Chapter VIII (1)

Lady Hester’s system of astrology――Sympathies and antipathies―― People’s _nijems_ or stars――Mesmerism explained――Lord Suffolk――Lady Hester’s own star――Letter to the Queen――Letter to Mr. Speaker Abercrombie――Messieurs Beck and Moore――Letter to Colonel Campbell――The Ides of March――Lady Hester’s reflections on the Queen’s conduct to her――Letter to Sir Edward Sugden――What peers are――Junius’s Letters――Spies employed by the first Lord Chatham――Mr. Pitt’s opinion of the Duke of Wellington――Lady Hester’s letter to his Grace, &c.

In order to render intelligible to the reader many passages which have occurred, and will occur again, in Lady Hester’s conversations, respecting what she called people’s _nijems_ or stars, it may not be amiss to give an outline of her system of astrology, and of the supposed influence that the position of the stars in the heavens at our nativity has on our future fate and on our sympathies. I must preface what follows by observing that she had a remarkable talent for divining characters by the make of a person. This every traveller will testify who has visited her in Syria; for it was after she went to live in solitude that her penetration became so extraordinary. It was founded both on the features of the face and on the shape of the head, body, and limbs. Some indications she went by were taken from a resemblance to animals; and, wherever such indications existed, she inferred that the dispositions peculiar to those animals were to be found in the person. But, independent of all this, her doctrine was, that every creature is governed by the star under whose influence it was born.

Every star has attached to it two aërial beings, two animals, two trees, two flowers, &c.; that is, a couple of all the grand classes in creation, animal, vegetable, mineral, or etherial, whose antipathies and sympathies become congenial with the being born under the same star. She would say, “My brother Charles vomited if he ate three strawberries only: other people, born under the same star as his, may not have such an insurmountable antipathy as his was, because their star may be imperfect, whilst his was pure; but they will have it, more or less. Some persons again will have as much delight in the smell of particular flowers as cats have in the smell of valerian, when they sit and purr round it.

“The stars under which men are born may be one or more. Thus Mr. H*****, an English traveller, who came to see me, was born under four stars, all tending to beauty, but of no good in other respects. His forehead was as white as snow; his mouth” (I think she said) “was good, with a handsome small black beard; but his stars were otherwise dull: for you know the stars in the heavens are not always bright and twinkling, but sometimes heavy and clouded. It is like engravings――some of them are proofs, and those are perfect. Some persons may have a good star, but it may be cracked like a glass, and then, you know, it can’t hold water.

“The influence of stars depends, likewise, on whether they are rising, or in their zenith, or setting; and the angle at which they are must be determined by calculations, which good astrologers make very readily. But a clever man will, from his knowledge of the stars, look even at a child and say, ‘That child will have such and such diseases, such and such virtues, such and such vices;’ and this I can do: nay, what is more, I can give a description of the features of any person I have never seen, if his character is described to me, and vice versa. There is a learned man at Damascus, who possesses the same faculty in an extraordinary degree. He knew nothing of me but by report, and had never seen me: but a friend of his, having given him a description of my person and features, he noted down my virtues, vices, and qualities so exactly, that he even said in what part of my body I had got a mole, and mentioned the small mark on my shoulder, where Mr. Cline removed a tumour. There’s for you? do you believe these things, or do you not?

“A man’s destiny may be considered as a graduated scale, of which the summit is the star that presided over his birth. In the next degree comes the good angel[24] attached to that star; then the herb and the flower beneficial to his health and agreeable to his smell; then the mineral, then the tree, and such other things as contribute to his good; then the man himself: below him comes the evil spirit, then the venomous reptile or animal, the plant, and so on; things inimical to him. Where the particular tree that is beneficial or pleasurable to him flourishes naturally, or the mineral is found, there the soil and air are salubrious to that individual; and a physician who understood my doctrines, how easily could he treat his patients!――for, by merely knowing the star of a person, the simples and compounds most beneficial to him in medicine would be known also.

“How great the sympathies and antipathies are in stars that are the same or opposite I have told you before in my grandfather’s case, in Mr. Pitt’s, and in my own. Lord Chatham, when on a sick bed, could bear three people only to wait on him――Lady Chatham, Sarah Booby, and somebody else. My grandmamma’s star and Sarah Booby’s star were the same――both Venus――only grandmamma’s was more moderate; she could keep it down. Mr. Pitt, when he was ill at Putney, had such an aversion to one of the footmen, that he was nervous when he heard his step; for you know people, when they are sick, can hear a pin drop: he said to me, ‘Hester, do send that fellow to town.’ I did not let him know why he was sent to town, but I got him off as quickly as possible: he was, notwithstanding, a good servant, clean, and had otherwise good qualities; but Mr. Pitt’s and his star were different. As to myself, since I have been here, I had a professed French cook, called François――the people named him _Fransees el Franjy_. His skill was undoubted; yet, whenever he dressed my dinner, I was always sending for him to complain, and sometimes threw the dish in his face: a sweetmeat from his hand turned bitter in my mouth. But, what is most extraordinary of all, Miss Williams’s star was so disagreeable to me that I could not bear her to be near me when I was ill:――if I was in a perspiration, it would stop the moment she came into the room. You know how many good qualities she had, and how attached she was to me, and I to her: well, I always kept her out of my sight as much as I could, when anything was the matter with me.

“Such is the sympathy of persons born under the same star, that, although living apart in distant places, they will still be sensible of each other’s sufferings. When the Duke of York died, at the very hour, a cold sweat and a kind of fainting came over me, that I can’t describe. I was ill beyond measure, and I said to Miss Williams, ‘Somebody is dying somewhere, and I am sure it is one of my friends: so I made her write it down. Some time after, when she was poking over a set of newspapers, she came to me, and said, ‘It’s very singular, my lady; but, the time you were so very ill, and could not account for it, corresponds exactly with the date of the Duke of York’s death――the hour, too, just the same!’ Now, doctor, wasn’t it extraordinary? You drawl out ‘Y――e――s,’ just as if you thought I told lies: oh, Lord! oh, Lord! what a cold man!

“The proof of sympathy between the stars of two persons, or, in other words, of the star of another being good for you, is, when a person puts his finger on you and you don’t feel it. Zezefôon, when Mademoiselle Longchamp touches her with her fingers in examining the Turkish dress, shudders all over: that is a proof that her star is not good for her, and yet Miss L. uses more kind expressions to her than anybody; but that makes no difference; there is no sympathy in their stars.

“Animal magnetism is nothing but the sympathy of our stars. Those fools who go about magnetizing indifferently one person and another, why do they sometimes succeed, and sometimes fail?――because, if they meet with those of the same star with themselves, their results will be satisfactory, but with opposite stars they can do nothing. Some people you may magnetize, some you cannot; and so far will the want of sympathy act in some, that there are persons whom it would be impossible to put in certain attitudes: they might be mechanically placed there, but their posture never would be natural; whilst others, from their particular star, would readily fall into them. Oh! if I had your friend, Mr. Green,[25] here, I could give him some useful hints on choosing models for his lectures.

“There are animals, too, under the same star with human beings. I had a mule whose star was the same as mine; and, at the time of my severe illness, this mule showed as much sensibility about me, and more, than some of the beasts who wait on me. When that mule was first foaled, I had given orders to sell the foal and its mother; but, happening to see it, I countermanded the order immediately. It received a hurt in its eye, and when, with my hand, I applied some eye-water with camphor in it, which, of course, made the eye smart, it never once turned its head away, or showed the least impatience of what I was doing. When this mule was dying some years afterwards, she lay twenty-four hours, every minute seeming to be going to breathe her last; but still life would not depart. They told me of this, and I went to the stable. The moment she saw me, she turned her eyes on me, gave an expressive look, and expired. All the servants said she would not die until my star, which was hers, had come to take her breath: isn’t it very extraordinary? Serpents never die, whatever you can do to them, until their star rises above the horizon.[26]

“Some can do well only when under the guidance of another person’s star. What was Lord Grenville without Mr. Pitt? with him to guide him he did pretty well; but, as soon as Mr. Pitt was dead, he sunk into obscurity: who ever heard of Lord Grenville afterwards? So again Sir Francis Burdett has never been good for anything since Horne Tooke’s death. So long as Napoleon had Josephine by his side he was lucky: but, when he cast her off, his good fortune left him. You know you sent me her portrait: well, it was a good engraving, and I have no doubt was a likeness. I observed in her face indications of much falsity, and a depth of cunning exceedingly great: it was her _sâad_ (luck) that held him up. You may see so many examples of such good fortune depending on men’s wives. Mahomet Ali owes all to his wife――a woman without a nose. What saved the Shaykh Beshýr but the sâad of the Syt Haboos? Hamâady told the Emir Beshýr, ‘You will never do anything with the Shaykh Beshýr until you get rid of her, and then the Shaykh is in your power.’ So what did he do? he sent his son――the little Emir Beshýr, as they call him――who surrounded her palace with twenty horsemen, and, when she attempted to escape, drove her into her own courtyard, and stabbed her: her body was cut in pieces, and given to the dogs to eat.

“What is to account for some people’s good fortune but their star? There was Lord Suffolk, an ensign in a marching regiment, and thirteenth remove from the title――see what an example he was! It was predestined that he should arrive at greatness, although, when the news was brought him that he was come to the title, he had not money enough to pay for a post-chaise: but nothing could hinder what his good star was to bring him. Lady Suffolk, the daughter of a clergyman of a hundred a-year, was a very clever, shrewd woman, and filled her elevated station admirably.”

I have embodied thus much in Lady Hester Stanhope’s own words of what may give a tolerable idea of her notion of planetary influence. What her own star was may be gathered from what she said one day, when, having dwelt a long time on this, her favourite subject, she got up from the sofa, and, approaching the window, she called me to her――“Look,” said she, “at the pupil of my eyes; there! my star is the sun――all sun――it is in my eyes: when the sun is a person’s star, it attracts everything.” I looked, and replied that I saw a rim of yellow round the pupil.――“A rim!” cried she; “it isn’t a rim――it’s a sun; there’s a disk, and from it go rays all round: ’tis no more a rim than you are. Nobody has got eyes like mine.”[27]

Lady Hester Stanhope, in a letter she wrote to Prince Pückler Muskau, describes her system briefly as follows; and she desired me to keep a copy of it, that I might not, as she said, substitute my own ideas for hers.

“Every man, born under a given star, has his aërial spirit, his animal, his bird, his fruit-tree, his flower, his medicinal herb, and his dæmon. Beings born under any given star may be of four different qualities and forms, just as there may be four different qualities of cherries, having little resemblance one to another, but being nevertheless all cherries. Added to this, there may be varieties in the same star, occasioned by the influence of other stars, which were above the horizon in particular positions at the hour of a man’s birth: just as you may say that a ship is more or less baffled by certain winds, though she is standing her course. Again, a man being born under the same star with another man, whilst that star is in one sign of the zodiac, changes somewhat the character and appearance when in another sign of the zodiac: just as two plants which are alike, when one grows where there is always shade and the other where there is constantly sunshine, although precisely of one and the same kind, will differ slightly in appearance, odour, and taste.

“A man born under a certain star will have, from nature, certain qualities, certain virtues and vices, certain talents, diseases, and tastes. All that education can do is merely artificial: leave him to himself, and he returns to his natural character and his original tastes. If this were better known, young people would not be made to waste their time uselessly in fitting them for what they never can be.

“I have learned to know a man’s star by his face, but not by astrological calculations, as perhaps you fancy; of that trade I have no knowledge. I have been told that the faculty which I possess is much more vague than the astrological art, and I believe it: but mine is good for a great deal, though not for calculating the exact epoch of a man’s maladies or death.

“You will ask me how it is possible to know mankind by looking at their features and persons; and so thoroughly too. I answer――a gardener, when he sees twenty bulbs of twenty different flowers on the table before him, will he not tell you that one will remain so many days under ground before it sprouts, then it will grow little by little, very slowly, and in so many days or weeks will flower, and its flowers will have such a smell, such a colour, and such virtues: after so many days more, it will begin to droop and fade, and in ten days will wither: that other, as soon as it is out of the ground, will grow an inch and a half in every twenty-four hours: its flowers will be brilliant, but will have a disagreeable smell; it will bloom for a long time, and then will wither altogether in a day and why may not I, looking on men, pronounce on their virtues, qualities, and duration in the same way? This may not be well explained, but a clever person will divine what I mean.”

Such were, in the main, the opinions of Lady Hester on astrology, to which several travellers have alluded, but which, from defective information, they have hitherto misrepresented. It will be seen that there was at least method in her belief. We will now return from this digression.

Our narrative broke off in the middle of a conversation on the evening of January 31, 1838.

Tea was ordered; but so simple a process as getting tea ready was now a painful business. If it did not come immediately, Lady Hester grew so impatient, that it was distressing to see her agitation. She would then ring for a pipe, and perhaps send it back to be fresh filled or changed four or five times in succession, each one being, for some trifling reason, rejected. Alas! it was not the tea nor the pipes that were in fault; it was Colonel Campbell’s letter that had given a stab to her heart, from which she never recovered; and, in proportion to the apparent calm which she endeavoured to assume, when speaking on that subject, did the feeling of the supposed indignity which she had received prey on her spirits and on her pride.

She reverted to the letter. “The thing to be considered,” she said, “is whether I shall write a letter to the Queen, and ask the Duke of Wellington to give it to her, or whether I shall put it in the newspapers: for I am afraid, if I send it to him, he will not give it to her; or, if he does, they will say nothing about it. I should like to ask for a public inquiry into my debts, and for what I have contracted them. Let them compare the good I have done in the cause of humanity and science with the D――――s of K――――’s debts. When I am better, I’ll set all this to rights. I wonder if Lord Palmerston is the man I recollect――a young man just come from College, that was hanging about, waiting to be introduced to Mr. Pitt. Mr. Pitt used to say, ‘Ah! very well; we will ask him some day to dinner.’ Perhaps it is an old grudge that makes him vent his spite. He is an Irishman, I think.”

February 1.――To-day Lady Hester was much the same as on the preceding days: her pulse was low; her lungs were loaded with phlegm; aphthæ had shown themselves on her tongue; her nails were cracked from the contraction of the surrounding integuments; the tips of her fingers were cold; her back, as she sat up in bed, was bent; her bones almost protruded through the skin, from being obliged to lie always on one side. Speaking of her inability to sleep, except in some particular position, she observed that she was like those little figures of tumblers; place her as you would, she rolled over to the left side, as if there was a weight of lead there.

After the usual preliminaries of smoking a pipe and a little conversation, she dictated her letter to the Queen and to Mr. Abercrombie, speaker of the House of Commons.

* * * * *

_Lady Hester Stanhope to the Queen._

Jôon, February 12, 1838.

Your Majesty will allow me to say that few things are more
disgraceful and inimical to royalty than giving commands
without examining all their different bearings, and casting,
without reason, an aspersion upon the integrity of any
branch of a family who had faithfully served their country
and the house of Hanover.

As no inquiries have been made of me what circumstances
induced me to incur the debts alluded to, I deem it
unnecessary to enter into any details upon the subject. I
shall not allow the pension given by your royal grandfather
to be stopped by force; but I shall resign it for the
payment of my debts, and with it the name of English
subject, and the slavery that is at present annexed to it:
and, as your Majesty has given publicity to the business by
your orders to consular agents, I surely cannot be blamed in
following your royal example.

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

* * * * *

_Lady Hester Stanhope to Mr. Speaker Abercrombie._

Jôon, February 12, 1838.

Sir,

Probably the wheel-horse has forgotten his driver, but the
latter has not forgotten him.[28] I am told that the chief
weight of the carriage of state bears upon you; if so, it
must be a ponderous one indeed, if I can judge by a specimen
of the talent of those who guide it.

You, who have read and thought a great deal upon men and
manners, must be aware that there are situations almost
unknown in Europe from which persons, in what is called a
semi-barbarous country, cannot extricate themselves with
honour without taking a part either for or against humanity:
besides, there are extraordinary gusts of knowledge――of
extraordinary information――which, if you do not take
advantage of them at the moment, are lost to you for ever. I
have, therefore, exceeded my pecuniary means, but always
with the hope of extricating myself without the assistance
of any one; or at least (and ever before my eyes, should the
worst come to the worst) with that of selling the reversion
of what I possess. Your magnificent Queen has made me appear
like a bankrupt in the world, and partly like a swindler;
having given strict orders that _one_ usurer’s account must
be paid, or my pension stopped, without taking into
consideration others who have equal claims upon me. Her
Majesty has not thrown the gauntlet before a driveller or a
coward: those who are the advisers of these steps cannot be
wise men.

Whatever men’s political opinions may be, if they act from
conscientious motives, I have always respected them; and you
know that I have had friends in all parties. Therefore,
without any reference to the present or past political
career of ministers, or her Majesty’s advisers, their
conduct would appear to me, respecting myself, identically
as it was, gentlemanlike or blackguard. But, having had but
too strong a specimen of the latter by their attempting to
bully a Pitt, and to place me under consular control, it is
sufficient for me to resign the name of an English subject;
for the justice granted to the slave of despotism far
exceeds that which has been shown to me. Believe me, with
esteem and regard, yours,

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

* * * * *

Friday, February 2.――To-day, I found her ladyship busied in sorting out certain articles of apparel, which had just before been brought home for herself: they had been made by the wife of Lufloofy, the person at Sayda who generally lodged English travellers. As the fair sex may like to know what the texture of ladies’ under-garments is in the East, these were made of half cotton and half silk, and, to the appearance and touch, not unlike crape. Some women have them all silk. Either kind is favourable for absorbing perspiration, and, under any circumstances, never strikes cold to the body.[29]

There had arrived, also, from Marseilles six cases of claret, two of brandy, one of rum, twelve baskets of champagne, one case of Kirsch water; and from Leghorn six cases of Genoese _pâte_, two Parmesan cheeses, some Bologna sausages, pots of preserve, one barrel of salmon and tunny, one ditto of anchovies, brooms, scuppets, perfumery, two chests of tea, and numberless other good things, to meet the wants of her expected guest, the Baroness de Fériat, who was coming from the United States. It was sad enough that Lady Hester herself, with abundance of choice provisions and wines, was unable to partake of any. However, when samples of them were brought in, as the cases were opened one after another, to be shown her, her usual (what shall I call it?) greediness of manner manifested itself. She tasted everything, and swallowed a great deal: the natural consequence of which was that she threw herself back in her bed, gasping for breath, and suffering horribly. On these occasions, her favourite plan was to relieve the succession of momentary symptoms by a host of palliatives, never leaving her stomach empty or her digestive organs at rest, and always fancying that it was want of nourishment that generated uneasiness or caused the oppression on her chest, from both of which she never was free; nor would she listen to any arguments that tended to show she was in error.

February 4, Sunday.――This morning it was discovered in my house that a silver spoon had been lost. I had a man-servant and a boy, the former a Greek, the latter a Mahometan. The Greek had one of the most sinister countenances I ever beheld: he was the same man who had accompanied Mr. Moore and Mr. Beck to the Dead Sea,[30] and had been sent to me from Beyrout by the innkeeper there: he was a knave, a drunkard, and a liar. Suspicion fell on him, and he, to throw it on others, first accused the milk-girl, and then the water-carrier.

Theft, in houses in Turkey, where many are suspected, generally leads to the punishing of them all; and Logmagi suggested that he should apply the korbàsh to all three, to elicit the truth. However, I thought it more just to resort to the European way, saying if the spoon were not found, the two servants must pay for it, not doubting the innocence of the water-carrier, a hard-working fellow of good repute. Logmagi objected to this. “You must flog that Greek,” said he, “or you will lose, one by one, everything of value you possess.”

Here the matter rested, as the morning had been fixed for answering Colonel Campbell’s letter: so I wrote from her ladyship’s dictation the following laconic epistle to him, and the friendly one to Mr. Moore, British consul at Beyrout. When I had finished them, I asked Lady Hester what she would have me put at the close, and how she chose to subscribe herself. “Say nothing,” replied she: “how many times I have said I could never call myself the humble servant of any body. I hate and detest all those compliments so unmeaning and so false: but to Mr. Moore you may express my esteem and regard. I know I shall have a great liking for Mrs. Moore, if ever I see her: is she so very handsome as they say? When you go to Beyrout, you must tell her that I consider it a duty to like her: she does not know why, no more do you.”

* * * * *

_Lady Hester Stanhope to Colonel Campbell._

Jôon, February 4, 1838.

Sir,

I shall give no sort of answer to your letter of the 10th of
January (received the 27th), until I have seen a copy of her
Majesty’s commands respecting my debt to Mr. Homsy, or of
the official orders from her Majesty’s Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, as also of Mr. Homsy’s claim, as well
as of the statement sent to England――to whom, and through
whom――in order that I may know whom I have to deal with, as
well as be able to judge of the accuracy of the documents.

I hope in future that you will not think it necessary to
make any apologies for the execution of your duty; on the
contrary, I should wish to recommend you all to put on large
Brutus wigs when you sit on the woolsack at Alexandria or at
Beyrout.

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

* * * * *

_Lady Hester Stanhope to Mr. Moore, British Consul at
Beyrout._

Jôon, February 4, 1838.

Sir,

The sacrifice which I have made of your acquaintance and
your society, that you might stand quite clear of everything
that affects me, appears to be to little purpose. You will
have some very disagreeable business to go through, as you
will be made Colonel Campbell’s honourable agent, and he the
agent of the wise Lord Palmerston, and he the agent of your
magnificent Queen. There is Colonel Campbell’s answer, which
I leave open for your perusal, as he did his.

If in the end I find that you deserve the name of a true
Scotchman, I shall never take ill the part that you may have
taken against me, as it appears to be consistent with your
duty in these dirty times.

I remain with truth and regard, yours,

HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.

* * * * *

Besides these letters, I wrote others for England and for Beyrout――in all about a dozen. What with waiting and listening to her conversation, I was with her five hours before dinner and five hours after. I had to seal and put covers to all these; and just at the moment when I was about to retire to my study, a little room set apart for me in her house, to do this, Lady Hester stopped me, and returned to the subject of the silver spoon. After some consideration, she recommended also the use of the korbàsh.[31]

“How am I to live,” cried she, “with thirty servants in my house, and such a man as you are that can’t say boh! to a goose? How do you expect they will mind me, if you don’t keep them under? Hamâady is coming to-morrow to Jôon: he must be sent for, and shall interrogate the rascal; I warrant you, he’ll soon bring it to light.”

When I left her for dinner, she had said to me, “Send me word a quarter of an hour before you return to say you are coming.” This, in my hurry to get through so much writing for her, I had neglected to do; and it, therefore, served now as the text for a new grievance. “Didn’t I say,” she asked me, “let me know a quarter of an hour beforehand when you are ready to come to me? that quarter of an hour was everything to me: I wished to have more candles brought in on account of your eyes, to have the paper and ink got ready, and to collect my thoughts; but no! everybody must do as they like, and poor I be made the sacrifice.――I _will_ live by the rule of grandeur.”

Then she called her maids in, one after another, poured on them a torrent of abuse for their laziness, dirt, and insolence. My heart sickened to think what would be the consequence of all this to herself; for I knew very well that her whole frame, the next morning, would be debilitated from such excitement: yet all this time her passion was sublimely eloquent, and, sick though she was, terrible. Her maids tumbled over each other from fright, and the thunder that rolled in the sky (for a storm was raging at the time) was but a faint likeness of her paroxysm. When it was over, we drank tea, and at half-past one separated for the night.

February 5. The weather was still stormy. Snow fell in abundance on the higher chains of Mount Lebanon, where it lay apparently very thick.

When I paid my morning visit, Lady Hester held out her hand to me the moment I approached her bedside. “I said too much last night,” she observed; “think no more about it, doctor; but you know my irritability, and you must bear with it.” She was pale, languid, and extenuated: her hands and arms were jerked in convulsive flings. Strong electrical shocks could not have shaken her so much. Alas! I sympathised too deeply with her wrongs not to forget all her ebullitions of anger the moment they were over.

When she found herself a little easier, she asked me to explain to her Julius Cæsar’s calendar, which she had on some occasion lighted on in Ainsworth’s dictionary. “When I was a girl,” said she, “I knew all the constellations in the heavens, and was so quick at astronomy, that they took my books and maps away, fearing I should give myself up to it, to the neglect of my other studies. I had it all before my eyes, just like a pocket-handkerchief. What day are the ides of March?” I told her. “I think,” she continued, “the word Ides must be derived from _âayd_, [Arabic: عيد].” I guessed at once what was passing in her mind. It was an illusion with her that her destiny and Cæsar’s, or her character and his, had some resemblance: and, when she mentioned Brutus-wigs in her letter to Colonel Campbell, it had a reference to the stabs they were giving her from England in depriving her of her pension, and putting insults upon her.

She was deeply wounded in her pride by the treatment she had received from home. “The Queen,” she would say, “should have desired her ministers to write to me, and say, ‘It grieves me that you should have exceeded your income, and incurred debts, which you know, when complaints are made to me, I cannot countenance; endeavour to pay them by instalments, and all may yet be well,’ or something to that effect―― * * * * * * But no! she shall have my pension, and, if they make me a bankrupt, why, let them pay the usurers themselves.”

February 9.――I did not see Lady Hester the whole of the preceding day: she had sent me a message to say she did not wish to trouble me. I attributed this to the state of the weather; for the wind was high, the atmosphere wet and cold, and everything about the residence uncomfortable. To go from my house to Lady Hester’s, I was obliged to wear high wooden clogs and a thick Greek capote with a hood to it. Umbrellas, from the gusts of wind, were out of the question. The ground was like soap. But it was not the weather that made her decline my visit: she had been closeted with a doctor of the country from Dayr el Kamar, the son of that _Metta_ of whom mention has been made in a former part of these pages as having bequeathed his family as a legacy to her. He was come, as it was supposed, to give his opinion on her case. I took no umbrage at this. Lady Hester and I differed _toto cœlo_ on medical points; and she told me very often, after discussions of this sort, that she had invited me to come this time, not as her physician, but as a friend; one in whom she had confidence to settle her debts.

The muleteers had been sent on the 7th of February to Mar Elias, to bring away the effects which had been lying there, rotting and spoiling, since Miss Williams’s death. I accompanied them to superintend the moving, as also to pay a visit to General Loustaunau. Heavens! what waste was I witness to! In one closet was a beautiful wax miniature of Mr. Pitt, a portrait of the Duke of York, some other pictures, stationery, glass, china, medicines, &c., enough for a family. In one room were carpets, cushions, counterpanes, mattresses, pillows, all completely destroyed by mould and damp. In a store-room were large japan canisters with tea, preserves, sugar, wine, lamps, &c. From another room, (the roof of which had fallen in at the time of the great earthquake,) had disappeared, according to Lady Hester’s account, 3 cwt. of copper utensils, in cauldrons, boilers, saucepans, kettles, round platters, called _sennéyah_, and many other things. A leather portmanteau lay with the lock cut out; a trunk had its hinges wrenched off; and both were emptied of their contents. Everywhere proofs of pillage were manifest, and the village of Abra was notoriously thriving by it. For ten years this plundering system had been going on, and yet what still remained would have almost filled a house. Among other things were papers and boxes of seeds, roots, dried plants, and a variety of such matters, which Lady Hester had collected: “for,” she would say, “the importance of people’s pursuits is judged in a different way by different individuals. For example, Sir Joseph Banks would think I had done wonders if I found a spider that had two more joints than another in his hind-leg; and Sir Abraham Hume would embrace me if I had got a coin not in his collection; but I have hoarded up something for everybody. And yet, whether I have done good for humanity or for science, those English give me credit for nothing, and never even once ask how I got into debt.”

February 10.――I spent four hours with Lady Hester Stanhope this evening. She was very ill, and greatly convulsed during the greater part of the time:――she moaned a good deal――yet, in the intervals of ease that she got, she had two baskets of good things packed up as a present to an old French widow, and two for an infirm old man, her pensioner, residing at Sayda.

Monday, February 13.――Lady Hester to-day dictated the following letter to Sir Edward Sugden:――

_Lady Hester Stanhope to Sir Edward Sugden._

Jôon, February 12, 1838.

Sir,

Born an aristocrat (for this assurance I received from your
father, whom it appeared to annoy as much as it delighted
me), with these genuine feelings it will not be necessary
for me to make any excuses for bringing so abruptly before
you a subject, which relates to this cause as well as that
of justice.

I will not bore you with long details; for it will be
sufficient for you to know that after my arrival in the East
I was not regarded by any class of persons with the same
eyes of suspicion as strangers generally are. I have had it
in my power, without making use of intrigue or subterfuge on
my part, or hurting the religious or political feeling of
others in any way, to hear and investigate things which had
never yet been investigated. This fortunate circumstance
does not relate to those who profess Islamism alone, but to
all the curious religions (not sects) which are to be found
in the different parts of the East. Not that I have learned
the secrets of one religion to betray them to another――on
the contrary, I have observed an inviolable silence with
all; but it has served to enlighten, as well as consolidate
my own ideas, and given me an opportunity of seeking
corroboratory evidence of many wonderfully important and
abstract things, which has been hitherto very satisfactory.

The revolutions and public calamities, which often take
place in what is called a semi-barbarous country, call for
great presence of mind and energy, and a degree of humanity
and liberality unknown in Europe. To have unfortunate
sufferers starving at your gate until you have had an
opportunity of inquiring into their private life and
character, and of investigating how far it is likely to
endanger your own life, or risk your property, in receiving
them――these reflections are not made in the East. One takes
one’s chance; and if one wishes to keep up the character of
either an Eastern monarch or an Eastern peasant, you must
treat even an enemy in misfortune _avec les mêmes égards_
that you would do a friend. Starting upon this principle
(which is, indeed, a natural one, and was always mine),
there were times in which I have been obliged to spend more
money than I could well afford, and this has been the cause
of my incurring debts; not that I owe a farthing to a poor
peasant or a tradesman, but all to usurers and rascals, that
have lent their money out at an exorbitant interest. You may
judge of their conscience. In the last levy of troops, made
about two months ago by Ibrahim Pasha, some rich peasants
gave 100 per cent. for six months for money to buy off their
sons who were conscripts.

I often abuse the English; and for why? because they have
nearly lost their national character. The aristocracy is a
proud, morose, inactive class of men, having no great
fundamental principles to guide them, and not half the power
that they give to themselves――very little more worthy of
being trusted by their Sovereign than by the people――full of
ideas, all egotistical, and full of their own importance and
weight in a country, which may differ from an ounce to a
pound in twenty-four hours by the wavering political line of
conduct that they may observe during that time, and which
neither secures the confidence of the people, nor the
friendship of their Sovereign. And these columns of state
may be reckoned a sort of ministers without responsibility,
but who ought to be willing at all times to make every
possible sacrifice for the honour of the crown and for the
good of the people in cases of emergency and misfortune.

Had I been an English peer, do you suppose I would have
allowed the Duke of York’s debts to remain unpaid? I should
have laid down a large sum, and have engaged my brethren to
have done the same. If I had not succeeded, I should have
broken my coronet, and have considered myself of neither
greater nor smaller importance than the sign of a duke’s
head in front of a public-house. But, ever willing to come
forward with my life and property, I should expect that the
Sovereign would treat me with respect, * * * * * *

I have been written to by the Consul-General for Egypt and
Syria, Colonel Campbell, that, if I do not pay _one_ of my
numerous creditors, I shall be deprived of my pension. I
should like to see that person come forward who dares to
threaten a Pitt! Having given themselves a supposed right
over the pension, they may take it all. In the early part of
my life, there was nothing I feared so much as plague,
shipwreck, and debt; it has been my fate to suffer from them
all. Respecting my debts, of course I had expectations of
their being settled; but if I was deceived in these
expectations, I kept in view the sale of my pension, as well
as of an annuity of £1500 a-year, left me by my brother, if
the worst came to the worst. The importance of the plan I
was pursuing must, as you can easily imagine, have appeared
most arbitrary, from my coolly deliberating that the moment
might arrive when I should make myself a beggar; but I
should have done my duty. What sort of right, then, had the
Queen to meddle with my affairs, and to give orders, in
total ignorance of the subject, upon the strength of an
appeal from a man whose claims might be half fabulous, and
to offer me the indignity of forbidding a foreign consul to
sign the certificate that I was among the number of the
living, in order to get my pension into her hands? * * I
have written a few lines on the subject, and there is my
final determination:――“I shall give up my pension, and with
it the name of an English subject, and the slavery that is
entailed upon it.” I have too much confidence in the great
Disposer of all things, and in the magnificent star that has
hitherto borne me above the heads of my enemies, to feel
that I have done a rash act. I can be anything but ignoble,
or belie the origin from which I sprang.

I have been assured by those not likely to deceive me, that
a large property has been left me in Ireland, which has been
concealed from me by my relations. I have put this business
into the hands of Sir Francis Burdett; but should I in
future require a law opinion upon the subject, _the little
aristocratical rascal_ (whose acquaintance I was about to
make when a child, had not a democratical quirk of my
father’s been the reason of shutting up his family for some
time in the country, and preventing the execution of your
father’s intention of presenting you to me) will not, I
hope, take it ill that I should apply to his superior
talents for advice.

There is a horrible jealousy respecting the friendship that
exists between me and Mr. Henry Guys, the French Consul at
Beyrout. His grandfather, a learned old gentleman, was in
constant correspondence with the great Lord Chesterfield. It
is natural, therefore, that his son, the present Mr. Guys’
father, should feel interested about me when I first came
into the country, and Mr. Henry Guys has always put into
execution his father’s friendly intentions towards me. He is
a very respectable man, and stands very high in the
estimation of all classes of persons: and, as at one time
there was no English consul or agent at Sayda, the French
agent sent a certificate of my life four times a-year to
England. At the death of this man, Mr. Guys sent it himself.
If you honour me with a reply, I request you to address your
letter to him (_aux soins de M. le Chevalier Henri Guys,
Consul de France à Beyrout_), notwithstanding he has been
named for Aleppo; as it is the only way I am likely to
receive my letters unopened, or perhaps at all.

Believe me, with esteem and regard, yours,

H. L. STANHOPE.

* * * * *

I was much exhausted to-day. I had written six hours to her dictation the preceding day, and now sat talking until midnight; but, from the late hour at which I left her, it was as usual impossible for me to note down even a hundredth part of what she said. For example, it is now nearly one o’clock in the morning; and much as I could wish, whilst my recollection is fresh, to make a few memorandums of the many things she has been saying, my eyelids droop, and I am forced to lay down my pen: yet one anecdote I must try to commit to paper. In reading over the letter to Sir Edward Sugden, she made the following remark: “The peers in England may be compared to doctors who have made their fortunes: if they continue to practise, they do it out of regard to some particular families, or from humane motives. They know better than those who are sick what is good for them, because they have had long practice; and, if their sons are no doctors, they have heard so much talk about the matter, that they sit in a corner, and watch the effect of the medicine.”

I was struck with the resemblance of Lady Hester’s style to Junius’s in her letter to Sir Edward. This led me to reflect, as I had observed on many occasions, that Lady Hester’s language was the counterpart of her grandfather’s, whether Lord Chatham might not have been the author of Junius’s Letters; but it has since been suggested to me that there would be an absurdity in such a supposition (for I had no opportunity of consulting books where I was), because some of the most eloquent passages of Junius are his panegyrics on Lord Chatham, and it is not likely that he would have been guilty of writing a eulogium on himself; however, I mentioned it to her. She answered, “My grandfather was perfectly capable and likely to write and do things which no human being would dream came from his hands. I once met with one of his spies,” continued she, “a woman of the common class, who had passed her life dressed in man’s clothes: in this way she went, as a sailor, to America, and used to write him letters as if to a sweetheart, giving an account of the enemy’s ships and plans in a most masterly way, in the description of a box of tools, or in something so unlike the thing in question that no suspicion could be had of the meaning of the contents. This woman by accident passed me at a watering-place, whilst I was sitting near the sea-side talking to my brother, and stopped short on hearing the sound of my voice, which was so much like my grandfather’s that it struck her――and there is nothing extraordinary in this: I have known a horse do the same thing. My father had two piebald horses: they were very vicious, and hated one of the grooms so, that, one day, whilst he was taking them out for exercise, one threw him, and the other flew at him, and attempted to strike him with his fore-feet; but, as he could not succeed, the other, that had run off, turned back, seized the groom with his teeth, and bit him and shook him: that very horse went blind, and got into an innkeeper’s hands, who made a post-horse of him. One day, on the high road, I saw him, and made an exclamation to somebody who was with me. The horse, although blind, knew my voice, and stopped short, just like the woman. I too was struck with the woman’s manner; and, without saying anything, went next morning at daylight, before anybody was about, to the same spot, and, finding the woman there again, inquired who and what she was. A conversation ensued, and the woman was delighted, she said, to behold once again something that reminded her of her old employer. As for the ministers of the present day, she observed, they are good for nothing: when I went to prefer my claim for a pension, one called me Goody-two-shoes, and told me to go about my business.

“A government should never employ spies of the description generally chosen――men of a certain appearance and information, who may be enabled to mix in genteel society: they are always known or suspected. My grandfather pursued quite a different plan. His spies were among such people as Logmagi* *――a hardy sailor, who would get at any risk into a port, to see how many ships there were, and how many effective men――or a pedlar, to enter a camp――and the like. This was the way he got information as to the state of the armament at Toulon: and such a one was the woman I have just told you about, who knew me by the sound of my voice.

“There were two hairdressers in London, the best spies Buonaparte had. A hairdresser, generally speaking, must be a man of talent――so must a cook; for a cook must know such a variety of things, about which no settled rules can be laid down, and he must have great judgment.

“Do you think I did not immediately perceive that those four Germans we met at ―――― were spies?――directly. I never told B**** and Lord S**** because they would have let it out again: François was the only one who knew it besides myself. He took an opportunity one day of saying to me, when nobody was by, ‘My lady, one of those Germans....’――‘Yes, yes, François, I understand you,’ answered I, before he had said three words: ‘you need not put me on my guard, but I am much obliged to you.’――‘Why, my lady,’ said François, ‘when I was one day standing sentry at Buonaparte’s tent, there was one of those very gentlemen I have seen go in and out: I recollect his face perfectly.’ François was right, doctor: there they were――there was the sick one, and the learned one, and the musician, and the officer――for all sorts of persons.

“You recollect, when we were at Constantinople, one day I went to meet the Count de la Tour Maubourg on the banks of the Bosphorus, and he intimated to me that I had kept him waiting. ‘Yes,’ said I, ‘there was a spy following my boat: I knew him directly, and wanted to prevent his dogging me.’ ‘Pooh! nonsense,’ replied Mr. de la T. M.: but we had not talked for half an hour, when, lo! there he was, taking a look at us. Next day, when I saw Mr. Canning, ‘Oh! Lady Hester,’ said he, ‘how did you spend your day yesterday?’――‘Why,’ answered I, ‘your spy did not spoil it.’――‘Ah!’ rejoined he, laughing――for he perceived at once it was of no use to make a mystery of what he had done――‘you should not do such things――I must write it home to government.’――‘Yes,’ said I, ‘I’ll write a letter, too, in this way:――My lord, your excellent young minister, to show his gallantry, has begun his diplomatic career by watching ladies in their assignations, &c., &c.’ and then I laughed at him, and then I talked seriously with him, till I worked on his feelings in a way you can’t think!