countered misfortune and ingratitude with a composed
countenance, facing them as fearlessly as she had faced the Bedawun of
the desert. She yielded nothing, either to the old age which was
creeping upon her, or the desertion of the ungrateful wretches who had
profited so largely by her generosity. Alone she lived, with the great
mountain peaks closing in upon her remote abode--without books, without
friends; attended by a few young negresses, a few black slaves, and a
handful of Arab peasants, who took charge of her gardens and stables,
and watched over the safety of her person. The love of power, however,
was still strong within her, and as her worldly authority slipped away,
she endeavoured to replace it by a spiritual. The energy of her temper
and the extraordinary force of her character found expression in exalted
religious ideas, in which the "illuminationism" of Europe was strangely
blended with the subtleties of the Oriental faiths and the mysteries of
mediaeval astrology. To what extreme they carried her it is difficult to
say. It has been hinted that she dreamed of being united in a nuptial
union with her Saviour, reviving the old illusion of St. Catherine of
Siena. There is no doubt that at times she claimed to be the possessor
of divine power; there is no doubt that she was not always a believer in
her own claims. Her intellect was too strong for her imagination. As
Miss Martineau remarks, "She saw and knew things which others could not
see or know; she had curious glimpses of prescience; but she could not
depend upon her powers, nor always separate realities from mere dreams."

* * * * *

Occasionally a visitor from the active world of the West broke in upon
her loneliness--but only by permission--and, if he were a man of quick
sympathies, would draw her out of herself. Her revelations, under such
circumstances, were always of deep interest.

Alphonse de Lamartine, the French poet, orator, and man of letters,
obtained admission to her presence, though not without difficulty, in
1832, when she was standing on the threshold of old age. He has left us
a graphic record of the interview.

It was three o'clock in the afternoon when he was informed that Lady
Hester was ready to receive him. After traversing a court, a garden, a
day-kiosk, with jasmine hangings, then two or three gloomy corridors, a
small negro boy introduced him into her cabinet. So profound an
obscurity prevailed