Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/188

 embarkation, where he was most honourably and hospitably treated. He always spoke of this period as the happiest of his life, and mentioned the names of some English gentlemen with the highest encomiums and most pleasing reminiscences.

Having converted what property he could into money, he obtained bills on France, and set out for his native country. The revolution had broken out; and, on his arrival, his bills were all paid, but in assignats; so that in a few weeks he found himself almost penniless. Of this calamitous part of history I could gather but few details. I have heard him say that some branch of the Orleans family assisted him. Certain it is that he had either money or friends yet left; for, with the wreck of his property, or by some other means, he established an iron-foundry near the place of his nativity. He was so close, however, to the frontiers of Spain, that, during the war with that country and France, in an incursion of the enemy, all his property was destroyed.

How he got to Mahon, or for what purpose, I am equally ignorant; but, embarking from that port, he found his way to Syria, probably intending to make his way overland to India, there to reclaim his property. But his intellects must have been already somewhat disordered: for, when we heard him first spoken of in Palestine, in 1812 to 1813, he was de-