Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/266

 Stanhope this evening. She was very ill, and greatly convulsed during the greater part of the time:—she moaned a good deal—yet, in the intervals of ease that she got, she had two baskets of good things packed up as a present to an old French widow, and two for an infirm old man, her pensioner, residing at Sayda.

Monday, February 13.—Lady Hester to-day dictated the following letter to Sir Edward Sugden:—


 * Jôon, February 12, 1838.

Sir,

Born an aristocrat (for this assurance I received from your father, whom it appeared to annoy as much as it delighted me), with these genuine feelings it will not be necessary for me to make any excuses for bringing so abruptly before you a subject, which relates to this cause as well as that of justice.

I will not bore you with long details; for it will be sufficient for you to know that after my arrival in the East I was not regarded by any class of persons with the same eyes of suspicion as strangers generally are. I have had it in my power, without making use of intrigue or subterfuge on my part, or hurting the religious or political feeling of others in any way, to hear and investigate things which had never yet been investigated. This fortunate circumstance does not