250 Sabunji on Sultan Abdul Hamid [ I 9°9 



exaggerated pride of birth and position which was his weakness. In- 

 side, too, the house is a noble one, in spite of horrible tampering with 

 the stonework of the Gothic lower story ; all, however, might be made 

 good with whitewash. The cloisters are less injured, and need nothing 

 but to be let alone. Upstairs, wicked architectural things have been 

 done, but the great drawing-room is magnificent, one of the finest 

 state rooms to be found anywhere, and the long corridors are also fine. 

 The main front has the advantage of looking south. Byron's own little 

 bedroom, with its simple furniture, is most interesting, unaltered since 

 his time, but that has been told in the guide books, so I need not 

 describe it. Beauclerk has returned from his manoeuvring, and we 

 walked again in the garden. He starts for Central Asia next week, 

 to remain away a year. He is a very attractive young man, with, I am 

 sure, an excellent heart. The feeling of the house is strongly against 

 Lady Byron in the old family quarrel. 



"4th June. — Back to London early, much pleased with my visit to 

 Newstead and the good ladies, my entertainers there. 



" Sabunji came to dine with me. I had not seen him since 1895, I 

 think. He has become the type of what he doubtless was till the other 

 day, a Yildiz Palace spy, a little furtive old man dressed in black with 

 a black skull cap on his head, a jewel in his shirt front and another 

 jewel on his finger. He has come to London, I imagine, on some busi- 

 ness of intrigue, and to me partly to find out what my opinions are, 

 partly to get my help in a publishing project he has in hand, a ' History 

 of all Religions.' I got a deal of useful information from him about 

 men and events at Constantinople. He tells me he continued to hold his 

 place at Yildiz and draw his pay or pension till a month ago, but he is 

 now deprived of it in common with the rest of the Palace employes. 

 His position with the Sultan Abdul Hamid, which had been originally 

 that of Reader for him and precis writer of the European Press, had 

 latterly become one of tutor to the young Prince Burhan ed Din, the 

 Sultan's favourite son, whom he describes as very clever, and knowing 

 French, English, German, and Italian, besides Turkish, Persian, and a 

 little Arabic. The fact of his loss of income by the Sultan's deposition 

 naturally colours Sabunji's views, and he is gloomy about the pros- 

 pects of Turkey under the new regime. I asked him about the revolu- 

 tion of last year, and the counter-revolution of two months ago. As 

 to the first, he says the Sultan was in complete ignorance till it hap- 

 pened, and this, doubtless, was the fact. The counter-revolution was 

 got up not by Abdul Hamid or Burhan ed Din, but by an intrigue 

 between Az ed Din (son of Sultan Abdul Aziz, who is heir to the 

 present Sultan according to the law of succession), and the Russian 

 Embassy, the latter being jealous of the influence the English Em- 

 bassy had acquired under Kiamil Pasha. The German Embassy had 



