A LEAF OF EASTERN HISTORY. 



205 



would rather forward than impede the interests 

 of England) was invited, with three or four other 

 personal friends of M. de Lesseps, to join the 

 party. They were royally entertained by the 

 viceroy. The best apartments in the best hotels 

 were put everywhere at their disposal ; carriages, 

 camels, and running footmen, were always in 

 readiness for them, and a small steamer conveyed 

 the whole party up the Nile. According to his 

 practice when abroad, Mr. Senior kept an elab- 

 orate journal, which still retains its interest, for 

 the East does not materially change. This jour- 

 nal contains records of his conversations with 

 people of all nations : a fact well known, for on 

 one page he writes : " The viceroy said to Ruys- 

 senaer after I left him, ' J'ai donne a M. Senior 

 une belle page pour son journal.' " Among his 

 interlocutors there was none more interesting and 

 instructive than Hekekyan Bey, an Armenian, 

 who had in early youth been sent by Mehemet 

 Ali to be educated in Europe. Throughout the 

 reign of that pasha he and his family had re- 

 tained great influence : his brother-in-law Kos- 

 rew Bey being first dragoman, another brother- 

 in-law, Artim Bey, prime-minister, and Hekek- 

 yan himself director of the Ecole des Arts et 

 Metiers. Abbas, the next pasha, hated his 

 grandfather's friends, and dismissed them all. In 

 1855 they were still out of office. 



In 1862 Hekekyan Bey came to England with 

 his wife and his son to see the second Exhibi- 

 tion. He was at that time an exceedingly hand- 

 some man, apparently about fifty, tall, and rather 

 like an Italian from the north of Italy. He was 

 full of animation and good-nature, and his man- 

 ners and conversation were most agreeable. He 

 spoke both French and English perfectly well. 

 His wife spoke nothing but Arabic, so it was dif- 

 ficult to get on with her. On one occasion she 

 put on, as a favor, her Eastern dress. It was 

 composed of black satin, and, it must be owned, 

 was far fiom becoming to an elderly lady; but 

 those were the days of crinoline — in 187*7 it 

 would probably not appear so extraordinary. 



It is difficult to make selections when there is 

 so much that is interesting and instructive. 

 This story of Mehe net Ali, related by Hekek- 

 yan, is perhaps the most striking of the follow- 

 ing extracts. 



Extract from Mr. Senior's Journal. 



" Mr. and Mrs. Lieder, Hekekyan Bey and his 

 wife, and Mr. Bruce, drank tea with us. 



"It is a remarkable indication of Oriental 

 morals that of our four Egyptian guests, two, 



Mrs. Lieder and Hekekyan, believed themselves 

 to have drunk poisoned coffee. In each case it 

 was detected by its peculiar and extreme bitter- 

 ness, and not enough taken to do serious mis- 

 chief. Mrs. Lieder received hers at Nazleh 

 Hanem's; Hekekyan's was given to him at Me- 

 neele Pasha's. It was in 1S40. He was at that 

 time out of favor with Mehemet Ali : his bold- 

 ness of conversation and perhaps his boldness of 

 character, partly natural and partly acquired in 

 England, unfit him for Eastern courts. He has 

 seldom continued long in favor or long in dis- 

 grace. His talents, knowledge, and industry, 

 force him into employment, and some unguarded 

 speech or the performance of some duty offen- 

 sive to the master, or to his minister, or to his 

 cook, or to his barber, turns him out: when they 

 cannot do without him he is recalled. 



'"In 1S40,' he said to us, 'after the bom- 

 bardment of Acre, some weeks passed without any 

 news from Ibrahim Pasha, or from his army in 

 Syria. A strong suspicion arose that he had 

 made his peace with the sultan at his father's 

 expense, and that Mehemet Ali's reigu and life 

 were drawing to a close. 



" ' I was then the engineer charged with the 

 defenses of the coast. We were expecting an 

 attack from Sir Charles Napier, and I had been 

 to Rosetta to inspect the batteries. It was on a 

 tempestuous night that I returned to Alexandria, 

 and went to the palace on the shore of the for- 

 mer island of Pharos to make my report to Me- 

 hemet Ali. 



" ' The halls and passages which I used to 

 find full of Mamelukes and officers, strutting 

 about in the fullness of their contempt for a 

 Christian, were empty ; without encountering a 

 single attendant, I reached his room overlooking 

 the sea ; it was dimly lighted by a few candles 

 of bad Egyptian wax, with enormous untrimmed 

 wicks. Here, at the end of his divan, I found 

 him rolled up in a sort of ball, solitary, motion- 

 less, apparently absorbed in thought. The waves 

 were breaking heavily on the mole, and I ex- 

 pected every instant the casements to be blown 

 in. The roar of wind and sea was almost awful, 

 but he did not seem conscious of it. 



"'I stood before him silent. Suddenly he 

 said, as if speaking to himself, "I think I can 

 trust Ibrahim." Again he was silent for some 

 time, and then desired me to fetch Motus Bey, 

 his admiral. I found him and brought him to 

 the viceroy. Neither of them spoke, until the 

 viceroy, after looking at him steadily for some 

 minutes, said tome; "He is drunk; take him 



