Page:Eothen, or, Traces of travel brought home from the East by Kinglake, Alexander William.djvu/96

 The Secretary told me that his Mistress was greatly disliked by the surrounding people whom she oppressed by her exactions, and the truth of this statement was borne out by the way in which my Lady spoke to me of her neighbors. But in Eastern countries, hate and veneration are very commonly felt for the same object, and the general belief in the superhuman power of this wonderful white lady—her resolute and imperious character, and above all, perhaps, her fierce Albanians (not backward to obey an order for the sacking of a village) inspired sincere respect amongst the surrounding inhabitants. Now the being "respected" amongst Orientals, is not an empty, or merely honorary distinction, for, on the contrary, it carries with it a clear right to take your neighbor's corn, his cattle, his eggs, and his honey, and almost anything that is his, except his wives. This law was acted upon by the Princess of Djoun, and her establishment was supplied by contributions apportioned amongst the nearest of the villages.

I understood that the Albanians (restrained, I suppose, by their dread of being delivered up to Ibrahim) had not given any very troublesome proofs of their unruly natures. The Secretary told me that their rations, including a small allowance of coffee and tobacco, were served out to them with tolerable regularity.

I asked the Secretary, how Lady Hester was off for horses, and said that I would take a look at the stable; the man did not raise any opposition to my proposal, and affected no mystery about the matter, but said that the only two steeds which then belonged to her Ladyship were of a very humble sort; this answer, and a storm of rain which began to descend, prevented me at the time from undertaking my journey to the stable, which was at some distance from the part of the building in which I was quartered, and I don't know that I ever thought of the matter afterwards, until my return to England, when I saw Lamartine's eye-witnessing account of the horse saddled by the hands of his Maker!

When I returned to my apartment (which, as my hostess told me, was the only one in the whole building that kept out the rain)