Page:Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope.djvu/178

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Memoirs of

she cried, and gasped for breath as if almost suffocated. I handed her some immediately, which she greedily drank: I then threw the window open, and she became better. "Don't leave me, doctor: ring the bell;—I can't bear to be left alone a moment; for, if one of these attacks were to come on, and I could not ring the bell, what could I do? You must forgive me if I fall into these violent passions; but such is my nature: I can't help it. I am like the horse that Mr. Pitt had. Mr. Pitt used to say, 'You must guide him with a hair; if I only move my leg, he goes on; and his pace is so easy, it's quite charming: but, if you thwart him or contradict him, he is unmanageable;'—that's me."

But, to return to General Loustaunau, or the Prophet—as his name has already appeared several times, it may not be amiss to give a short outline of his life, the particulars of which he communicated to me himself. From a village in the Pyrenees, near to Tarbes, one day, a young man, about twenty-four years of age, sallied forth, he knew not whither, to seek his fortune. Sprung from a family of peasants, he had received little or no education, and had nothing to depend on but his well-knitted frame, an intelligent and handsome countenance, robust health, and activity. He directed his steps towards one of the great sea-ports of France, resolved to work his passage to America. But, when