Note 88 — HASSAN OR THE CHILD OF THE PYRAMID (continued 4)

The sketch given of this Egyptian Messalina is not imaginary, neither will it be difficult of recognition to any of the older residents in Cairo. The author, while passing in a boat before that window which has been made the scene of Hassan’s leap, has often been told by the Nile boatmen, “That is the window from which the bodies of her hapless lovers were thrown when she was tired of them.” The tale may be exaggerated, or perhaps invented; but at all events it shows the reputation enjoyed by the lady in question. Her crimes were not unknown to Mohammed Ali, for the author was once informed by a near relative of the old Viceroy that, on the occasion of some flagrant outrage similar to that described in the text, he was himself ordered by the indignant Prince to put her to death; and it was only by dint of urgent entreaties that he succeeded in procuring a commutation of the bloody sentence to a stern threat of summary punishment in case the offence should be repeated.