FOOTNOTES:

[46] It is evident that Lady Hester applied the words of St. John to our Saviour.

[47] Lady Hester’s pronunciation in Arabic was not particularly correct. By Murdah she meant Mahadi or Mahedi, a title, in the Mussulman religion, equivalent to that of pontiff. This title was given to Abulcassem Mohammed, the last of the imams of the race of Ali, born in the year 255 of the hegira. At nine years of age, he was shut up in a cavern by his mother, who is supposed by the superstitious followers of Mahomet still to keep watch over him, until he shall re-appear at the end of the world, when he will unite himself with Jesus Christ; and the two religions, Mussulman and Christian, being merged into one, he will, in conjunction with our Saviour, finally overcome the machinations of the antichrist.—Herbelot, Dict. Orient., p. 531.

[48] What was meant by a person’s star will be explained hereafter.

[49] “The woman from a far country” remained a mystery until the year 1835, when the Baroness de Fériat, an English lady residing in the United States, wrote, of her own accord, out of admiration of Lady Hester Stanhope’s character, asking to come and live with her: when the prophecy was thought to be fulfilled.

[50] The reader must bear in mind that Lady Hester Stanhope imagined that the consul, here alluded to in such ungentle terms, could have no authority over travellers or residents not occupied in mercantile pursuits, as he was a consul appointed by the Levant Company, and not by Government: but it is no longer so now that the Foreign Office appoints them.

[51] It is a remarkable thing that, wherever the Crusaders passed, tiled roofs are to be found; as at Antioch, &c.

[52] Lunardi went to Syria, gave great satisfaction, and remained a long time with Lady Hester Stanhope. It is the same person of whom M. de Lamartine makes mention in the account of his visit to her, styling him erroneously her écuyer and doctor. Lunardi seems to have passed himself off as a medical man, likewise, to the author of “Eōthen.” This assumption of a diploma is not unusual in Turkey. I had a servant, named Lorenzo, at Constantinople, who, after my departure, practised as a physician with some success—I mean, in a pecuniary sense.

[53] One of these gentlemen, by name Chester, a clergyman, I believe, has published his observations in a little work, entitled “Three Weeks in Palestine.” It is needless to eulogize it, as the devout sentiments which pervade its pages have induced one of the societies for the extension of Christian knowledge to cause it to be stereotyped. Perhaps, the greatest merit in Mr. Chester’s publication is to have known how to reject so much of the trash imposed upon travellers by dragomans and consular dependants, and to have only retained descriptions of scenes and events which he saw with his own eyes. The book is altogether an entertaining production.