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journey to the ruins of Palmyra. She was told that the undertaking was a dangerous one, for the intervening desert was infested by Bedouin Arabs, who lived by robbery, and who, though they might not harm her, would be certain to seize her and demand an exorbitant ransom for her release. The Pasha of Damascus, to whom she communicated her intention, offered her an armed escort of a thousand men. But she chose a more courageous, and certainly a more effectual, way of meeting the difficulty. The Chief of the Bedouins, Mahanna el Fadel, was then encamped within reach of Hamah on the Orontes. With only With only two attendants, Lady Hester made the journey thither, and presenting herself fearlessly before the old Arab, addressed him thus: "I know you are a robber, and that I am now in your power, but I fear you not. I have left all those behind who were offered to me as a safeguard, and all my countrymen who could be considered as my protectors, to show you that it is you, and your people, whom I have chosen as such." Her mode of dealing with him pleased Mahanna, and he assured her that if she relied upon his protection and honor alone he would see that she was conducted in safety to Palmyra and back. She remained with the Bedouins, and accompanied them in their wanderings for a week, during which time she was treated with respect and hospitality, and invariably styled the Meleki, or queen. On her return to Hamah she busied herself with preparations for her expedition. The influence she had gained over the Bedouins gratified her thirst for power. "To-morrow," she says in a letter to the governor of Malta, "I mount my horse with seventy Arabs, and am off for Palmyra at last. Mahanna waits my orders, just as Lord Paget with his cavalry would do yours, were you to command a great army.' Her departure from Hamah was witnessed by curious crowds, who lined the road for half a league out of the town. The procession was a long one. The Bedouin chieftains, among whom were two of Mahanna's sons, rode immediately behind the Meleki and formed her bodyguard. They carried long lances plumed with ostrich feathers. Lady Hester's maid, Mrs. Fry, figured among

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the equestrians. At the first haltingplace she had another encounter with rats, which greeted her in such numbers that she had to pass the night in the open air.

It took the party a week to reach their destination. They approached Palmyra by the Valley of Tombs, an avenue four thousand feet in length, flanked by lofty pillars, and terminating in a triumphant arch. But before reaching this point they were met by an advance-guard of Palmyrenes, sent on by their sheykh to receive the queen with every demonstration of delight. Lady Hester herself, in a letter to Lord Sligo, thus describes • the scene:

"About three hundred people came out to meet me. They were armed with matchlocks and guns, all surrounding me, and firing in my face, with most dreadful shouts, and savage music and dances. They played all sorts of antics, till we arrived at the triumphal arch at Palmyra. The inhabitants were arranged in the most picturesque manner on the different columns leading to the Temple of the Sun. The space before the arch was occupied by dancing girls most fancifully and elegantly dressed, and beautiful children placed upon the projecting parts of the pillars with garlands of flowers. One, suspended over the arch, held a wreath over my head. After having stopped a few minutes, the procession continued; the dancing girls immediately surrounded me.

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lancemen took the lead, followed by the poets from the banks of the Euphrates, singing complimentary odes and playing upon various Arabian instruments. A tribe of hale Palmyrenes brought up the rear. We took up our habitation in the Temple of the Sun, and remained there a week."

It is probable that the new Zenobia would have made a longer stay in her capital had not a disquieting rumor reached her conductors to the effect that a hostile tribe had come into the neighborhood with the intention of surprising and plundering the party. The return journey was therefore begun rather suddenly, and was accomplished in safety. The Meleki re-entered Hamah in triumph, not a little proud of her achievement Before her only three Europeans had succeeded in reaching Palmyra. The expedition is said to have cost her £500.

The succeeding warm season was passed by Lady Hester at Latakia on the sea-coast. At times she talked of returning to Europe; but that she had not really any such intention is proved by her hiring a disused monastery of the

Greek Catholics, near Saida, as a residence. Hardly had she settled down there when the plague in its most virulent form broke out at Saida. From this danger she escaped to the village of Meshmushy, a delicious spot, high up among the topmost peaks of Mount Lebanon, surrounded by vineyards and mulberry grounds. Her active mind was now intent on a new project. She had learned from a manuscript which had come into her possession, and which she believed to be authentic, that a former pasha of Damascus, El Gezzar by name, had amassed enormous wealth, and in order to disappoint the porte of the acquisition of it at his death, had hidden it under ground at Ascalon. She applied to the Turkish government for permission to hunt for these treasures, offering the porte all pecuniary benefit that might result from her labors, and reserving for herself the honor only. The Porte approved of the proposal, and on her return to her residence near Saida, in the beginning of 1815, she was visited by a special messenger from Constantinople (a Capugi Bashi), bringing firmans empowering her to obtain assistance from the various pashas in prosecuting her purpose. She had been spending money lavishly already; and, feeling that her own means would be insufficient at such a moment, she determined to demand payment from the English government in return for the reputation" she was giving the English name. "I must beg of you," she said, addressing her doctor, "to keep a regular account of every article of my expenditure in this business, and I will send in my bill to government by Mr. Liston, when, if they refuse to pay me, I will put it in the newspapers and expose them.'

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She arrived at Ascalon in state, accompanied by the aforesaid Capugi Bashi, and attended by a military escort and a numerous staff of servants. party encamped upon the plain, beneath tents mostly bright green or blue. The scene was a lively one. There was a ceaseless murmur of voices and neighing of horses; a coming and going of couriers from and to Jaffa. The work

* Then British ambassador at Constantinople.

men employed to excavate were peasants pressed by the government. They received no pay, but were fed and well treated. Lady Hester generally remained in her tent during the forenoon, but at two she would ride about to see how the works progressed. On her appearance the workmen would shout, and renew their digging with fresh activity. After three days' labor the diggers came upon what were believed to be the foundations of a heathen temple. Some odds and ends of pottery were also unearthed. Later on a colossal statue of fine workmanship was discovered. was headless, and had but one arm and leg, yet was otherwise in good preservation. This Lady Hester had broken into pieces, lest, to use her own words, "malicious people say that I came to search for antiquities for my country, and not for treasures for the porte. The works were continued briskly ; but, to the grievous disappointment of all concerned, none of the expected treasures were found. A fortnight after its commencement the attempt was abandoned.

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This failure had a depressing effect upon the spirits of the Queen of Palmyra, more especially as her claim for remuneration, duly forwarded to the Home Government, was refused. Nevertheless, the business was not without result, for it proved her influence at Constantinople, and thereby increased her prestige in Syria.

Her generous and successful efforts in bringing to justice the murderers of the French engineer officer, Colonel Boutin, ought not to go unrecorded here. The colonel, with whom she was but slightly acquainted, had, while traversing the country inhabited by the savage Ansáry tribe, been robbed and murdered. Lady Hester thought that the pasha of Damascus would have been called on by the French government to inquire into the matter; but as time went on, and nothing was done, she resolved to investigate it herself. She sent messengers in disguise into the Ansáry territory, by this means ascertaining in what village the crime had been committed. She then, after infinite trouble, prevailed upon the pasha to send an armed force against the tribe, the result being that the murderers were

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delivered up and executed, and their village burned to the ground. She was at Antioch, in the midst of the Ansárys, at the time this happened; and she did not shrink from stoutly declaring to several of the tribe, who had assembled in front of the house she occupied, that it was she herself who had revenged the Frenchman's death.

It was in 1818 that Lady Hester Stanhope took up her abode at Dar Joon, the position of which, at once secluded and commanding, took her fancy. It was a small house standing on the summit of a conically-shaped mount, surrounded on all sides by yawning valleys. It was approached by steep paths running zig-zag among masses of rock and low brushwood. At the summit, which presented a flat surface of considerable extent, the vegetation was rich and verdant. She made many alterations in her new residence, which those who saw it have described as a collection of detached buildings connected by covered alleys. The adjacent ground was converted into a lovely garden, and the whole surrounded by a fortress-like wall some fourteen feet in height. She assembled around her here a household of thirty people, principally Arabs and black slaves. These she ruled with a rod of iron. Once, when she had convicted them of sundry pilferings, she erected a couple of stakes near her door, as a warning to future offenders that they might expect the dread punishment of empalement. The Emir Beshyr, Prince of the Druzes, was the potentate in whose dominions she was now living. She and he had at first been on apparently amicable terms; but they soon became deadly enemies.

The Emir, a treacherous and suspicious man, grew jealous of her authority in the Lebanon district, and strove to get rid of her. He threatened to bastinado any of the Joon villagers who entered her service; he tried to prevent provisions reaching her from Saida; he set men to guard a spring from which her people fetched water. At one time, indeed, it was given out that he meditated attacking her in her stronghold. The interference of the British Ambassador at Constantinople, to whom Lady Hester complained of these insults, brought the Emir to reason, while her

ladyship revenged herself at her leisure. The Emir was just then involved in a desperate quarrel with the Turkish governor of Acre (Abdallah Pasha), under whose authority he really was, as well as with the Sheykh Beshyr, a rival who disputed his rule. Lady Hester, disgusted by the tales she heard of the Emir's cruelties, and mindful of his past conduct toward herself, took a secret but active part in this struggle. She subsidized both Abdallah and the Sheykh, employed hosts of spies to hamper the Emir, and harbored all the fugitives who fled to her from his wrath. On his sending to demand the surrender of some of these fugitives, his messenger was given a flat refusal, and the following instructions:

"Tell your master that he is a dog and a monster; and that if he wishes to try his strength with me, I am ready."

As years rolled on, Lady Hester, though continuing to figure in all the stirring events which succeeded each other in Syria, turned her thoughts to subjects more abstruse. She acquired, or professed to have acquired, a deep knowledge of astrology. This enabled her to prophesy. Her prophecies, otherwise vague, were remarkable as pointing to her own splendid destiny. In her interview with Lamartine (whose star, it seems, agreed with hers) she spoke at great length of the coming of the Messiah. She showed him also two Arab mares, each of which had a groom specially appointed to look after her. On these animals, which nobody was permitted to mount, the prophetess intimated that the Messiah and herself would make their entry into Jerusalem.

People who heard her speak like this might have imagined that Lady Hester had taken leave of her senses. But such was not the case. To have drawn the eyes of the world on herself, she would have made, if possible, more startling statements. The accounts given us of her by such visitors as Lamartine, Prince Pückler-Muskau, and the author of "Eöthen," are much alike. Knowing that, through them, her portrait would be given to society at home, she posed in their presence as the Circe of Mount Lebanon, and made use of language appropriately mystic. It is from her doctor, who saw her almost daily, that we obtain an idea of the woman as she

really was. Her habits, as described by him, were strange. She never opened a book, and would have no time-piece near her. She remained in bed in the early part of the day, issuing orders, rating her servants, and so on. Toward evening she would rise and dine. Afterward, seated on her divan, and puffing at a tchibouque, she would descend altogether from the stairs, and pour forth a stream of gossiping reminiscences of her former life in London. Time and distance had done nothing to diminish her rancorous hatred for England and everything English. For getting that she had voluntarily renounced all connection with home and kindred, she sometimes would launch into violent tirades against her relatives for the cruel neglect they showed her. On such occasions she would bewail her forlorn condition with tears and groans, and, for want of a better butt, load her faithful doctor with unmerited reproaches.

In 1837 she found herself deeply in debt. This is not surprising, when her profuse charities, the hand she had in all political disturbances, and her system of housing and feeding refugees, are considered.* Her principal creditor, a certain Mâalem Homsy, who wrung from her 25 per cent interest on his loans, becoming impatient for repayment, had his claim brought before the Home Government. Thereupon Lord Palmerston, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, instructed the British Consul, for Egypt and Syria to withhold the certificate necessary for the payment of her pension till she had come to some sort of settlement with the usurer Homsy. Lady Hester was duly apprised of this decision, which certainly seems unnecessarily harsh. It is needless to say that such treatment roused all the blood of the Pitts. Taking up her pen, she addressed her reigning Majesty thus:

*It should be noted that her brother James, who died in 1825, left her an annuity of £1500.

"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 thereto."

She at this time had a notion that she had been maliciously kept out of certain property left her by relations in Ireland; but the notion proved in the end to be altogether groundless. She bore this and her other disappointments with apparent stoicism, and set about making the necessary reductions in her establishment.

Her doctor was dismissed, as were also many of her servants. Her house, already out of repair, was allowed to fall to ruin. The rain came through the roof; the ceiling of her bedroom had to be propped by beams. In this state of isolation and dilapidation she lived for several months. Her health had long been bad; but her end, when it did come, came suddenly.

One summer's evening in 1839 Mr. Moore, the Consul at Beyrout, hearing that Lady Hester had been taken ill, rode over the mountains to inquire after her. He was accompanied by Mr. Thomson, an American missionary. Nobody met them as they dismounted at the gate. All was silence. They traversed deserted courts and passages till they reached the room where the mistress of the house lay cold and dead. Her servants had ransacked the premises and decamped, leaving the corpse alone. At midnight, by torchlight, the mortal remains of the selfexiled lady were buried in the garden which she had herself laid out with such care and taste.

King George III. once observed to William Pitt on the terrace at Windsor, "You have reason to be proud of your niece, who unites everything that is great in man and woman." It is hardly likely that those who glance at the story of Lady Hester Stanhope's life will form the same opinion of her. Many great qualities she certainly possessed; but her inordinate arrogance and vanity outweighed them all.-Temple Bar.

SOME STRANGELY FULFILLED DREAMS.

BY RICHARD A. PROCTOR.

So far as can be judged by ordinary methods of interpretation, it would seem that in the days when the history of Joseph was written, and again in the time of Daniel, no doubt was entertained respecting the supernatural origin of all dreams. Joseph's brothers, according to the narrative, took it for granted that Joseph's dreams indicated something which was to happen in the future. Whether they questioned the validity of his own interpretation is not altogether clear. They hated him after his first dream, and envied him, we are told, after his second, which shows they feared he might be right in his interpretation; but, on the other hand, they conspired together to slay him, which suggests they entertained some doubts on the subject. In fact, we are expressly told that when they conspired against him they said, "Behold, this dreamer cometh; come now, therefore, and let us slay him,' and so forth, " and we shall see what will become of his dreams." Jacob, moreover, though he had "observed" Joseph's 'saying" about the dream (after rebuking him for telling the story), seems to have taken Joseph's death for granted: Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces." Possibly in those days, even as now, dreams were noticed when they were fulfilled, and forgotten when, as it seemed, they remained unfulfilled.

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In like manner, when the butler and baker of Pharaoh dreamed each man his dream in one night, they were sad (that is, serious) the morning after for they could not understand what the dreams meant. But Joseph said," Do not interpretations belong to God?" Doubtless this was the accepted belief in the days when the history of Joseph was written. It is singular that the butler, though he forgot Joseph till Pharaoh's dreams reminded him of his fellow-prisoner, seems to have associated the power of interpreting the two dreams with the power of bringing about the events supposed to be portended by the dreams. "It came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was;

me he restored unto mine office, him he hanged." It is just thus that, in our own time, persons who believe in the claims of fortune-tellers to predict the future commonly believe also that fortune-tellers can to some degree control the future also.

Pharaoh's dreams were rather more fortunate to Joseph than either his own or those of the chief butler and baker. (It is noteworthy how the dreams of the story run in pairs.) In fact, one might be led to surmise that he inherited something of the ingenuity shown by his father's mother-referring to an arrangement, a year or two before Joseph entered the world, in which his mother showed to no great advantage, according to modern ideas. Be this as it may, it was certainly a clever thought of Joseph to suggest that the unfavorable weather he had predicted might be provided against by appointing a man discreet and wise to look after the interests of Egypt. Whom was Pharaoh likely to appoint but the person who had predicted the seven bad harvests? Even so, in these our own times, another Joseph told the British Pharaoh who lately ruled over India that years of famine in India can be predicted, and their effects prevented by appointing a man discreet and wise to look after the interests of India. And it is curious enough that this modern Joseph seems to have turned his thoughts to his ancient namesake, putting forward the idea that the seven good years and the seven bad years were years of many sunspots, followed by years of few sunspots. Nay, so strangely do these coincidences sometimes run on all-fours that the younger Joseph has adopted the idea that the pyramids of Egypt (which were once thought to be Joseph's storehouses) were astronomical instruments. Now it is certain, though this he has not noticed, that before the upper half (in height) of the great pyramid was set on, the great ascending gallery might have been used all the year round for observing the sun at noon; and that by using a dark screen at its uppermost or

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