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from his poisons and daggers, but I hold him in the most sovereign contempt, and set him at defiance. Tell him that he is a dog and a monster, and that if he means to try his strength with me, I am ready."

It was in vain that the exasperated Emir had it cried from the house-tops, according to the custom of the country, that whoever brought food, or water, or any other necessary of life, for her use, should be fined and bastinadoed; and no less vain that he consulted with his executioner on the means of taking her off; the first scheme she compelled him after a time to abandon by the intervention of Sir Robert Liston, the English ambassador at the Porte; against the latter she relied upon her own vigilance and courage. In her bedroom, and on her own divan, she always had a mace which was spiked round the head, a steel battle-axe, and a dagger, which those who knew her well knew she was both able and ready to use in her own defence. It is true that all this kept her in a state of constant turmoil; but turmoil was the very element most congenial to her nature. With the exception of her multifarious correspondence, and receiving the occasional visits of travellers, her whole time was employed in counteracting the intrigues of her maids, or of the Emir Beschy'r, or of Mahomed Ali, and it never

appeared that she attached more importance to one occupation than the other.

To these troubles was soon to be added the loss of her pension. She had fallen greatly into debt from her excessive hospitality, and hereupon the government at home interfered, at the desire, it was said, of the Pacha of Egypt. The minister had no power to stop the pension by direct means, as it had been confirmed by act of parliament, but he did what answered the purpose just as well. To receive this annuity, it was indispensable to have a consular certificate every quarter; and before this time, although such a mode was not quite regular, the minister had been contented with the signature of any foreign consul. Now he refused to allow any certificate that was not given under the hand of the English agent, and this was to be withheld so long as the debt in question remained unpaid. The spirit of Lady Hester fired at such proceedings. She denied the right of the English government to interfere at all in the matter of her debts; above all, she considered that the cause of her embarrassment, originating as it did in doing good to every one, should have exempted her from such an insult. If the assistance she rendered to the distressed or persecuted natives in the constant wars and insurrections around her, was not to pass for any merit in the eyes of

Englishmen, then she might plead the asylum afforded by her to the Franks who fled from Sayda after the battle of Navarino. Under the strong excitement of such feelings it was that she wrote to the Queen, saying, in no very measured terms, "I shall not allow the pension granted by your royal grandfather to be stopped by force; but I shall resign it for the payment of my debts, and with it the name of English subject, and the slavery that is at present annexed to it."

Such a letter written to the Queen of England is pretty well, but her next was far more extraordinary, so much so, indeed, that it would be scarcely credited if told in any words but her own

-" I shall break up my household, and build up the entrance-gate to my premises; there remaining as if I was in a tomb, till my character has been done justice to, and a public acknowledgment put in the papers, signed and sealed by those who have aspersed me. There is no trifling with those who have Pitt blood in their veins upon the subject of integrity."

The resolution thus announced was carried out with unshaking firmness. A mason was brought from Sayda, stones and other materials having been previously collected for masking the gateway with a screen, which only left a side opening large enough for a cow to come in at, or an ass laden

with water. In two days the work was accomplished according to her direction, and nearly a whole year did she linger out in this living tomb, the martyr of her own indomitable will. What that dauntless spirit must have suffered during the time we may easily imagine, though there was no friendly eye to witness her protracted agonies. Racked by a painful malady, and surrounded only by menials who were anxiously waiting for her last breath, as the wrecker waits for the ship that is driving upon the rocks, not to help but to plunder, and stung by the disappointment of all her lofty imaginations, her condition was worse than that of a condemned felon. At length in June, 1839, death released her from farther struggles, and she was buried, as she had desired, in her own garden.

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GEORGE HANGER, LORD COLERAINE.

AMONG the notabilities of the latter part of the last century, George Hanger-afterwards Lord Coleraine-held a conspicuous place. His life was a series of strange revolutions, and exhibits a striking picture of the ills and sufferings that attend on the man of fashion, who born in the ranks of the aristocracy, has not sufficient of the goods of fortune to sustain his hereditary position. Colonel Hanger was the youngest son of Gabriel, first Lord Coleraine, and started in life as a military officer, but, failing to secure promotion and employment, he passed through many changeful scenes. different times we trace him, an extravagant loiterer in the circles of the gay world, a successful gamester, a prisoner in the King's Bench, a gallant soldier in King George's army, fighting against the Americans, and ultimately a flattered guest at the table of the Prince of Wales.

At

"As for myself," (we quote the Colonel's own words), "I was in early life extremely extrava

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