A few days after leaving Paris H.P.B. wrote to Madame Fadeef from
London, where she was staying with Miss Arundale:
"My dear, my precious Nadeja Andreevna! For many years I have not
cried, but now I have cried out all my tears on losing sight of you two. I thought my
heart would burst, I felt so faint. Happily, some kindly French people in the same
compartment as myself brought me some water at the next station and took care of me as
best they could. At Boulogne Olcott came to meet me, and was nearly ready to cry himself
on seeing how ill I was. He was also greatly put out by the thought that you and Vera
might think him heartless for not having come to fetch me in Paris. But the poor old body
never knew I was so unwell. You know I am always shaky. I spent a night in Boulogne, and
next morning five more of our Theosophists came from England to look after me. Amongst
them two good friends, Captain B. and his sister Lady T. I was nearly carried to the
steamer and off it again, and triumphantly brought to London. I can hardly breathe, but
all the same we have a reception this evening, to which probably about fifty of our old
acquaintances will come. English people in their totality are not fickle; they have lots
of constancy and loyalty. At Charing Cross, Mohini and K. nearly frightened to death all
kinds of English people by falling down before me as if I had been an idol. It made me
positively angry, this tempting of providence.
"My dear, this new parting from you is so bitter for me, and yet
it is a consolation to have seen each other and to have learned to know each other better.
I tell you, friend, life has nothing better than the consolation and happiness of the deep
affection for things and people we have loved from childhood. This kind of thing can never
die: it will have eternal life in eternity. Long, long after I had gone I saw you three
together you, Vera, and Madame de Morsier. She writes me she was with you
until the moment your train left. This woman has a good heart, for the sake of which we
must forgive her moody temper."
From London, between May and August, 1884:
"I shall never get well here... Its not life I lead here,
but a sort of mad turmoil from morning till night. Visitors, dinners, evening callers, and
meetings every day. Our Olga N. assures me she feels a sort of adoration for me, and daily
brings some of her friends to see me. She has already brought me the whole of celebrated
London, except the great Minister Gladstone, who, according to the St. James Gazette, both
fears and admires me is afraid of as much as he admires her! To my mind
this is simply a kind of glamor... On the 21st July there was a meeting conversazione
as they are called here in honor of Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott, held in
the Princes Hall. At first they printed five hundred invitation cards, and then
there was such a rush for them that they had to add nearly as many again. Madame N. wrote
asking for two tickets in the name of our Ambassador, and personally brought the
Ambassadors of France, Holland, Germany, Turkey, Prince H. of Roumania, and nearly the
whole of the staff of her devoted friend Gladstone. Lastly, Hitrovo, our Consul General in
Egypt, who came here on business... I leave it to your own imagination to fancy the
following picture: a huge hall, ladies in low dresses, costumes de gala of all
nations and I sitting in the place of honor, a kind of kingly throne out of a
ballet performance, in my black velvet dress with a tail three yards long (which I hate),
and Sinnett and Lord B. and Finch, the President of the London Lodge T.S., bringing and
introducing to me, one by one, all who want to make my personal acquaintance. And of such
there happened to be I am trying not to exaggerate about three hundred
people. Just fancy, smiling and shaking hands with three hundred ladies and gentlemen
during two hours. Oof!! Lord and Lady H. asked me to dine with them next day. After such
an evening: just think of it! Cross, the Secretary for India, sat down beside me and
complimented me to such an extent on the love of the Hindus for me that I simply got
frightened: they might put a political coloring even on this! Besides all sorts of
European notabilities, they introduced to me a heap of black and yellow Princes, Maori,
Javanese, Malay I dont know who. Professor Crookes and his wife sat behind my
arm-chair like a pair of adjutants, pointing out to me no end of their colleagues of the
Royal Society, celebrated savants in physics, astronomy, and all kinds of
Dark Sciences. Now, darling, do you see, do you feel, the working of Karma?
English Science, intelligence, and aristocracy paying honors to me which I do not deserve
in the least. Master declared to me beforehand it would be so, and now I am perfectly
miserable getting lots of visits and invitations, especially after Sinnetts speech
in Princes Hall. He struck an attitude and began to oratorise: Ladies and
gentlemen! Before you you see a woman who has accomplished a world-wide work. She alone
thought out and executed a colossal plan, the creation of a whole army of cultured people
whose duty it is to fight against Materialism and Atheism as much as against superstition
and an ignorant interpretation of the teaching of Christ (that is to say, against the one
hundred and thirty-seven sects, Shakers, Quakers, howling Salvationists revelling in
darkness) which is the shame of the Christian world... Ladies and gentlemen of cultured
England, behold the woman who has shown the world what can be accomplished by the power of
will, steadfastly pursuing a certain aim, and by a strongly realized ideal. All alone,
ill, without means, without patronage, without help of any kind, with the sole exception
of Col. Olcott, her first convert and apostle, Madame Blavatsky has planned to unite into
one intellectual whole a universal brotherhood of all nations and of all races. She has
accomplished this undertaking; she has overcome animosity, calumny, the opposition of
fanatics, and the indifference of ignorant people... Even our liberal Anglo-Indian
government mistakenly arose against her humanitarian mission. But happily it realized its
mistake and stopped in time. And so on and on in the same strain. The applause was
deafening. I tried to blush for modestys sake, but got pale instead of want of air.
I nearly fainted, for I am still very weak; though my legs from that moment in the railway
station have stopped aching altogether.
"What am I to do with all these letters, evidently intended to
arouse my pity, from all these admirers who are so very much in love with me? Half of them
I can answer only in thought. But amongst them are many whom I really love and pity, as
for instance our poor Solovioff. Its not long since I have come to London, but I
have already got two such pitiful letters. The only thing he asks of me is to care for him
and not forget him. He says he has never loved anyone outside of his family as he loves
poor old me. Also our dear J. D. Glinka: do you know what she has done? She has printed
five hundred copies of the document and the letter of Prince Dondukoff clearing me from
the calumny of Mdlle. Smirnoff, and has sent them to all who are doubtful about the
matter... But, God bless my enemies! Now listen to a curious story: M. A. Hitrovo, our
Consul in Egypt, called on me and asked me among other things: By the way, did you
get our telegram, signed collectively by all the crew of the frigate Strelok? We
sent from Suez to Port Said an expression of our gratitude to Radha Bai (1)
for her kindly affection and remembrances of her compatriots. I listened
silently without understanding a word. But dont you remember, he says,
I, as Consul, had to see off the Ambassador to China, and so was on board the
frigate which you m et in the Suez Canal. Only then I remembered. Dont you
recollect I told you in Paris about a joke I played in Suez, on the 3d of March if I am
not mistaken. Our steamer of the Messagerie had to tie up in order that a big
Russian frigate might pass on its way to China. So I took my visiting-card and wrote on
it, A Russian woman who during many years never saw a Russian face sends a hearty
greeting and deep salutations and her wishes for a pleasant voyage to all the Russians,
beginning with the Commander and the officers and ending with the Marines. God protect
Russia and her Czar! signed Radha Bai. And on the other side I wrote my real
name and my Adyar address. We put this card into a tin box and flattened it. Then when the
frigate was in line with us, Olcott very deftly threw the tin over into a group of
officers and soldiers, and I shouted A letter to the Commander. It was handed
to him immediately, and under our very eyes he read it out. All the officers took off
their caps to me, waving them to my address, and the crew shouted Hurrah! I
was awfully pleased. We were all very much amused by your invention, said
Hitrovo, and very much touched by your note. The Ambassador and all the officers
immediately agreed to wire you their gratitude to Port Said. And fancy, isnt
it vexing, it was never delivered to me... I told Hitrovo I should insist upon its
delivery, as a souvenir."
Herr Gebhardt came to fetch H.P.B. from London, and took her over to
Elberfeldt, anxious that she should have proper care and rest, as well as tonic waters and
massage, which had been ordered by many doctors who had agreed that her brain was the only
sound organ in her body. H.P.B. writes:
"I travelled as if I had been a queen. Everywhere I had cabins and
railway carriages all to myself, and Gebhardt, who came to fetch me in London, never
allowed me to pay a penny for anything. We were about fifteen Theosophists travelling
together, and here I have also found a large party of German Theosophists waiting for me.
The President of the new German Branch, Dr. Hubbe Schleiden, Baron von Hoffman and his
wife, de Prel, a certain dignified Countess Spreti with her husband and Aid-de-Camp
for he is a General Captain U. I may well say with Madame Kourdukoff (2) that I have found here a company of lords, counts, and princes,
all of them very decent people and all Theosophists of ours. Besides them
there was the celebrated painter, Gabriel Max (dont you know?), with his wife and
his sister-in-law, and Madame Hammerle from Odessa; and Solovioff writes that he will not
fail to come. What if you come also?"
Next came the Coulomb disturbance. In regard to this Madame Jelihovsky
writes: "H.P.B. stayed nearly two months in Germany and was thinking of settling in
Europe for good a step greatly recommended by the doctors. But at this time began a
tragi-comedy, preparations for which had been made long previously by the enemies of her
work. The Christian College Magazine of Madras issued a series of letters
purporting to be signed by her and to be written to a certain French woman, Madame
Coulomb. This Madame Coulomb, with her husband, had kept a hotel in Cairo some years
before, and Helena Petrovna had stayed in it during the existence of her Spiritualistic
Society which never succeeded. Unfortunately for her, she met them again, many years
later, in India, when they were in abject misery and want, and kind-heartedly sheltered
them in her house. In H.P.B.s absence Madame Coulomb quarrelled with all the
occupants of the house, and consequently thought of finding some other situation for
herself. Then Madame Coulomb was offered a very profitable transaction. Someone was sent
to them by a certain missionary, explaining to them that in destroying this heretical
Society they would act as good Christians and besides would earn a goodly sum of
money." This the Coulombs tried to earn as all now know. H.P.B. writes:
"Everything has changed. A hostile wind is blowing on us. What
cure, what health is possible for me? I have to go back quickly to the climate that is
fatal to me. It cant be helped. Were I to pay for it with death, I must clear up
these schemes and calumies because it is not me alone they harm: they shake the confidence
of people in our work, and in the Society, to which I have given the whole of my soul. So
how can I care for my life? ... They write to us that in Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta all
the street walls are covered with thousands of placards: Fall of Madame Blavatsky;
her Intrigues and Deceits Discovered and so on and so on. But on the other
hand there are more than a thousand people who have arisen in my defence. Not letters
alone, but telegrams costing thousands of rupees have been sent to the Times of
London. As to India, the war there is more than a newspaper war. About two hundred native
students have crossed out their names from the registers of this Christian College whose
journal has printed these wonderful letters of mine. To be fair to truth, I must say that
with the exception of two or three government papers in India, everyone is on my side.
Even here some people have shown themselves real friends to me. Madame N. brought
Mackenzie Wallace to see me; he has lived in Russia and speaks Russian so well. He is
going to be sent as a Secretary to the Viceroy, Lord Dufferin. He gave me a letter of
introduction to Nubar Pasha of Cairo, requesting him to help me in finding information
about the Coulombs. Above all it is necessary to show up these rascals."
Endnotes
(1) "Radha Bai" was H.P.B.s
Russian nom-de-plume.
(2) Madame Kourdukoff is the heroine of a well-known
Russian comic poem, a mixture of Russian, French, German, and English.
Continued in Part VIII
Return to Table of Contents for
Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to Her Family in Russia