the Metouali country and at Sayda, where I got my provisions, at 8½: therefore, I often lost 100 per cent. The house of Coutts and Co., since old Coutts’s death, desired me only to draw my drafts upon them through a merchant’s house at Constantinople, and there was a serious loss and inconvenience to me in doing so.

“It is the custom of this country, when persons cannot pay their debts, to place them under arrest by quartering soldiers upon them, who help themselves to everything that comes in their way until the debt is paid. I was resolved to submit myself to the custom of the country, rather than allow the interference of the English consul at that time, whom I detested. I thought it would save me the trouble of telling my story, and cast the reflection on the English name which it deserved. As things seemed as if they must come to a crisis, if I had no means afforded me to avoid it, I thought the more unequivocal it was the better: for my peace of mind then would not be harassed by the misfortunes of others, when I was a beggar myself. The means by which I should become so carried no reproach with them; therefore, I prepared my mind to submit myself to my fate with them. The only thing that stopped me was, I was waiting for an answer respecting the sale of a reversion; and then, if my application did not succeed, I determined to shoot my mares, that they might never fall into other hands, to part with Miss Williams and the rest of my establishment as soon as possible, and to leave this part of the world to be never more heard of, first putting into the hands of my creditors documents to enable them to get all I possessed into their power, and my pension, if they could: but this counted for nothing, as English justice and liberality would of course have deprived me of that.

“Such were my intentions, founded upon a determination not to make any explanation to my family, or receive any more reproaches; as I had already received enough. Whatever I had to say was to be said to the Americans, among whom I thought of going, that they, at least, might feel convinced that I inherited my grandfather’s spirit and high sense of honour; for I never have been in the habit of taking half measures.

“The number of my servants had been much talked of; but as these people often set off, four and five together, in the night, and as several were constantly absent upon leave to look after their families, whilst others were always upon the sick list, giving themselves fevers by over-eating, I could not possibly get on with fewer than I had: for five men here cannot do the work of one in Europe. What are called dragomans and secretaries are a description of persons even worse than the lower class—the idlest and most inefficient of human beings.

“As for the persecuted people who took refuge at my house, you must have heard, of course, of the revolution in the mountain about 1822. For half a day’s journey around me, all the inhabitants abandoned their houses to Turkish and Druze soldiers. I remained alone, tormented to death with miserable fugitives. Terrible storms and an unusual fall of snow destroyed a vast number of houses, and I had only two rooms remaining in mine which were at all habitable. Buildings and walls fell, and all the rest were deluged with water. My health, which was very bad, was rendered worse by the uncommon inclemency of the season, as snow has not been known to have fallen in the lower part of the mountain for thirty years. The cattle died of want, and the next harvest could not be got in for want of beasts of burthen.

“This was enough, and the rest you may imagine; and if you never heard half of this whilst you were in France, you must always recollect that what passes in the interior is but little known upon the coast; and a consul or a merchant, by his fireside, is little better acquainted with the state of affairs than they are at Marseilles.

“An old Druse had his head chained to his feet, and was thrown into a dungeon. Several villages, like little towns, were burnt, many women killed, and the property of most of my friends totally destroyed; whilst the unfortunate wives of considerable men were hiding themselves in the snow-mountains in disguise, trembling for their infant sons, whose fate, if got hold of, was pretty certain. The two lads, Hanah and Bootroos, and one of whom I had then the greatest confidence in, were constantly wandering about in search of these unhappy fugitives. I will not say any more; you may judge of my feelings and situation.”

Such was the rough statement Lady Hester gave me. She alludes in it to the persecuted people who took refuge under her roof: but, in her oral communication, she never said a word of having afforded an asylum to almost all the Franks in Sayda, who fled to her residence in a panic after the battle of Navarino, and many of whom she lodged and boarded until they could go back in safety: nor of the two hundred wretched beings whom she fed and clothed, housed, and protected, for nearly two years, after the sacking of Acre. She never said a word of her numerous acts of beneficence, nor of the indulgent forbearance she showed even to those who had wronged her. Here is an authentic case, among twenty similar ones which might be cited.

Shaykh Omar ed Dyn, a puritanical Mussulman, who kept a grocer’s shop in Sayda, was for many years her purveyor and bailiff; and when, for want of money, she had let her account run up to something considerable, he took her note of hand for the amount, and, at the end of the year, dunned her for payment. To quiet him, she gave him a fresh note of hand, which he required should be for double the amount. Then he begged of her a quarter of wheat, then another; then an entire piece of broad cloth; then this thing, then that, until he ultimately paid himself twice over. I well recollect, in 1831, when, one day, I was going down to Sayda, Lady Hester’s saying to me, “Don’t ride the chestnut horse,” (rather a valuable one) “for, if you do, as you must pass Shaykh Omar’s shop, he will beg it of me for his son, and I dare not refuse him.”

This man, on his death-bed—for he died some time during my absence—called his wife and children to his bedside, and said to them—“The Syt Mylady owes me a sum of money; you will find her note of hand among my papers: burn it. She has ever been a benefactress to me, and, if I die with a little property, it is from her generosity. You will here promise me never to urge the claim against her; for I have received double and treble its amount at her hands.” They made solemn asseverations, and, after his death, the eldest son went to Dar Jôon, and informed Lady Hester Stanhope of their father’s dying injunctions: often did the widow, too, repeat to her how sacred she held them. But it had come to Lady Hester’s certain knowledge that, notwithstanding all these professions, the duplicity and ingratitude which mark the natives of the country were exemplified in this instance, as well as in all others; for the widow had preserved the paper, and had twice attempted to sell it, once to an Englishman, and once to a townsman. Notwithstanding this, every year, at the Byràm, Lady Hester gave the widow, whom her son’s extravagance and inactivity in business had again reduced to narrow circumstances, a handsome sum of money.[71]

Lady Hester’s exceeding generous and charitable disposition was well known; and she was consequently besieged with tales of distress, with projects of important discoveries, which wanted nothing in the world to put them in motion but money, with secrets that could be entrusted only to her, with presents that were always sure to be paid for at treble their value. Her creditors assailed her with letters, messages, visits; and these she was obliged to silence by payments in part, and increase of interest.

But this was not all. During the Greek revolution, the Mediterranean was so infested by pirates, that it was dangerous for merchants in the Levant to make their remittances to Europe in specie, a state of things which so considerably increased the value of bills of exchange, that they were often bought up at a great premium. Yet, in the face of these notorious facts, Signor ——, a merchant at Beyrout, used to cash many of Lady Hester’s bills on Messrs. Coutts and Co., of London, or on Messrs. Webb and Co., of Leghorn, at 35, 25, and 20 per cent. discount, when such paper was actually at a premium in the market. Mr. —— took 15, then 10, then 5 per cent. discount. At various periods, likewise, Lady Hester had had severe illnesses. There was no person about her, in whom she could put confidence, but Miss Williams, who was totally unacquainted with pecuniary affairs, and, of course, incapable of remedying the mischief, even if her innocent mind and artless character had not prevented her from suspecting it. At one time, Lady Hester had an Armenian steward, who kept his accounts in his own language: at another time, she had a Piedmontese, who went to Beyrout to negociate the bills, and must have known the nature of such transactions. Who can wonder, therefore, if all her concerns proved ruinous to her, surrounded as she was by adventurers and intriguers? Add to this, that various sorts of money are current in Turkey, as many, perhaps, as thirty, all fluctuating in value, and contributing still more to the complication of her distresses. It would hardly have been a matter of wonder, even under ordinary circumstances, that she should have been plunged into embarrassments; but, in the peculiarly perplexing situation in which she was placed, it was unavoidable.

I was witness to her signing a list of her creditors’ names, with the amount of her various responsibilities, at her request, in case, as she said, anything should befall her, that her creditors might know she never had the smallest intention of defrauding them, even of their usurious and unlawful gains. “When I get the money,” she added, “I shall pay them all just double what they lent me, and I think nobody can say that is unjust.”

All her creditors took 25 per cent. for the money they lent. Supposing Lady Hester had not made any difficulty on that head, and was willing to receive pecuniary assistance even at that loss, why nothing could be said about the matter. Gold was the commodity these merchants had to sell, and they made as much of it as they could; but she did not always get what she had bargained for: some of the lenders sent a part of the loan in coffee, rice, and in other merchandize. In most cases, the gold was not of full weight; for never was there a country in which money-clipping is carried on to a greater extent than in Turkey. And it is not fair to say that Jews are the only usurers: Mussulmans and Christians are just as bad, when the law, or other considerations, do not coerce them into honesty. Let us take, as an example, a Christian merchant of Beyrout.

Lady Hester Stanhope wanted to borrow £600; and she applied to Mr. ——, in September, 1826, when the exchange was at 20 piasters the Spanish dollar: £200, consequently, are about equal to 1000 Spanish dollars; and £600 to 3000 or 60,000 Turkish piasters. Her ladyship drew on Messrs. Coutts and Co. for £600, at one year’s date. The merchant gives her for her bill, instead of 60,000 piasters, only 52,500, that is 17½ for the dollar instead of 20, which was the real exchange: he gains at once on the transaction, 7500 piasters, or £75. But the bill has a year to run: he, therefore, demands a bonus for his risk, and modestly requires 1000 dollars, or £200; and Lady Hester at last receives £325 for her £600. This sum is paid in adlees of 16 piastres, ghazis of 20, roobeyas of 9, and sundry other current moneys; but, a week or two afterwards, the pasha issues a tariff, fixing a lower value than the current one on all the coinage of the empire, a step customary every year just before the taxes are gathered, by which the government gains a considerable increase of revenue. This is known to the merchant beforehand, who, having on his books a memorandum of the customary rates at which the money is annually set, or, which is more likely, having, for a consideration, obtained private information from the government secretaries what money will be rated lowest, takes care to make his rouleaus consist of what he is most desirous of ridding himself of: and Lady Hester finds that what she has received at 20 will only pass at 17¾, those at 9 only at 8¼, and so on; by which another serious loss is added to all the rest. But in August, 1837, her bill is delayed payment because Messrs. Coutts and Co. have not the certificate of her life for Michaelmas of that year, (delayed, probably, in consequence of Lord Palmerston’s measures) and she is compelled to ask time for six months more, which is granted on her signing a promissory note for an additional number of dollars in the same usurious proportion.

After this statement of her debts, Lady Hester next proceeded to explain how it was she had written to me in such haste to come over to Syria. It has already been mentioned that, in 1836, she had been informed, by one of her friends in England, that a considerable estate had been bequeathed to her, the knowledge of which was concealed from her by those privy to the bequest.

The beginning of this erroneous belief seems to date from the spring of 1836. In some letters which passed about that time between her ladyship and the Chevalier Henry Guys, French consul at Beyrout, which that gentleman kindly allows me to make use of, and which will best explain her feelings on the subject, it will be seen that she entertained no doubt on the subject, and was firmly persuaded that her friends, for the purpose of forcing her to come to England, kept her in ignorance of her good fortune, thinking that distress must eventually drive her back to her native country. These letters were transmitted to me at Nice, after my manuscript had been sent to England; but the narrative will suffer no interruption by their introduction here, and they serve to corroborate many portions of it.

Lady H. Stanhope to the Chevalier Henry Guys, French
Consul at Beyrout.

Translated from the French.

The same to the same.

The same to the same.

The same to the same.

The original letter is annexed, as a specimen of her ladyship’s French.

The same to the same.

The same to the same.

The same to the same.

The same to the same.

Lady Hester now told me that, having written ineffectually to a nobleman on the subject, she had turned over in her thoughts where she could find a fit person, in whom she could confide, to ascertain the truth of these matters, and to whom she could write, with the request that he would make the necessary inquiries. She had deliberated a long while whether it should be a lawyer, a man of business, or one of her old friends. Among the latter, from first to last, she added, “I have thought Sir Francis Burdett would be the one I could most assuredly confide in.” In speaking of him, she said, “He is a man of feeling, doctor, and he and I were always the best of friends. I recollect, when I told him how basely two or three people had behaved on Mr. Pitt’s death, he was ready to go beside himself: his hand went into the breast of his waistcoat and out again, as if he could not contain his indignation. What do you think?—would not he be the proper person? I always said Sir Francis was no democrat. He threw himself into the hands of the people merely that he might have an excuse of business to be out, or by himself. All the democrats that I have known were nothing but aristocrats at heart—ay, and worse than others. Even Horne Tooke was not a democrat—that I am sure of, by the court he always paid me, and by his constantly making so many civil speeches to me and of me. I have never known a man yet, if he was not to be bought, that was not a democrat from personal motives.”

In fine, it was resolved to write to Sir Francis, and a rough copy of a letter was drawn up by Lady Hester’s dictation, which, after some verbal alterations, she thought would do. Several remarks, quite foreign to the subject, were introduced, announcing the researches she had made as to the Eastern origin of the Irish and Scotch; and, as Lady Hester kept constantly saying to me, “Will this letter do? do you see anything that wants altering?” a question very usual with her when dictating letters, I forgot Gil Blas’s warning, and very distinctly expressed my apprehensions lest the introduction of the opinions about the affinity of the Irish and the Koreýsh should make Sir F. think her cracked. For, I observed, his studies, most probably, have never led him to investigate these subjects, which, thus introduced into a letter on business, might be made a handle for the ill-natured comments of people who disliked her. She thanked me, but retained them all, and only requested me to write them out fair. I did so, and inadvertently skipped a page, which, when the sheet was full, created some confusion in reading it. So, resolving to rewrite it, I merely submitted it to Lady Hester’s perusal, whilst I rode down to see my family. But I was there seized with a phlegmonous inflammation of my leg, which, in one night, from the irritation of the stirrup-leather (rudely made, as it always is in Turkey), assumed so alarming a character,[77] and was so painful, that I took to my bed and kept it eleven days. I wrote a note to Lady Hester, describing my situation, requesting her to send me the letter to Sir F. in order that I might write it over again: but, hearing that I suffered a great deal, she said it was not necessary; and, sealing the copy she had got, she despatched it by a foot-messenger to Beyrout to go by the steamboat.

“Women,” she would say, “must be one of three things. Either they are politicians and literary characters; or they must devote their time to dress, pleasure, and love; or, lastly, they must be fond of domestic affairs. I do not mean by domestic affairs a woman who sits working at her needle, scolding a couple of children, and sending her maid next door to the shop for all she wants: there is no trouble in that. What I mean is a yeoman’s wife, who takes care of the butter and cheese, sees the poultry-yard attended to, and looks to her husband’s comfort and interest. As for the advantage of passing your evenings with your family, which you urge as a reason for having them near you,” she remarked, “all sensible men that I have ever heard of take their meals with their wives, and then retire to their own room to read, write, or do what they have to do, or what best pleases them. If a man is a fox-hunter, he goes and talks with his huntsmen or the grooms, and very good company they are; if he is a tradesman, he goes into his shop; if a doctor, to his patients; but nobody is such a fool as to moider away his time in the slip-slop conversation of a pack of women.”[78]

I happened to observe that many clever men had not only passed their hours with their families, but even studied and wrote surrounded by them; and I named four or five that occurred to my recollection, one of whom was C——. “Did you ever hear me say there were not more fools than one in the world?”—She rejoined, “As for Mr. C——, I knew him; so you need not talk to me about him. Mrs. C——! there was a woman!—Charles C. was one of the greatest roués in London—always drunk. He was in the Blues, and took it into his head to fall in love with a Rt. Hble.—very ugly—but her relations would not let her marry him. Perhaps he wanted her money; he was very agreeable. Mr. C. lived in a very hugger-mugger sort of a way, with a maid of all work and a boy, and it was his daughter who did most things for him. Perhaps he was not rich enough to have another room to study in.”

In this sort of way would Lady Hester Stanhope argue on most subjects, running from one thing to another, and then, when you thought she had lost sight of her text, returning to it with some pithy observation, which generally settled the point to her own satisfaction.

September 29.—I remained at Mar Elias, confined with my bad leg, from the 13th until this day, when I returned to Jôon. Letters and messengers had, in the interim, been passing between M. Guys and Lady Hester Stanhope respecting a house which he was employed to hire for me and my family; but I had reason to think afterwards that she had no wish to get rid of us, as the house was reserved for the Baroness de Fériat, and the correspondence could tend to no other purpose than to throw odium upon Mrs. —— as a discontented and capricious woman.

During my confinement, Lady Hester Stanhope wrote the following letter to my daughter, then hardly out of her childhood.

To Miss ——