Perhaps for saying this, you will have me crucified by the Pope: never mind—if it is my lot, I shall not repine; since, whatever is decreed must necessarily happen: but it is not necessary, for all that, by a want of policy, to make civil wars break out, which would do no good to anybody, and which would not turn to any account, even for those who stirred them up: neither is it proper to remove those to a distance, who have the means of pacifying the disputants, should the case require it.
If I had had the happiness of seeing you, I would have asked you if you had ever seen the prophecy of a certain Pope, whose leaden coffin was found about seventy years ago: that prophecy has great analogy with some Oriental ones.
Hester Lucy Stanhope.
Lady Hester wished me also to write to the count, to let him know how it happened that Prince Pückler Muskau had been entrusted with the correspondence between herself, Lord Palmerston, his grace the Duke of Wellington, &c., &c.,: and also, as much had been said of the prince’s way of travelling at the expense of Mahomet Ali Pasha, to assure him, the count, that the prince showed no signs of stinginess when at Jôon. The next day, being Wednesday, when I could not see Lady Hester, I executed her wish.
Dr. M. to Count Wilsensheim.
Jôon, July 25, 1838.
Sir Count,[36]
As you appear to take a lively interest in whatever regards Lady Hester Stanhope, I hope, on that account, you will excuse me, if I join to her ladyship’s letter a few words from myself, to place in their true light some circumstances which might otherwise appear extraordinary to you.
In consequence of the proceedings instituted against her ladyship by the English government, Lady Hester has resolved to shut herself up in her house, to wall up the entrance, and to bury herself, as one would say, in a tomb, until those, who have attempted to cast a stain on her integrity (the rightful inheritance, as she affirms, of the Pitt family), shall, by a signal reparation, have washed it out. She is in the act of reducing her establishment to her strict wants by discharging her servants. I myself am on the point of my departure for Europe, forced by her ladyship to go, but deeply regretting that I must leave her without a single European near her person, and without a single servant in whom she has confidence. My uneasiness, however, does not extend so far as to fear for her personal safety, although the war between the Druzes and the Pasha rages more fiercely than ever: because I know the firmness and intrepidity of her character, the resources of her mind, and the respect and dread in which the two hostile parties hold her.