I understood that the Albanians (restrained, I suppose, by the
dread of being delivered up to Ibrahim) had not given any very
troublesome proofs of their unruly natures. The secretary told me
that their rations, including a small allowance of coffee and
tobacco, were served out to them with tolerable regularity.
I asked the secretary how Lady Hester was off for horses, and said
that I would take a look at the stable. The man did not raise any
opposition to my proposal, and affected no mystery about the
matter, but said that the only two steeds which then belonged to
her ladyship were of a very humble sort. This answer, and a storm
of rain then beginning to descend, prevented me at the time from
undertaking my journey to the stable, which was at some distance
from the part of the building in which I was quartered, and I don't
know that I ever thought of the matter afterwards until my return
to England, when I saw Lamartine's eye-witnessing account of the
horse saddled by the hands of his Maker!
When I returned to my apartment (which, as my hostess told me, was
the only one in the whole building that kept out the rain) her
ladyship sent to say that she would be glad to receive me again.
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