Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 (of 6) by Thomas Moore

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[Footnote 1: Lord Byron had, it seems, acknowledged, on the preceding
evening, his having remarked to Prince Blavrocordato that "if he were
in his situation, he would have placed the press under a censor;" to
which the Prince had replied, "No; the liberty of the press is
guaranteed by the Constitution."]

That between two men, both eager in the service of one common cause,
there should arise a difference of opinion as to the _means_ of
serving it is but a natural result of the varieties of human
judgment, and detracts nothing from the zeal or sincerity of either.
But by those who do not suffer themselves to be carried away by a
theory, it will be conceded, I think, that the scruples professed by
Lord Byron, with respect to the expedience or safety of introducing
what is called a Free Press into a country so little advanced in
civilisation as Greece, were founded on just views of human nature
and practical good sense. To endeavour to force upon a state of
society, so unprepared for them, such full grown institutions; to
think of engrafting, at once, on an ignorant people the fruits of
long knowledge and cultivation,--of importing among them, ready made,
those advantages and blessings which no nation ever attained but by
its own working out, nor ever was fitted to enjoy but by having first
struggled for them; to harbour even a dream of the success of such an
experiment, implies a sanguineness almost incredible, and such as,
though, in the present instance, indulged by the political economist
and soldier, was, as we have seen, beyond the poet.

The enthusiastic and, in many respects, well founded confidence with
which Colonel Stanhope appealed to the authority of Mr. Bentham on
most of the points at issue between himself and Lord Byron, was, from
that natural antipathy which seems to exist between political
economists and poets, but little sympathised in by the latter;--such
appeals being always met by him with those sallies of ridicule, which
he found the best-humoured vent for his impatience under argument,
and to which, notwithstanding the venerable name and services of Mr.
Bentham himself, the quackery of much that is promulgated by his
followers presented, it must be owned, ample scope. Romantic, indeed,
as was Lord Byron's sacrifice of himself to the cause of Greece,
there was in the views he took of the means of serving her not a
tinge of the unsubstantial or speculative. The grand practical task
of freeing her from her tyrants was his first and main object. He
knew that slavery was the great bar to knowledge, and must be broken
through before her light could come; that the work of the sword must
therefore precede that of the pen, and camps be the first schools of
freedom.

With such sound and manly views of the true exigencies of the crisis,
it is not wonderful that he should view with impatience, and
something, perhaps, of contempt, all that premature apparatus of
printing-presses, pedagogues, &c. with which the Philhellenes of the
London Committee were, in their rage for "utilitarianism,"
encumbering him. Nor were some of the correspondents of this body
much more solid in their speculations than themselves; one
intelligent gentleman having suggested, as a means of conferring
signal advantages on the cause, an alteration of the Greek alphabet.

Though feeling, as strongly, perhaps, as Lord Byron, the importance
of the great object of their mission,--that of rousing and, what was
far more difficult, combining against the common foe the energies of
the country,--Colonel Stanhope was also one of those who thought that
the lights of their great master, Bentham, and the operations of a
press unrestrictedly free, were no less essential instruments towards
the advancement of the struggle; and in this opinion, as we have
seen, the poet and man of literature differed from the soldier. But
it was such a difference as, between men of frank and fair minds, may
arise without either reproach to themselves, or danger to their
cause,--a strife of opinion which; though maintained with heat, may
be remembered without bitterness, and which, in the present instance,
neither prevented Byron, at the close of one of their warmest
altercations, from exclaiming generously to his opponent, "Give me
that honest right hand," nor withheld the other from pouring forth,
at the grave of his colleague, a strain of eulogy[1] not the less
cordial for being discriminatingly shaded with censure, nor less
honourable to the illustrious dead for being the tribute of one who
had once manfully differed with him.

[Footnote 1: Sketch of Lord Byron.--See Colonel Stanhope's "Greece in
1823, 1824," &c.]

Towards the middle of February, the indefatigable activity of Mr.
Parry having brought the artillery brigade into such a state of
forwardness as to be almost ready for service, an inspection of the
Suliote corps took place, preparatory to the expedition; and after
much of the usual deception and unmanageableness on their part, every
obstacle appeared to be at length surmounted. It was agreed that they
should receive a month's pay in advance;--Count Gamba, with 300 of
their corps, as a vanguard, was to march next day and take up a
position under Lepanto, and Lord Byron with the main body and the
artillery was speedily to follow.

New difficulties, however, were soon started by these untractable
mercenaries; and under the instigation, as was discovered afterwards,
of the great rival of Mavrocordato, Colocotroni, who had sent
emissaries into Missolonghi for the purpose of seducing them, they
now put forward their exactions in a new shape, by requiring of the
Government to appoint, out of their number, two generals, two
colonels, two captains, and inferior officers in the same
proportion:--"in short," says Count Gamba, "that, out of three or
four hundred actual Suliotes, there should be about one hundred and
fifty above the rank of common soldiers." The audacious dishonesty of
this demand,--beyond what he could have expected even from
Greeks,--roused all Lord Byron's rage, and he at once signified to
the whole body, through Count Gamba, that all negotiation between
them and himself was at an end; that he could no longer have any
confidence in persons so little true to their engagements; and that
though the relief which he had afforded to their families should
still be continued, all his agreements with them, as a body, must be
thenceforward void.

It was on the 14th of February that this rupture with the Suliotes
took place; and though, on the following day, in consequence of the
full submission of their Chiefs, they were again received into his
Lordship's service on his own terms, the whole affair, combined with
the various other difficulties that now beset him, agitated his mind
considerably. He saw with pain that he should but place in peril both
the cause of Greece and his own character, by at all relying, in such
an enterprise, upon troops whom any intriguer could thus seduce from
their duty; and that, till some more regular force could be
organised, the expedition against Lepanto must be suspended.

While these vexatious events were occurring, the interruption of his
accustomed exercise by the rains but increased the irritability that
such delays were calculated to excite; and the whole together, no
doubt, concurred with whatever predisposing tendencies were already
in his constitution, to bring on that convulsive fit,--the forerunner
of his death,--which, on the evening of the 15th of February, seized
him. He was sitting, at about eight o'clock, with only Mr. Parry and
Mr. Hesketh, in the apartment of Colonel Stanhope,--talking jestingly
upon one of his favourite topics, the differences between himself and
this latter gentleman, and saying that "he believed, after all, the
author's brigade would be ready before the soldier's printing-press."
There was an unusual flush in his face, and from the rapid changes of
his countenance it was manifest that he was suffering under some
nervous agitation. He then complained of being thirsty, and, calling
for some cider, drank of it; upon which, a still greater change being
observable over his features, he rose from his seat, but was unable
to walk, and, after staggering forward a step or two, fell into Mr.
Parry's arms. In another minute, his teeth were closed, his speech
and senses gone, and he was in strong convulsions. So violent,
indeed, were his struggles, that it required all the strength both of
Mr. Parry and his servant Tita to hold him during the fit. His face,
too, was much distorted; and, as he told Count Gamba afterwards, "so
intense were his sufferings during the convulsion, that, had it
lasted but a minute longer, he believed he must have died." The fit
was, however, as short as it was violent; in a few minutes his speech
and senses returned; his features, though still pale and haggard,
resumed their natural shape, and no effect remained from the attack
but excessive weakness. "As soon as he could speak," says Count
Gamba, "he showed himself perfectly free from all alarm; but he very
coolly asked whether his attack was likely to prove fatal. 'Let me
know,' he said; 'do not think I am afraid to die--I am not.'"

This painful event had not occurred more than half an hour, when a
report was brought that the Suliotes were up in arms, and about to
attack the seraglio, for the purpose of seizing the magazines.
Instantly Lord Byron's friends ran to the arsenal; the artillery-men
were ordered under arms; the sentinels doubled, and the cannon loaded
and pointed on the approaches to the gates. Though the alarm proved
to be false, the very likelihood of such an attack shows sufficiently
how precarious was the state of Missolonghi at this moment, and in
what a scene of peril, confusion, and uncomfort, the now nearly
numbered days of England's poet were to close.

On the following morning he was found to be better, but still pale
and weak, and complained much of a sensation of weight in his head.
The doctors, therefore, thought it right to apply leeches to his
temples; but found it difficult, on their removal, to stop the blood,
which continued to flow so copiously, that from exhaustion he
fainted. It must have been on this day that the scene thus described
by Colonel Stanhope occurred:--

"Soon after his dreadful paroxysm, when, faint with over-bleeding, he
was lying on his sick bed, with his whole nervous system completely
shaken, the mutinous Suliotes, covered with dirt and splendid
attires, broke into his apartment, brandishing their costly arms, and
loudly demanding their wild rights. Lord Byron, electrified by this
unexpected act, seemed to recover from his sickness; and the more the
Suliotes raged, the more his calm courage triumphed. The scene was
truly sublime."

Another eye-witness, Count Gamba, bears similar testimony to the
presence of mind with which he fronted this and all other such
dangers. "It is impossible," says this gentleman, "to do justice to
the coolness and magnanimity which he displayed upon every trying
occasion. Upon trifling occasions he was certainly irritable; but the
aspect of danger calmed him in an instant, and restored to him the
free exercise of all the powers of his noble nature. A more undaunted
man in the hour of peril never breathed."

The letters written by him during the few following weeks form, as
usual, the best record of his proceedings, and, besides the sad
interest they possess as being among the latest from his hand, are
also precious, as affording proof that neither illness nor
disappointment, neither a worn-out frame nor even a hopeless spirit,
could lead him for a moment to think of abandoning the great cause he
had espoused; while to the last, too, he preserved unbroken the
cheerful spring of his mind, his manly endurance of all ills that
affected but himself, and his ever-wakeful consideration for the
wants of others.

LETTER 543. TO MR. BARFF.

"February 21.

"I am a good deal better, 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 since been up daily, and out in
boats of on horseback. To-day I have taken a warm bath, and live as
temperately as can well be, without any liquid but water, and without
animal food.

"Besides the four Turks sent to Patras, I have obtained the release
of four-and-twenty women and children, and sent them at my own
expense to Prevesa, that the English Consul-General may consign them
to their relations. I did this by their own desire. Matters here are
a little embroiled with the Suliotes and foreigners, &c., 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.[1]

[Footnote 1: In a letter to the same gentleman, dated January 27., he
had already said, "I hope that things here will go on well some time
or other. I will stick by the cause as long as a cause exists--first
or second."]

"I am obliged to support the Government here for the present."

The prisoners mentioned in this letter as having been released by him
and sent to Prevesa, had been held in captivity at Missolonghi since
the beginning of the Revolution. The following was the letter which
he forwarded with them to the English Consul at Prevesa.

LETTER 544. TO MR. MAYER.

"Sir,

"Coming to Greece, one of my principal objects was to alleviate as
much as possible the miseries incident to a warfare so cruel as the
present. When the dictates of humanity are in question, I know no
difference between Turks and Greeks. It is enough that those who want
assistance are men, in order to claim the pity and protection of the
meanest pretender to humane feelings. I have found here twenty-four
Turks, including women and children, who have long pined in distress,
far from the means of support and the consolations of their home. The
Government has consigned them to me; I transmit them to Prevesa,
whither they desire to be sent. I hope you will not object to take
care that they may be restored to a place of safety, and that the
Governor of your town may accept of my present. The best recompense I
can hope for would be to find that I had inspired the Ottoman
commanders with the same sentiments towards those unhappy Greeks who
may hereafter fall into their hands.

"I beg you to believe me," &c.

LETTER 545.

TO THE HONOURABLE DOUGLAS KINNAIRD.

"Missolonghi, February 21. 1824.

"I have received yours of the 2d of November. It is essential that
the money should be paid, as I have drawn for it all, and more too,
to help the Greeks. Parry is here, and he and I agree very well; and
all is going on hopefully for the present, considering circumstances.

"We shall have work this year, for the Turks are coming down in
force; and, as for me, I must stand by the cause. I shall shortly
march (according to orders) against Lepanto, with two thousand men. I
have been here some time, after some narrow escapes from the Turks,
and also from being ship-wrecked. We were twice upon the rocks; but
this you will have heard, truly or falsely, through other channels,
and I do not wish to bore you with a long story.

"So far I have succeeded in supporting the Government of Western
Greece, which would otherwise have been dissolved. If you have
received the eleven thousand and odd pounds, these, with what I have
in hand, and my income for the current year, to say nothing of
contingencies, will, or might, enable me to keep the 'sinews of war'
properly strung. If the deputies be honest fellows, and obtain the
loan, they will repay the 4000,'. as agreed upon; and even then I
shall save little, or indeed less than little, since I am maintaining
nearly the whole machine--in this place, at least--at my own cost.
But let the Greeks only succeed, and I don't care for myself.

"I have been very seriously unwell, but am getting better, and can
ride about again; so pray quiet our friends on that score.

"It is not true that I ever _did, will, would, could, _ or _should_
write a satire against Gifford, or a hair of his head. I always
considered him as my literary father, and myself as his 'prodigal
son;' and if I have allowed his 'fatted calf' to grow to an ox
before, he kills it on my return, it is only because I prefer beef to
veal. Yours," &c

LETTER 546. TO MR. BARFF.

"February 23.

"My health seems improving, especially from riding and the warm bath.
Six Englishmen will be soon in quarantine at Zante; they are
artificers[1], and have had enough of Greece in fourteen days. If you
could recommend them to a passage home, I would thank you; they are
good men enough, but do not quite understand the little discrepancies
in these countries, and are not used to see shooting and slashing in
a domestic quiet way, or (as it forms here) a part of housekeeping.

[Footnote 1: The workmen who came out with Parry; and who, alarmed by
the scene of confusion and danger they found at Missolonghi, had
resolved to return home.]

"If they should want any thing during their quarantine, you can
advance them not more than a dollar a day (amongst them) for that
period, to purchase them some little extras as comforts (as they are
quite out of their element). I cannot afford them more at present."

The following letter to Mr. Murray,--which it is most gratifying to
have to produce, as the last completing link of a long friendship and
correspondence which had been but for a short time, and through the
fault only of others, interrupted,--contains such a summary of the
chief events now passing round Lord Byron, as, with the assistance of
a few notes, will render any more detailed narrative unnecessary.

LETTER 547. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Missolonghi, February 25. 1824.

"I have heard from Mr. Douglas Kinnaird that you state 'a report of a
satire on Mr. Gifford having arrived from Italy, _said_ to be written
by _me_! but that _you_ do not believe it.' I dare say you do not,
nor anybody else, I should think. Whoever asserts that I am the
author or abettor of any thing of the kind on Gifford lies in his
throat. If any such composition exists it is none of mine. _You_ know
as well as any body upon _whom_ I have or have not written; and _you_
also know whether they do or did not deserve that same. And so much
for such matters.

"You will perhaps be anxious to hear some news from this part of
Greece (which is the most liable to invasion); but you will hear
enough through public and private channels. I will, however, give you
the events of a week, mingling my own private peculiar with the
public; for we are here a little jumbled together at present.

"On Sunday (the 15th, I believe,) I had a strong and sudden
convulsive attack, which left me speechless, though not
motionless--for some strong men could not hold me; but whether it was
epilepsy, catalepsy, cachexy, or apoplexy, or what other _exy _ or
_epsy_, the doctors have not decided; or whether it was spasmodic or
nervous, &c.; but it was very unpleasant, and nearly carried me off,
and all that. On Monday, they put leeches to my temples, no difficult
matter, but the blood could not be stopped till eleven at night (they
had gone too near the temporal artery for my temporal safety), and
neither styptic nor caustic would cauterise the orifice till after a
hundred attempts.

"On Tuesday, a Turkish brig of war ran on shore. On Wednesday, great
preparations being made to attack her, though protected by her
consorts[1], the Turks burned her and retired to Patras. On Thursday
a quarrel ensued between the Suliotes and the Frank guard at the
arsenal: a Swedish officer[2] was killed, and a Suliote severely
wounded, and a general fight expected, and with some difficulty
prevented. On Friday, the officer was buried; and Captain Parry's
English artificers mutinied, under pretence that their lives are in
danger, and are for quitting the country:--they may.[3]

[Footnote 1: "Early in the morning we prepared for our attack on the
brig. Lord Byron, notwithstanding his weakness, and an inflammation
that threatened his eyes, was most anxious to be of our party; but
the physicians would not suffer him to go."--COUNT GAMBA'S
_Narrative_.

His Lordship had promised a reward for every Turk taken alive in the
proposed attack on this vessel.]

[Footnote 2: Captain Sasse, an officer esteemed as one of the best
and bravest of the foreigners in the Greek service. "This," says
Colonel Stanhope, in a letter, February 18th, to the Committee, "is a
serious affair. The Suliotes have no country, no home for their
families; arrears of pay are owing to them; the people of Missolonghi
hate and pay them exorbitantly. Lord Byron, who was to have led them
to Lepanto, is much shaken by his fit, and will probably be obliged
to retire from Greece. In short, all our hopes in this quarter are
damped for the present. I am not a little fearful, too, that these
wild warriors will not forget the blood that has been spilt. I this
morning told Prince Mavrocordato and Lord Byron that they must come
to some resolution about compelling the Suliotes to quit the place."]

[Footnote 3: This was a fresh, and, as may be conceived, serious
disappointment to Lord Byron. "The departure of these men," says
Count Gamba, "made us fear that our laboratory would come to nothing;
for, if we tried to supply the place of the artificers with native
Greeks, we should make but little progress.]

"On Saturday we had the smartest shock of an earthquake which I
remember, (and I have felt thirty, slight or smart, at different
periods; they are common in the Mediterranean,) and the whole army
discharged their arms, upon the same principle that savages beat
drums, or howl, during an eclipse of the moon:--it was a rare scene
altogether--if you had but seen the English Johnnies, who had never
been out of a cockney workshop before!--or will again, if they can
help it--and on Sunday, we heard that the Vizier is come down to
Larissa, with one hundred and odd thousand men.

"In coming here, I had two escapes, one from the Turks, _(one_ of my
vessels was taken, but afterwards released,) and the other from
shipwreck. We drove twice on the rocks near the Scrophes (islands
near the coast).

"I have obtained from the Greeks the release of eight-and-twenty
Turkish prisoners, men, women, and children, and sent them to Patras
and Prevesa at my own charges. One little girl of nine years old, who
prefers remaining with me, I shall (if I live) send, with her mother,
probably, to Italy, or to England. Her name is Hato, or Hatagee. She
is a very pretty, lively child. All her brothers were killed by the
Greeks, and she herself and her mother merely spared by special
favour and owing to her extreme youth, she being then but five or six
years old.

"My health is now better, and I ride about again. My office here is
no sinecure, so many parties and difficulties of every kind; but I
will do what I can. Prince Mavrocordato is an excellent person, and
does all in his power, but his situation is perplexing in the
extreme. Still we have great hopes of the success of the contest. You
will hear, however, more of public news from plenty of quarters; for
I have little time to write.

"Believe me yours, &c. &c. N. BN."

The fierce lawlessness of the Suliotes had now risen to such a height
that it became necessary, for the safety of the European population,
to get rid of them altogether; and, by some sacrifices on the part of
Lord Byron, this object was at length effected. The advance of a
month's pay by him, and the discharge of their arrears by the
Government, (the latter, too, with money lent for that purpose by the
same universal paymaster,) at length induced these rude warriors to
depart from the town, and with them vanished all hopes of the
expedition against Lepanto.

LETTER 548. TO MR. MOORE.

"Missolonghi, Western Greece, March 4. 1824.

"My dear Moore,

"Your reproach is unfounded--I have received two letters from you,
and answered both previous to leaving Cephalonia. I have not been
'quiet' in an Ionian island, but much occupied with business,--as the
Greek deputies (if arrived) can tell you. Neither have I continued
'Don Juan,' nor any other poem. You go, as usual, I presume, by some
newspaper report or other.[1]

[Footnote 1: Proceeding, as he here rightly supposes, upon newspaper
authority, I had in my letter made some allusion to his imputed
occupations, which, in his present sensitiveness on the subject of
authorship, did not at all please him. To this circumstance Count
Gamba alludes in a passage of his Narrative; where, after mentioning
a remark of Byron's, that "Poetry should only occupy the idle, and
that in more serious affairs it would be ridiculous," he adds--
"----, at this time writing to him, said, that he had heard that
'instead of pursuing heroic and warlike adventures, he was residing
in a delightful villa, continuing Don Juan.' This offended him for
the moment, and he was sorry that such a mistaken judgment had been
formed of him."

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