RISK ALLAH.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 369, 6 October 1868, Page 2

RISK ALLAH.

[From the Saturday Review.~\ Risk Allah's wondrous life aud adventures, combines every requisite for a romance of real life, and it is only in the fictitious biographies of Gil Bias and Anastasius that we can recall anything- like the romantic and varied incidents of his chequered and prosperous life.—Risk Allah was a Syrian, horn in the Lebanon, of a respectable family—we use his advocate's biography, as well as his own autobiography, throughout. He passed his youth in ancient Damascus, the very place of all others to train the subtle Oriental intellect. His first patron was a person no less distinguished than one of the first soldiers of the age, gallant Lord Strathnairn. He afterwards came to England to study medicine, and to push his fortune, and succeeded. He got into some practice and good society, as most handsome foreigners, well furnished with poetical eyes, sonorous name, and exceptional antecedents can often do. And he had the good luck, just as the heroes of Defoe and Le Sage, to take part in the most stirring events of the day. He went out to the Crimea for

professional purposes; and, just like the heroes of Ouida and Guy Livingston, combined the prowess of Rustam with the graces of a Sister of Mercy. Turkish orders, decorations, letters, purses, piastres, fame, and medals rewarded the gallant Bey ; and in 1857, crowned with glory, he returned to England. Here was just the material for a marryiug man. Of course he sought, or was sought by, a wealthy widow. Handsome foreigners and Oriental names always get these bonnes fortunes. Mrs. Lewis, a widow, gave herself to the charming stranger ; her fortune exceeding twenty-thousaud pounds. Mrs. Lewis had a touch of romance about her associations at any rate, for she had ? nephew, who was not as as other nephews are ; he was her sister's natural child. The marriage only gave the happy bridegroom, Eisk Allah, £3OOO down ; but in two years Mrs. Risk Allah died, leaving to her husband the whole of her property, except £SOOO which was to go to the illegitimate nephew on his attaining the age of twenty-one ; failing this life, the £5900 was also bequeathed to' Risk Allah. In the meantime Risk Allah, a man of versatility, skill, and adventure, did as a good many other high-spirited persons have done exchanged the arts of war and medicine for those of financing, He was now a capitalist, dealt in shares, extended his transactions, and London, Paris, aud Constantinople were the scenes of his investments and speculations. Exactly two months before youngßeadleycameJof age, he committed suicide at Brussels, and the coincidence excited so much attention that Risk Allah was tried for murder, but was acquitted on the proof of suicide. By his marriage with Mrs Lewis, Risk Allah therefore acquired between £20,000 and £25,000. All his connexions and acquaintances seem to have a touch of the romantic—or, as they say, the sensational—about them. We had nearly forgotten some triding details of the same character. On one occasion Risk Allah had the ill luck to get shipwrecked, and to lose as much as £6OOO of jewels, for which he made a claim on the insurers of the ship. Everything in connexion with Risk Allah is splendid, Oriental, and gorgeous. His wife had iewels of great value. If he negotiates a loan, it is for a round million. And not only is he shipwrecked once, but twice ; and, like Dogberry, he had his losses, and tremendous losses too, —£6000 of jewels lost as a foresaid, in shipwreck in the Mediterranean, and £3OOO of hard cash lost by an upset in a boat on the Bosphorus. The divers could not recover, though they tried, all this treasure, and it is to be hoped that the owner has been more fortunate with the Insurance Companies. Mrs. Lewis, however, was not the only wealthy person whose acquaintance Risk Allah was lucky enough to make. At Brighton he fell in with a gentleman of most stupendous specialties, for he used to drink ten bottles of wine a day, aud had very queer associates of the gentle sex. This Mr Bingham was enchanted with Risk Allah ; and though their acquaintance only lasted three months, it being terminated by Mr Bingham's death, so attractive was Risk Allah to this ten-bottle valetudinarian that he was appointed his only child's guardian and intrusted with pecuniary and other very delicate transactions. So strange and unusual were these events, that Mr Bingham's executors made a certain charge against Riak Allah about a mysterious two thousand guineas, shares, and bonds, and all sorts of things. As in the case of. young Readley's death, it all turned out well at last, for Risk Allah was exonerated. We have here quite the the substance of a novel ; the hero is always getting robbed and shipwrecked, and always being persecuted by false charges ; always getting into prison, and always getting out of it; always be ing tried for his life, and always being acquitted. But this was not all. This varied and exciting life was to have one grand and crowning boquet of pyrotechnical sensation. Risk Allah got acquainted with one Osman, and another adventurer. Those precious people had the misfortune to be very notorious thieves, and one of them at least was a convicted swindler and robber ; and, on the principle of noscitur a sociis, unfortuuate Risk Allah was charged with being an accomplice in his friend's frauds. But he was on this occasion a dupe, and with all his varied experiences of men and manners the accomplished Syrian was victemised by a more accomplished Turk. However, things have all come straight. Risk Allah has vindicated his entire character, aud to his other succeesses he has added the finishing touch by getting a verdict for the mysterious sum—every thing about this history is mysterious—of £O9O, from th e Daily Telegraph.