Note 15 — Chapter V

It was by such speeches as these that Lady Hester sometimes left an impression on her hearers that she was insane. The reader must judge for himself. There are, however, strong reasons for believing that there was a profound and deeply-planned method in all her actions, and those who said she was unsound in her intellects would have had great difficulty in proving it before a competent tribunal. The vast combinations of her mind, when it was possible to get a glimpse of them, filled one with surprise, and set at naught all previous conjecture or conception; whilst separate and particular conversations and reasonings wore the stamp of great oddity and sometimes of insanity. Let Mr. Dundas, Lord Hardwicke, Mr. Way, Lord St. Asaph, Count Delaborde, Count Yowiski, if still alive, Count de la Porte, Dr. Mills, M. Lamartine, Count Marcellus, and a hundred others who have conversed with her, say what was the impression she left on their minds; and not till then let persons who have never held intercourse with her of late years pronounce her mad.