The Story of Ida Pfeiffer | Page 2

by this
time had given up his former profession, and had obtained an
honourable position in the civil service. It was natural enough that in
the close intimacy which existed between them such an affection
should be developed. Ida's mother, however, regarded it with grave
disapproval, and exacted from the unfortunate girl a promise that she
would neither see nor write to her humble suitor again. The result was a
dangerous illness: on her recovery from which her mother insisted on
her accepting for a husband Dr. Pfeiffer, a widower, with a grown-up
son, but an opulent and distinguished advocate in Lemberg, who was
then on a visit to Vienna. Though twenty-four years older than Ida, he
was attracted by her grace and simplicity, and offered his hand. Weary
of home persecutions, Ida accepted it, and the marriage took place on
May 1st, 1820.
If she did not love her husband, she respected him, and their married
life was not unhappy. In a few months, however, her husband's
integrity led to a sad change of fortune. He had fully and fearlessly
exposed the corruption of the Austrian officials in Galicia, and had thus
made many enemies. He was compelled to give up his office as
councillor, and, deprived of his lucrative practice, to remove to Vienna
in search of employment. Through the treachery of a friend, Ida's
fortune was lost, and the ill-fated couple found themselves reduced to
the most painful exigencies. Vienna, Lemberg, Vienna again,
Switzerland, everywhere Dr. Pfeiffer sought work, and everywhere
found himself baffled by some malignant influence. "Heaven only
knows," says Madame Pfeiffer in her autobiography, "what I suffered
during eighteen years of my married life; not, indeed, from any
ill-treatment on my husband's part, but from poverty and want. I came
of a wealthy family, and had been accustomed from my earliest youth
to order and comfort; and now I frequently knew not where I should lay
my head, or find a little money to buy the commonest necessaries. I

performed household drudgery, and endured cold and hunger; I worked
secretly for money, and gave lessons in drawing and music; and yet, in
spite of all my exertions, there were many days when I could hardly put
anything but dry bread before my poor children for their dinner." These
children were two sons, whose education their mother entirely
undertook, until, after old Madame Reyer's death in 1837, she
succeeded to an inheritance, which lifted the little family out of the
slough of poverty, and enabled her to provide her sons with good
teachers.
[Beirut and mountains of Lebanon: page15.jpg]
As they grew up and engaged successfully in professional pursuits,
Madame Pfeiffer, who had lost her husband in 1838, found herself once
more under the spell of her old passion for travel, and in a position to
gratify her adventurous inclinations. Her means were somewhat limited,
it is true, for she had done much for her husband and her children; but
economy was natural to her, and she retained the simple habits she had
acquired in her childhood. She was strong, healthy, courageous, and
accomplished; and at length, after maturing her plans with anxious
consideration, she took up her pilgrim's staff, and sallied forth alone.
Her first object was to visit the Holy Land, and tread in the hallowed
footsteps of our Lord. For this purpose she left Vienna on the 22nd of
March 1842, and embarked on board the steamer that was to convey
her down the Danube to the Black Sea and the city of Constantinople.
Thence she repaired to Broussa, Beirut, Jaffa, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea,
Nazareth, Damascus, Baalbek, the Lebanon, Alexandria, and Cairo; and
travelled across the sandy Desert to the Isthmus of Suez and the Red
Sea. From Egypt the adventurous lady returned home by way of Sicily
and Italy, visiting Naples, Rome, and Florence, and arriving in Vienna
in December 1842. In the following year she published the record of
her experiences under the title of a "Journey of a Viennese Lady to the
Holy Land." It met with a very favourable reception, to which the
simplicity of its style and the faithfulness of its descriptions fully
entitled it.
With the profits of this book to swell her funds, Madame Pfeiffer felt

emboldened to undertake a new expedition; and this time she resolved
on a northern pilgrimage, expecting in Ultima Thule to see nature
manifested on a novel and surprising scale. She began her journey to
Iceland on the 10th of April 1845, and returned to Vienna on the 4th of
October. Her narrative of this second voyage will be found, necessarily
much abridged and condensed, in the following pages.
What should she do next? Success had increased her courage and
strengthened her resolution, and she could think of nothing fit for