1817.] THE PATRIARCH'S PROCESSION. 65 "out of oneself." However, I am better within this day or two. I missed seeing the new Patriarch's procession to St. Mark's the other day (owing to my indisposition), with six hundred and fifty priests in his rear-a "goodly "army." The admirable government of Vienna, in its edict from thence, authorizing his installation, prescribed, as part of the pageant, "a Coach and four horses." 1 Το show how very, very " German to the matter" this was, you have only to suppose our parliament commanding the Archbishop of Canterbury to proceed from Hyde Park Corner to St. Paul's Cathedral in the Lord Mayor's barge, or the Margate Hoy. There is but St. Marc's Place in all Venice broad enough for a carriage to move, and it is paved with large smooth flagstones, so that the Chariot and horses of Elijah himself would be puzzled to manœuvre upon it. Those of Pharaoh might do better; for the canals and particularly the Grand Canal-are sufficiently capacious and extensive for his whole host. Of course, no coach could be attempted; but the Venetians, who are very naïve as well as arch, were much amused with the ordinance. The Armenian Grammar is published; but my Armenian studies are suspended for the present, till my head aches a little less. I sent you the other day, in two covers, the first act of Manfred, a drama as mad as 1. Hobhouse, in a letter to Murray (Memoir, etc., vol. i. p. 389), dated December 7, 1817, writes, "As for the Austrians, they are "amiable nowhere but in Vienna. Their inaptitude for these "latitudes is beyond all expression or belief. Doubtless Lord B. "told you of the order of the Aulic Council for the Archbishop of "Aquileia to go to St. Mark's in a coach and six ; as if the Lord "Mayor were ordered to go to St. James's Palace in a gondola." Horses were scarce at Venice. "There are only eight horses in "Venice: four are of brass, over the gate of the cathedral; and the "other four are alive in Lord Byron's stables" (Matthews, Diary of an Invalid, p. 263). VOL. IV. F Nat. Lee's Bedlam tragedy, which was in 25 acts and some odd scenes: 1-mine is but in three acts. I find I have begun this letter at the wrong end: never mind; I must end it, then, at the right. Yours ever very truly and obligedly, BYRON. P.S.-Marianna is very well. She has been sitting for her picture for me-a miniature which is very like. 633.-To Lady Byron.2 Venice, March 5th 1817. A letter from Mr. Hanson apprizes me of the result of his correspondence with Sir Ralph Noel (of which he has transmitted a copy), and of his interviews with Dr. Lushington on the subject of our daughter. I am also informed of a bill in Chancery filed against me last Spring by Sir Ralph Noel, of which this is the first intimation, and of the subject of which I am ignorant. Whatever may be the result of these discussions and the measures, which have led to them, and to which they may lead, remember, that I have not been the first to begin; but, being begun, neither shall I be the first to recede. I feel at length convinced that the feeling which I had cherished through all and in spite of all, namely -the hope of a reconciliation and reunion, however remote, is indubitably useless; and although, all things considered, it could not be very sanguine, still it was sincere, and I cherished it as a sickly infatuation: and 1. Tom Brown (Works, ed. 1730, vol. ii. pp. 187, 188) says that, while in Bethlehem Hospital, Nathaniel Lee wrote a tragedy in twenty-five acts. 2. Printed from the rough draft in the possession of Mr. Murray. |