# Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope/Volume 2/Chapter 6

CHAPTER VI.
The Delphic priestess—Abdallah Pasha's ingratitude—His cowardice—Lady Hester's spies—Her emaciation—History of General Loustaunau.
December 8.—A most violent storm of rain, thunder, and lightning, kept me prisoner. The courtyards were flooded. When all the house was in confusion from the wet, and clogs were heard clattering on all sides, I entered Lady Hester's room, and remained for about an hour, talking on indifferent subjects, without hearing from her one word in allusion to the state of the weather. At last she said, "Doctor, I find myself better from the thunder!" And when I replied that there were many persons who felt oppressed from an electric condition of the atmosphere and were relieved by its explosion, she observed, with some sharpness, "that I must be a great booby to make such a remark to her, as there was not a servant in the house who did not know that she could always ​tell, three days beforehand, when a thunder-storm was coming on."
In the evening I sat with her about four hours. She was up, and had placed herself in a corner of her bed-room on a low ottoman (as it is called in England), which the Syrians name terâahah. The candle was put far back in the window recess, the light being thrown on my features, whilst it left hers in obscurity. This was her custom on almost all occasions, even when she had strangers visiting her, under pretence that she could not bear the light in her eyes, but, in fact, as I have reason to believe, to watch the play of people's countenances.
She resumed the subject of the preceding evening. I was too weary when I left her, and too busy next morning, to be able to write down her conversation, but, could I have done it, it must have left a profound impression on the reader's mind, an idea of sublimity, whether he held her visionary opinions to be the mere rhapsodies of a disordered intellect, or the deductions of great reasoning powers, aided by remarkable foresight. Her language was so forcible and sublime, that I sometimes suspended my breath, and from time to time tried to a assure myself that I was not hearkening to a superhuman voice. The smoke from our pipes by degrees filled the room, closely shut up as it was, and cast a deep gloom around us. The ​wind howled without, with now and then occasional echoes of the thunder among the mountains: and it required no great stretch of imagination to believe one's self listening to the inspired oracles of the Delphic priestess, as she poured forth the warnings of what seemed a preternatural insight into futurity.
December 9.—The morning was employed in writing letters, and in the evening I remained until half-past one with Lady Hester. She spoke of the alarm created in Mahomet Ali's cabinet, by her affording pretection to Abdallah Pasha's people after the surrender of St. Jean d'Acre. "That impudent fellow C********," said she, "sent me a packet of letters from Colonel Campbell, and told me I was to prepare a list of all the people in my house, giving their names, nation, a description of their persons, &c. I returned him the packet, and desired him to forward it to the quarter whence it came, adding, 'These are all the commands that Lady Hester Stanhope has at present to give to Mr. C********.' To Colonel C. I wrote 'that it was not customary for consuls to give orders to their superiors; that, as for the English name, about which he talked so much, I made over to him all the advantage he might derive from it.' And my letter to Boghoz was to the effect that, 'in confessing, as he did, that I rendered the state of this country unsettled by my measures, he acknowledged ​the weakness of his master's cause; that I disdained all partnership in it; and that the column on which Mahomet Ali's exaltation rested would, before long, sink beneath him, and his greatness melt like snow before the fire. 'I added, there could be little honour for Mahomet Ali to make himself a gladiator before a woman;' and here I meant that, as a gladiator was some criminal who descended into the arena to fight, so he was a malefactor too.
"As for Abdallah Pasha, he was not worth the pains I took about him; but I did it for my master, the Sultan. I kept and maintained for two years two hundred of his people, wounded, sick, and proscribed; and when I wrote to him to know what I should do with them, as the expense was too great for me, the answer of this ungrateful wretch was to ask me for a loan of twenty-five purses, and not even to send his remembrance to one of those who had bled and suffered in his cause. His ingratitude, however, has partly met with its reward: for the Sultan himself has heard of his cold-hearted conduct, and has taken away half what he allowed him. This is the man whose head I saved by my intercession with a person in power.
"He was a coward, after all. The last day of the siege of Acre he lost his senses quite. As Ibrahim Pasha had effected a breach, some of Abdallah Pasha's officers forced him to come upon the ramparts to ​encourage the soldiers; for he had remained during the whole time shut up in a vault under-ground with his women and boys, and had never once appeared. Well, the first thing he did was to sit down amidst the fire, quite bewildered. He then asked for an umbrella: then he called for some water; and, when they presented to him an ibryk, as being the only thing they had near at hand, not supposing that at such a moment he would mind what it was he drank from, he would not drink out of it."
They fetched him a goblet, and he made them take it back, because it was a glass he drank sherbet out of, and not water. The very man who handed it to him told me the story. At last they placed him in one corner of the battery, and covered him with a cloak. All this time the bullets were flying about.
​Lady Hester continued:—"Of all those to whom I gave an asylum and bread, after the siege, I can’t say there were many who showed the least gratitude—four perhaps: the rest robbed me, and abused my goodness in every possible manner. One family alone consisted of seventeen persons. Will it be believed, that when I had new clothes made for the women for the Byram holyday, they had the baseness to grumble at the stuff, the make, and everything, complaining they were not good enough for them? But this did not hurt me half so much as the little credit I get for everything I do among my relations and the English in general. My motives are misconstrued, or not appreciated; and, whilst a mighty fuss is made about some public subscription for people in Jamaica, Newfoundland, or God knows where, I, who, by my own individual exertions, have done the like for hundreds of wretched beings, driven out of their homes by the sabre and bayonet, am reviled and abused for every act of kindness or benevolence.
"I knew a pretty deal of what was going forward during the siege of Acre by my own spies. Hanah, your old servant—Giovanni, as he used to be called—was one of them. He carried on his trade of a barber, and was married in Acre; and, when the bombarding began, he got out somehow, and came to me. So I furnished him with a beggar’s dress. But first I ​made him take leave of the other servants, and set off from the door. Then, hiding himself under a rock, when he was at a distance, he dressed himself as a fakýr, and, so perfect was his disguise, that, when he came back to me, I did not know him. He was a poor timid fellow, and that was the reason why I chose him as fit for my purpose, In such a nice business as that, I wanted a man that would follow my instructions exactly, and do nothing out of his own head: and Giovanni was in such a fright, that I was sure of him in that respect. Well, he succeeded perfectly well. There was a poor devil of a sacca, or water-carrier, in the camp, who used to take water to Derwish Pasha’s tents. Meanly dressed, and with his head held down, like one in misery, nobody paid any attention to him; at night he would frequently creep between the ropes of the Pasha’s tent, and seem to sleep there like an unhappy being who had no hole to put his head in. Through a slit in the tent, he could see and hear much that passed, communicating whatever information he obtained to Giovanni, who brought it at convenient opportunities to me. But when I wanted a stout-hearted fellow to carry a letter through the entrenchments to the foot of the walls, to be drawn up, then I chose a different sort of a messenger; for I had them all ready."
December 16.—The last three days Lady Hester ​had suffered greatly. To-day she was in very low spirits, and sobbed aloud and wrung her hands, while she bitterly deplored her deserted state. "I believe it will do me good to cry," she said, and she gave way freely to her emotions; but her weeping was not woman-like: it had a wild howl about it, that was painful to me to hear; she seemed not to be made of stuff for tears: and, if Bellona could have ever wept, she must have wept in this way. After she had given vent to her feelings, she gradually recovered, and her natural fecundity of language returned.
December 17.—Christmas day was approaching, but the weather was of extraordinary mildness. Some idea may be formed of the climate of Syria from the circumstance that my house had no glass to the windows, and that the family sat always with the doors open. It was only during the heavy rains that the rooms felt chilly, and then a brazier, with lighted coals, was agreeable and quite sufficient to obviate the cold.
Lady Hester made me observe how thin she had become. Her bones almost protruded through her skin, and she could not lie comfortably in any posture; so that it was difficult for her to get rest. Her fretfulness had increased to such a degree as to be equally distressing to herself and to those about her: yet the vigour of her mind never forsook her for a moment when anything called for its exertion.
​December 20—was a rainy day, and, when I entered her ladyship's chamber, I saw it would be a melancholy one. She was seated in the comer of the room, her features indicating great suffering. She burst into tears the moment I approached her. She had not slept the whole night, and had passed the hours, from the time I left her, in getting up and walking about supported by her women, and then lying down again, seeking relief from the feeling of suffocation and oppression which so much distressed her. The floor of the bed-room was covered with plates, pots, and pans, turnips, carrots, cabbages, knives and forks, spoons, and all other appurtenances of the table and kitchen.
I must observe that, on the preceding day, at Lady Hester's request, I had ridden over to Mar Elias to see General Loustaunau, the decayed French officer, who had now lived on her bounty for a period of more than twenty years. And although, from being of a choleric and violent temper, he had, on more than one occasion, embroiled himself with her, yet the only difference it made in her treatment towards him was merely to keep him at a distance from herself: but she had never, for one day, ceased to occupy herself with his wants and to provide for his comforts. He was now, as I was told, eighty years old, and his mind was possessed with hallucinations, which he fell into from a belief that he could interpret the prophecies in ​the Bible. He was constantly poring over that book, and he went very generally by the name of the Prophet: Lady Hester herself always called him so. He had a maid-servant to take care of him, a barber, on fixed days, to shave him. Lamb, mutton, or beef, flour for his bread, and wine, were sent as his consumption required, money being liberally furnished him for purchasing everything else from Sayda.
Finding that he was very much neglected by the woman who was appointed to attend him, I mentioned the fact on my return to Lady Hester, and to this communication was to be attributed the extraordinary display on the floor of her bed-room; for, from her accustomed sensibility to the sufferings of others, she had fancied that the poor man was in want of everything. "See," she said, "what I am reduced to: ever since daylight this morning" (and it was then nearly noon) "have I been handling pots and pans to make the Prophet comfortable. For on whom can I depend?—on these cold people—a pack of stocks and stones, who rest immoveable amidst their fellow-creatures' sufferings? Why did not you give that woman a dressing? I'll have her turned out of the village—an impudent hussy!"
Here, from having raised her voice, she was seized with a spasm in the throat and chest, and, making a sudden start, "Some water, some water! make haste!" ​she cried, and gasped for breath as if almost suffocated. I handed her some immediately, which she greedily drank: I then threw the window open, and she became better. "Don't leave me, doctor: ring the bell;—I can't bear to be left alone a moment; for, if one of these attacks were to come on, and I could not ring the bell, what could I do? You must forgive me if I fall into these violent passions; but such is my nature: I can't help it. I am like the horse that Mr. Pitt had. Mr. Pitt used to say, 'You must guide him with a hair; if I only move my leg, he goes on; and his pace is so easy, it's quite charming: but, if you thwart him or contradict him, he is unmanageable;'—that's me."
But, to return to General Loustaunau, or the Prophet—as his name has already appeared several times, it may not be amiss to give a short outline of his life, the particulars of which he communicated to me himself. From a village in the Pyrenees, near to Tarbes, one day, a young man, about twenty-four years of age, sallied forth, he knew not whither, to seek his fortune. Sprung from a family of peasants, he had received little or no education, and had nothing to depend on but his well-knitted frame, an intelligent and handsome countenance, robust health, and activity. He directed his steps towards one of the great sea-ports of France, resolved to work his passage to America. But, when ​walking the quays and inquiring for a vessel bound across the Atlantic, he was told there was none; there was, however, a large merchant-ship freighting for the East Indies. Learning that the country she was chartered for was still more distant than the western colonies, he concluded, in his ardent and youthful mind, that it would open to him a still greater chance of meeting with adventures and of enriching himself. He accordingly got himself rated to work his passage as a seaman, and arrived in safety at the ship's destination.
It would be useless to occupy the reader's time with the struggles which every man, unknown and without recommendations, has to make on a foreign shore, before he gets a footing in some shape congenial to his talents or his inclination. Natural talents Loustaunau had; for, in the space of a few months after his arrival on the Indian coast, he was spoken of as an intelligent young man to the French ambassador, Monsieur de Marigny, residing at Poonah, the Mahratta court, as far as I could understand: since it is to be borne in mind that Mr. Loustaunau, when he related all this, was eighty years old, had almost lost his memory, and was relapsing into second childhood. He soon after became an inmate of the embassy, on terms of some familiarity with Monsieur de Marigny, who discovered, in the young adventurer's conversation, so ​much good sense and elevation of mind, that he used to say to him, "It strikes me that you are no common man."
It so happened that the war between the English and the Rajah of the Mahrattas brought the hostile armies into the field at no great distance from Poonah; and Mr. L. one day told the ambassador, that, as he had never seen what war was, and had not far to go to do so, he should be much obliged if he would permit him to absent himself for a short time to be spectator of the action, which, report said, must soon take place between the two armies. Monsieur de M. tried to dissuade him from it, asking him of what use it would be to risk his life for the satisfaction of an empty curiosity. Mr. L.'s reply was, "If I am killed, why then bon jour, and there will be an end of me:" M. de Marigny, therefore, complied with his wishes, and sent him with some of his own people and an introductory letter, to General Norolli, a Portuguese, who commanded the Rajah Scindeah's artillery.
He had not to wait long for the gratification of his curiosity. An action took place: the forces were warmly engaged, and Mr. L. walked about within musket-shot distance to observe the manœuvres of the two armies. The English had planted a battery on a rocky elevation, which made much havoc among the Mahratta forces. Between this battery on its flank ​and an opposite cliff there was a deep ravine, which rendered all access from one height to the other impracticable: but a sloping ground, by making a circuit in the rear of the Mahratta forces, afforded a practicability of bringing field-pieces to the summit of the cliff to bear on the English battery from the Mahratta side.
Mr. L. took an opportunity of addressing himself to General N., and pointed out to him the probability of silencing, or, at least, of annoying the English battery from the cliff in question; but the general treated his remark in a slighting manner, and, riding to another part of the field, took no farther notice of him. Mr. L. had seated himself on a hillock, still making his reflections, when an old Mahratta officer, who had heard the conversation between Mr. L. and the general of the arillery, and had partly understood what Mr. L. proposed should be done, approached him. "Well, sir," said he, "what do you think of our artillery?"—"If I were a flatterer," replied Mr. L., "I should say that it was well served; but, as I am not, you will pardon me if I think it bad." The officer went on—"You see the day is likely to go against us—what would you do if you had the command!"—"Oh! as for the command, I don't know," rejoined Mr. L., "but this one thing I do know, that, if I had but two pieces of cannon, I ​would turn the day in your master's favour."—"How would you do that?" asked the officer: "perhaps I could put two field-pieces at your disposal."—"If you could," said Mr. L., "I would plant them on yonder height" (pointing at the same time to it), "and let my head answer for my presumption, if I do not effect what I promise."
The bearing of the Frenchman and his energetic manner of speaking, together with his evident coolness and self-possession on a field of battle, made a great impression on the Mahratta officer. "Come with me, young man," said he, "I will conduct you to the rajah."—"With all my heart," replied Mr. L. When brought into his presence, Seindeah asked the officer what the stranger wanted, and the officer repeated the conversation that had just passed. "Well," says Seindeah, "he does not ask for money, he only asks for guns: give them to him, and let them ber served by some of my best gunners. The idea may be good: only be expeditious, or we may soon be where that infernal battery of the English can annoy us no longer."
Accordingly, without a moment's delay, two field-pieces were dragged up by the back of the cliff to the spot pointed out, Mr. L. entrusting the command of one of them to another Frenchman, whose curiosity had brought him on the field also. The very second ​shot that was fired at the English battery blew up an artillery waggon (caisson) full of powder. The explosion dismounted some of the cannon, killed several men, and created so much confusion, that the English, in consequence of it, eventually lost the battle, and were forced to retreat. Mr. L. had two or three of his men killed. "There! you may take your cannon back," said he, as soon as the explosion took place; "I have nothing farther to do and he and his brother Frenchman walked away to watch the result of the mischief they had done.
When the day was over, an officer of the rajah's conveyed to Mr. Loustaunau his master's request that he would attend on him at his tent. Mr. L. presented himself, and Scindeah received him with marks of great consideration. Addressing himself to Mr. L., "You have done me, sir," said he, "a most essential service to-day; and, as a small recompense for your gallantry and the military talent you have shown, I beg your acceptance of a few presents, together with the assurance that, if you like to enter my service, you shall have the command of a company immediately." Mr. L. thanked him in proper language, and, declining the presents offered, said, "Your highness will excuse me if I refuse your gifts: I will, however, with pleasure accept the sword which I see among them, but nothing else. The offer of a com​mission in your army I must equally decline, as I am bound to return to our ambassador, to whom I owe too many obligations to taken any step without his permission." Scindeah could not but approve of this reply; and Mr. L., making his bow, returned towards the place where he was lodged.
When night came, and General Norolli, having made his dispositions, had also returned to his quarters, whilst yet on horseback, and, as if moved by jealousy to repress the exultation which he imagined Mr. L. might have indulged in, he called out in a loud and angry tone, "Where is Mr. Loustaunau, where is that gentleman?" Mr. L., who was standing not far off, approached, and, as the general dismounted, said, "Here I am, general, at your command."—"I saw," observed Mr. L. (interrupting himself whilst relating this part of his story to me) "that the general was in a rage, which appeared more plainly as he continued."—Who, sir, authorized you to present yourself to the rajah without my leave? don't you know that all Europeans must be introduced by me?"—"General," replied Mr. L., "I was summoned by his highness, and I went: if you are angry because I have done some little service to your master, I cannot help it. You are not ignorant that I pointed out to you first of all the commanding position which struck me as fitted for planting a battery: you refused to listen ​to my suggestion; and, if it was afterward adopted by others, that is your fault, not mine."—"Sir," cried the general, irritated more and more by this remark, "you deserve to have this whip across your shoulders."—"General," retorted Mr. L., "you suffer your anger to get the better of your reason: if you have any whippings to bestow, you must keep them for your Portuguese—Frenchmen are not accustomed to take them." The general's fury now knew no bounds; he put his hand on one of the pistols in his girdle, intending to shoot Mr. L. "But I," said Mr. L., "was ready; and, with my eyes fixed on him, would have seized the other, had he drawn it out, and I would have shot him; for, you know, in self-defence, one will not stand still to have a bullet through one's body, without preventing it, if possible. However, some officers held the general's arm, and shortly after I retired, and, remaining a day or two more in the camp, returned to the place where I had left our ambassador.
"When I told him what had happened—'Stay with me, Loustaunau,' said he; 'it is my intention to raise a few troops here, and, since you seem to like fighting, you shall be employed:' but in a few weeks the ambassador was recalled to France, and he offered to take me with him, promising to get me employment at home. However, I considered that I had ​better chances in remaining where I was, than in going to my native country, where birth, patronage, and the usages of good society, are necessary for a man's advancement, all which I wanted."
Mr. Loustaunau, left to his own exertions, recollected the rajah's offer; and on applying to him, received a commission in the Mahratta army. Eminently qualified by nature for military command, his advancement was rapid; and, after distinguishing himself in several actions, and showing likewise a very superior judgment in political affairs, he finally became general of Seindeah's troops, although I could not ascertain in how short a time. His reputation spread rapidly through the territory, and his noble conduct and intrepidity must have been very generally known, since, on one occasion, after having been severely wounded in his left hand, two fingers of which he had lost, the commander of the English forces sent a flag of truce and his own surgeon with an offer of his professional assistance, fearing that Mr. L. might not have a European surgeon to attend him. Seindeah, in his despatches to him, styled him a lion in battle, and a lynx in council. He consulted him in difficult negociations with the East India Company's servants; and, in acknowledgment of his services, he gave him a village as an appange to his rank. Mr. L. married the daughter of a French ​officer, by whom he had four or five children, one of whom is now living at Givet, in the department of the Ardennes.
Mr. L. was fearless at all times, and inimical to despotism even in the centre of its worshippers. Scindeah had unjustly imprisoned an Armenian merchant, whose wealth he intended to confiscate for his own benefit. As the oppressive act was founded on no just grounds, and application had been made to General Loustaunau for his interposition, when he found that entreaties were of no avail, "one day," said he, "I took fifty of my men, fellows de bonne volonté, and, marching strait to the rajah's palace at a time when I knew he was in his divan, I entered, walked up to him, and in a mild, but pretty determined tone, said, 'Your highness, be not alarmed, I am come to ask a favour of you: you must release the Armenian merchant, as I have sworn to set him free.' Seindeah saw that I meant not to trifle, and, assuming a friendly air, he complied with my request. The gurads were astounded at my audacity, but they dared not sir, for I and my men would have sabred them instantly."
After having covered himself with glory, as the French express it, he obtained his congé; and, being resolved to return to France, he visited some of the English settlements in his way to the place of his ​embarkation, where he was most honourably and hospitably treated. He always spoke of this period as the happiest of his life, and mentioned the names of some English gentlemen with the highest encomiums and most pleasing reminiscences.
Having converted what property he could into money, he obtained bills on France, and set out for his native country. The revolution had broken out; and, on his arrival, his bills were all paid, but in assignats; so that in a few weeks he found himself almost penniless. Of this calamitous part of history I could gather but few details. I have heard him say that some branch of the Orleans family assisted him. Certain it is that he had either money or friends yet left; for, with the wreck of his property, or by some other means, he established an iron-foundry near the place of his nativity. He was so close, however, to the frontiers of Spain, that, during the war with that country and France, in an incursion of the enemy, all his property was destroyed.
How he got to Mahon, or for what purpose, I am equally ignorant; but, embarking from that port, he found his way to Syria, probably intending to make his way overland to India, there to reclaim his property. But his intellects must have been already somewhat disordered: for, when we heard him first spoken of in Palestine, in 1812 to 1813, he was de​scribed as a man living almost on the alms of the Europeans, and generally to be seen with a bible under his arm, negligent of his person, housed in a hovel, and going, even then, by the sobriquet of the Prophet.
At the time I am now speaking of, the bare mention of politics or catastrophes was sure to set him wandering on the prophetic writings, and then common sense was at an end. But I had known him for twenty years, when his lucid intervals were only occasionally interrupted by these hallucinations; and I had seldom met with a man who had such an independent character, such naturally noble sentiments couched in such appropriate language, and such an intuitive discernment of what was suitable in unlooked-for emergencies. He was bold as a lion; and, when in anger, had the physiognomy and expression of that noble animal. He had never served in diplomatic situations before his elevation, had never studied political economy, moral philosophy, literature, or anything else, that I could find; and yet, in all these, the innate dictates of his mind responded at once to the call, and he could see the right and wrong, the utile et decorum, the expediency and the evil, the loveliness and the ugliness of every subject presented to him. He had a strong memory, and retained many of the passages of the best French authors by heart. ​He was handsome in his person, rather tall, and his demeanour was suitable to his station in life. In a word, he was born to "achieve greatness."
General L. had now lived five and twenty years on Lady Hester's bounty. His family, consisting of two or three sons and some daughters, were left with not very bright prospects in France. Lady Hester Stanhope had at different times employed persons to assist them, and, to my knowledge, had sent 1000 francs through a merchant's hands at Marseilles, besides other sums, of which I have heard her speak. She also paid for the education of one daughter some years. In 1825, one of the sons, who had by his military services obtained the rank of captain in Napoleon's Imperial Guard, being left, by the fall of that Emperor, in inactivity, resolved to visit Syria, to see his father.
General L.'s intellects were so far weakened, that nothing which happened to him personally seemed to affect him, only as it verified some of his favourite predictions, drawn from texts in the Bible. He therefore beheld his son's arrival with indifference, as far as paternal affection went, but discovered in it other bearings, of immense importance in the political changes that were at hand. Not so Lady Hester Stanhope: she knew that the general had a right to the revenue of a whole village in the Mahratta country, ​which had been given to him by Scindeah; and she resolved to furnish Captain L. with money to enable him to go and recover his father's possessions.
The captain remained at Dar Jôon for some months: he had his horse, was lodged in a pavilion in the garden, and treated with every mark of respect. Restless, hasty in his temper, overbearing, and accustomed to the blustering manners of a camp, he occasionally got into difficulties with the natives, both Mahometans and Christians. Not aware of the necessity of much precaution in shunning checks of perspiration in hot climates, he one day caught a fever, which almost brought him to his grave. He recovered, however, and was convalescent, when his imprudence caused a relapse, and he died. He was buried in Lady Hester's garden, where his tomb, ornamented with flowering shrubs, and entirely shaded by a beautiful arbour, still remains. The poor father never would believe in his death. "He is not interred," he used to say, "but is still alive and on the earth: do not be grieved about him; in the year 1847 he will join me here. I and my lady shall then be made young again, and your little daughter is destined to be my future wife." The poor old general, it was observed by us, seemed to have no greater pleasure than watch​ing our daughter whilst she watered her flowers or fed her bulbuls.
The way in which Lady Hester herself sometimes sought to lighten the weight of the obligations she conferred on the general will serve to show the delicacy of her feelings. At different periods, several places had been chosen for his residence, according as he grew tired of one or the other: for he was a testy old man in some respects, and seemed to forget how much it was his duty not to put her ladyship to more trouble and expense than he could help. Once, when she had had a comfortable cottage fitted up for him in a village called Aynâaty (from taking in dudgeon something that happened to him), he suddenly quitted it, and went off to Beyrout. "He went off," said Lady Hester, "with no less than five trunks full of clothes and other things, with two watches bought with the money I had given him, and with a good bag full of piasters: for he had little occasion to spend, as I sent him every two days fresh meat of my own killing, flour for his bread when it was wanting, sugar, tea, coffee—and everything, I may say, except milk and vegetables. He went to Beyrout, and there lived and talked away largely and foolishly, and gave out that he would sooner live with the devil than with such a woman as I was. After a time, his resources failed him, his friends grew cool, and he returned to ​Sayda, where he fastened himself on Monsieur Reynaud, who soon grew tired of keeping him, and little by little I heard he was reduced to great straits." The fact is, he found no friend, except for an occasional invitation to dinner, and Lady Hester knew he must be in want; but she knew also, in the state of mind he was in, he would refuse assistance from her: she therefore made us of an expedient to furnish him with money.
Sending for one of the Pasha's Tartars, and putting a bag of gold into his hand, she told him he was to ride into Sayda, and proceed strait to the gate of the French khan (where Mr. Loustaunau was), dusty and sweating, as if from a long journey. There he was to inquire if they knew anything of a Frenchman, once a general in India; and, after apparently well ascertaining it was the man he was in search of, the Tartar was to desire to speak with him, and to say—"Sir, when on my road from Damascus, a Hindu mussulman on his pilgrimage to Mecca, who once served under you in India, but is now rich and advanced in years, learning that you were in these countries, and anxious to testify the respect which the natives of Scindeah's territories still retain for you, has commissioned me to put this into your hands."—"Having done so," added Lady Hester Stanhope, "you are not to give him time to see what it is, but to ride ​away." The vile fellow promised faithfully to execute his commission, received in advance a recompense for his trouble, and then rode off with the money, and kept it. But Lady Hester, who was careful to ascertain, by indirect means, whether a Tartar had made his appearance at the khan, on learning his perfidy, caused it to be spread among the Pasha's and the government Tartars; and they were so indignant at his little trustworthiness, a quality on which, from the nature of their employ, they are obliged to value themselves, that they turned him out of their corps, and he never dared to show his face again.
To finish what remains to be said of this once shining character, but now the pensioner of an English woman, he had resided for the last ten years at a distance from Lady Hester Stanhope's residence, and they had not even seen each other for five or six years. "I have been obliged to keep him at a distance," said her ladyship, "for the last ten years, in order that people might not think I had taken care of him to make him trumpet my greatness: for you don't know what harm that man has done me. He used to go about preaching that all the queens in Christendom were a pack of women of the town, and that I was the only real queen. He told everybody he would not change situations with the first prince in Europe; for the day would come when, through me, he should be greater than any of them."
* ↑ An ibryk is a common earthenware jug with a spout to it, the usual drinking-vessel of the lower classes.
* ↑ This Pasha was so afraid, in the midst of all his power, of being isoned, that he had the dishes brought to his table tinder padlock. When he travelled, a horseman in his suite had the office assigned him of carrying the implement that makes such a distinguished figure in the farce of Pourcignac. When he was shaved, he always had some of his guards standing round the barber with their pistols cocked, and he himself had a drawn sabre lying across his lap. Fancy the situation of a man who, in the midst of these formidable preparations, is obliged to keep his hand steady.
* ↑ In this same tomb Lady Hester herself was afterwards interred.