t on the Lebanon range
at a distance of a day's journey from the town, and was acknowledged as
an inspired being by the people of the mountains, and as more than a
prophet.

I visited Lady Hester in her dwelling-place, a broad, grey mass of
irregular buildings on the summit of one of the many low hills of
Lebanon. I was received by her ladyship's doctor, and apartments were
set apart for myself and my party. After dinner the doctor conducted me
to Miladi's chamber, where the lady prophetess received me standing up
to the full of her majestic height, perfectly still and motionless until
I had taken my appointed place, when she resumed her seat on a common
European sofa.

Her ladyship addressed to me some inquiries respecting my family; and
then the spirit of the prophetess kindled within her, and for hours and
hours this wondrous white woman poured forth her speech, for the most
part concerning sacred and profane mysteries. Now and again she adverted
to the period when she exercised astonishing sway and authority over the
wandering Bedouin tribes in the desert which lies between Damascus and
Palmyra.

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 falseness of all European creeds, as well as with a
sense of her own spiritual greatness. Throughout her conversation upon
these high topics, she skilfully insinuated, without actually asserting,
her heavenly rank.

_III.--Nazareth, Jordan, and the Dead Sea_

I crossed the plain of Esdraelon, and entered amongst 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 mass of
dwellings that lay happily nestled in the lap of the mountain. It was
Christian Nazareth.

Within the precincts of the Latin convent, in which I was quartered,
there stands a great Catholic church, which encloses the sanctuary--the
dwelling of the Blessed Virgin. This is a grotto, forming a little
chapel, to which you descend by steps.

The attending friar led me down, all but silently, to the Virgin's home.
Religion and gracious custom commanded me that I fall down loyally and
kiss the rock that blessed Mary pressed. With a half-consciousness, a
semblance of a thrilling hope that I was plunging deep into my first
knowledge of some most holy mystery, or of some new, rapturous, and
daring sin, I