Lady Hester Stanhope
THE CIRCE OF THE
DESERTS
BY
PAULE HENRY-BORDEAUX
WITH A FRONTISPIECE
LONDON
HURST & BLACKETT, LTD.
PATERNOSTER HOUSE, E.C.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. Farewell to England
II. Mediterranean Yachting
III. Oriental Initiation
IV. Excursion in the Holy Land
V. In the Country of Djezzar Pacha andthe Emir Bechir
VI. Far niente at Damascus
VII. Lady Hester and Lascaris
VIII. The Queen of Palmyra
IX. From the Temple of Baalbeck to theRuins of Ascalon
X. In the Mountains of the Assassins
THE CIRCE OF THEDESERTS
CHAPTER I
FAREWELL TO ENGLAND
ON February 10, 1810, the frigateJason, commander James King,—left Portsmouth, bound forGibraltar. In the stern of the vessel, a group of four persons watchedthe coast, which was enveloped in a clinging mist which the meagreEnglish sun could not contrive to absorb, gradually recede into thedistance. Three men stood a little apart from a woman whose giganticstature must not have passed unnoticed, even on British soil.
She was six feet in height and was developed in proportion. Strangerswho met her for the first time allowed their astonished and mocking eyesto wander at random and to lose their way over the vast surface whichshe offered to the admirers of bulk, but when they had succeeded inreaching the face, pale and passionate flower borne by a robust stalk,they were interested, captivated, subjugated, dazzled! What wonderfulsurprise, after the difficult and monotonous ascent of a lofty peak, todiscover boundless fields of fresh snow, sparkling with light!...
More strange than beautiful, this woman attracted attention, and thosewho had gazed upon her features never forgot them. Can one say that thesun is beautiful when its fires blind? Thus everything about herglittered; her skin dazzling as marble, of which it possessed the puregrain and the cold smoothness, her eyes of a pale and frosty grey whichwere illuminated by a terrifying and wild glitter when passion rousedher and which was heightened by a bluish ring.... Everything about herwas striking: her lips, of a dark red, firm and strong in shape, herdazzling teeth, her curved nose, her obstinate chin. A northern lightseemed to play on this lofty and superb forehead, on this countenance ofa perfect oval, and isolated her in crowning her as a queen ... or as amadwoman....
What age could she be? Some thirty years hardly. Perha