these again are seen the Greek ships, and among the rest the one that was sent for Lord Byron. Whether he is on board or not is a question. You will allow that this is an eventful day." Towards the end of the letter, he adds, «Lord Byron's servants have just arrived; he himself will be here to-morrow. If he had not come, we had need have prayed for fair weather; for both fleet and army are hungry and inactive. Parry has not appeared. Should he also arrive to-morrow, all Missolonghi will go mad with pleasure.>> The reception their noble visitor experienced on his arrival was such as from the ardent eagerness with which he had been looked for might be expected. The whole population of the place crowded to the shore to welcome him; the ships anchored off the fortress fired a salute as he passed, and all the troops and dignitaries of the place, civil and military, with the Prince Mavrocordato at their head, met him on his landing, and accompanied him, amidst the mingled din of shouts, wild music, and discharges of artillery, to the house that had been prepared for him. «I cannot easily describe," says Count Gamba, « the emotions which such a scene excited. I could scarcely refrain from tears.» After eight days of fatigue such as Lord Byron had endured, some short interval of rest might fairly have been desired by him. But the scene on which he had now entered was one that precluded all thoughts of repose. He on whom the eyes and hopes of all others were centred, could but little dream of indulging any care for himself. There were, at this particular moment, too, collected within the precincts of that town as great an abundance of the materials of unquiet and misrule as had been ever brought together in so small a space. In every quarter, both public and private, disorganiza tion and dissatisfaction presented themselves. Of the fourteen brigs of war which had come to the succour of Missolonghi, and which had for some time actually protected it against a Turkish fleet double its number, nine had already, hopeless of pay, returned to Hydra, while the sailors of the remaining five, from the same cause of complaint, had just quitted their ships, and were murmuring idly on shore. The inhabitants seeing themselves thus deserted, or preyed upon by their defenders, with a scarcity of provisions threatening them and the Turkish fleet before their eyes, were no less ready to break forth into riot and revolt; while, at the same moment, to complete the confusion, a General Assembly was on the point of being held in the town, for the purpose of organising the forces of Western Greece, and to this meeting all the wild mountain-chiefs of the province, ripe, of course, for dissension, were now flocking with their followers. Mavrocordato himself, the President of the intended Congress, had brought in his train no less than 5000 armed men, who were at this moment in the town. Ill provided, too, with either pay or food by the Government, this large military mob were but little less discontented and destitute than the sailors; and in short, in every direction, the entire population seems to have presented such a fermenting mass of insubordination and discord as was far more likely to produce warfare among themselves than with the enemy. Such was the state of affairs when Lord Byron arrived at Missolonghi;-such the evils he had now to encounter, with the formidable consciousness that to him, and him alone, all looked for the removal of them. Of his proceedings during the first weeks after his arrival, the following letters to Mr Hancock (which by the great kindness of that gentleman I am enabled to give) will, assisted by a few explanatory notes, supply a sufficiently ample account. «Many thanks for yours of the 5th; ditto to Muir for his. You will have heard that Gamba and my vessel got out of the hands of the Turks safe and intact; nobody knows well how or why, for there's a mystery in the story somewhat melodramatic. Captain Valsamachi has, I take it, spun a long yarn by this time in Argostoli. I attribute their release entirely to St Dionisio, of Zante, and the Madonna of the Rock, near Cephalonia. << The adventures of my separate luck were also not finished at Dragomestri; we were conveyed out by some Greek gunboats, and found the Leonidas brig-of-war at sea to look after us. But blowing weather coming on, we were driven on the rocks twi e in the passage of the Scrophes, and the dollars had another narrow escape. Two-thirds of the crew got ashore over the bowsprit : the rocks were rugged enough, but water very deep close in shore, so that she was, after much swearing and some exertion, got off again, and away we went with a third of our crew, leaving the rest on a desolate island, where they might have been now, had not one of the gunboats taken them off, for we were in no condition to take them off again. Tell Muir that Dr Bruno did not show much fight on the occasion, for besides stripping to his flannel waist coat and running about like a rat in an emergency, when I was talking to a Greek boy (the brother of the Greek girls in Argostoli), and telling him of the fact that there was no danger for the passengers, whatever there might be for the vessel, and assuring him that I could save both him and myself without difficulty' (though he can't swim), as the water, though deep, was not very rough, the wind not blowing right on shore (it was a blunder of the Greeks, who missed stays),—the Doctor exclaimed, 'Save him, indeed! by G―d! save me rather -I'll be first if I can'-a piece of egotism which he pronounced with such emphatic simplicity as to set all who had leisure to hear him laughing, and in a minute after the vessel drove off again after striking twice. She sprung a small leak, but nothing further happened, except that the captain was very nervous afterwards. 2 «To be brief, we had bad weather almost always, He meant to have taken the boy on his shoulders and swum with him to shore. This feat would have been but a repetition of one of his early sports at Harrow; where it was a frequent practice of his thus to mount one of the smaller boys on his shoulders and, much to the alarm of the urchin, dive with him into the water. 2 In the Doctor's own account this scene is described, as might be expected, somewhat differently:- Ma nel di lui passaggio marittimo una fregata Turca insegui la di lui nave, obbligandola di ricoverarsi dentro le Scrofes, dove per l'impeto dei venti fù gettata sopra gli scogli: tutti i marinari dell' equipaggio saltarono a terra per salvare la loro vita: Milord solo col di lui Medico Dottor Bruno rimasero sulla nave che ognuno vedeva colare a fondo: ma dopo qualche tempo non essendosi visto che ciò avveniva, le persone fuggite a terra respinsero la nave nell' acque : ma il tempestoso mare la ribastò una seconda volta contro gli scogli, ed allora si aveva per certoche la nave coll' illustre personaggio, una grande quantità di denari, e molti preziosi effetti per i Greci anderebbero a fondo. Tuttavia Lord Byron non si perturbò per nulla; anzi disse al di lui medico che voleva gettarsi a nuoto onde raggiungere la spiaggia: 'non abbandonate la nave finchè abbiamo forze per diriggerla: allorchè saremo coperti dall' acque, allora gettatevi pure, che io vi salvo.'» though not contrary; slept on deck in the wet generally for seven or eight nights, but never was in better health (I speak personally)—so much so, that I actually bathed for a quarter of an hour on the evening of the fourth instant in the sea (to kill the fleas, and other etc.) and was all the better for it. « We were received at Missolonghi with all kinds of kindness and honours; and the sight of the fleet saluting, etc. and the crowds and different costumes, was really picturesque. We think of undertaking an expedition soon, and I expect to be ordered with the Suliotes to join the army. « All well at present. We found Gamba already arrived, and every thing in good condition. Remember me to all friends. ❝ Yours ever, «N. B. « P.S.-You will, I hope, use every exertion to realize the assets. For besides what I have already advanced, I have undertaken to maintain the Suliotes for a year (and will accompany them either as a Chief, or whichever is most agreeable to the Government), besides sundries. I do not understand Brown's letters of credit.' I neither gave nor ordered a letter of credit that I know of; and though of course, if you have done it, I will be responsible, I was not aware of any thing, except that I would have backed his bills, which you said was unnecessary. As to orders-I ordered nothing but some red cloth and oil cloths, both of which I am ready to receive; but if Gamba has exceeded my commission, the other things must be sent back, for I cannot permit 'any thing of the kind, nor will. The servants' journey will of course be paid for, though that is exorbitant. As for Brown's letter, I do not know any thing more than I |