The two travellers made a miserable repast, and, when it was over, signified their desire to take leave. It seems they had taken Lady Hester's invitation "to make the place their home for two hours or two days" in its literal acceptation; and it is scarcely necessary to say that there was no time for me to enter into an explanation on the subject, nor, indeed, to deliver a tenth part of the discursive matter with which Lady Hester had charged me. It was from these gentlemen I learned, for the first time, that a committee had been appointed, on the motion of Mr. D. W. Harvey, for inquiring into the pensions on the civil list. It had so happened that no newspapers had reached us for a long time, and, consequently, this was the first intimation her ladyship had received of a measure in which it might be supposed she felt no inconsiderable interest, although in reality she did not.
As Mr. Forster and his friend had to cross a deep valley and mount a steep ascent before they could take the road to Beyrout, to which town they were now going, I sent Ali Hayshem, the messenger, to put them on their way. He returned in the course of an hour or two, and was despatched the same evening on foot, with letters to Beyrout, where he arrived next day before Messieurs Knox and Forster. He told me, on his return, that their surprise was very great on finding him at the inn, knowing that they had left him behind them, the morning before, up the mountain.
