here
her magnificence and near alliance to the great minister gained her
considerable influence. Afterwards she passed into Syria.

Many of the people of that country, excited by the achievements of Sir
Sidney Smith, looked on her as a princess who had come to prepare the
way for the expected conquest of their land by the English. Her
influence increased through the prestige created by her wealth and
magnificence, as well as by her imperious character and dauntless
bravery. She believed in magic, astrology, and, incredible as it may
appear, in her own divine mission.

She had two mares which were held sacred by herself and her attendants.
One was singularly marked by a natural saddle. The animal was never
mounted, but reserved for some divinity whom she was to accompany on his
triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The other was retained for her own
"mount" on the same remarkable occasion.

It is said that she was crowned Queen of the East by 50,000 Arabs, at
Palmyra. Lady Hester certainly exercised despotic power in her
neighbourhood on the mountain. Mehemet Ali could make nothing of her.
She annihilated a village for disobedience, and burned a mountain
chalet, with all its inhabitants, on account of the murder of two
Frenchmen who were travelling under the protection of her firman.

_VII.--Mount Hermon_

One morning, before daylight, I set out for the summit of Hermon, called
in Arabic, Djebel Sheikh, the "Chief of the Mountains." This is the
highest point of Syria, the last of the Anti-Lebanon range. We rode
through some rugged valleys and tracts of vineyards, and, leaving our
horses at one of the sheds in the latter, began the steep and laborious
ascent. I have climbed Snowdon, Vesuvius, Epomeo, and many others, but
this was the heaviest work of all. After six hours of toil we stood on
the summit, and perhaps the world does not afford a more magnificent
view than we then beheld.

We looked down from the ancient Hill of Hermon over the land of Israel.
There gleamed the bright blue Sea of Galilee, and nearer was Lake Hooly,
with Banias, the ancient Dan, on its banks. The vast and varied plain,
on which lay mapped a thousand places familiar to the memory, was
bounded on the right by the Mediterranean, whose purple waters whitened
round Sidon, Tyre, and the distant Promontorium Album, over which just
appeared the summit of Mount Carmel. On the left of the plain a range of
hills divided the Hauran from Samaria. Furthe