Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/20

 time; and then embarked for Malta in the Cerberus, Captain Whitby, who afterwards distinguished himself in Captain Hoste’s victory up the Adriatic. At Malta, she lived, at first, in the house of Mr. Fernandez: afterwards, General Oakes offered Lady Hester the palace of St. Antonio, where we resided during the remainder of her stay.

We departed for Zante in the month of June or July, 1810. From Zante, we passed over to Patras, where she bade adieu to English customs for the rest of our pilgrimage. Traversing Greece, we visited Constantinople, and, from Constantinople, sailed for Egypt. At Rhodes we were shipwrecked, and I there lost my journals, among which were many curious anecdotes that would have thrown much light on her ladyship’s life. I shall relate what I have since gathered, without observing any order, but always, as far as I could recollect, using her very expressions; and, in many instances, there will be found whole conversations, where her manner would be recognized by those who were acquainted with it. I shall sometimes preface them with observations of my own.

Speaking of her sisters, Lady Hester would say: "My sister Lucy was prettier than I was, and Griselda more clever; but I had, from childhood, a cheerfulness and sense of feeling that always made me