Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/273

 since been suggested to me that there would be an absurdity in such a supposition (for I had no opportunity of consulting books where I was), because some of the most eloquent passages of Junius are his panegyrics on Lord Chatham, and it is not likely that he would have been guilty of writing a eulogium on himself; however, I mentioned it to her. She answered, " My grandfather was perfectly capable and likely to write and do things which no human being would dream came from his hands. I once met with one of his spies," continued she, "a woman of the common class, who had passed her life dressed in man's clothes: in this way she went, as a sailor, to America, and used to write him letters as if to a sweetheart, giving an account of the enemy's ships and plans in a most masterly way, in the description of a box of tools, or in something so unlike the thing in question that no suspicion could be had of the meaning of the contents. This woman by accident passed me at a watering-place, whilst I was sitting near the sea-side talking to my brother, and stopped short on hearing the sound of my voice, which was so much like my grandfather's that it struck her—and there is nothing extraordinary in this: I have known a horse do the same thing. My father had two piebald horses: they were very vicious, and hated one of the grooms so, that, one day, whilst he was taking them out for