CHAPTER XXIII

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR

Go to Turkey as Times naval correspondent - Hobart Pasha: his incompetence - Freeman the historian - Gallenga - Suleiman Pasha, murderer of Abdul Aziz - Plot to restore Murad V. to the throne - Woods Pasha, K.C.B. - Abdul Hamid - Midhat Pasha.

WE had not been long on the Allan when I unexpectedly received an offer from the Times to go to the seat of the Russo-Turkish War as naval correspondent. For that newspaper - in common with every one in and out of the British Kingdom - expected that, as an Englishman - Hobart Pasha - had been for years the virtual Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish Navy, and had been specially appointed to that influential post through the action of the British Government, the Turkish Fleet would be a weighty factor in the great struggle.

How absolutely futile were any such hopes is now ancient history, and as Hobart is long since dead it is unnecessary to drag his frailties from their dread abode. Suffice it to say, his incompetence and complete failure to recognise the enormously important part he had been called on to play in the history of Europe, produced their natural result, and that the Turkish Fleet, in the hour of need, proved not only totally unfit for sea work and

391

392

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR

maritime fighting, but was the immediate cause of the invasion of Turkey - across the Danube - by the Russian Armies.

There were several other correspondents in the steamer between Trieste and Constantinople in which I travelled, and amongst the passengers one of such retiring, unassuming manners that a rowdy American - going out for some New York paper - was generally pointedly rude to him, and got up the story that he was a linen draper or a photographer. However, whatever he was any one's opinion of him seemed to concern him very little, and it was quite evident he had not the least wish to make our acquaintance. He was Lord Melgund, now the Earl of Minto and Viceroy of India, and it was amusing to see how one by one our clique began to discover what a charming man he was, headed by the aforesaid Yankee - who literally grovelled before him, and would have done any menial service for him - when we accidentally discovered who he was, through his telling me that he was a friend of my brother Claude, with whom he had campaigned in Afghanistan. I have often made mistakes like this in life - notably when once I took the Duke of Somerset - then First Lord of the Admiralty - for the dockyard rat-catcher. The Duke had strolled on board my ship, the Sylvia - then in dock - during the men's dinner hour, and came up and asked me to say he wished to see the Captain.

"Nonsense!" I said. "You can't see the Captain about your job be off."

He remained quite undisturbed, and said, "Will you kindly inform him that the Duke of Somerset wishes to see him."

Then I saw he was not a rat-catcher.

Mr. Freeman, the historian, and his daughter - afterwards Mrs. Arthur Evans - had also taken a passage in

393

DIFFICULT DEALINGS : GALLENGA

the steamer, and had embarked in the evening. But they suddenly disembarked just before we sailed.

My début in Constantinople as regards my newspaper was anything but pleasant, for I had received a mysterious hint - tantamount to an order to act on it - from my long-time, valued friend, Mr. MacDonald, the manager of the Times, that the paper was extremely displeased with its Constantinople correspondent, Mr. Gallenga, who had made himself very objectionable to the British Ambassador, and that I was, more or less, expected to take the work temporarily out of his hands. It may be imagined that this was no easy matter, and when I endeavoured, in the most delicate way in the world, to suggest this to Gallenga, that irascible Italian flew into a great rage and asked me on what authority I was acting. Practically I had none. So I left the matter to boil itself out, and soon after another man came out - Austen - and officially superseded him, leaving me to go about my special business in naval matters.

I now turned my attention to the Fleet, and, fortunately, found a most valuable assistant in my inquiries in the person of the present Sir Henry Woods Pasha, then holding some very subordinate post in the Imperial Dockyard, though practically doing all the work. I believe if it had not been for Woods the entire Naval Service of Turkey would have collapsed, and I also believe if he had had his way really great things might have been done. But that incompetent man, Hobart, though perfectly willing to leave all the work in Woods's hands, was jealous of him, and, with the Minister of Marine, equally jealous, between them this active, intelligent young man found all his efforts constantly thwarted.

However, all this, too, is ancient history - though

394

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR

extremely interesting as indirectly moulding, not only the then history of Turkey, but of far-reaching consequences in things as yet unborn.

They were stirring times in Constantinople at that time. Abdul Aziz had been murdered by Suleiman Pasha - there is now little doubt of that fact - and Murad, his successor, a weak, self-indulgent débauché, having been driven from his throne with the virtual consent of all the European Powers, had been succeeded by Abdul Hamid, the present Sultan.

It would be impossible in a brief space to give any idea of the complication of affairs and of the political intrigues as they presented themselves in Constantinople from the year 1876 to the end of the war. No kaleidoscope or the laws of prisms could effect more startling changes in form and colour than were to be witnessed in the grouping of persons and parties in that distracted Empire, and, unfortunately for England, after the splendid pre-eminence, amongst all Ambassadors to the Porte, of Stratford de Redcliffe, a succession of weak men had represented England, so that - already by that time - this country had become a quantité negligiable in Oriental politics.

It is true we recovered ground for a brief time under Lord Beaconsfield - but what he succeeded in doing when the Russians were practically masters of Constantinople, was literally done in spite of our Ambassador, and by no means through his influence. But to return to my narrative.

I had not been many days in Pera before I began to understand some of the complications about me - for I went about everywhere I could, and owed a great deal to Woods and to the clever family, the Whittals, into which he had married, but more especially to a very old friend of mine, Wrench, our Consul. Amongst

395

A GREAT CONSPIRACY

others I made an acquaintance for which I was indebted to an extremely interesting and curious experience. This was a lady, Madame ------, but whose name as the sequel will show it is impossible for me to give.

To this lady I was indebted for all kinds of mysterious information which could only have emanated from some one thoroughly behind the scenes, and, what is more, I found out from other sources that it was generally entirely to be relied on, though, unfortunately, always tainted by violent partisanship which made it useless - if not dangerous - to employ.

Her husband - who never appeared on the scene - had once occupied an important post, but had fallen from his high estate, and ill-natured people said the lady lived by her wits - no mean outfit for any one, however - for she was one of the cleverest women I ever met ; in fact, admittedly the cleverest woman in the East, with the additional advantage of most remarkable beauty and charm though much of it was gone when I knew her.

We became great friends, and it was not long before I saw that she had some object in her attention to me that was of great importance to her. After a time, out it came : and sufficiently startling it was.

She was manoeuvring one of the innumerable plots then going on to dethrone Abdul Hamid and reinstate Murad V.

At first I hardly grasped the enormous significance of such an enterprise, and certainly had not the faintest glimmer in my mind of the forces on all sides which this brilliant and audacious woman determined to set in motion. My own powerlessness to engineer so stupendous an affair seemed to me beyond all doubt, but Madame ------ thought otherwise, and gradually opened

396

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR

up to me her ideas of the means at our disposal. The first things that dawned on me were the vast sums of money at her command : the extraordinary ramifications of her plot : the infinite number of persons - all of the highest official position, including persons in the immediate entourage of Abdul Hamid - who were already involved in the matter. Gradually, too, was opened before me a network of Embassy intrigues, cf all the Powers, in which historic names were mentioned, with letters of most compromising nature, written by all manner of often unsuspecting people, or notes of invitation, and messages on scraps of paper, which were made to synchronise with certain events and the sayings and doings of certain people, written by ladies, wives, sisters, cousins, of Ambassadors, by attachés and secretaries of Embassies, with prodigious piles of reports and memoranda from spies of every nationality. The labyrinth was simply amazing.

Then - over and above all this - was a picture drawn to me of the most dazzling description of my own self-interest in it - and I was at once offered a very large sum of money if I would embark in the enterprise. And what support was I to give ? I must remind the reader that in those days - and even long after - the Times had then the greatest influence in the whole world of European politics, and that which the Times said one day the world believed and acted on the next. I can only say that I had personal experience of this myself : for some of the most far-reaching consequences have followed on my own initiative through the columns of that once mighty organ.

So I was to take up Murad's cause - at first very gradually but the chief thing was to start it, and I was to endeavour to initiate a new policy as regards the Eastern Question.

397

TOUJOURS LA FEMME

And here I may casually mention that that identical policy has been and is still being carried out in the East. I cannot here describe it in its entirety, but suffice it to say that it involved the hegemony of the Balkan Provinces and the gradual withdrawal of British influence in the Near East.

To coach me up in this complicated and multifarious question Madame ------ spared neither time nor lost opportunity, the great point with her being to persuade me that Murad was no more mad, no more a drunkard, and no more unfit to reign than dozens of Sultans who had sat on the Ottoman throne. She drew a masterly picture of the other side of the question, namely, of the character of the present Sultan, and I am bound to say that after all these years and the strange vicissitudes through which he has gone, I am amazed at her prescience. Short of prophecy I know nothing to be compared to the extraordinary perspicacity of this woman. A certain British Ambassador had had penetration enough to discover and utilise her wonderful genius for intrigue.

It may be easily imagined that this affair gave me much food for thought, for under her influence I began to believe that her version of Murad, and her view of British interests were correct. Of the former I have my doubts ; of the latter I have none. But the most interesting of the strings she wished me to pull in this affair she had not yet put in my hands, though after a few days I had hold of it. This was a personal interview with the Valideh Sultan, the mother of Murad, and it came off in due time.

On an appointed night I went to Madame 's house: there was a small strip of a garden at the back which communicated with another house in another street, the bottom of which went almost down to the Bosphorus. It

398

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR

was an ideal place for conducting a conspiracy. Madame ------'s daughter ushered me in and told me that there was no one in except her mother, and I went upstairs and was shown into a back drawing-room, when in a short time I heard a carriage drive up and two Turkish ladies wearing, of course, their yashmaks, and accompanied by Madame ------, made their appearance. I could see by their manner they were extremely nervous, and they both seemed to cling to Madame ------ and talked hurriedly about what, of course, I am ignorant. Then, whilst this was going on, more footsteps sounded on the stairs and all the women jumped up and bowed low as a tallish, stout woman, with her yashmak partly pulled aside, came into the room. Then at once Madame ------'s daughter and the two other Turkish women retired and we three were left alone. But the new-comer passed by, without taking any notice of me, and, entering the big salon, sat down on the divan, when Madame ------ took off her guest's slippers, lighted a nargileh and handed it to her with much ceremony. Coffee and sherbet, the invariable adjuncts of a visit in Turkey, were dispensed with : I suppose because there were no servants in the house.

After some earnest talk in tones which again indicated great agitation, Madame went to the head of the stairs and listened, came back to the window and carefully shut the Venetians, and then beckoned to me to approach the divan. She then said something in Turkish, which I took to be a presentation, and I bowed and stood still and Madame ------ said to me--

" This is the Valideh Sultan the mother of His Majesty Murad V."

Her veil was almost completely off, and I looked down on her face, pale and sad, with a small mouth, on which the blindest could not fail to read grief, and with large,

399

AN UNVEILED EMPRESS

lustrous dark eyes which stared at me unmoved. I have often seen tragedy queens on the stage, the greatest and most renowned of actresses of the last half-century, but never have I seen a face that bore such traces of emotion and sorrow as this woman's. Nor was it to be surprised at, seeing that she was entrusting her very life and that of her son to a perfect stranger, and he not a follower of the Prophet. Her hands - which were extremely white and stout, the nails crimson - seem to twitch involuntarily, and at last, as she looked, I saw the tears fill her eyes.

She said nothing - nor did I, naturally - not knowing one single word of Turkish appropriate to the occasion, and then at last Madame ------ broke the awkward silence and translated for me what the Valideh Sultan said. It was a long protest against all the villainy which had led to the dethronement of her son - in fact, all the story I already knew. She also said that Abdul Aziz had been murdered by Suleiman Pasha - that the story of his suicide was false - that Suleiman had broken into a room near where the Sultan was, and had found a pair of scissors in the work-basket belonging to one of the harem, and had held the Sultan down whilst he, Suleiman, severed the veins of his arm. I have heard this has been contradicted since, but personally I believe it to be true.

The interview, however, did not last long, but its object was attained, which was that I should thoroughly impress on my mind the features of Murad's mother in order that I might be able to identify her at a later stage of the plot. The Imperial lady then rose up, and Madame ------, having first pinned up her yashmak and arranged her ferijeh, escorted her out of the room.

They went downstairs, and, looking out of the window

400

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR

which gave on the garden at the back, I saw the other two Turkish women waiting for their mistress, when all three, followed by Madame ------ and her daughter, who bolted the door after them, crossed the garden and disappeared through the small wooden gate at the end of the path.

Then Madame ------ returned to the salon and explained to me far into the night all the meaning of the interview.

It was arranged that I was to be smuggled across the Bosphorus to the Tcheragan Palace, where Murad was imprisoned, and there I was to have an interview with Murad himself in the presence of the lady I had just seen, and I was to form my own opinion as to whether the deposed Sultan was mad or not. I had been given the privilege of seeing his mother in order that he himself might feel confidence in me as an emissary of Madame ------'s, who had always been on his side.

All this struck me as feasible enough, but I still refused to commit myself definitely to Madame ------'s plan, and said that all I could do was to give the whole matter my most serious consideration. This, of course, she thought quite reasonable, and, accompanying me downstairs, let me out into her dark, narrow street, whispering to me to be careful : for spies were in every direction.

I returned to my apartment, and all that night I sat and thought. I need hardly say I was enormously impressed by the strange scene I had gone through, for I at once dismissed from my mind that the affair was what the Yankees call "gotten up." The whole thing was too real ; moreover, there was nothing to be gained by acting such a perilous pantomime, if it were one. These people were clearly playing for a tremendous stake - the greatest stake that can be played in the game of

401

A NIGHT OF THOUGHT

Fate - life and death. The most potent influences in all the gamut of human nature were the cards they played with, a mother's love to begin with, and infinite self-interest and wealth following in its wake.

All through those long hours I strove with the utmost of my intelligence, to try and see what was best to do consistent with honour. I felt keenly, nay, almost desperately inclined to throw in my lot with the conspirators. What was Abdul Hamid to me? I owed him no loyalty, whilst, on the other hand having studied all that Midhat had done to regenerate Turkey and knowing that this dark-souled Armenian who had climbed to the throne over this miserable Murad's body was the only obstacle to these reforms being carried out - bringing happiness to millions upon millions of people and securing the peace of the world for a long, long time - I felt this world would be well rid of him.

For, naturally, this was no rose-water intrigue, and the people concerned in it were not those to hesitate about removing any obstacle from their path. I was by no means the only person in Constantinople who thought that Turkey would have been better and happier even with a weak-minded man like Murad - though only nominally its head - than left in the clutches of the most merciless, crafty despot that ever sat on the throne of Othman. As to the Times if I had any influence with that paper, it was still, of course, extremely light, and I knew that it might be impossible for me to drive in the wedge which was to open up this new policy. But Madame ------ did not take that view. She said that the whole question was in a fluid state, and that the stream might easily be diverted into this channel. She had had great experience : and thought every man was venal.

However, I need not weary the reader with all the pros and cons that weighed in my mind, though I must in

402

RUSSO-TURKISH WAR

honesty say that self-interest was by no means absent from them. For it will often turn the scale when the balance is even.

But, looking back now, I see that what really decided me was that I had now those at home who depended on me, and that what would have been quite justifiable had I been single was perhaps no longer so. So after painful indecision, I determined I would not pursue the venture. Perhaps it was as well, for a week after I might quite possibly have found myself with a knife in my ribs in some dark corner of Galata, or floating gaily down the Bosphorus in a sack.

Fortunately for me, an outlet of escape was to my hand. Hobart had agreed to take me a cruise round the Black Sea in the Imperial yacht Retimo : to leave next day. So early in the morning I called on Madame ------ and told her I had determined not to go into the matter any more. She naturally behaved like the woman of the world she was, and made no kind of demur, and we parted the very best of friends, thus closing one of the most curious episodes of my life. The only stipulation she made was that, for her sake and for that of her children, I would keep the matter secret. All this happened more than thirty years ago. The white-veiled woman who I saw vanish through that garden door is dead, and dead, also, is the unhappy prisoner of the Tcheragan, though he lived some thirty years after that, still confined within high walls, but occasionally visited by the man who had supplanted him. Madame ------, too, is dead. But their plan is still a secret, though widely hinted at. Midhat Pasha, who was directly or indirectly concerned in many of these conspiracies to dethrone Abdul Hamid, is dead, too - died a horrible death, for which there must be a heavy reckoning some day. He was exiled to Taif, a remote place in Arabia,

403

AN ORIENTAL REQUITAL

by order of the man whom he had been chiefly instrumental in placing on the throne where first his eyes were put out, and then was daily subjected to frightful beatings with sticks, until he succumbed. He was one of the greatest statesmen of the last century.

The last time I saw him he was seeking refuge in England, and I went to Keyser's Hotel, Blackfriars, to call on him. But he unwisely returned again to Constantinople, and finally fell into Abdul Hamid's clutches. With one or two exceptions I believe he was the only honest Turk I ever met. He died miserably poor, after having had practically unlimited scope for amassing wealth. In appearance he was short, round, and puffy : not in the least like any kind of Oriental, and had no presence about him. He reminded one more of a French doctor, or a croupier at Monaco.

<-Previous Chapter - Next Chapter ->

^ back to top ^