Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/260

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246
Memoirs of

nificent Queen. There is Colonel Campbell's answer, which I leave open for your perusal, as he did his. If in the end I find that you deserve the name of a true Scotchman, I shall never take ill the part that you may have taken against me, as it appears to be consistent with your duty in these dirty times.

I remain with truth and regard, yours,

Hester Lucy Stanhope.

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Besides these letters, I wrote others for England and for Beyrout—in all about a dozen. What with writing and listening to her conversation, I was with her five hours before dinner and five hours after. I had to seal and put covers to all these; and just at the moment when I was about to retire to my study, a little room set apart for me in her house, to do this. Lady Hester stopped me, and returned to the subject of the silver spoon. After some consideration, she recommended also the use of the korbàsh.[1]

"How am I to live," cried she, "with thirty servants in my house, and such a man as you are that can't say boh! to a goose? How do you expect they

  1. The korbàsh is a thong of the raw hide of the buffalo or rhinoceros, about the length of a hand-whip, and cut tapering in a similar form. In the hand of a powerful flagellant it becomes an instrument of great torture.