Heavy
wings, and the growl of distant thunder filled up the pauses in the
rough symphony.
Our dinner was spread on the floor in Lady Hester's favourite
apartment; her deathbed was our sideboard, her furniture our fuel,
her name our conversation. Almost before the meal was ended two of
our party had dropped asleep over their trenchers from fatigue; the
Druses had retired from the haunted precincts to their village; and
W-, L-, and I went out into the garden to smoke our pipes by Lady
Hester's lonely tomb. About midnight we fell asleep upon the
ground, wrapped in our capotes, and dreamed of ladies and tombs and
prophets till the neighing of our horses announced the dawn.
After a hurried breakfast on fragments of the last night's repast
we strolled out over the extensive gardens. Here many a broken
arbour and trellis, bending under masses of jasmine and
honeysuckle, show the care and taste that were once lavished on
this wild but beautiful hermitage: a garden-house, surrounded by
an enclosure of roses run wild, lies in the midst of a grove of
myrtle and bay trees. This was Lady Hester's favourite resort
during her lifetime; and now, within its silent enclosure,
"After life's fitful fever she sleeps well."
The hand of ruin has dealt very sparingly with all these
interesting relics; the Pasha's power by day, and the fear of
spirits by night, keep off marauders; and though we made free with
broken benches and fallen doorposts for fuel, we reverently
abstained from displacing anything in the establishment except a
few roses, which there was no living thing but bees and
nightingales to regret. It was one of the most striking and
interesting spots I ever witnessed: its silence and beauty, its
richness and desolation, lent to it a touching and mysterious
character, that suited well the memory of that strange hermit-lady
who has made it a place of pilgrimage, even in Palestine. {49}
The Pasha of Sidon presented Lady Hester with the deserted convent
of Mar Elias on her arrival in his country, and this she soon
converted into a fortress, garrisoned by a band of Albanians: her
only attendants besides were her doctor, her secretary, and some
female slaves. Public rumour soon busied itself with such a
personage, and exaggerated her influence and power. It is even
said that she was crowned Queen of the East at Palmyra by fifty
thousand Arabs. She certainly exercised almost despotic power in
her neighbourhood on the mountain; and what was perhaps the most
remarkable proof of her talents, she prevailed on some Jews to
advance large sums of money to her on her note of hand. She lived
for many years, beset with difficulties and anxieties, but to the
last she held on gallantly:
