it on a tray placed on
her lap as she sat up in bed, and it was necessary for one of the two
servants to hold the candle in one hand and shade the light from her
mistress's eyes with the other. The contents of the basin were sipped
once or twice and sent away; or, if she ate a small bit of dried toast,
it was considered badly made, and a fresh piece was ordered, perhaps not
to be touched."

In what follows we are almost inclined to suspect a degree of
exaggeration. Dr. Meryon says that the dish being removed, the maid
would again depart, and throw herself on her bed; and, as she wanted no
rocking, in ten minutes would be asleep. But, meanwhile, her mistress
would feel a twitch in some part of her body, and the bell would again
be rung. As servants, when fatigued, sleep sometimes so soundly as not
to hear, and sometimes are purposely deaf, Lady Hester Stanhope had got
in the quadrangle of her own apartments a couple of active fellows, a
part of whose business it was to watch by turns during the night, and
see that the maids answered the bell; they were, therefore, sure to be
roughly shaken out of their sleep, and, in going, half stupid, into her
ladyship's room, would be told to prepare a fomentation of chamomile, or
elder flowers, or mallows, or the like. The gardener was to be called,
water was to be boiled, and the house again was all in motion. During
these preparations the mistress would recollect some order she had
previously given about some honey, flower, or letter--no matter however
trivial--and the person charged with its execution would be summoned
from his bed, whatever might be the time, and questioned respecting it.
Nobody in Lady Hester's establishment was suffered to enjoy an interval
of rest.

* * * * *

A description of the bedchamber, which, for most purposes, was Lady
Hester's principal apartment, we shall now subjoin. It bore no
resemblance to an English or a French chamber, and, independent of its
furniture, was scarcely better than a common peasant's. The floor was of
cement. Across the room was hung a dirty red cotton curtain, to keep off
the wind when the door opened. There were three windows; one was nailed
up by its shutter on the outside, and one closed up by a bit of felt on
the inside; only the third, which looked on the garden, was reserved for
the admission of light and air. In two deep niches in the wall (which
was about three feet thick) were heaped on