170 Turkey, Comlantinopk; Egypt, [Aug. 



access to her ; wrote her a letter by moon-light, which she answered by 

 an invitation to come to her immediately. The " English comforts and 

 luxuries" which he found at D'Joun, appear to have made a much greater 

 impression on him than the presence of one of the most extraordinary 

 personages of the age, 



" About five o'clock I was conducted to her ladyship's presence. She was 

 dressed a I'Arahe, and is a very imposing and noble-looking personage, of 

 great height, and dignified manners. Slie received me very graciously; and 

 we soon became acquainted with each other. I dined alone, she never eating 

 after one o'clock. 



" After dinner I again returned to her ladyship, and remained tete-a-ifte. 

 with her until midnight, much entertained and instructed by her conversation, 

 which is lively and hiteresting, extraordinary and impressive by turns. 



" November 6. — I enjoyed a nice, clean, English-feeling bed until eight 

 o'clock. One leaves one's carpet with no regret; but a soft clean bed has 

 irresistible attractions. In the afternoon I walked with her ladyship round 

 her pretty gardens. She has laid out large sutns of money upon this place, 

 and has indeed contrived to make a little paradise in the desert. Ttte-a-ttte 

 until midnight." 



He makes use of her ladyship's influence to get introduced to a horse- 

 dealer at Sidon ; and having spent the moi-ning in chattering with an old 

 French kopcr there, conducting his bargain like a man who knows the 

 value of money — a disposition which he evinces throughout his journey- 

 ings, (all Englishmen " hate to be imposed on") he returns to D'Joun in 

 the evening, and then finds time to bestow a word on her ladyship, and 

 says, 



" I wish I could prevail upon Lady Hester to write her memoirs. She has 

 seen more of the world, both civilized and barbarous, than any body in 

 existence, and has all the talent necessary to write an excellent book. It 

 rained all night." 



While Mr. IVIadden is cudgelling his brains, and racking his memory 

 to put her ladyship's odd thoughts and sayings into their best form, our 

 Captain, whose notion of a personal narrative is unquestionably a very 

 clear one, congratulates himself on being, when the ungracious news of 

 the battle of Navarino arrived, " under the roof of a person so highly 

 respected and esteemed by the Turks as Lady Hester Stanhope." Pie 

 does his hostess, however, the honour to chronicle her kindness and soli- 

 citude to him when he had caught a cold, and accompanies the honour- 

 able mention he then condescends to make of her, with the very import- 

 ant and interesting intimation, that he " bathed his feet in hot water, 

 drank bai-ley-water, and syrup of violets, and in the course of the night 

 contrived to perspire profusely." Among many stories which he says 

 Lady Hester Stanhope told him, he i-elates only the following, which is 

 romantic enough for the .Arabian Nights' Entertainments : — 



" The growing power of the Pasha of Egypt had long been the cause of 

 uneasiness to the Sublime Porte. It was feared, at Stambool, that Mehmet 

 Ali would some day throw off the yoke of the successor to the Caliphat. 



" In vain the perfidious policy of the Seraglio despatched Capidgi Bashis, 

 armed with the bowstring and the dagger, to the capital of the Pyramids; in 

 vain its treacherous agents endeavoured, by poison or by stratagem, to rid the 

 Porte of a dangerous rival. Mehmet Ali was too well warned by his spies at 

 Constantinople, of the toils which were spread around him, to suffer himself 

 to fall into the snare. 



" At length the Sultan Mahmoud resolved upon adopting a scheme, which 



