For some time, I believe, she was at
Constantinople, where her magnificence and near alliance to the
late Minister gained her great influence. Afterwards she passed
into Syria. The people of that country, excited by the
achievements of Sir Sidney Smith, had begun to imagine the
possibility of their land being occupied by the English, and many
of them looked upon Lady Hester as a princess who came to prepare
the way for the expected conquest. I don't know it from her own
lips, or indeed from any certain authority, but I have been told
that she began her connection with the Bedouins by making a large
present of money (500 pounds it was said - immense in piastres) to
the Sheik whose authority was recognised in that part of the desert
which lies between Damascus and Palmyra. The prestige created by
the rumours of her high and undefined rank, as well as of her
wealth and corresponding magnificence, was well sustained by her
imperious character and her dauntless bravery. Her influence
increased. I never heard anything satisfactory as to the real
extent or duration of her sway, but it seemed that for a time at
least she certainly exercised something like sovereignty amongst
the wandering tribes. {17} And now that her earthly kingdom had
passed away she strove for spiritual power, and impiously dared, as
it was said, to boast some mystic union with the very God of very
God!
A couple of black slave girls came at a signal, and supplied their
mistress as well as myself with lighted tchibouques and coffee.
The custom of the East sanctions, and almost commands, some moments
of silence whilst you are inhaling the first few breaths of the
fragrant pipe. The pause was broken, I think, by my lady, who
addressed to me some inquiries respecting my mother, and
particularly as to her marriage; but before I had communicated any
great amount of family facts, the spirit of the prophetess kindled
within her, and presently (though with all the skill of a woman of
the world) she shuffled away the subject of poor, dear
Somersetshire, and bounded onward into loftier spheres of thought.
My old acquaintance with some of "the twelve" enabled me to bear my
part (of course a very humble one) in a conversation relative to
occult science. Milnes once spread a report, that every gang of
gipsies was found upon inquiry to have come last from a place to
the westward, and to be about to make the next move in an eastern
direction; either therefore they where to be all gathered together
towards the rising of the sun by the mysterious finger of
Providence, or else they were to revolve round the globe for ever
and ever: both of these suppositions were highly gratifying,
because they were both marvellous; and though the story on which
they were founded plainly sprang from the inventive brain of a
poet, no one had ever been so odiously statistical as to attempt a
contradiction of it. I now mentioned the story as a report to Lady
Hester Stanhope, and asked her if it were true. I could not have
touched upon any imaginable subject more deeply interesting to my
hearer, more closely akin to her habitual train of thinking. She
immediately threw off all the restraint belonging to an interview
with a stranger; and when she had received a few more similar
proofs of my aptness for the marvellous, she went so far as to say
that she would adopt me as her eleve in occult science.
For hours and hours this wondrous white woman poured forth her
speech, for the most part concerning sacred and profane mysteries;
but every now and then she would stay her lofty flight and swoop
down upon the world again. Whenever this happened I was interested
in her conversation.
She adverted more than once to the period of her lost sway amongst
the Arabs, and mentioned some of the circumstances that aided her
in obtaining influence with the wandering tribes. The Bedouin, so
often engaged in irregular warfare, strains his eyes to the horizon
in search of a coming enemy just as habitually as the sailor keeps
his "bright lookout" for a strange sail. In the absence of
telescopes a far-reaching sight is highly valued, and Lady Hester
possessed this quality to an extraordinary degree. She told me
that on one occasion, when there was good reason to expect a
hostile attack, great excitement was felt in the camp by the report
of a far-seeing Arab, who declared that he could just distinguish
some moving objects upon the very farthest point within the reach
of his eyes. Lady Hester was consulted, and she instantly assured
her comrades in arms that there were indeed a number of horses
within sight, but that they were without riders. The assertion
proved to be correct, and from that time forth her superiority over
all others in respect of far sight remained undisputed.
Lady Hester related to me this other anecdote of her Arab life. It
was when the heroic qualities of the Englishwoman were just
beginning to be felt amongst the people of the desert, that she was
marching one day, along with the forces of the tribe to which she
had allied herself. She perceived that preparations for an
engagement were going on, and upon her making inquiry as to the
cause, the Sheik at first affected mystery and concealment, but at
last confessed that war had been declared against his tribe on
account of its alliance with the English princess, and that they
were now unfortunately about to be attacked by a very superior
force. He made it appear that Lady Hester was the sole cause of
hostility betwixt his tribe and the impending enemy, and that his
sacred duty of protecting the Englishwoman whom he had admitted as
his guest was the only obstacle which prevented an amicable
arrangement of the dispute.
