304 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
the Ambassador was about to quit Paris, without having been presented at the
Tuilleries. The reason assigned was, that the Mirza expected the King to stand
up in his presence, and in that posture receive the letter with which he was
intrusted from his master, the Persian Monarch. This the French King could
not do, being ill at the time with gout. His Excellency next insisted that he
must sit beside his Majesty, or at least in front of him, otherwise he should
have his head cut off on his return. As neither of these points of etiquette
could be complied with, and the French Court had no desire to be accessory to
his decapitation, it was,resolved that the simplest way to avoid difficulties was to
dispense with the interview altogether.
After much delay and anxious expectation the Ambassador and his fair
Circassian arrived at their lodgings in Charles Street, Berkeley Square, London,
on the 27th of April 1819. He was waited on by several of the Ministers,
and next day gave a dinner to a select party of five, among whom were Lords
Castlereagh and Walpole, and Sir Gore Ouseley, who had formerly accompanied
him to Persia, None of the visitors, however, were gratified with a glimpse of
the Circassian. She occupied the inner drawing-room; and the doh of her
apartment, aecording to the newspaper reports of the day (which were probably
not entitled to unlimited credence), was constantly guarded by two of the four
black eunuchs, with sabres by their sides, who were her only attendants.’
This watchful seclusion of the “Fair Circassian ” tended the more to exaggerate
a belief in the reality of her charms. At length the irresistible importunities
of his friends induced his Excellency to comply with the wishes of the
female portion of the nobility ; and on the first occasion upwards of twenty
ladies of distinction were admitted into the presence of the fair incognita. The
introduction took place in the front drawing-room, between one and two o’clock.
The Circassian was elegantly attired in the costume of her country. Her dress
was a rich white satin, fringed with gold, with a bandeau round her head, and a
wreath of diamonds. She received her visitors with graceful affability ; and
the ladies were highly pleased with her reserved manners. Although not quite
such a model of female beauty as “ fancy painted her,” she was nevertheless
described, even by her fair critics, as a creature truly admirable, of medium
stature, and exquisite symmefry ; her complexion brunette ; her hair jet black,
with finely arched black eyebrows ; handsome black penetrating eyes ; and her
features regular and pleasing. Lady Augusta Murray, one of the visitors,
presented her with a beautiful nosegay, with which she seemed highly pleased.
From this period the residence of the Ambassador continued to be daily
thronged with ladies of rank, anxious to pay their respects to the interesting
stranger ; and all brought with them some elegant and costly present for the
decoration of her person.
Owing to the indisposition of the Prince Regent, the audience to the Ambasl
Aa illustrative of the domestic habits of the ambassador, it waa stated in the journals that he
nsually rose at six in the morning-went down stairs to bathe in a common bath hired from a tinsmith-
md that his dinner hour was six in the evening. His fair slave, or mistress, was supplied
from his own table, the servants in waiting conveying the dishes to her attendant outside the
drawing-room.