of civilized society, where she hoped to rescue an individual from debasement, or counteract the machinations of designing and wicked men. On this principle it is true, likewise, that she would deliberately inflict those incurable insults which cover a man with a sort of shame for life; as may be shown, for example, by the case of Mr. Hanah Messâad, the son of the British agent at Beyrout, one of whose whiskers and eyebrows was shaved off before the whole village, for having made an assertion then supposed to be false, but which was afterwards, by her own confession to me, admitted to be true.
Hanah, or John Messâad, a handsome young man, a native of Beyrout, and the son of a former English vice-consul, was interpreter and secretary to Lady Hester for some time, and her ladyship has since bestowed great praise, in my presence, on his capacity, usefulness, and knowledge of languages. There was in her service also Michael Tutungi, son of an Armenian, who had been under-dragoman, as I understood, to the English embassy at Constantinople. Messâad, it was thought, was jealous of Michael.
It was reported in the family that Michael had been seen under a tree in very close conversation with a peasant girl, and the report was traced to Messâad. Now, the Emir Beshýr affected, or really felt, a great horror of all licentiousness, and never failed to bas-
