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.
