 Chapter 6 of Aethon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Andrew Simmons. Aethon by Alexander King Lake. Chapter 6, Greek Mariners. I sailed from Smyrna in the Amphitrite, a Greek brigantine, which was confidently said to be bound for the coast of Syria. But I knew that this announcement was not to be relied upon with positive certainty, for the Greek mariners are practically free from the stringency of ship's papers, and where they will, there they go. However, I had the whole of the cabin for myself and my attendant, Misery, subject only to the society of the captain at the hour of dinner. Being at ease in this respect, being furnished too with plenty of books, and finding an unfailing source of interest in the thorough Greekness of my captain and my crew, I felt less anxious than most people would have been about the probable length of the cruise. I knew enough of Greek navigation to be sure that our vessel would cling to Earth like a child to its mother's knee, and that I should touch at many an aisle before I set foot upon the Syrian coast. But I had no invidious preference for Europe, Asia, or Africa, and I felt that I could defy the winds to blow me upon a coast that was blank and void of interest. My patience was extremely useful to me, for the cruise altogether endured some 40 days, and that in the midst of winter. According to me, the most interesting of all the Greeks, male Greeks, are the mariners, because their pursuits and their social condition are so nearly the same as those of their famous ancestors. You will say that the occupation of commerce must have smoothed down the salience of their minds, and this would be so perhaps if their mercantile affairs were conducted according to the fixed business-like routine of Europeans. But the ventures of the Greeks are surrounded by such a multitude of imagined dangers, and from the absence of regular marts, in which the true value of merchandise can be ascertained, are so entirely speculative, and besides are conducted in a manner so wholly determined upon by the wayward fancies and wishes of the crew, that they belong to enterprise rather than to industry, and are very far indeed from tending to deaden any freshness of character. The vessels in which war and piracy were carried on during the years of the Greek Revolution became merchant men at the end of the war, but the tactics of the Greeks as naval warriors were so exceedingly cautious, and their habits as commercial mariners are so wild that the change has been more slight than you might imagine. The first care of Greeks, Greek rayas, when they undertake a shipping enterprise is to procure for their vessel the protection of some European power. This is easily managed by a little intriguing with the drago-men of one of the embassies at Constantinople, and the craft soon glories in the ensign of Russia, or the dazzling tricolor, or the Union jack. As to the great delight of her crew, she enters upon the ocean world with a flaring lie at her peak, but the appearance of the vessel does no discredit to the borrowed flag. She is frail indeed, but is gracefully built and smartly rigged. She always carries guns, and in short gives good promise of mischief and speed. The privileges attached to the vessel and her crew by virtue of the borrowed flag are so great as to imply a liberty wider even than that which is often enjoyed in our more strictly civilized countries, so that there is no pretense for saying that the development of the true character belonging to Greek mariners is prevented by the dominion of the Ottoman. These men are free too from the power of the great capitalist, whose sway is more withering than despotism itself to the enterprises of humble venturers. The capital employed is supplied by those whose labor is to render it productive. The crew receive no wages, but all have a share in the venture, and in general I believe they are the owners of the whole freight. They choose a captain to whom they entrust just power enough to keep the vessel on her course in fine weather, but not enough for a gale of wind. They also elect a cook and a mate. The cook whom we had on board was particularly careful about the ship's reckoning, and when under the influence of the keen sea breezes we grew fondly expectant of an instant dinner, the great author of pilafs would be standing on deck with an ancient quadrant in his hands, calmly affecting to take an observation. But then to make up for this the captain would be exercising a controlling influence over the soup, so that all in the end went well. Our mate was a hydriot, a native of that island rock which grows nothing but mariners and mariners' wives. His character seemed to be exactly that which is generally attributed to the hydriot race. He was fierce and gloomy and lonely in his ways. One of his principal duties seemed to be that of acting as counter-captain, or leader of the opposition, denouncing the first symptoms of tyranny, and protecting even the cabin boy from oppression. Besides this when things went smoothly he would begin to prognosticate evil, in order that his more light-hearted comrades might not be puffed up with the seeming good fortune of the moment. It seemed to me that the personal freedom of these sailors who own no superiors except those of their own choice is as like as may be to that of their seafaring ancestors. And even in their mode of navigation they would have mitted no such an entire change as you would suppose probable. It is true that they have so far availed themselves of modern discoveries as to look to the compass instead of the stars, and that they have superseded the immortal gods of their forefathers by Saint Nicholas in his glass case. But they are not yet so confident either in their needle or their saint as to love an open sea, and they still hug their shores as fondly as the Argonauts of old. Indeed they have a most unsailor-like love for the land, and I really believe that in a gale of wind they would rather have a rock-bound coast on their lee than no coast at all. According to the notions of an English seaman, this kind of navigation would soon bring the vessel on which it might be practiced to an evil end. The Greek, however, is unaccountably successful in escaping the consequences of being jammed in as it is called upon a lee shore. These seaman, like their forefathers, rely upon no winds unless they are right a stern or on the quarter. They rarely go on a wind if it blows it all fresh, and if the adverse breeze approaches to a gale, they at once fumigates at Nicholas and put up the helm. The consequence, of course, is that under the ever-varying winds of the Aegean they are blown about in the most whimsical manner. I used to think that Ulysses, with his ten-years voyage, has taken his time in making Ithaca, but my experience in Greek navigation soon made me understand that he had, in point of fact, a pretty good average passage. Such are now the mariners of the Aegean, free, equal amongst themselves, navigating the seas of their forefathers with the same heroic and yet childlike spirit of venture, the same half-trustful reliance upon heavenly aid. They are the liveliest images of true old Greeks that time and the new religions have spared to us. With one exception, our crew were a solemn company, and yet sometimes, when all things went well, they would relax their austerity and sow a disposition to fun or rather to quiet humour. When this happened, they invariably had recourse to one of their number, who went by the name of Admiral Nicolou. He was an amusing fellow, the poorest, I believe, and the least thoughtful of the crew, but full of rich humour. His oft-told story of the events by which he had gained the sobriquet of Admiral never failed to delight his heroes, and when he was desired to repeat it for my benefit, the rest of the crew crowded round with as much interest as if they were listening to the tale for the first time. A number of Greek Briggs and Brigantines were at anchor in the Bay of Beirut. A festival of some kind, particularly attractive to the sailors, was going on in the town, and whether with or without leave, I know not, but the crews of all the craft except that of Nicolou had gone ashore. On board his vessel, however, which carried dollars, there was it would seem a more careful or more influential captain who was able to enforce his determination that one man at least should be left on board. Nicolou's good nature was with him so powerful an impulse that he could not resist the delight of volunteering to stay with the vessel whilst his comrades went ashore. His proposal was accepted and the crew and captain soon left him alone on the deck of his vessel, the sailors, gathering together from their several ships, were amusing themselves in the town when suddenly they came down from betwixt the mountains one of those sudden hurricanes which sometimes occur in southern climes. Nicolou's vessel, together with four of the craft which had been left unmanned, broke from her moorings, and all five of the vessels were carried out seaward. The town is on a salient point at the southern side of the bay so that that admiral was close under the eyes of the inhabitants and the sure-gone sailors when he gallantly drifted out at the head of his little fleet. If Nicolou could not entirely control the maneuvers of the squadron there was at least no human power to divide his authority and thus it was that he took rank as admiral. Nicolou cut his cable and thus for the time saved his vessel for the rest of the fleet under his command were quickly wrecked whilst the admiral got away clear to the open sea. The violence of the squall soon passed off but Nicolou felt that his chance of one day resigning his high duties as an admiral for the enjoyment of private life on the steadfast shore mainly depended upon his success in working the brig with his own hands. So after calling on his namesake, the saint, not for the first time I take it, he got up some canvas and took the helm. He became equal he told us to a score of Nicolou's and the vessel as he said was manned with his terrors. For two days it seems he cruised at large but at last either by his seamanship or by the natural instinct of the Greek mariners for finding land he brought his craft close to an unknown shore that promised well for his purpose of running in the vessel and he was preparing to give her a good berth on the beach when he saw a gang of ferocious looking fellows coming down to the point for which he was making. Poor Nicolou was a perfectly unlettered and untreated genius and for that reason perhaps a keen listener to tales of terror. His mind had been impressed with some horrible legend of cannibalism and he now did not doubt for a moment that the men awaiting him on the beach were the monsters at whom he had shuddered in the days of his childhood. The coast on which Nicolou was running his vessel was somewhere I fancy at the foot of the Anziary Mountains and the fellows who were preparing to give him a reception were probably very rough specimens of humanity. It is likely enough that they might have given themselves the trouble of putting the admiral to death for the purpose of simplifying their claim to the vessel and preventing litigation but the notion of their cannibalism was of course utterly unfounded. Nicolou's terror had however so graven the idea on his mind that he could never afterwards dismiss it. Having once determined the character of his expectant hosts the admiral naturally thought that it would be better to keep their dinner waiting at any length of time than to attend their feast in the character of a roasted Greek. So he put about his vessel and tempted the deep once more. After a further cruise the lonely commander ran his vessel upon some rocks at another part of the coast where she was lost with all her treasures and Nicolou was but too glad to scramble ashore though without one dollar in his girdle. These adventures seem flat enough as I repeat them but the hero expressed his terrors by such odd terms of speech and such strangely humorous gestures that the story came from his lips with an unfailing zest so that the crew who had heard the tale so often could still enjoy to their hearts content the rich fright of the admiral and still shuddered with unabated horror when he came to the loss of the dollars. The power of listening to long stories for which by the by I am giving you large credit is common I fancy to most sailors and the Greeks have it to a high degree for they can be perfectly patient under a narrative of two or three hours duration. These long stories are mostly founded upon oriental topics and in one of them I recognized with some alteration an old friend of the Arabian Knights. I inquired as to the source from which the story had been derived and the crew all agreed that had been handed down unwritten from Greek to Greek. Their account of the matter does not perhaps go very far towards showing the real origin of the tale but when I afterwards took up the Arabian Knights I became strongly impressed with the notion that they must have sprung from the brain of a Greek. It seems to me that these stories whilst they disclose a complete and habitual knowledge of things Asiatic have about them so much of freshness and life so much of the stirring and volatile European character that they cannot have owed their conception to a mere oriental who for creative purposes is a thing dead and dry a mental mummy that may have been a live king just after the flood but has since lain barmed in spice. At the time of the Caliphate the Greek race was familiar enough to Baghdad. They were the merchants, the peddlers, the barbers and intrigers general of southwestern Asia and therefore the oriental materials with which the Arabian tales were wrought must have been completely at the command of the inventive people to whom I would attribute their origin. We were nearing the Isle of Cyprus when there arose half a gale of wind with a heavy chopping sea. My Greek seaman considered that the weather amounted not to a half but to an integral gale of wind at the very least so they put up the helm and scutted for 20 hours. When we neared the mainland of Anadoli the gale ceased and a favorable breeze sprung up which brought us off Cyprus once more. Afterwards the wind changed again but we were still able to lay our course by sailing close hold. We were at length in such a position that by holding on our course for about half an hour we should get under the lee of the island and find ourselves in smooth water but the wind had been gradually freshening it now blew hard and there was a heavy sea running. As the grounds for alarm arose the crew gathered together in one close group. They stood pale and grim under their hooded capotes like monks awaiting a massacre anxiously looking by turns along the pathway of the storm and then upon each other in the eye of the captain who stood by the helmsman. Presently the hydriot came aft more moody than ever the bearer of fierce remonstrance against the continuing of the struggle. He received a resolute answer and still we held our course. Soon there came a heavy sea that caught the bow of the brigantine as she lay jammed in betwixt the waves. She bowed her head low under the waters and shuddered through all her timbers then gallantly stood up again over the striving sea with bowsprit in tire. The men were the crew. It was a crew no longer but rather a gathering of greek citizens. The shout of the seamen was changed for the murmuring of the people the spirit of the old dimos was alive. The men came aft in a body and loudly asked that the vessel should be put about and that the storm be no longer tempted. Now then for speeches the captain his eyes flashing fire his frame all quivering with emotion wielding his every limb like another and a louder voice pours forth the eloquent torrent of his threats and his reasons his commands and his prayers he promises he vows he swears that there is safety in holding on safety if greeks will be brave. The men here are no moved but the gale rouses itself once more and again the raging sea comes trampling over the timbers that are the life of all. The fierce hidriot advances one step nearer to the captain and the angry growl of the people in the wind but they listen they waver once more and once more resolved then waver again thus doubtfully hanging between the terrors of the storm and the persuasion of glorious speech as though it were the Athenian that talked and Philip of Macedon that thundered on the weather bow. Brave thoughts winged on Grecian words gained their natural mastery over terror the brigantine held on her course and reached smooth water at last I landed at Limassol at the most port of Cyprus leaving the vessel to sail for Lanarka where she was to remain for some days. End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of Aothen This is a Librivox recording All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org Aothen by Alexander Kinglake Chapter 7 Cyprus There was a Greek at Limassol who hoisted his flag as an English vice-consul and he insisted upon my accepting his hospitality with some difficulty and chiefly by assuring him that I could not delay my departure beyond an early hour in the afternoon I induced him to allow my dining with his family instead of banqueting all alone with the representative of my sovereign in consular state and dignity. The lady of the house it seemed had never sat at table with a European she was very shy about the matter and tried hard to get out of the scrape but the husband I fancy reminded her that she was theoretically an English woman by virtue of the flag that waved over her roof and that she was bound to show her nationality by sitting at meet with me. Finding herself inexorably condemned to bear with the dreaded gaze of European eyes she tried to save her innocent children from the hard fate awaiting herself but I obtained that all of them and I think there were four or five should sit at the table. You will meet with abundance of stately receptions and of generous hospitality too in the East but rarely, very rarely in those regions or even so far as I know in any part of Southern Europe does one gain an opportunity of seeing the familiar and indoor life of the people. This family party of the good consuls or rather of mine for I originated the idea though he furnished the materials went off very well. Amar was shy at first but she veiled the awkwardness which she felt by affecting to scold her children who had all of them I think immortal names names too which they owed to tradition and certainly not to any classical enthusiasm of their parents. Every instant I was delighted by some such phrases as these the mysticlies my love don't fight our Sibyades can't you sit still please put down the cup oh fire Spazier don't oh don't be naughty it is true that the names were pronounced Socrati Asparzi that is according to accent and not according to quantity but I suppose it is scarcely now to be doubted that they were so sounded in ancient times to me it seems that of all the lands I know you will see in a minute how I connect this piece of prose of Cyprus there is none in which mere wealth mere unaided wealth is held half so cheaply none in which a poor devil of a millionaire without birth or ability occupies so humble a place as in England my Greek host and I were sitting together I think upon the roof of the house for that is the lounging place in eastern climes when the former assumed a serious air and intimated a wish to converse upon the subject of the British constitution with which he assured me that he was thoroughly acquainted he presently however informed me that there was one anomalous circumstance attended upon the practical working of our political system which he had never been able to hear explained in a manner satisfactory to himself from the fact of his having found a difficulty in his subject I began to think that my host really know rather more of it than his announcement of a thorough knowledge had led me to expect I felt interested at being about to hear from the lips of an intelligent Greek quite remote from the influence of European opinions what might seem to him the most astonishing and incomprehensible of all those results which have followed from the action of our political institutions the anomaly the only anomaly which had been predicted by the vice consular wisdom consisted in the fact that Rothschild the late moneymonger had never been the prime minister of England I gravely tried to throw some light upon the mysterious causes that had kept the worthy Israelite out of the cabinet but I think I could see that my explanation was not satisfactory go and argue with the flies of summer that there is a power divine yet greater than the sun in heavens but never dare hope to convince the people of the south that there is any other god than gold my intended journey was to the site of the Paphion temple I take no antiquarian interest in ruins and care little about them unless they are either striking in themselves or else serve to mark some spot on which my fancy loves to dwell I knew that the ruins of Paphos were scarcely if at all discernible but there was a will and a longing more imperious than mere curiosity that drove me thither for this just then was my pagan soul's desire that not forfeiting my inheritance for the life to come it had yet been given me to live through this world to live a favoured mortal under the old Olympian dispensation to speak my resolves to the listening Jove and hear him answer with a proving thunder dressed with divine councils from the lips of Pallas Athene to believe I only to believe to believe for one rapturous moment that in the gloomy depths of the grove by the mountainside there were some leafy pathway that crisped beneath the glowing sandal of Aphrodite Aphrodite not coldly disdainful of even a mortal's love and this vain heathenish longing of mine was father to the thought of visiting the scene of the ancient worship the isle is beautiful from the edge of the rich flowery fields on which I trod to the midway sides of the snowy Olympus the ground could only here and there show an abrupt crag or a high straggling ridge that upshouldered itself from out of the wilderness of myrtles and of the thousand bright-leaved shrubs that twined their arms together in some tangles the air that came to my lips was warm and fragrant as the ambrosial breath of the goddess infecting me not of course with a faith in the old religion of the isle but with a sense and apprehension of its mystic power a power that was still to be obeyed obeyed by me for why otherwise did I toil on with sorry horses to where for her the hundred altars glowed with Arabian incense and breathed with the fragrance of garlands ever fresh I passed a sadly disenchanting night in the cabin of a Greek priest not a priest of the goddess but of the Greek church there was but one humble room or rather shed for man and priest and beast the next morning I reached Baffa, Paphos a village not far distant from the site of the temple there was a Greek husbandman there who not for emolument but for the sake of the protection and dignity which it afforded had got leave from the man at Limassol to hoist his flag as a sort of deputy provisionary sub-vice pro-acting consul of the British sovereign the poor fellow instantly changed his Greek headgear for the cap of consular dignity and insisted upon accompanying this I would not have stood this if I could have felt the faintest gleam of my yesterday's pagan piety but I had ceased to dream and had nothing to dread from any new disenchanters the ruins the fragments of one or two prostrate pillars lie upon a promontory bare and unmistified by the gloom of surrounding groves my Greek friend in his consular cap stood by respectfully waiting to see what turn my madness would take now that I had come at last into the presence of the old stones if you have no taste for research and can't affect to look for inscriptions there is some awkwardness in coming to the end of a merely sentimental pilgrimage when the feeling which empowered you has gone you have nothing to do but to laugh the thing off as well as you can and by the by it is not a bad plan to turn the conversation or rather allow the natives to turn it towards the subject of hidden treasures this is a topic on which they will always speak with eagerness and if they can fancy that you too take an interest in such matters they will not only think you perfectly sane but will begin to give you credit for some more than human powers of forcing the obscure earth to show you its hordes of gold when we return to Baffa the vice consul seized a club with the quietly determined air of a brave man resolved to do some deed of note he went into the yard adjoining his cottage where there were some thin thoughtful canting cocks and serious low church looking hens respectfully listening and chickens of tender years so well brought up as scarcely to betray in their conduct the careless levity of youth the vice consul stood for a moment quite calm collecting his strength then suddenly he rushed into the midst of the congregation and began to deal death and destruction on all sides he spared neither sex nor age the dead and dying were immediately removed from the field of slaughter and in less than an hour I think they were brought on the table deeply buried in mounds of snowy rice my host was in all respects my main generous fellow I could not bear the idea of impoverishing him by my visit and I consulted my faithful miserie who not only assured me that I might safely offer money to the vice consul but recommended that I should give no more to him than to the other meaning any other peasant I felt however that there was something about the man besides the flag and the cap which made me shrink from offering coin as I mounted my horse on departing I gave him the only thing fit for a present that I happened to have with me a rather handsome clasp dagger brought from Vienna the poor fellow was ineffably grateful and I had some difficulty in tearing myself from out of the reach of his thanks at last I gave him what I supposed to be the last farewell and rode on but I had not gained more than about a hundred yards and the host came bounding and shouting after me with a goat's milk cheese in his hands which he implored me to accept in old times the shepherd of theochritus or to speak less dishonestly the shepherd of the Poetai Greike sung his best song I in this latter age presented my best dagger and both of us received the same rustic reward it had been known that I should return to Limassol and when I arrived there I found that a noble old Greek had been hospitably plotting to have me for his guest I willingly accepted his offer the day of my arrival happened to be the birthday of my host and in consequence of this there was a constant influx of visitors who came to offer their congratulations a few of these were men but most of them were young graceful girls almost all of them went through the ceremony with the utmost precision and formality each in succession spoke her blessing in the tone of a person repeating a set formula then deferentially accepted the invitation to sit partook of the prophet's sweetmeats and the cold glittering water remained for a few minutes either in silence or engaged in very thin conversation then arose delivered a second benediction by an elaborate farewell and departed the bewitching power attributed at this day to the women of Cyprus is curious in connection with the worship of the sweet goddess who called their isle her own the Cypriot is not, I think nearly so beautiful in face as the Ionian queens of Izmir but she is tall and slightly formed there is a high sold meaning and expression and consciousness of gentle empire that speaks in the wavy line of her shoulder and winds itself like Cyphria's own cestus around the slender waist then the richly abounding hair not enviously gathered together under the headdress descends the neck and passes the waist in sumptuous braids of all other women with Grecian blood in their veins the costume is graciously beautiful but these the maidens of limousole their robes are more gently more sweetly imagined and fall like Julius Kashmir in soft, luxurious folds the common voice of the Levant allows that in face the women of Cyprus are less beautiful than their brilliant sisters of Smyrna and yet, says the Greek he may trust himself to one and all the bright cities of the Ijean and may yet weigh anchor with a heart entire but that so surely as he ventures upon the enchanted Isle of Cyprus so surely will he know the rapture or the bitterness of love the charm they say owes its power to that which the people call the astonishing politics politiki of the women meaning I fancy their tact and their witching ways the word however plainly fails to express one half that which the speakers would say I have smiled to hear the Greek with all his plentiousness of fancy and all the wealth of his generous language yet vainly struggling to describe the ineffable spell which the Parisians dispose of in their own smart way by a summary Je ne sais quoi I went to Larnaca the chief city of the Isle and over the water at last and of chapter 7 chapter 8 of Aothen this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Aothen by Alexander King Lake chapter 8 Lady Hester Stanup Bay route on its land side is hemmed in by the Druzes who occupy all the neighbouring Highlands often enough I saw the ghostly image of the women with their exalted horns stalking through the streets and I saw too in travelling the affrighted groups of the mountaineers as they fled before me under the fear that my party might be a company of income tax commissioners or a press gang enforcing the inscription for Mehmet Ali but nearly all my knowledge of the people except in regard of their mere costume and outward appearance is drawn from books and dispatches to which I have the honour to refer you I received hospitable welcome at bay route from the Europeans as well as from the Syrian Christians and I soon discovered that their standing topic of interest was the Lady Hester Stanup who lived in an old convent on the Lebanon range at the distance of about a day's journey from the town the lady's habit of refusing to see Europeans added the charm of mystery to a character which even without that aid was sufficiently distinguished to command attention many years of Lady Hester's early womanhood had been passed with Lady Chatham at Burton-Pincent and during that inglorious period of the heroine's life her commanding character and as they would have called it in the language of those days her condescending kindness towards my mother's family had increased in them those strong feelings of respect and attachment which her rank and station alone would have easily won from people of the middle class you may suppose how deeply the quiet women in Somerset sheer must have been interested when only learnt by vague and uncertain tidings that the intrepid girl who had been used to break their vicious horses for them was reigning in sovereignty over the wandering tribes of western Asia I know that her name was made almost as familiar to me in my childhood as the name of Robinson Crusoe both were associated with the spirit of adventure but whilst the imagined life of the castaway mariner was able to seem glaringly real the true story of the English woman ruling over the Arabs always sounded to me like fable I never had heard nor indeed I believe had the rest of the world ever heard anything like a certain account of the heroine's adventures all I knew was that in one of the draws which were the delight of my childhood along with Atar of Roses and fragrant wonders from Hindustan there were letters carefully treasured and trifling presents which I was taught to think valuable because they had come from the queen of the desert who dwelt in tents and reigned over wandering Arabs this subject however died away and from the ending of my childhood up to the period of my arrival in the Levant I had seldom even heard a mentioning of the Lady Hester Stannop but now wherever I went I became so familiar in sound and yet so full of mystery from the vague fairy tale sort of idea which it brought to my mind I heard it too connected with fresh wonders for it was said that the woman was now acknowledged as an inspired being by the people of the mountains and it was even hinted with horror that she claimed to be more than a prophet I felt at once that my mother would be sadly sorry to hear that I had been within a day's ride of her early friend without offering to see her and I therefore dispatched a letter to the recluse mentioning the maiden name of my mother whose marriage was subsequent to Lady Hester's departure and saying that if there existed on the part of her ladyship any wish to hear of her old Somerset sheer acquaintance I should make a point of visiting her my letter was sent by a foot messenger to take an unlimited time for his journey so that it was not I think until either the third or the fourth day that the answer arrived a couple of horsemen covered with mud suddenly dashed into the little court of the locanda in which I was staying bearing themselves as ostentatiously as though they were carrying a cartel from the devil to the angel Michael one of these the other being his attendant an Italian by birth though now completely orientalised who lived in my ladys establishment as doctor nominally but practically as an upper servant he presented me a very kind and appropriate letter of invitation it happened that I was rather unwell at this time so that I named a more distant day for my visit than I should otherwise have done and after all I did not start at the time fixed whilst still remaining at Beirut I received this letter which certainly betrays no symptom of the pretensions to divine power which were popularly attributed to the writer Sir, I hope I shall be disappointed in seeing you on Wednesday for the late rains have rendered the river damour if not dangerous at least very unpleasant to pass for a person who has been lately indisposed for if the animal swims you would be emerged in the waters the weather will probably change after the 21st of the moon and after a couple of days the roads and the river will be passable therefore I shall expect you either Saturday or Monday it will be a great satisfaction to me to have an opportunity of inquiring after your mother who was a sweet lovely girl when I knew her believe me sir you're sincerely Hester Lucy Stanup early one morning I started from Beirut there are no regularly established relays of horses in Syria at least not in the line which I took and you therefore hire your cattle for the whole journey or at all events for your journey to some large town under these circumstances you have no occasion for a Tata whose principal utility consists in his power to compel the supply of horses in other respects the mode of traveling through Syria differs very little from that which I have described as prevailing in Turkey I hired my horses and mules for I had some of both for the whole of the journey from Beirut to Jerusalem the owner of the beasts who had a couple of fellows under him was the most dignified member of my party he was indeed a magnificent old man and was called Serif or Holy title of honour which with the privilege of wearing the green turban he well deserved not only from the blood of the prophet that flowed in his veins but from the well known sanctity of his life and the length of his blessed beard Miseri of course still travelled with me but the Arabic was not one of the seven languages which he spoke so perfectly and I was therefore obliged to hire another interpreter I had no difficulty in finding a proper man for the purpose one Demetrius or as he was always called Demetri a native of Zanti who had been tossed about by fortune in all directions he spoke the Arabic very well and communicated with me in Italian the man was a very zealous member of the Greek church he had been a tailor he was as ugly as the devil having a thoroughly tartar countenance with the agony of his body or mind as the case might be in the most ludicrous manner imaginable he embellished the natural caricature of his person by suspending about his neck and shoulders and waist quantities of little bundles and parcels which he thought too valuable to be entrusted to the jerking of pack saddles the mule that fell to his lot on this journey every now and then forgetting that his rider was a saint and remembering that he was a tailor took a quiet roll upon the ground and stretched his limbs calmly and lazily like a good man awaiting a sermon Demetri never got seriously hurt but the subversion and dislocation of his bundles made him for the moment a sad spectacle of ruin and when he regained his legs his wrath with the mule became very amusing he always addressed the beast in language which implied that he, as a Christian and saint, had been personally insulted and oppressed by a Mohammedan mule Demetri, however, on the whole proved to be a most able and capital servant I suspected him of now and then leading me out of my way in order that he might have the opportunity of visiting the shrine of a saint and on one occasion as you will see by and by he was induced by religious motives to commit a gross breach of duty but putting these pious faults out of the question and they were faults of the right side he was always faithful and true to me I left Saeed the siden of ancient times on my right and about an hour I think before sunset began to ascend one of the many low hills of Lebanon on the summit before me was a broad grey mass of irregular buildings which from its position as well as from the gloomy blankness of its walls gave the idea of a neglected fortress it had in fact been a convent of great size and like most of the religious houses in this part of the world had been made strong enough for opposing an inert resistance to any mere casual band of assailants who might be unprovided with regular means of attack this was the dwelling place of the Chatham's fiery granddaughter the aspect of the first court which I entered was such as to keep one in the idea of having to do with a fortress rather than a mere peaceable dwelling place a number of fierce-looking and ill-clad Albanian soldiers were hanging about the place and striving to bear the curse of tranquility as well as they could two or three of them I think were smoking their chibouk laying torpidly upon the flat stones like the bodies of departed brigands I rode on to an inner part of the building and at last, quitting my horses was conducted through a doorway that led me at once from an open court into an apartment on the ground floor as I entered an oriental figure in male costume approached me from the farther end of the room with many and profound bows but the growing shades of evening led me from distinguishing the features of the personage who was receiving me with this solemn welcome I had always, however, understood that Lady Hester Stanep wore the male attire and I began to utter in English the common civilities that seemed to be proper on the commencement of a visit by an uninspired mortal to a renowned prophetess but the figure which I addressed only bowed so much the more prostrating itself almost to the ground but speaking to me never a word I feebly strived not to be outdone in gestures of respect but presently my bowing opponent saw the error under which I was acting and suddenly convinced me that at all events I was not yet in the presence of a superhuman being by declaring that he was not Milady but was in fact nothing more or less godlike than the poor doctor who had brought his mistress's letter to Beirut her ladyship in the right spirit of hospitality now sent and commanded me to repose for a while after the fatigues of my journey and to dine the cuisine was of the oriental kind which is highly artificial and I thought it very good I rejoiced too in the wine of the Lebanon soon after the ending of the dinner the doctor arrived with Milady's compliments and an intimation that she would be happy to receive me if I were so disposed it had now grown dark and the rain was falling heavily so that I got rather wet in following my guide through the open courts that I had to pass in order to reach the presence chamber at last I was ushered into a small apartment which was protected from the draughts of air passing through the doorway by a folding screen passing this I came alongside of a common European sofa sat the Lady Profites she rose from her seat very formally, spoke to me a few words of welcome, pointed to a chair which was placed exactly opposite to her sofa at a couple of yards distance and remained standing up to the full of her majestic height perfectly still and motionless until I had taken my appointed place she then resumed her seat not packing herself up according to the mode of the orientals but allowing her feet to rest on the floor or the footstool at the moment of seating herself she covered her lap with a mass of loose white drapery which she held in her hand it occurred to me at the time that she did this in order to avoid the awkwardness of sitting in manifest trousers under the eye of a European but I can hardly fancy now that with her willful nature she would have brooked such a compromise as this the woman before me had exactly the person of a profites not indeed of the divine sible imagined by Dominicino so sweetly distracted betwixt love and mystery but of a good business like practical profites long used to the exercise of her sacred calling I've been told by those who knew Lady Hester Stanup in her youth that any notion of a resemblance betwixt her and the great chatham must have been fanciful but at the time of my seeing her the large commanding features of the gaunt woman then sixty years old or more certainly reminded me of the statesman that lay dying in the House of Lords according to Copri's picture her face was of the most astonishing whiteness she wore a very large turban which seemed to be of pale cashmere shawls so disposed as to conceal the hair her dress from the chin down to the point at which it was concealed by the drapery which she held over her lap was a mass of white linen loosely folding an ecclesiastical sort of affair more like a surplus than any of those blessed creations which our souls love under the name of dress and frock and bodice and collar and habit shirt and sweet chemizette which was the outward seeming of the personage that sat before me and indeed she was almost bound by the fame of her actual achievements as well as by her sublime pretensions to look a little differently from the rest of womankind there had been something of grandeur in her career after the death of Lady Chatham which happened in eighteen hundred and three she lived under the roof of her uncle the second pit and when he resumed the government in eighteen hundred and four she became the dispenser of much patronage and sole secretary of state for the department of treasury banquets not having seen the lady until late in her life when she was fired with spiritual ambition I can hardly fancy that she could have performed her political duties in the saloons of the minister with much of feminine sweetness and patience I am told however that she managed matters very well indeed perhaps it was better for the lofty-minded leader of the house to have his reception rooms guarded by this stately creature than by a mealy clever and managing woman it was fitting that the wholesome awe with which he filled the minds of the country gentlemen should be aggravated by the presence of his majestic niece but the end was approaching the son of Austerlitz showed the tsar madly sliding his splendid army like a weaver's shuttle from his right hand to his left under the very eyes the deep grey watchful eyes of Napoleon before night came the coalition was a vain thing meet for history and the heart of its great author was crushed with grief when the terrible tidings came to his ears in the bitterness of his despair he cried out to his niece and bid her roll up the map of Europe there was a little more of suffering and at last with his swollen tongue so they say still muttering something for England he died by the no-blist of all sorrows Lady Hester, meeting the calamity in her own fierce way seems to have scorned the poor island that had not enough of God's grace to keep the heaven-sent minister alive I can hardly tell why it should be but there is a longing for the east very commonly felt by proud-hearted people when goaded by sorrow Lady Hester Stanep obeyed this impulse 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 Sydney Smith had begun to imagine the possibility of her 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 it was said immense in piasters to the shake 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 only exercised something like sovereignty amongst the wandering tribes and now that her earthly kingdom had passed away she strove for spiritual power and impuously 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 Chibalk and coffee the custom of the east sanctions and almost commands some moments of silence while 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 Somerset shear and bounded onward into loftier spheres of thought my old acquaintance with some of the 12 enabled me to bear my part of course a very humble one in a conversation relative to occult science Milne's once spread a report that every gang of gypsies was found upon inquiry to have come last from a place westward and to be about to make the next move in an eastern direction either therefore they were 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 forever 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 it, no one had ever been so odiously statistical as to attempt a contradiction of it I now mention the story as a report to Lady Hester Stanop 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 atness 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 as it 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 look out 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 English woman 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 shake 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 English woman whom he had admitted as his guest was the only obstacle which prevented an amicable arrangement of the dispute the shake hinted that his tribe was likely to sustain an almost overwhelming blow but at the same time declared that no fear of the consequences however terrible to him and his whole people should induce him to dream of abandoning his illustrious guest the heroine instantly took her part it was not for her to be a source of danger to her friends but rather to her enemies so she resolved to turn away from the people and trust for help to none save only her haughty self the shakes affected to dissuade her from so rash a course and fairly told her that although they, having been freed from her presence, would be able to make good terms for themselves yet that there were no means of allaying the hostility felt towards her and that the whole face of the desert would be swept by the horsemen of her enemies so carefully as to make her escape into other districts almost impossible the brave woman was not to be moved by terrors of this kind and bidding farewell to the tribe which had honoured and protected her she turned her horse's head and rode straight away from them without friend or follower hours had elapsed and for some time she had been alone in the centre of the round horizon when her quick eye perceived some horsemen in the distance the party came nearer and nearer soon it was plain that they were making towards her presently some hundreds of Bedouins fully armed galloped up to her ferociously shouting and apparently intending to take her life at the instant with their pointed spears her face at the time was covered with a yashmak according to eastern usage but at the moment when the foremost of the horsemen had all but reached her with their spears she stood up in her stirrups withdrew the yashmak that veiled the terrors of her countenance slowly and disdainfully and cried out with a loud voice avante the horsemen recoiled from a glance but not in terror the threatening yells of the assailants were suddenly changed for loud shouts of joy and admiration at the bravery of the stately English woman and festive gunshots were fired on all sides around her honoured head the truth was that the party belonged to the tribe with which she had allied herself and that the threatened attack as well as the pretended apprehension of an engagement had been contrived for the mere purpose of testing her courage the day ended in a great feast prepared to do honour to the heroine and from that time her power over the minds of the people grew rapidly Lady Hester related this story with great spirit and I recollect that she put up her yashmak for a moment in order to give me a better idea of the respect which she produced by suddenly revealing the awfulness of her countenance with respect to her then present mode of life Lady Hester informed me that for her sin she had subjected herself during many years to severe penance and that herself denial had not been without its reward vain and false said she is all the pretended knowledge of the Europeans their doctors will tell you that thinking of milk gives yellowness to the complexion milk is my only food and you see if my face be not white her abstinence from food intellectual was carried as far as her physical fasting she never she said looked upon a book or a newspaper but trusted alone to the stars for her sublime knowledge she usually passed the nights in communing with these heavenly teachers and lay at rest during the daytime she spoke with great contempt of the frivolity and benighted ignorance of the modern Europeans and mentioned in proof of this that they were not only untaught in astrology but were unacquainted with a common and everyday phenomena produced by magic art she spoke as if she would make me understand that all sorceress spells were completely at her command but that the exercise of such powers would be derogatory to her high rank in the heavenly kingdom she said that the spell by which the face of an absent person is thrown upon a mirror was within the reach of the humblest and most contemptible magicians but that the practice of such like arts was unholy as well as vulgar we spoke of the bending twig by which it is said precious metals may be discovered in relation to this the prophetess told me a story rather against herself and inconsistent with the notion of her being perfect in her science but I think that she mentioned the facts as having happened before the time at which she attained to the great spiritual authority which she now arrogated she told me that vast treasures were known to exist in a situation which she mentioned if I rightly remember as being near Suez that Napoleon profanely brave thrust his arm into the cave containing the coveted gold and that instantly his flesh became palsy'd but the youthful hero for she said he was great in his generation was not to be thus daunted he fell back characteristically upon his brazen resources and ordered up his artillery but man could not strive with demons and Napoleon was foiled in after years came Ibrahim Pasha with heavy guns and wicked spells to boot but the infernal guardians of the treasure were too strong for him it was after this that Lady Hester passed by the spot and she described with animated gesture the force and energy with which the divining twig had suddenly leapt in her hands she ordered excavations and no demons opposed her enterprise the vast chest in which the treasure had been deposited was at length discovered but lo and behold it was full she said however that the times were approaching in which the hidden treasures of the earth would become available to those who had true knowledge speaking of Ibrahim Pasha Lady Hester said that he was a bold bad man and was possessed of some of those common and wicked magical arts upon which she looked down with so much contempt she said for instance that Ibrahim's life was charmed against balls and steel and that after a battle he loosened the folds of his shawl and shook out the bullets like dust it seems that the Saint-Simonians once made overtures to Lady Hester she told me that Pierre-en-Farten the chief of the sect had sent her a service of plate but that she had declined to receive it she delivered a prediction as to the probability of the Saint-Simonians finding the mystic mother and this she did in a way which would amuse you unfortunately I am not at liberty to mention this part of the woman's prophecies why I cannot tell but so it is that she bound me to eternal secrecy Lady Hester told me that since her residence at June she had been attacked by a terrible illness which rendered her for a long time perfectly helpless all her attendants fled and left her to perish whilst she lay thus alone and quite unable to rise robbers came and carried away her property she told me that they actually unroofed a great part of the building and employed engines with pulleys for the purpose of hoisting out such of her valuables as were too bulky to pass through doors it would seem that before this catastrophe Lady Hester had been rich in the possession of eastern luxuries for she told me that when the chiefs of the Ottoman force took refuge with her after the fall of Aka they brought their wives also in great numbers to all of these Lady Hester as she said presented magnificent dresses but her generosity occasioned strife only instead of gratitude for every woman who fancied her present less splendid than that of another with equal or less pretension became absolutely furious all these audacious guests had now been got rid of but the Albanian soldiers who had taken refuge with Lady Hester at the same time still remained under her protection in truth this half ruined convent guarded by the proud heart of an English gentlewoman was the only spot throughout all Syria and Palestine in which the will of Mehmet Ali and his fierce lieutenant was not the law more than once had the pasher of Egypt commanded that Ibrahim should have the Albanians delivered up to him but this white woman of the mountain, grown classical not by books but by very pride answered only with a disdainful invitation to come and take them whether it was that Ibrahim was acted upon by any superstitious dread of interfering with the prophetess a notion not at all incompatible with his character as an able oriental commander although he feared the ridicule of putting himself in collision with a gentlewoman he certainly never ventured to attack the sanctuary and so long as the Chatham's granddaughter breathed a breath of life there was always this one hillock and that too in the midst of a most populous district which stood out and kept its freedom Mehmet Ali used to say I am told that the English woman had given him more trouble than all the insurgent people in Syria and Palestine the prophetess announced to me that we were upon the eve of a stupendous convulsion which would destroy the then recognized value of all property upon earth and declaring that those only who should be in the east at the time of the great change could hope for greatness in the new life that was now close at hand she advised me, whilst there was yet time to dispose of my property in poor frail England and gain a station in Asia she told me that after leaving her I should go into Egypt but that in a little while I should return into Syria I secretly smiled at this last prophecy as a bad shot for I had fully determined after visiting the pyramids to take ship from Alexandria for Greece but men struggle vainly in the meshes of their destiny the unbelieved Cassandra was right after all the plague came and the necessity of avoiding the quarantine to which I should have been subjected if I had sailed from Alexandria forced me to alter my route I went down into Egypt and stayed there for a time and then crossed the desert once more and came back to the mountains of the Lebanon exactly as the prophetess had foretold Lady Hester talked to me long and earnestly on the subject of religion announcing that the Messiah was yet to come she strived to impress me with the vanity and the falseness of all European creeds as well as with a sense of her own spiritual greatness throughout her conversation upon these high topics she carefully insinuated without actually asserting her heavenly rank amongst other much more marvellous powers the lady claimed to have one which most women I fancy possess namely that of reading men's characters in their faces she examined the line of my features very attentively and told me the result which however I mean to keep hidden one favoured subject of discourse was that of race upon which she was very diffuse and yet rather mysterious she set great value upon the ancient French not Norman blood for that she vilified but did not at all appreciate that which we call in this country an old family she had a vast idea of the Cornish miners on account of their race and said if she chose she could give me the means of rousing them to the most tremendous enthusiasm such are the topics on which the lady mainly conversed but very often she would descend to more worldly chat and then she was no longer the prophetess but the sort of woman who sometimes see I'm told in London drawing rooms cool, decisive in manner unsparing of enemies full of audacious fun and saying the downright things that the sheepish society around her is afraid to utter I'm told that Lady Hester was in her youth a capital mimic and she showed me that not all the queenly dullness to which she had condemned herself not all the fasting and solitude destroyed this terrible power the first whom she crucified in my presence was poor Lord Byron she had seen him it appeared I know not where soon after his arrival in the east and was vastly amused at his little affectations he had picked up a few sentences of the Romantic with which she affected to give orders to his Greek servant I can't tell whether Lady Hester's mimicry of the bard was at all close but it was amusing she attributed to him a curiously cox comical lisp another person whose style of speaking the lady took off very amusingly was one who could scarcely object to suffer by the side of Lord Byron I mean Lamartine who had visited her in the course of his travels the peculiarity which attracted her ridicule was an over refinement of manner according to my lady's imitation of Lamartine I've never seen him myself he had none of the violent grimace of his countrymen and not even their usual way of talking but rather bore himself mincingly like the humblest sort of English dandy Lady Hester seems to have heartily despised everything approaching to exquisite-ness she told me by the by and her opinion upon that subject is worth having that manner amounting even to brusqueness is more effective than any other with the oriental and that amongst the English of all ranks and all classes there is no man so attractive to the orientals no man who can negotiate with them half so effectively as a good, honest, open-hearted and positive naval officer of the old school I've told you I think that Lady Hester could deal fiercely with those she hated one man above all others is now uprooted from society and cast away forever she blasted with her wrath you would have thought that in the scornfulness of her nature she must have sprung upon her foe with more of fierceness than of skill but this was not so for with all the force and vehemence of her invective she displayed a sober, patient and minute attention to the details of ituperation which contributed to its success a thousand times more than mere violence during the hours that this sort of conversation or rather discourse was going on our chibuk were from time to time replenished and the lady as well as I continued to smoke with little or no intermission till the interview ended I think that the fragrant fumes of the Latakia must have helped to keep me on my good behaviour as a patient disciple of the prophetess it was not till after midnight that my visit for the evening came to an end when I quitted my seat the lady rose and stood up in the same formal attitude almost that of a soldier in a state of attention which she had assumed at my entrance at the same time she let go the drapery which she had held over her lap while sitting and allowed it to fall to the ground the next morning after breakfast I was visited by my lady's secretary the only European except the doctor whom she retained in her household this secretary like the doctor was Italian but he preserved more signs of European dress and European pretensions that his medical fellow slave he spoke little or no English though he wrote it pretty well having been formally employed in a mercantile house connected with England the poor fellow was in an unhappy state of mind in order to make you understand the extent of his spiritual anxieties I ought to have told you that the doctor who had sunk into the complete Asiatic and had condescended accordingly to the performance of even menial services had adopted the common faith of the neighbouring people and had become a firm and happy believer in the divine power of his mistress not so the secretary when I had strolled with him to a distance from the building which rendered him safe from being overheard by human ears he told me in a hollow voice trembling with emotion that there were times at which he doubted the divinity of me lady I said nothing to encourage the poor fellow in that frightful state of skepticism which if indulged might end in positive infidelity I found that her ladyship had rather arbitrarily abridged the amusements of her secretary forbidding him from shooting small birds on the mountainside this oppression had aroused in him a spirit of inquiry that might end fatally perhaps for himself perhaps for the religion of the place the secretary told me that his mistress was greatly disliked by the surrounding people whom she oppressed by her exactions and the truth of this statement was borne out by the way in which my lady spoke to me of her neighbours but in eastern countries hate and veneration are very commonly felt for the same object and the general belief in the superhuman power of this wonderful white lady her resolute and imperious character and above all perhaps her fierce Albanians not backward to obey an order for the sacking of her village inspired sincere respect amongst the surrounding inhabitants now the being respected amongst Orientals is not an empty or merely honorary distinction but carries with it a clear right to take your neighbour's corn his cattle, his eggs and his honey and almost anything that is his except his wives this law was acted upon by the princess of June and her establishment was supplied by contributions apportioned amongst the nearest of the villages and understood that the Albanians restrained I suppose by the dread of being delivered up to Ibrahim but not given any very troublesome proofs of their unruly natures the secretary told me that their rations including a smaller ounce of coffee and tobacco were served out to them with tolerable regularity I asked the secretary how Lady Hester was off for horses and said that I would take a look at the stable the man did not raise any opposition to my proposal and affected no mystery about the matter but said that the only two steeds which then belonged to her ladyship were of a very humble sort this answer and a storm of rain then beginning to descend prevented me at the time from undertaking my journey to the stable which was at some distance from the part of the building in which I was quartered and I don't know that I ever thought of the matter afterwards until my return to England I saw Lamartine's eye witnessing account of the horse saddled by the hands of his maker when I returned to my apartment which as my hostess told me was the only one in the whole building that kept out the rain her ladyship sent to say that she would be glad to receive me again I was rather surprised at this for I had understood that she reposed during the day and it was now little later than noon really said she had taken my seat and my pipe we were together for hours last night and still I have heard nothing at all of my old friends now do tell me something of your dear mother and her sister I never knew your father it was after I left Burton-Pincent that your mother married I began to make slow answer but my questioner soon went off again to topics more sublime so that this second interview which lasted two or three hours was implied by the same sort of varied discourse as that which I have been describing in the course of the afternoon the captain of an Englishman of war arrived at June and her ladyship determined to receive him for the same reason as that which had induced her to allow my visit namely an early intimacy with his family I and the new visitor who was a pleasant amusing person dined together and we were afterwards invited by the presence of my lady with whom we sat smoking and talking till midnight the conversation turned chiefly I think upon magical science I had determined to be off at an early hour the next morning and so at the end of this interview I bade my lady farewell with her parting words she once more advised me to abandon Europe and seek my reward in the east and she urged me too to give light councils to my father that she had said it Lady Hester's unholy claim to supremacy in the spiritual kingdom was no doubt the suggestion of fierce and inordinate pride most perilously akin to madness but I am quite sure that the mind of the woman was too strong to be thoroughly overcome by even this potent feeling I plainly saw that she was not an unhesitating follower of her own system and I even fancied that I could distinguish the brief moments during which she can strive to believe in herself from those long and less happy intervals in which her own reason was too strong for her as for the lady's faith in astrology and magic science you are not for a moment to suppose that this implied any aberration of intellect she believed these things in common with those around her for she seldom spoke to anybody except crazy old dervishes who received her arms and fostered her extravagances and even when, as on the occasion of my visit, she was brought into contact with a person entertaining different notions she still remained un-contradicted this entourage and the habit of fasting from books and newspapers were quite enough to make her a façade recipient of any marvellous story I think that in England we are scarcely sufficiently conscious of the great debt that goes to the wise and watchful press which presides over the formation of our opinions and which brings about this splendid result namely that in matters of belief the humblest of us are lifted up to the level of the most sagacious so that really a simple cornet in the blues is no more likely to entertain a foolish belief about ghosts or witchcraft or any other supernatural topic than the Lord High Chancellor of the House of Commons how different is the intellectual regime of eastern countries in Syria and Palestine and Egypt you might as well dispute the efficacy of grass or grain as of magic there is no controversy about the matter the effect of this the unanimous belief of an ignorant people upon the mind of a stranger is extremely curious and well worth noticing a man coming freshly from Europe is at first proof against the nonsense with which he is assailed but often it happens that after a little while the social atmosphere in which he lives will begin to infect him and if he has been unaccustomed to the cunning offence by which reason prepares the means of guarding herself against fallacy he will yield himself at last to the faith of those around him and this he will do by sympathy it would seem rather than from fiction I have been much interested in observing that the mere practical man however skillful and shrewd in his own way is not the kind of power that will enable him to resist the gradual impression made upon his mind by the common opinion of those whom he sees and hears from day to day even amongst the English whose good sense and sound religious knowledge would be likely to guard them from error I have known the calculating merchant inquisitive traveller and the post captain with his bright wakeful eye of command I have known all these surrender themselves to the really magic like influence of other people's minds their language at first is that they are staggered leading you by that expression to suppose that they had been witnesses to some phenomenon which it was very difficult to account for otherwise than by supernatural causes but when I've questioned further I've always found that these staggering wonders were not even specious enough to be looked upon as good tricks a man in England who gained his whole livelihood as a conjurer would soon be starved to death if he could perform no better miracles than those which are wrought with so much effect in Syria and Egypt sometimes no doubt a magician will make a good hit so John once said a good thing but all such successes range of course under the head of mere tentative miracles as distinguished by the strong brained Paley and of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 of Yudin This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Vera Unreal Yudin by Alexander Kinglech Chapter 9 The Sanctuary I crossed the plain of Estriolong and entered among the hills of beautiful Galilee It was at sunset that my path brought me sharply round into the gorge of a little valley and close upon a grey mess of dwellings that they happily nestled in the lap of the mountain There was one only shining point still touched with the light of the sun who had set for us a brave sign to this to holy Sharif and the rest of my Muslim men For the one glittering summit was the head of a minaret and the rest of a seeming verge that had veiled itself so meekly under the shades of evening was Christian Nazareth Within the precincts of the Latin Convent in which I was quartered was Christian Nazareth within the precincts in which I was quartered There stands the Great Catholic Church which encloses the Sanctuary the dwelling of a blessed version This is a grotto of about 10 feet either way forming a little chapel or recess to which you descend by steps It is decorated with splendor On the left hand hangs from the top of the grotto to within a few feet of the ground Immediately beneath it is another column of the same size which rises from the ground as if to meet the one above But between this and the suspended pillar there is an interval of more than a foot These fragments once formed a single column against which the angel then sought to marry the mystery of an awful blessedness Hard by near the altar the Holy Virgin was kneeling I had been journeying cheerly indeed for the voices of my followers were ever within my hearing but yet as it were in solitude for I had no convent to wet the edge of my reason I was left all alone to be taught and swayed by the beautiful circumstances of Palestine travelling By the climb and the land and the name of the land without its mighty import By the glittering freshness of the sword and the bounding masses of flowers that furnished my sumptuous pathway By the bracing and fragrant air that seemed to poise me in my saddle and to lift me along as the planet pointed to glide through space and the end of my journey was Nazareth the home of the blessed Virgin and the first dawn of my manhood the old painters of Italy had thought me their dangerous worship of a beauty that is more than mortal but those images all seemed shallowino and floated before me so dimly the one of a casting the other that they left me no one sweet idol on which I could look and look again and say marry me up yet they left me more than an idol they left me thought to them I want to trace it a faint apprehension of beauty not compared with lines and shadows they touched me forgive Mary of Angel they touched me with a faith in loveliness transcending mortal shapes I came to Nazareth and was led from the convent to the sanctuary long-fasting will sometimes heal my brain and draw me away out of the world will disturb my judgment confuse my notions of right and wrong and my power of choosing the right I had fasted perhaps too long for I was fevered with a zeal of an insane devotion to the heavenly Queen of Christendom but I knew the feebleness of this gentle melody and knew how easy my watchful reason if ever so slightly provoked would drag me back to life let that but come the breath of the outer world and all this loving party would cower and fly before the sound of my own bitter laugh and so as I went I trod tenderly not looking to right nor to left but bending my eyes to the ground the attending friar served me well he let me down quietly and all but silently to a virgin's home the mystic air was so burnt with the consuming flames of the altar and so laden with incense that my chest laboured strongly and heaved with luscious pain there there with beating heart the virgin nothing listened I strived to grasp and hold with my riveted eyes someone of the faint Madonna's but of all the heavenly faces imagine my man there was none that would abide with me in this the very sanctuary in patient of vacancy I grew madly strong against nature and if by some awful spell some impious fright I could oh most sweet virgin that bit me fear god and me pierce yet not cease from living the gent and gracious custom commanded me as I fall down loyally and kiss the rock that blessed Mary pressed with a half consciousness with the semblance of a thrilling hope that I was plunging deep deep into my first knowledge of the most holy mystery or of some new rapturous and daring sin I knelt and bowed down my face so I met the smooth rock on my lips one moment one moment my heart was an opaque and demon within me woke up and fiercely bounded my nose and mouth left it and swung as though I had touched a warm rock one moment one more and then the fever had left me I rose from my knees I felt hopelessly sane I got all monk was there dangling his cheek with listen's patient unless he guided me from the church and talked off of the refectory and the coming re-past I listened to his words with some attention and pleasure End of Chapter No. 10 Chapter 10 of A.O.10 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For further information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org A.O.10 by Alexander Kinglake Chapter 10 The Monks of Palestine Whenever you come back to me from Palestine we will find some golden wine of Lebanon that we may celebrate with at libations The Monks of the Holy Land and though the poor fellows be theoretically dead to the world we will drink to every man of them a good long life and a merry one Graceless is the traveller who forgets his obligations to these saints upon earth Little love has he for merry Christendom if he has not rejoiced with great joy to find in the very midst of water-drinking infidels those lowly monasteries in which the blessed juice of the grape Aye aye, we will fill our glasses till they look like cups of amber and drink profoundly to our gracious hosts in Palestine Christianity permits and sanctions the drinking of wine and of all the Holy Brethren in Palestine there are none who hold fast to this gladsome right so strenuously as the Monks of Damascus Not that they are more zealous Christians than the rest of their fellows in the Holy Land but that they have better wine Whilst I was at Damascus I had my quarters at the Franciscan Convent there and very soon after my arrival I asked one of the Monks to let me know something of the spots that deserve to be seen I made my enquiry in reference to the associations with which the city had been hallowed by the sojourn and adventures of St. Paul There is nothing in all Damascus said the good man half so well worth seeing as our sellers and forthwith he invited me to go see and admire the long range of liquid treasure that he and his brethren had laid up for themselves on earth and these I soon found were not as the treasures of the miser that lie in unprofitable disuse for day by day and hour by hour the golden juice ascended from the dark recesses of the seller to the uppermost brains of the friars dear old fellows in the midst of that solemn land their Christian laughter rang loudly and merrily their eyes kept flashing with joyous bonfires and their heavy woollen petticoats could no more weigh down the springiness of their paces than the filmy gores of her dancers can clog her bounding step you would be likely enough to fancy that these monastics are men who have retired to the sacred sites of Palestine from an enthusiastic longing to devote themselves to the exercise of religion in the midst of the very land on which its first seeds were cast and this is partially at least the case with the monks of the Greek church but it is not with enthusiasts that the Catholic establishments are filled the monks of the Latin convents are briefly persons of the peasant class from Italy and Spain who have been handed over to these remote asylums by order of their ecclesiastical superiors and can no more account for their being in the holy land than men of marching regiments can explain why they are in stupid quarters I believe that these monks are for the most part well conducted men punctual in their ceremonial duties and altogether humble minded Christians their humility is not at all misplaced for you see at a glance poor fellows that they belong to the lag-remove of the human race if the taking of the cow does not imply a complete renouncement of the world it is at least in these days a thorough farewell to every kind of useful and entertaining knowledge and accordingly the low bestial brow and the animal cast of those almost bourbon features show plenty enough that all the intellectual vanities of life have been really and truly abandoned but it is hard to quench altogether the spirit of inquiry that stirs in the human breast and accordingly these monks inquire they are always inquiring inquiring for news poor fellows they could scarcely have yielded themselves to the sway of any passion more difficult of gratification for they have no means of communicating with the busy world except through European travellers and these in consequence I suppose of that restlessness and irritability that generally haunt their wonderings seem to have always avoided the bore of giving any information to their hosts as for me I am more patient and good-natured and when I found that the kind monks who gathered around me at Nazareth were longing to know the real truth of my own apart who had recoiled from the siege of Acre I softened my heart down to the good humour of Herodotus and calmly began to sing history telling my eager hearers of the French Empire and the greatness of its glory and of Waterloo and the fall of Napoleon now my story of this marvellous ignorance on the part of the poor monks is one upon which though depending on my own testimony I look with considerable suspicion it is quite true how silly it would be to invent anything so witless and yet I think I could satisfy the mind of a reasonable man that it is false many of the older monks must have been in Europe at the time when Italy and Spain from which they came were in the act of taking their French lessons or had parted so lately with their teachers that not to know of the Emperor was impossible and these men could scarcely therefore have failed to bring with them some tidings of Napoleon's career yet I say that that which I have written is true the one who believes because I have said it will be right she always is whilst poor Mr reasonable man who is convinced by the weight of my argument will be completely deceived in Spanish politics however the monks are better instructed the revenues of the monasteries which had been principally supplied by the bounty of their most Catholic majesties have been withheld since Ferdinand's death and the interests of these establishments being thus closely involved in the destinies of Spain it is not wonderful that the brethren should be a little more knowing in Spanish affairs than in other branches of history besides a large proportion of the monks were native of the peninsula to these I remember there is familiarity with the Spanish language and character was a source of immense delight they were always gathering round him and it seemed to me that they treasured like gold the few Castilian words which he deigned to spare them the monks do a world of good in their way and there can be no doubting that previously to the arrival of Bishop Alexander with his numerous young family and his pretty English nursemaids they were the chief propagandists of Christianity in Palestine my old friends of the Franciscan convent at Jerusalem sometime since gave proof of their goodness by delivering themselves up to the peril of death for the sake of duty when I was their guest they were 40 I believe in number and I don't recollect that there was one of them whom I should have looked upon as a desirable life-holder of any property to which I might be entitled in expectancy yet these 40 were reduced in a few days to 19 the plague was the messenger that summoned them to a taste of real death but the circumstances under which they perished are rather curious and though I have no authority for the story except an Italian newspaper I harbour no doubt of its truth for the facts were detailed with minuteness and strictly corresponded with all that I knew of the poor fellows to whom they related it was about 3 months after the time of my leaving Jerusalem that the plague set his spotted foot on the holy city the monks felt great alarm they did not shrink from their duty but for its performance they chose a plan most sadly well fitted for bringing down upon them the very death which they were striving to ward off they imagined themselves almost safe so long as they remained within their walls but then it was quite needful that the Catholic Christians of the place who had always looked to the convent for the supply of their spiritual wants should receive the aids of religion in the hour of death a single monk therefore was chosen either by lot or by some other fair appeal to destiny being thus singled out he was to go forth into the plague stricken city and to perform with exactness his priestly duties then he was to return not to the interior of the convent for fear of infecting his brethren but to a detached building which I remember belonging to the establishment but at some little distance from the inhabited rooms he was provided with a bell and at a certain hour in the morning he was ordered to ring it if he could but if no sound was heard at the appointed time then knew his brethren that he was either delirious or dead and another martyr sent forth to take his place in this way 21 of the monks were carried off one cannot well fail to admire the steadiness with which the dismal scheme was carried through but if there be any truth in the notion that disease may be invited by a frightening imagination it is difficult to conceive a more dangerous plan than that which was chosen by these poor fellows the anxiety with which they must have expected each day the sound of the bell the silence that reigned instead of it and then the drawing of the lots the odds against death being one point lower than yesterday and the going forth of the newly doomed man all this must have widened the gulf that opens to the shades below when his victim had already suffered so much of mental torture it was but easy work for big bullying pestilence to follow a forlorn monk from the beds of the dying and wrench away his life from him as he lay all alone in an outhouse in most I believe in all of the Holy Land Convance there are two personages so strangely raised above their brethren in all that dignifies humanity that they're bearing the same habit they're dwelling under the same roof they're worshipping the same God consistent as all this is with the spirit of their religion yet strikes the mind with a sense of wondrous incongruity the men I speak of are the Padre Superiore and the Padre Missionario the former is the supreme and absolute governor of the establishment over which he is appointed to rule the latter is entrusted with the more active of the spiritual duties attaching to the pilgrim church he is the shepherd of the good catholic flock whose pasture is prepared in the midst of Muslims and schismatics he keeps the light of the true faith ever vividly before their eyes reproves their vices supports them in their good resolves consoles them in their afflictions and teaches them to hate the Greek church such are his labours and you may conceive that great tact must be needed for conducting with success the spiritual interests of the church under circumstances so odd as those which surround it in Palestine but the position of the Padre Superiore is still more delicate he is almost unceasingly in treaty with the powers that be and the worldly prosperity of the establishment over which he presides is in great measure dependent upon the extent of diplomatic skill which he can employ in its favour I know not from what class of churchmen these personages are chosen for there is a mystery attending their origin and the circumstances of their being stationed in these convents which Rome does not suffer to be penetrated I have heard it said that they are men of great note and perhaps of too high ambition in the Catholic hierarchy who, having fallen under the grave censure of the church are banished for fixed periods to these distant monasteries I believe that the term which they are condemned to remain in the Holy Land is from 8 to 12 years by the natives of the country as well as by the rest of the brethren they are looked upon as superior beings and rightly too for nature seems to have crowned them in her own true way the chief of the Jerusalem Convent was a noble creature his worldly and spiritual authority seemed to have surrounded him as it were with a kind of court and the manly gracefulness of his bearing did honour to the throne which he filled there were no lords of the bed chamber and no gold sticks and stones in waiting yet everybody who approached him looked as though he were being presented every interview which he granted wore the air of an audience the brethren as often as they came near bowed low and kissed his hand and if he went out the Catholics of the place that hovered about the convent would crowd around him with devout affection and almost scramble for the blessing which his touch could give he bore his honours all serenely as though calmly conscious of his power to bind and to loose and of Chapter 10 Chapter 11 of Aothen this is a LibriVots recording all LibriVots recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit LibriVots.org Aothen by Alexander Kinglake Chapter 11 Galilee Neither old sacred himself nor any of his helpers knew the road which I meant to take from Nazareth to the sea of Galilee and from thence to Jerusalem so I was forced to add another to my party by hiring a guide the associations of Nazareth as well as my kind feeling towards the hospitable monks whose guest I had been inclined me to set at naught the advice which I had received against employing Christians I accordingly engaged a lithe active young Nazarene who was recommended to me by the monks and who affected to be familiar with the line of the country through which I intended to pass my disregard of the popular prejudices against Christians was not justified in this particular instance by the result of my choice this you will see by and by I passed by Cana and the house in which the water had been turned into wine I came to the field in which our Saviour had rebuked the Scotch Sabbath keepers of that period by suffering his disciples with a black corn on the Lord's day I rode over the ground on which the fainting multitude had been fed and they showed me some massive fragments the relics they said of that wondrous banquet now turned into stone the petrifaction was most complete I ascended the height on which our Lord was standing when he wrought the miracle the hill was lofty enough to show me the fairness of the land on all sides but I have an ancient love for the mere features of a lake and so forgetting all else when I reached the summit I looked away eagerly to the eastward there she lay, the sea of Galilee less stern than worst water less fair than gentle windermere she had still the winning ways of an English lake she caught from the smiling heavens unceasing light and changeful phases of beauty this on her face she yet clung so fondly to the dull he-looking mountain at her side as though she would soothe him with her finer fancies touch him with her lighter thought if one might judge of men's real thoughts by their writings it would seem that there are people who can visit an interesting locality and follow up continuously the exact train of thought that ought to be suggested by the variations of the place a person of this sort can go to Athens and think of nothing later than the age of Pericles can live with the Scipios as long as he stays in Rome can go up in a balloon and think how resplendently in former times the now vacant and desolate air was peopled with angels how prettily it was crossed at intervals by the rounds of Jacob's ladder I don't possess this power at all it is only by snatches and for few moments together that I can really associate a place with its proper history there at Tiberius and along this western shore towards the north and upon the bosom too of the lake our saviour and his disciples a way flew those recollections and my mind strained eastward because that far this shore was the end of the world that belongs to man the dweller the beginning of the other unveiled world that is held by the strange race whose life, like the pastime of Satan is a going to and fro upon the face of the earth from those grey hills right away to the gates of Baghdad stretched forth the mysterious desert not a pale void sandy tract but a land abounding in rich pastures a land without cities or towns without any respectable people or any respectable things yet yielding its 80,000 cavalry to the back of a few old men but once more Tiberius the plain of Geneserith the very earth on which I stood that the deep low tones of the saviour's voice should have gone forth into eternity from out of the midst of these hills and these valleys aye aye but yet again the calm face of the lake was uplifted and smiled upon my eyes with such familiar gaze that the deep low tones were hushed the listening multitudes all passed away and instead there came to me a dear old memory from over the seas in England a memory sweeter than gospel to that poor willful mortal me I went to Tiberius and soon got afloat upon the water in the evening I took up my quarters in the catholic church and the building being large enough the whole of my party were admitted to the benefit of the same shelter with portmanteaus and carpet bags and books and maps and fragrant tea Viserys soon made me a home on the southern side of the church one of the old sheriff's helpers was an enthusiastic catholic and was greatly delighted at having so sacred a lodging he lit up the altar with a number of tapers and when his preparations were complete he began to perform his horizons in the strangest manner imaginable his lips muttered the prayers of the latin church but he bowed himself down and laid his forehead to the stones beneath him after the manner of a musselman the universal atness of a religious system for all stages of civilisation and for all sorts and conditions of men well befits its claim of divine origin she is of all nations and of all times that wonderful church of Rome Tiberius is one of the four holy cities according to the Talmud and it is from this place or the immediate neighbourhood of it that the Messiah is to arise except at Jerusalem never think of attempting to sleep in a holy city old Jews from all parts of the world go to lay their bones upon the sacred soil and as these people never return to their homes it follows that any domestic vermin which they may bring with them are likely to become permanently resident so that the population is continually increasing no recent census had been taken when I was at Tiberius but I know that the congregation of fleas which attended at my church alone must have been something enormous it was a carnal self-seeking congregation wholly inattentive to the service which was going on and devoted to the one object of having my blood the fleas of all nations were there the smug steady importunate flea from hollywell street the pert jumping puss from hungry france the wary watchful pulche with his poisoned stiletto the vengeful pulga of Castile with his ugly knife the German flaw with his knife and fork insatiate not rising from table whole swarms from all the rushes and asiatic hordes unnumbered all these were there and all rejoiced in one great international feast I could no more defend myself against my enemies than if I had been pan a discression in the hands of a French patriot or English gold the claws of a Pennsylvania quaker after passing a night like this you're glad to pick up the wretched remains of your body long long before morning dawns your skin is scorched your temples throb your lips feel withered and dried your burning eyeballs are screwed inwards against the brain you have no hope but only in the saddle and the freshness of the morning air End of Chapter 11 Thanks for watching!