sented itself for showing his sense of Yusuff Pacha's moderation in releasing Count Gamba. Hearing that there were four Turkish prisoners in the town, he requested that they might be placed in his hands. This being immediately granted, he sent them to Patras, with a letter addressed to the Turkish chief, expressing his hope that the prisoners thenceforward taken on both sides would be treated with humanity. This act was followed by another equally praiseworthy, which proved how anxious Lord Byron felt to give a new turn to the system of warfare hitherto pursued. A Greek cruiser having captured a Turkish boat, in which there was a number of passengers, chiefly women and children, they were also placed in the hands of Lord Byron, at his particular request; upon which a vessel was immediately hired, and the whole of them, to the number of twenty-four, were sent to Previsa, provided with every requisite for their comfort during the passage. The Turkish governor of Previsa thanked his lordship, and assured him, that he would take care equal attention should be in future shown to the Greeks who might become pri and proceeded towards Missolonghi. Two acci- long at Missolonghi, before an opportunity predents occurred in this short passage. Count Gamba, who accompanied his lordship from Leghorn, had been charged with the vessel in which the horses and part of the money were embarked. When off Chiarenza, a point which lies between Zante and the place of their destination, they were surprised at daylight on finding | themselves under the bows of a Turkish frigate. Owing, however, to the activity displayed on board Lord Byron's vessel, and her superior sailing, she escaped, while the other was fired at, brought to, and carried into Patras. Count Gamba and his companions being taken before Yusuff Pacha, fully expected to share the fate of some unfortunate men whom that sanguinary chief had sacrificed the preceding year at Previsa; and their fears would most probably have been realized, had it not been for the presence of mind displayed by the count, who, assuming an air of hauteur and indifference, accused the captain of the frigate of a scandalous breach of neutrality, in firing at and detaining a vessel under English colours; and concluded by informing Yusuff, that he might expect the vengeance of the British government in thus interrupting a nobleman who was merely on his travels, and bound to Calamos. The Turkish chief, on recognising in the master of the vessel a person who had saved his life in the Black Sea fifteen years before, not only consented to the vessel's release, but treated the whole of the passengers with the utmost attention, and even urged them to take a day's shooting in the neighbourhood. Owing to contrary winds, Lord Byron's vessel was obliged to take shelter at the Scropes, a cluster of rocks within a few miles of Missolonghi, and while detained here, he was in considerable danger of being captured by the Turks. Lord Byron was received at Missolonghi with enthusiastic demonstrations of joy. No mark of honour or welcome which the Greeks could devise was omitted. The ships anchored off the fortress fired a salute as he passed. Prince Mavrocordato, and all the authorities, with the troops and the population, met him on his landing, and accompanied him to the house which had been prepared for him, amidst the shouts of the multitude and the discharge of cannon. One of the first objects to which he turned his attention was to mitigate the ferocity with which the war had been carried on. The very day of his lordship's arrival was signalised by his rescuing a Turk, who had fallen into the hands of some Greek sailors. The individual thus saved, having been clothed by his orders, was kept in the house until an opportunity occurred of sending him to Patras. Nor had his lordship been soners. Another grand object with Lord Byron, and one which he never ceased to forward with the most anxious solicitude, was to reconcile the quarrels of the native chiefs, to make them friendly and confiding towards one another, and submissive to the orders of the government. He had neither time nor opportunity to carry this point to any great extent: some good was, however, done. Lord Byron landed at Missolonghi animated with military ardour. After paying the fleet, which, indeed, had only come out under the expectation of receiving its arrears from the loan which he promised to make to the provisional government, he set about forming a brigade of Suliotes. Five hundred of these, the bravest and most resolute of the soldiers of Greece, were taken into his pay on the 1st of January, 1824. An expedition against Lepanto was proposed, of which the command was given to Lord Byron. This expedition, however, had to experience delay and disappointment. The Suliotes, conceiving that they had found a patron whose wealth was inexhaustible, and whose generosity was boundless, determined to make the most of the occasion, and proceeded to the most extravagant demands on their leader for arrears, and under other pretences. These mountainers, untameable in the field, and unmanageable in a town, were, at this moment, peculiarly disposed to be obstinate, riotous, and mercenary. They had been chiefly instrumental in preserving Missolonghi when be sieged the previous autumn by the Turks; had been driven from their abodes; and the whole of their families were, at this time, in the town, destitute of either home or sufficient supplies. Of turbulent and reckless character, they kept the place in awe; and Mavrocordato having, unlike the other captains, no soldiers of his own, was glad to find a body of valiant mercenaries, especially if paid for out of the funds of another, and, consequently, was not disposed to treat them with harshness. Within a fortnight after Lord Byron's arrival, a burgher refusing to quarter some Saliotes, who rudely demanded entrance into his house, was killed, and a riot ensued, in which some lives were lost. Lord Byron's impatient spirit could ill brook the delay of a favourite scheme, but he saw, with the utmost chagrin, that the state of his troops was such as to render any attempt to lead them out at that time impracticable. The project of proceeding against Lepanto being thus suspended, at a moment when Lord Byron's enthusiasm was at its height, and when he had fully calculated on striking a blow which could not fail to be of the utmost service to the Greek cause, the unlooked-for disappointment preyed on his spirits, and produced a degree of irritability which, if it was not the sole cause, contributed greatly to a severe fit of epilepsy, with which he was attacked on the 15th of February. His lordship was sitting in the apartment of Colonel Stanhope, talking in a jocular manner with Mr Parry, the engineer, when it was observed, from occasional and rapid changes in his countenance, that he was suffering under some strong emotion. On a sudden he complained of a weakness in one of his legs, and rose, but finding himself unable to walk, he cried out for assistance. He then fell into a state of nervous and convulsive agitation, and was placed on a bed. For some minutes his countenance was much distorted. He however quickly recovered his senses, his speech returned, and he soon appeared perfectly well, although enfeebled and exhausted by the violence of the struggle. During the fit, he behaved with his usual extraordinary firmness, and his efforts in contending with, and attempting to master, the disease, are described as gigantic. In the course of the month, the attack was repeated four times; the violence of the disorder, at length, yielded to the remedies which his physicians advised, such as bleeding, cold bathing, perfect relaxation of mind, etc., and he gradually recovered. An accident, however, happened a few days after his first illness, which was ill calculated to aid the efforts of his medical advisers. A Suliote, accompanied by another man, and the late Marco Botzaris' little boy, walked into the Seraglio, a place which, before Lord Byron's arrival, had been used as sort of fortress and barrack for the Suliotes, and out of which they were ejected with great difficulty for the reception of the committee-stores, and for the occupation of the engineers, who required it for a laboratory. The sentinel on guard ordered the Suliote to retire, which being a species of motion to which Suliotes are not accustomed, the man carelessly advanced; upon which the serjeant of the guard (a German) demanded his business, and receiving no satisfactory answer, pushed him back. These wild warriors, who will dream for years of blow if revenge is out of their power, are not slow to nesent even a push. The Suliote struck again, the serjeant and he closed and struggled, when the Suliote drew a pistol from his belt; the serjeant wrenched it out of his hand, and blew the powder out of the pan. At this moment Captain Sass, a Swede, seeing the fray, came up, and ordered the man to be taken to the guard-room. The Suliote was then disposed to depart, and would have done so if the serjeant would have permitted him. Unfortunately, Captain Sass did not confine himself to merely giving the order for his arrest; for when the Suliote struggled to get away, Captain Sass drew his sword and struck him with the flat part of it; whereupon the enraged Greek flew upon him, with a pistol in one hand and the sabre in the other, and at the same moment nearly cut off the Captain's right arm, and shot him through the head. Captain Sass, who was remarkable for his mild and courageons character, expired in a few minutes. The Suliote also was a man of distinguished bravery. This was a serious affair, and great apprehensions were entertained that it would not end here. The Suliotes refused to surrender the man to justice, alleging that he had been struck, which, in Suliote law, justifies all the consequences which may follow. In a letter written a few days after Lord Byron's first attack, to a friend in Zante, he speaks of himself as rapidly recovering. «I am a good deal better," he observes, « though of course weakly. The leeches took too much blood from my temples the day after, and there was some difficulty in stopping it; but I have been up daily, and not in boats or on horseback. To-day I have taken a warm bath, and live as temperately as well can be, without any liquid but water, and without any animal food. After adverting to some other subjects, the letter thus concludes: «Matters are here a little embroiled with the Suliotes, foreigners, etc.; but I still hope better things, and will stand by the cause as long as my health and circumstances will permit me to be supposed useful.» Notwithstanding Lord Byron's improvement in health, his friends felt, from the first, that he ought to try a change of air. Missolonghi is a flat, marshy, and pestilential place, and, except for purposes of utility, never would have been selected for his residence. A gentleman of Zante wrote to him early in March, to induce him to return to that island for a time. To his letter the following answer was received : my assistance. I am a plain man, and cannot com- « I am extremely obliged by your offer of your country-house, as for all other kindness, in case my health should require my removal; but I cannot quit Greece while there is a chance of my being of (even supposed) utility. There is a stake worth millions such as I am, and while I can stand at all, I must stand by the cause. While I say this, I am aware of the difficulties, and dis-one para have they sent to procure other lasensions, and defects of the Greeks themselves: but allowance must be made for them by all reasonable people.» It may be well imagined, after so severe a fit of illness, and that in a great measure brought on by the conduct of the troops he had taken into his pay, and treated with the utmost generosity, that Lord Byron was in no humour to pursue his scheme against Lepanto, even supposing that his state of health had been such as to bear the fatigue of a campaign in Greece. The Suliotes, however, showed some signs of repentance, and offered to place themselves at his lordship's disposal. But still they had an objection to the nature of the service: « they would not fight against stone walls!» It is not surprising that the expedition to Lepanto was no longer thought of. The following anecdotes, are taken from Capt. Parry's Last Days of Lord Byron; a work which seems from its plain and unvarnished style to bear the impress of truth. In speaking of the Greek Committee one day, his lordship said- «I conceive that I have been already grossly ill-treated by the committee. In Italy, Mr Blaquiere, their agent, informed me that every requisite supply would be forwarded with all dispatch. I was disposed to come to Greece, but I hastened my departure in consequence of earnest solicitations. No time was to be lost, I was told, and Mr Blaquiere, instead of waiting on me at his return from Greece, left a paltry note, which gave me no information whatever. If I ever meet with him, I shall not fail to mention my surprise at his conduct; but it has been all of a piece. I wish the acting committee had had some of the trouble which has fallen on me since my arrival here; they would have been more prompt in their proceedings, and would have known better what the country stood in need of. They would not have delayed the supplies a day, nor have sent out German officers, poor fellows, to starve at Missolonghi, but for " as to bourers. Their secretary, Mr Bowring, was dis- One service "This, observes Captain Parry, in his plain and manly manner, « was Lord Byron's hope, and this was to be his last project in favour of Greece. Into it no motive of personal ambition entered, more than that just and proper one, the basis of all virtue, and the distinguished characteristic of an honourable mind—the hope of gaining the approbation of good men. As an author, he had already attained the pinnacle of popularity and of fame; but this did not satisfy his noble ambition. He hastened to Greece, with a devotion to liberty, and a zeal in favour of the oppressed, as pure as ever shone in the bosom of a knight in the purest days of chivalry, to gain the reputation of an unsullied warrior, and of a disinterested statesman. He was her unpaid, but the blessings of all Greece, and the high honours his own countrymen bestow on his memory, bearing him in their hearts, prove that he was not her unrewarded champion.♥ Missolonghi in a state of complete security, I could not help giving vent to a feeling of contempt and indignation. 'What is the matter,' said his lordship, appearing to be very serious, 'what makes you so angry, Parry?' 'I am not angry,' I replied, my lord, but somewhat indignant. The Turks, if they were not the most stupid wretches breathing, might take the fort of Vasaladi, by means of two pinnaces, any night they pleased: they have only to approach it with muffled oars; they will not be heard, I will answer for their not being seen; and they may storm it in a few minutes. With eight gun-boats, properly armed with 24-pounders, they might batter both Missolonghi and Anatolica to the ground. And there sits the old gentlewoman, Prince Lord Byron's address was affable and courteous; Mavrocordato and his troop, to whom I applied his manners, when in good humour, and desir- an epithet I will not here repeat, as if they were ous of being well with his guest, were fascinating all perfectly safe. They know their powers of dein the extreme. He was open to a fault-a cha- fence are inadequate, and they have no means of {racteristic probably the result of his fearlessness improving them. If I were in their place, I and independence of the world; but his friends should be in a fever at the thought of my own were obliged to be upon their guard with him. incapacity and ignorance, and I should burn He was the worst person in the world to confide with impatience to attempt the destruction of a secret to; and if a charge against any one was those stupid Turkish rascals. The Greeks and mentioned to him, it was probably the first com- Turks are opponents worthy, by their imbecility, munication he made to the person in question. of each other.' I had scarcely explained myself He hated scandal and tittle-tattle, and loved the fully, when his lordship ordered our boat to be manly straight-forward course: he would har-placed alongside the other, and actually related bour no doubts, and never live with another with our whole conversation to the prince. In doing suspicions in his bosom. He detested a lie it, however, he took on himself the task of pacifynothing enraged him so much. He had considering both the prince and me, and though I was able tact in detecting untruth; he avoided the timid driveller, and generally chose his companions among the lovers of sincerity and candour. People sometimes conceal the truth from a dread of giving offence; - Lord Byron was above all fear of this sort: he flinched from telling no one what he thought to his face; falsehood is not the vice of the powerful: the Greek slave On one occasion (which we before slightly allies, the Turkish tyrant is remarkable for his ad-luded to) he had saved twenty-four Turkish woherence to truth. The anecdote that follows, told by Parry, is highly characteristic: at first very angry, and the prince, I believe, very much annoyed, he succeeded. Mavrocordato afterwards showed no dissatisfaction with me, and I'prized Lord Byron's regard too much, to remain long displeased with a proceeding which was only an unpleasant manner of reproving us both.>> men and children from slavery and all its accompanying horrors. I was summoned to attend him and receive his orders, that every thing should be done which might contribute to their comfort. When the Turkish fleet was lying off Cape Papa, blockading Missolonghi, I was one day or dered by Lord Byron to accompany him to the He was seated on a cushion at the upmouth of the harbour to inspect the fortifica- per end of the room, the women and children tions, in order to make a report on the state were standing before him, with their eyes fixed they were in. He and I were in his own punt, steadily on him; and on his right hand was his a little boat which he had, rowed by a boy; and interpreter, who was extracting from the women in a large boat, accompanying us, were Prince a narrative of their sufferings. One of them, apMavrocordato and his attendants. As I was parently about thirty years of age, possessing viewing, on one hand, the Turkish fleet atten- great vivacity, and whose manners and dress, tively, and reflecting on its powers, and our though she was then dirty and disfigured, indimeans of defence; and looking, on the other, at cated that she was superior in rank and condition Prince Mavrocordato and his attendants, perfect- to her companions, was spokeswoman for the ly unconcerned, smoking their pipes and gossip-whole. I admired the good order the others preing, as if Greece were liberated and at peace and served, never interfering with the explanation or interrupting the single speaker. I also admired the rapid manner in which the interpreter explained every thing they said, so as to make it almost appear that there was but one speaker. After a short time, it was evident that what Lord Byron was hearing affected his feelings-his countenance changed, his colour went and came, and I thought he was ready to weep. But he had on all occasions a ready and peculiar knack in turning conversation from any disagreeable or unpleasant subject; and he had recourse to this expedient. He rose up suddenly, and turning round on his heel, as was his wont, he said something quickly to his interpreter, who immediately repeated it to the women. All eyes were instantly fixed on me, and one of the party, a young and beautiful woman, spoke very warmly. Lord Byron seemed satisfied, and said they might retire. The women all slipped off their shoes in an instant, and going up to his lordship, each in succession, accompanied by their children, kissed his hand fervently, invoked, in the Turkish manner, a blessing both on his head and heart, and then quitted the room. This was too much for Lord Byron, and he turned his face away to conceal his emotion.»> « One of Lord Byron's household had several times involved himself and his master in perplexity and trouble, by his unrestrained attachment to women. In Greece this had been very annoying, and induced Lord Byron to think of a means of curing it. A young Suliote of the guard was accordingly dressed up like a woman, and instructed to place himself in the way of the amorous swain. The bait took, and after some communication, but rather by signs than by words, for the pair did not understand each other's language, the sham lady was carefully conducted by the gallant to one of Lord Byron's apartments. Here the couple were surprised by an enraged Suliote, a husband provided for the occasion, accompanied by half a dozen of his comrades, whose presence and threats terrified the poor lacquey almost out of his senses. The noise of course brought Lord Byron to the spot, to laugh at the tricked serving-man, and rescue him from the effects of his terror.»> « A few days after the earthquake, which took place on the 21st of February, as we were all sitting at table in the evening, we were suddenly alarmed by a noise and a shaking of the house, somewhat similar to that which we had experienced when the earthquake occurred. Of course all started from their places, and there was the same kind of confusion as on the former evening, at which Byron, who was present, laughed immoderately; we were re-assured by this, and soon learnt that the whole was a method he had adopted to sport with our fears.» The regiment, or rather the brigade, we formed, can be described only as Byron himself describes it. There was a Greek tailor, who had been in the British service in the Ionian Islands, where he had married an Italian woman. This lady, knowing something of the military service, petitioned Lord Byron to appoint her husband master-tailor of the brigade. The suggestion was useful, and this part of her petition was immediately granted. At the same time, however, she solicited that she might be permitted to raise a corps of women, to be placed under her orders, to accompany the regiment. She stipulated for free quarters and rations for them, but rejected all claim for pay. They were to be free of all incumbrances, and were to wash, sew, cook, and otherwise provide for the men. The proposition pleased Lord Byron, and, stating the matter to me, he said he hoped I should have no objection. I had been accustomed to see women accompany the English army, and I knew that, though sometimes an incumbrance, they were on the whole more beneficial than otherwise. In Greece there were many circumstances which would make their services extremely valuable, and I gave my consent to the measure. The tailor's wife did accordingly recruit a considerable number of unincumbered women, of almost all nations, but principally Greeks, Italians, Maltese, and Negresses. I was afraid,' said Lord Byron, when I mentioned this matter to you, you would be crusty, and oppose it,-it is the very thing. Let me see, my corps outdoes Falstaff's: there are English, Germans, French, Maltese, Ragusians, Italians, Neapolitans, Transylvanians, Russians, Suliotes, Moreotes, and Western Greeks in front, and, to bring up the rear, the tailor's wife and her troop. Glorious Apollo! no general had ever before such an army.'» Lord Byron had a black groom with him in Greece, an American by birth, to whom he was very partial. He always insisted on this man's calling him Massa, whenever he spoke to him. On one occasion, the groom met with two women of his own complexion, who had been slaves to the Turks and liberated, but had been left almost to starve when the Greeks had risen on their tyrants. Being of the same colour was a bond of sympathy between them and the groom, and he applied to me to give both these women quarters in the Seraglio. I granted the application, and mentioned it to Lord Byron, who laughed at the gallantry of his groom, and ordered that he should be brought before him at ten o'clock the next day, to answer for his pre |