The
attack was unprovoked, and eventually unsuccessful. Twenty villages
were seen burning at the same time from Beiroot. The Druses repulsed
the Christians and punished them sharply; the Turkish troops, at the
instigation of the European authorities, marched into the mountain and
vigorously interfered. The Maronites did not show as much courage in the
field as in the standing committee at Deir el Kamar, but several of the
Shehaab princes who headed them, especially the Emir Kais, maintained
the reputation of their house and displayed a brilliant courage. The
Emir Fakre-deen was at Canobia at the time of the outbreak, which, as it
often happens, though not unpremeditated, was unexpected. He marched to
the scene of action at the head of his troops, and, when he found
that Kais had been outflanked and repulsed, that the Maronites were
disheartened in proportion to their previous vanity and insolence, and
that the Turkish forces had interfered, he assumed the character of
mediator. Taking advantage of the circumstances and the alarm of all
parties at the conjuncture and its yet unascertained consequences, he
obtained for the Maronites a long-promised indemnity from the Porte for
the ravages of the Druses in the civil war of 1841, which the Druses
had been unable to pay, on condition that they should accept the
geographical scheme of government; and, having signed, with other Emirs
and Sheikhs, the ten articles of peace, he departed, as we have seen, on
that visit to Jerusalem which exercised such control over the career
of Lord Monta-cute, and led to such strange results and such singular
adventures.
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