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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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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.
Volume 9 Page 405
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