{13} ". . . ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo
Thure calent arae, sertisque recentibus halant."
- Aeneid, i, 415.
{14} The writer advises that none should attempt to read the
following account of the late Lady Hester Stanhope except those who
may already chance to feel an interest in the personage to whom it
relates. The chapter (which has been written and printed for the
reasons mentioned in the preface) is chiefly filled with the
detailed conversation, or rather discourse, of a highly eccentric
gentlewoman.
{15} Historically "fainting"; the death did not occur until long
afterwards.
{16} I am told that in youth she was exceedingly sallow.
{17} This was my impression at the time of writing the above
passage, an impression created by the popular and uncontradicted
accounts of the matter, as well as by the tenor of Lady Hester's
conversation. I have now some reason to think that I was deceived,
and that her sway in the desert was much more limited than I had
supposed. She seems to have had from the Bedouins a fair five
hundred pounds' worth of respect, and not much more.
{18} She spoke it, I dare say, in English; the words would not be
the less effective for being spoken in an unknown tongue. Lady
Hester, I believe, never learnt to speak the Arabic with a perfect
accent.
{19} The proceedings thus described to me by Lady Hester as having
taken place during her illness, were afterwards re-enacted at the
time of her death. Since I wrote the words to which this note is
appended, I received from Warburton an interesting account of the
heroine's death, or rather the circumstances attending the
discovery of the event; and I caused it to be printed in the former
editions of this work. I must now give up the borrowed ornament,
and omit my extract from my friend's letter, for the rightful owner
has reprinted it in "The Crescent and the Cross." I know what a
sacrifice I am making, for in noticing the first edition of this
book reviewers turned aside from the text to the note, and remarked
upon the interesting information which Warburton's letter
contained. [This narrative is reproduced in an Appendix to the
present edition.]
{20} In a letter which I afterwards received from Lady Hester, she
mentioned incidentally Lord Hardwicke, and said that he was "the
kindest-hearted man existing - a most manly, firm character. He
comes from a good breed - all the Yorkes excellent, with ANCIENT
French blood in their veins." The under scoring of the word
"ancient" is by the writer of the letter, who had certainly no
great love or veneration for the French of the present day: she
did not consider them as descended from her favourite stock.
{21} It is said that deaf people can hear what is said concerning
themselves, and it would seem that those who live without books or
newspapers know all that is written about them. Lady Hester
Stanhope, though not admitting a book or newspaper into her
fortress, seems to have known the way in which M. Lamartine
mentioned her in his book, for in a letter which she wrote to me
after my return to England she says, "Although neglected, as
Monsieur le M." (referring, as I believe, to M. Lamartine)
"describes, and without books, yet my head is organised to supply
the want of them as well as acquired knowledge."
{22} I have been recently told that this Italian's pretensions to
the healing art were thoroughly unfounded. My informant is a
gentleman who enjoyed during many years the esteem and confidence
of Lady Hester Stanhope: his adventures in the Levant were most
curious and interesting.
{23} The Greek Church does not recognise this as the true
sanctuary, and many Protestants look upon all the traditions by
which it is attempted to ascertain the holy places of Palestine as
utterly fabulous. For myself, I do not mean either to affirm or
deny the correctness of the opinion which has fixed upon this as
the true site, but merely to mention it as a belief entertained
without question by my brethren of the Latin Church, whose guest I
was at the time. It would be a great aggravation of the trouble of
writing about these matters if I were to stop in the midst of every
sentence for the purpose of saying "so called" or "so it is said,"
and would besides sound very ungraciously: yet I am anxious to be
literally true in all I write. Now, thus it is that I mean to get
over my difficulty. Whenever in this great bundle of papers or
book (if book it is to be) you see any words about matters of
religion which would seem to involve the assertion of my own
opinion, you are to understand me just as if one or other of the
qualifying phrases above mentioned had been actually inserted in
every sentence. My general direction for you to construe me thus
will render all that I write as strictly and actually true as if I
had every time lugged in a formal declaration of the fact that I
was merely expressing the notions of other people.
{24} "Vino d'oro."
{25} Shereef.
{26} Tennyson.
{27} The other three cities held holy by Jews are Jerusalem,
Hebron, and Safet.
{28} Hadj a pilgrim.
{29} Milnes cleverly goes to the French for the exact word which
conveys the impression produced by the voice of the Arabs, and
calls them "un peuple criard."
{30} There is some semblance of bravado in my manner of talking
about the plague. I have been more careful to describe the terrors
of other people than my own. The truth is, that during the whole
period of my stay at Cairo I remained thoroughly impressed with a
sense of my danger. I may almost say, that I lived in perpetual
apprehension, for even in sleep, as I fancy, there remained with me
some faint notion of the peril with which I was encompassed.
