Pleasure I have known under every form it can present to mortals. I have travelled, satisfied my curiosity, lost every illusion: I have drank all the nectar in the cup of life—it is time to throw the dregs away. Two apprehensions now haunt me. I picture myself slowly expiring on a bed of torture, or ending my days like Swift-a grinning idiot! Would God the day would come when, sword in hand, rushing on the Turks, I shall meet a swift, painless death -the object of my wishes!'

"Thus continually haunted by a dread of epilepsy or palsy-complaints most humiliating to human pride-Byron fell into the lowest state of hypochondriasis, and vented his sorrows in language which, though sometimes sublime, was at others as peevish and capricious as that of an unruly and quarrelsome child. When he returned to himself, he would request us 'not to take the sickly fit for the sound man.' Riding was the only occupation that procured him any relief, and even this was but momentary. On April 9th, prolonging his ride farther than usual, he was caught in a shower, and remained exposed to it for more than an hour. He complained in the evening of shooting pains in his hips and loins; but found himself the next morning sufficiently well to ride out for a short time. On his return, he scolded his groom severely for having placed on his horse the same wet saddle he had used the preceding day. Finlay and I called upon him in the evening. We found him lying on the sofa, complaining of a slight fever, and of pains in the articulations. He was at first more gay than usual; but on a sudden he became pensive. Then he told us the story of the Scotch fortune-teller, which evidently had made a deep impression on his mind. We accused him of superstition, to which he replied:

"In truth, I find it equally difficult to know what to believe and what not to believe, in this world. There are as many plausible reasons for inducing me to die a bigot, as there have been hitherto to make me live a freethinker. No consideration can now induce me to undertake anything either on a Friday or a Sunday; I am positive it would end unfortunately if I did. Every one of my misfortunes-and God knows I have had my full share-has happened on one of those days. You will ridi

cule this and my belief, too, in beings incorporeal. But I could give you the details of my friend Shelley's conversations with his Familiar. Did he not tell me that Familiar told him he should die by drowning? and did I not, a short time after, perform his funeral rites on the sea-beach of Italy?'"

Notwithstanding this depression of spirits following the onset of his fatal disease, and the excessive bleeding to which the misguided practice of the time condemned him, Byron could throw it off on occasion. Colonel Stanhope gives this anecdote.

"After this dreadful paroxysm, when Lord Byron, faint with over-bleeding, was lying on his sick-bed, with his whole nervous system completely shaken, the mutinous Suliotes of his battalion, covered with dirt and their 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. The more the Suliotes raged the more his calm courage triumphed. scene was truly sublime."

The

This corps of Suliotes, organized and maintained by him, was one of Byron's mistakes; but he had been hospitably treated by them and they were the bravest fighters in Greece. Had Marco Bozzaris lived, the purest of the Suliote chieftains (who died shortly before Byron came to Missolonghi), Byron's task would have been easier. Had Byron himself accepted the invitation of Odysseus and gone to Amphissa, away from the malarious climate of Missolonghi, he might have escaped his fever. His plans, as imparted to Parry, were both generous and prudent:

But

"I will remain in Greece till she is secure against the Turks or has fallen under their power. All my income shall be spent in her service. When she is secure against external enemies I will leave the Greeks to settle their government as they like. one service more I think I may perform for them: I will have a schooner built for me or will buy a vessel. The Greeks shall invest me with the character of their ambassador, and I will go to the United States and induce their free and enlightened government to set the example of recognizing the federation of Greece as an independent state. That done, England must

follow the example; then the fate of Greece will be permanently fixed, and she will enter into her rights as a member of the great commonwealth of Christian Europe."

Byron's February illness passed away, and by March 22d he wrote to the agent who had charge of his money matters saying that a loan of $30,000 which he had made to the government of Greece might be repaid or might not, but he should spend that sum and more in their cause, adding, "I will stick by the cause as long as a cause exists, first or second." Of his next plan he wrote :

"In a few days Prince Mavrocordato and myself, with a considerable escort, intend to proceed to Salona, at the request of Ulysses and the chiefs of eastern Greece, and to take measures, offensive and defensive, for the ensuing campaign. They have written to propose to me to go either to the Morea with Mavrocordato or to take the general direction of affairs in this quarter, with General Tondo, and any other I may choose, to form a council. Andreas Tondo is my old friend and acquaintance since we were lads in Greece together." *

While Byron lingered in Cephalonia, Lord Erskine and other members of the Greek committee in London had accepted the offer of Colonel Leicester Stanhope, an army officer, son of the Earl of Harrington, to proceed to Greece, with a leave of absence from the army, and there act as agent of the committee. He left London October 1, 1823, reached Cephalonia November 22d, saw Lord Byron, and was by him given a letter to Mavrocordato, written in rather dubious French, but with Byron's customary vigor of expression. It is dated December 2, 1823, and closes thus: "If Greece wishes for the fate of Wallachia and the Crimea she can have it to-morrow; if for that of Italy, day after to-morrow; but if she would become genuine Greece, forever free and independent, she must decide to-day, or she will never again have the chance." With this and other letters Stanhope crossed to Missolonghi, which he reached December

* That is, in 1809, when Byron, then twenty-one years old,

12th, remained there two months and more, conversing and quarrelling with Byron, who crossed three weeks later; and then, in early March, 1824, resided in Athens for five weeks, where Odysseus Androutsos was military governor. From Athens, March 6th, he wrote a letter to Byron, to which the poet added notes before forwarding it to London. In this he describes an election for city judges, where Odysseus presided, and gives this opinion of that chieftain :

"Odysseus has a very strong mind, a good heart, and is as brave as his sword. He governs with a strong arm, and is the only man in Greece that can preserve order. He is for a strong government, for constitutional rights, and for vigorous efforts against the enemy. He likes good foreigners and courts instruction. He has established two schools here and has allowed me to set the press at work." (Here Byron adds a note to say, "I hope that the press will succeed better in Athens than it has in Missolonghi. The Greek newspaper has done great mischief both in the Morea and in the islands, as I represented both to Prince Mavrocordato and Colonel Stanhope that it would do, in the present circumstances, unless great caution were observed.") "In short, considering his education, his pursuits, and the society by which he has been surrounded, he is a most extraordinary man. He solicits your Lordship's and Mavrocordato's presence at a congress in Salona. In the event of the proposed meeting he will bring with him Panouria, the prefects of Thebes, Livadia, and Athens, Captain Trelawny, and myself. I implore your Lordship and the President (Mavrocordato) as you love Greece and her sacred cause, to attend at Salona. Should you be ill or feeble, which God forbid, we solicit Count Gamba's presence."

On the back of this letter Byron wrote, "Prince Mavrocordato and L. B. go to Salona." He wrote to Stanhope on the same day, "Prince M. and myself will go to Salona, and you may be very sure that P. M. will accept any proposition for the advantage of Greece." And on this very day a letter was sent from the army

lived rather a fast life, as mentioned by Finlay in the anecdote cited elsewhere. Shortly after Byron's death Tondo also died.

onel Stanhope's leave of absence and threatening him with the displeasure of

The death of Byron broke the link which united men as different and discordant as Odysseus and Mavrocordato, and frustrated the purpose with which the conference at Amphissa had been called. The bitter antagonism expressed in Trelawny's letter to Mrs. Shelley was fully reciprocated by Mavrocordato, who is charged by Humphreys, and apparently believed by Dr. Howe and Sir Emerson Tennent, to have instigated or connived at the assassination of Odysseus, and the attempted killing of Trelawny in his cave on Parnassus, in 1825. At some time between Byron's death and that of Odysseus (June 16, 1825)-probably in the late summer of 1824, Trelawny wrote to Finlay from Argos:

"I sat up till the lark rose, talking with Odysseus; no-no Napoli for me to-day. The government have ordered old Colly' (Kolokotrones) "to come here-and our friend Mavro. They are carrying a press of sail for so crank a craft. I am ready to start for Tripolitza to-night, or to-morrow morning, as your Worship-or Majesty I should say decides; but you have 'gaged your word, and must go. You must determine on paying Fenton a visit at Parnassus. I promise your curiosity will be gratified in visiting the Spiglia. I send George to Zante to-morrow morn. Do you think I may trust him with the blunt? will call at your café, after I have dined and dozed. The Lion and Tiger are conferring amicably-as yet, all goes well. Yours and Truly,

66

I

"TREL. "Time we have nothing to do with, as to date and day-'tis the year 1824, Argos."

The "Lion and Tiger" here were Odysseus and Kolokotrones: the latter had lately been beaten in one civil war, near Nauplia (Napoli), and was soon to begin another. Finlay did soon after visit the cavern above Velitsa, and for some time kept up an acquaintance both with Trelawny and Odysseus. Millingen, who knew them all, and did not cease to correspond with Finlay after he had entered

In fact he returned in the same vessel, the Florida, which conveyed the remains of Byron to London, reaching there July 1, 1824.

"Mr. Trelawny was a very handsome man, possessed of great strength and surprising agility. Nature had given him a highly romantic countenance-his wild, haughty, unquiet, scintillating dark eye denoted his disposition to bold and extraordinary undertaking. In his manners and opinions he seemed to have taken Hope's Anastatius for his model; and, to judge from his lofty language, he had a mint of phrases as rich as Don Adriano de Armado. The courage which distinguished him in Negropont acquired him the esteem of Odysseus and the Pallikari. He so rapidly and completely moulded himself to their manners as to be generally taken for a Greek. This, with his generosity, gained their affection, and his severity insured their obedience. With such qualities, Trelawny would have risen into notice, had not fortune turned against his friend. Whatever his faults, every European who knew him in Greece cannot but praise the generous qualities of his heart, and acknowledge him to have been a most entertaining companion. Owing, no doubt, to his prolonged stay in Oriental countries, his imagination got the better of his veracity; yet his narrations were so interesting that, whether true or untrue, one could not but listen to them with as much pleasure as to the wonders of an Arabian tale. He occupies a romantic place in the annals of Greece, through his adventures in the cavern of Odysseus, the black assassination attempted there, and the generous manner in which he spared Whitcomb's life, and set him at liberty."

The story of this attempted murder has been told by Trelawny, and many others; the annals of the period are full of worse deeds, but these seldom were the work of Englishmen, as in Trelawny's case. Finlay, commenting on the history of the Greek Revolution published in 1828 by his comrade, Dr. Howe, complained of "too much sqeamishness about Turkish cruelty, and too little about Greek ;" adding, in his caustic manner- "The Greeks were and are as cruel as the Turks: the ancient Thebans had a temple to Hercules

Rhinokoloustes (cutter off of noses) because he cut off those of the Orchomonian ambassadors." When Trelawny's men in the cave declared they would roast his assassin before a slow fire, Finlay says: “This was no idle threat, for it had been done on more than one occasion in that sanguinary war." He was nursed during his recovery by his young wife, the halfsister of Odysseus-Tarsitsa Kaménouof whom too little is known. A random French writer, Eugène de Villeneuve, who published at Brussels in 1827 his Journal Fait en Grèce pendant les Années 18241826, says therein (July 30, 1825):

"I saw Trelawny at Athens; he was accompanied by his wife, hardly fourteen years old, but lovely as an angel. She bore in her breast a pledge of love which ought to attach Trelawny to her until death, and she spoke English with surprising facility. Trelawny told me the story of Fenton and his wounds; he said he would go to Zante to be healed completely, for they still much annoyed him. Then he would return to the cavern, which he never meant to abandon till he could bring away from it his treasure, his friends, and the rest of his wife's family. It was when Odysseus was proscribed and a fugitive that he married the sister." *

The details of Byron's last illness are painful, since he appears to have been improperly treated by his physician. Bleeding was then in vogue, as we see by Trelawny's letter to Stanhope, and it was urged upon the patient by his Piedmontese physician, Bruno, but Byron refused more than once. In the presence of Dr. Millingen, who tells the story (as also did Fletcher, Byron's valet), Byron angrily asked why they wished to bleed him. "It will do you good," was Millingen's reply; "but since you are so averse to it, let us put it off till to-morrow" (April 16th). This was done, but then, says Fletcher " As the physicians insisted, I also began to entreat him to give his assent; and on the 16th he was bled both morning and evening." It may have been repeated on the 17th; on the 18th, says Millingen :

"A consultation was proposed, to which

*This would indicate that the marriage took place in the winter of 1824-25, for Trelawny was wounded June 5, 1825. Of the child or children of this marriage nothing seems to be known; and all trace of Tarsitsa Trelawny is lost in Greece, so far as I could learn.

my assistant, Dr. Treiber, and Dr. Lucca were invited. Our opinions were divided. Bruno and Lucca proposed having recourse to antispasmodics and other remedies, employed in the last stages of typhus. Treiber and I maintained that such could only hasten the fatal termination. We recommended the application of numerous leeches to the temples, behind the ears, and along the course of the jugular vein, etc. Dr. Bruno, however, being the patient's physician, had the casting vote, and he prepared a strong infusion of valerian with ether. After administration, the convulsive movements and the delirium increased-yet, notwithstanding my earnest representations, a second dose was administered half an hour after: when our patient sunk into a comatose sleep, and died the next day."

The day of his death was Easter Monday, according to the Greek rite; the joy of that season, in which the Greeks take a religious, but noisy satisfaction, was instantly changed into sorrow; the public offices and shops were shut for three days, and on the third, his obsequies were performed at Missolonghi, where his body was embalmed and his heart buried, near the graves of Marco Bozzaris, young Mavromichali, and Count Normann, a Philhellene. His statue now stands among these graves on a marble pillar, with a Greek elegiac inscription, not remarkable for poetic merit, but testifying to the gratitude of free Greece. At Amphissa, where Stanhope and Odysseus were, similar funeral rites were held, and a Greek priest, whose remarks appear, badly translated, in Stanhope's volume, said, nobly:

"Those enlightened foreigners who add to their education the mild sentiments of humanity, not only look with joy on the vast progress of Greece toward emancipation during the present war, but they have actually contributed to our success, each in his own way. Not content with standing afar off and wishing us good fortune, many of them have joined us in the contest, and are here running the perilous, glorious course. Among these, lately appearing, was Lord Byron; whom inexorable death forbade to be spared a partnership in the disasters of these lands, to which formerly he turned his steps in order to proclaim to distant nations their glory and

their shame. He refused to confine to a single people the benefit of his talents, but condescended to display them wherever mankind summoned him to its aid. This single-hearted devotion to the welfare of the human race had raised him to a glorious rank among those of his nation illustrious for their virtues, of whom Greece hopes to see many more co-operating in her regeneration. Having thus paid our tribute of admiration to the virtues of Byron, let us join in the prayer that his memory may be eternal with us and with the whole world, associated as it must ever be with reminiscences of Greece."

This prayer, made under the olive-trees of Amphissa, in sight of the snowy peaks of Parnassus, has been well answered. Whenever the thought of Byron occurs to the mind, the heart is touched with memories of his love for Greece; wherever the stranger wanders in that romantic land, its scenery recalls the English poet who best described it. Byron's memByron's memory makes the wretched morass of Missolonghi a place of pilgrimage; his death there has made it as famous as the remark able defence of its mud walls, in which an American warrior, Colonel Miller, had a distinguished share, and which Trelawny sorrowfully described after the town was captured, in 1826. Trelawny was in Zante, scarcely recovered from his desperate wounds, and wrote for publication in London this account of the fall of Missolonghi (April 27, 1826): *

"Missolonghi's heroic defence for five years insulated, unaided, and alone, standing in opposition against a mighty empire, a paltry fishing town, floating on a mud-bank, inhabited by petty traffickers -walled in with mud, defended by a few almost useless cannon-has kept, all these

*Writing to Mrs. Shelley, September 17, 1825, from Cephalonia, Trelawny said: "I have just escaped from

years, a succession of immense armies in check, and stood as an advanced bulwark in the defence of his country. But man is not omnipotent; heroes are not immortal. The garrison had been so reduced by famine as to feed on human flesh for several days; part of them had no stomach for this, and were starving, which state of things led to the resolution to set fire to the town. To this, it seems, they added the terrible alternative of destroying all their women and children, which they effected by collecting them over a mine and exploding it. The garrison then sallied out, sword in hand.”

This is not quite exact-Trelawny seldom was-but the truth was even more startling. The sortie of the garrison, April 23, 1826, included 3,000 fighting men, with 1,000 artisans, and 5,000 women and children-the whole population being 9,000. In the sortie 500 fell; 600 starved to death in the retreat, and 1,800 cut their way through the besieging force among them 200 women. The savage Ibrahim of Egypt boasted of 3,000 heads of the slain, and 3,500 women and children were made slaves. Among the killed was Dr. Meyer, a Swiss scholar, who had edited Colonel Stanhope's Greek newspaper, and who was the special friend of Colonel J. P. Miller, of Vermont-one of the heroes who cut their way out, with Nothi Bozarris and other Suliote fighters. Colonel Miller had fought for the Greeks, as Dr. Howe did, from 1824 onwardneither of them reaching Greece till after Byron's death. Both were enthusiastic admirers of Byron, and each brought back to America a souvenir of the dead poetHowe his helmet, which now hangs in Mrs. Howe's Boston house, and Miller his cavalry sword, now belonging to Mrs. Keith, the daughter of Colonel Miller, whose home is in Chicago. Her father's

broken frame and shattered constitution. Two musket balls, fired at the distance of two paces, struck me and passed through my framework, which damned near finished me; but 'tis a long story, and my writing arm is rendered unfit for service, and I am yet unpractised with the left. I shall be confined here some time. I need rest and quiet, for I am shook to the foundation." He crossed over to Zante, and thence, in 1826, wrote to Mrs. Shelley, complaining of poverty-"bountiful will and confined means are a curse." Though only thirty-four (he was the son of Charles Trelawny and Maria Hawkins, and was born in London, November 3, 1792), he began to look forward to age, and wrote, "Old age and poverty is a frightful prospect. Poverty is the vampire which lives on human blood, and haunts its victim to destruction. Hell can fable no torment exceeding it it is the climax of human ill. You may be certain I could not write thus on what I did not feel."

er in her apartment-as our engraving represents them [page 358]. The story of the sword is singular. Byron gave it to one of his Suliote captains, Loukas, who afterward fell in one of the fights in Attica. His family retained the sword and helmet; but, in their poverty, late in the war, offered them for sale. Three men specially desired the sword George Finlay, Colonel Miller, and Dr. Howe; but it was agreed that the