A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby (Text only) by Lovell Mary S

Author:Lovell, Mary S. [Lovell, Mary S.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780007378449
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2012-06-28T04:00:00+00:00

The duchess died while the book was in the press and never saw the published result of her gossipy chats with the writer. Undoubtedly she had heard the story from someone who knew both her and Jane, for though it is highly coloured some elements of the story are too close to fact to be mere coincidence. We know she did not hear it from Jane herself. A diary entry makes it clear they never met after Jane left Athens in the spring of 1853, for the old lady died in the spring of 1854, and Jane wrote of her, ‘How I regret not seeing her when I returned from Syria in 1853, and no longer having the portrait she gave me.’2

Jane’s visit to Athens in June 1854 lasted three weeks while she ‘ran about town’ sorting out her financial affairs and leaving instructions for the shipment of her chattels. She did not see Hadji-Petros, for he was in the north with his Palikares. She was able to recover her jewellery, the most important piece being ‘the King’s bracelet’ with a miniature of King Ludwig painted on ivory set in a gold frame. Some items, such as the duchess’s portrait, were gone for ever, but Jane was never too concerned with material goods. At the end of June she sailed for Smyrna. With the exception of one short visit a few years later, Jane kicked the dust of Athens from her shoes and hardly looked back.

Edmond About never saw Jane again. In a footnote to his book he wrote that she had announced her return for the winter of 1856. Meanwhile, he said, ‘Hadj-Petros has returned to Athens and is swaggering along the Palissia Road, younger and more adored than ever.’3

It cannot be said that Jane’s new determination carried her through all the inevitable problems that arose. She had qualms about whether she was doing the right thing in casting herself adrift, yet further from her family. But her conclusion was that she had nothing to lose by starting a new life in Syria, and if the venture failed she would be in no worse a position than at present. Three concerns were uppermost in her mind: her worry that she might never again see her mother alive, the difficulties of making a new life without Eugénie’s help, and – primarily – Medjuel’s youth and his true feeling for her.

She arrived in Damascus to find that the sheikh was still in the desert with his tribe. She sent a message to him and set about buying a site for a house. When Medjuel arrived a few weeks later it was to find Jane deeply involved in directing builders for the house which she had designed. Those who saw it described it as a small palace. Jane called it a villa, often admitting it was far too large, but it is true that apart from the emir’s and pasha’s palaces this first house of Jane’s was widely considered to be the most important in Damascus.

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