Let us drink-who would not? since, through life's varied round, In the goblet alone no deception is found. "I have tried, in its turn, all that life can supply; That pleasure existed while passion was there? "In the days of our youth, when the heart's in its And dreams that affection can never take wing, avow That friends, rosy wine, are so faithful as thou? "The breast of a mistress some boy may estrange, appears, Whose virtues, like thine, but increase with our years. "When the box of Pandora was opened on earth, And Hebe shall never be idle in heaven." At the age of six years he became presumptive heir to the family peerage, and at the age of ten the peerage devolved on him. He then was sent to the public school of Harrow; but neither his person, his acquired habits, his scholarship, nor his temper, fitted him for this strange arena. A peer, not immediately issuing from the fashionable circles, and not as rich as foolish boys suppose a peer ought to be, must have a wonderful tact of society, and a managing, bending, intriguing temper, to play his part with eclat, or with comfort, or even without degradation. All the treatment which Lord Byron now received, confirmed the bitterness of a disposition and feelings naturally sour, and already augmented by chilling solitude, or an uncongenial sphere of society. To a mind endowed with intense sensibility and unextinguishable ambition, these circumstances operated in cherishing melancholy, and even misanthropy. They bred an intractability to the light humours, the heartless cheerfulness, and all the artillery of unthinking emptiness by which the energies of the bosom are damped and broken. There were implanted within him the seeds of profound reflection and emotion, which grew in him to such strength, that the tameness, the petty passions, and frivolous desires of mankind in their ordinary intercourses of pleasure and dissipation, could never long retain him in their chains without weariness and disgust, even when they courted, dandled, flattered, and admired him. He was unskilled in their trifling aims of their vanity, and the tests of pitiful accomplishments, and disdained the excellence by which they were actuated, and Before we close the details of what may be by which they judged. He never, therefore, termed Lord Byron's poetical life-before we enjoyed their blandishments, and, ere long, enter on the painfully interesting particulars broke like a giant from their bonds. connected with the last and noblest part he There can be no doubt, that disappointperformed in his brilliant but brief career-ments, working on a sombre temper, and the we beg leave to introduce the following sum-consequent melancholy and sensitiveness, aidmary of his character: ing, and aided by, the spells of the muse, were There seems to have been something of a Lord Byron's preservatives; at least, that they magical antidote in Lord Byron's genius to the strange propensities to evil arising both from his natural passions and temper, and the accidental unpropitious circumstances of his life. In no man were good and evil mingled in such strange intimacy, and in such strange proportions. His passions were extraordina- Had Lord Byron succeeded in the ordinary rily violent and fierce; and his temper, un- way to his peerage, accompanied by the usual easy, bitter, and capricious. His pride was circumstances of prosperity and ease.-had deep and gloomy, and his ambition ardent and nothing occurred capable of stimulating to uncontrollable. All these were exactly such strong personal exertions, the mighty seeds as the fortuitous position of his infancy, boy- within him had probably been worse than hood, and first manhood, tended to aggravate neutral-they had worked to unqualified misby discouragements, crosses, and mortifica- chief! In many cases, this is not the effect of tions. He was directly and immediately sprung prosperity; but Lord Byron's qualities were from a stock of old nobility, of a historic of a very peculiar cast, as well as intense and name, of venerable antiquity. All his alli- unrivalled in degree. ances, including his father, had moved in high When, in the spring of 1816, Lord Byron society. But this gay father died, improvident quitted England, to return to it no more, he or reckless of the future, and left him to waste had a dark, perilous, and appalling prospect his childhood in poverty and dereliction, in before him. The chances against the due futhe remote town of Aberdeen, among the few maternal relations who yet would not utterly abandon his mother's shipwrecked fortunes. produced redeeming splendours, and moments of pure and untainted intellect, and exalting ebullitions of grand or tender sentiment, or noble passion, which, by fits at least, if not always, adorned his compositions, and will for ever electrify and elevate his readers. ture use of his miraculous and fearful gifts of genius, poisoned and frenzied as they were by blighted hopes, and all the evil incidents which had befallen him, were too numerous to be obvious. It was in Greece that his high pocalculated without overwhelming dismay! etical faculties had been first fully developed. Few persons, of a sensibility a little above the Greece, a land of the most venerable and ilcommon, would have escaped the pit of black lustrious history, of peculiarly grand and and unmitigated despondence! But Lord By- beautiful scenery, inhabited by various races ron's elasticity of mind recovered itself, and of the most wild and picturesque manners, soon rose to far higher conceptions and per- was to him the land of excitement,-neverformances than before. He passed the sum- cloying, never-wearying, never-changing exmer upon the banks of the lake of Geneva! citement. It was necessarily the chosen and With what enthusiasm he enjoyed, and with favourite spot of a man of powerful and origwhat contemplations he dwelt among its scene-inal intellect, of quick and sensible feelings, ry, his own poetry soon exhibited to the world! of a restless and untameable spirit, of various He has been censured for his peculiarities, information, and who, above all, was satiated his unsocial life, and his disregard of the habits, with common enjoyments, and disgusted with the decorums, and the civilities of the world, what appeared to him to be the formality, hyand of the rank to which he belonged. He pocrisy, and sameness of daily life. Dwelling might have pleaded, that the world rejected upon that country, as it is clear from all Lord him, and he the world; but the charge is idle Byron's writings he did, with the fondest soin itself, admitting it to have originated with licitude, and being, as he was well known to his own will. A man has a right to live in be, an ardent, though, perhaps, not a very syssolitude, if he chooses it; and, above all, he tematic lover of freedom, he could be no unwho gives such fruits of his solitude! concerned spectator of its recent revolution: In the autumn of 1822, Lord Byron quitted and as soon as it seemed to him that his presPisa, and went to Genoa, where he remained ence might be useful, he prepared to visit throughout the winter. A letter written by once more the shores of Greece. It is not his lordship, while at Genoa, is singularly improbable, also, that he had become ambihonourable to him, and is the more entitled to tious of a name as distinguished for deeds as notice, as it tends to diminish the credibility it was already by his writings. A glorious and of an assertion made since his death, that he novel career apparently presented itself, and could bear no rival in fame, but instantly be- he determined to try the event. came animated with a bitter jealousy and ha- Lord Byron embarked at Leghorn, and artred of any person who attracted the public rived in Cephalonia in the early part of Auattention from himself. If there be a living gust, 1823, attended by a suite of six or seven being towards whom, according to that state- friends, in an English vessel, (the Hercules. ment, Lord Byron would have experienced Captain Scott), which he had chartered for such a sentiment, it must be the presumed the express purpose of taking him to Greece. author of "Waverley." And yet, in a letter His lordship had never seen any of the volto Monsieur Beyle, dated May 29, 1823, the canic mountains, and for this purpose the ves following are the just and liberal expressions sel deviated from its regular course, in order used by Lord Byron, in adverting to a pam-to pass the island of Stromboli, and lay off that phlet which had been recently published by Monsieur Beyle: place a whole night, in the hopes of witnessing the usual phenomena, but, for the first time within the memory of man, the volcano emitted no fire. The disappointed poet was obliged to proceed, in no good humour with the fabled forge of Vulcan. "There is one part of your observations in the pamphlet which I shall venture to remark upon:-it regards Walter Scott. You say that his character is little worthy of enthusiasm,' at the same time that you mention his produc- Greece, though with a fair prospect of ultitions in the manner they deserve. I have mate triumph, was at that time in an unsettled known Walter Scott long and well, and in state. The third campaign had commenced, occasional situations which call forth the real with several instances of distinguished succharacter, and I can assure you that his char- cess-her arms were every where victorious, acter is worthy of admiration;-that, of all but her councils were distracted. Western men, he is the most open, the most honour- Greece was in a critical situation, and although able, the most amiable. With his politics I the heroic Marco Botzaris had not fallen in have nothing to do: they differ from mine, vain, yet the glorious enterprise in which he which renders it difficult for me to speak of perished, only checked, and did not prevent them. But he is perfectly sincere in them, and the advance of the Turks towards Anatolica sincerity may be humble, but she cannot be and Missolonghi. This gallant chief, worthy servile. I pray you, therefore, to correct or of the best days of Greece, hailed with trans soften that passage. You may, perhaps, at-port Lord Byron's arrival in that country, and tribute this officiousness of mine to a false his last act, before proceeding to the attack, affectation of candour, as I happen to be a in which he fell, was to write a warm invitawriter also. Attribute it to what motive you tion for his lordship to come to Missolonghi. please, but believe the truth. I say that Wal- In his letter, which he addressed to a friend at ter Scott is as nearly a thorough good man as Missolonghi, Botzaris alludes to almost the man can be, because I know it by experience first proceeding of Lord Byron in Greece, to be the case." which was the arming and provisioning of The motives which ultimately induced Lord forty Suliotes, whom he sent to join in the deByron to leave Italy, and join the Greeks, fence of Missolonghi. After the battle, Lord struggling for emancipation, are sufficiently Byron transmitted bandages and medicines, of which he had brought a large store from Mavrocordato was at this time endeavour Italy, and pecuniary succour to those who had ing to collect a fleet for the relief of Missobeen wounded. He had already made a very longhi, and Lord Byron generously offered to generous offer to the government. He says, advance four hundred thousand piastres (about in a letter, "I offered to advance a thousand 12,000l.) to pay for fitting it out. In a letter in dollars a month, for the succour of Misso- which he announced this his noble intention, longhi, and the Suliotes under Botzaris (since he alluded to the dissensions in Greece, and killed); but the government have answered stated, that if these continued, all hope of a me through of this island, that they wish loan in England, or of assistance, or even good to confer with me previously, which is, in fact, wishes from abroad, would be at an end. saying they wish me to spend my money in "I must frankly confess," he says in his some other direction. I will take care that it letter, "that unless union and order are conis for the public cause, otherwise I will not firmed, all hopes of a loan will be in vain, and advance a para. The opposition say they all the assistance which the Greeks could exwant to cajole me, and the party in power say pect from abroad, an assistance which might the others wish to seduce me; so, between the be neither trifling nor worthless, will be sustwo, I have a difficult part to play: however, pended or destroyed; and, what is worse, the I will have nothing to do with the factions, great powers of Europe, of whom no one was unless to reconcile them, if possible." an enemy to Greece, but seemed inclined to Lord Byron established himself for some favour her in consenting to the establishment time at the small village of Metaxata, in of an independent power, will be persuaded Cephalonia, and despatched two friends, Mr. that the Greeks are unable to govern themTrelawney and Mr. Hamilton Browne, with selves, and will, perhaps, themselves undera letter to the Greek government, in order to take to arrange your disorders in such a way collect intelligence as to the real state of as to blast the brightest hopes you indulge, things. His lordship's generosity was almost and that are indulged by your friends. daily exercised in his new neighbourhood. He "And allow me to add once for all, I desire provided for many Italian families in distress, the well-being of Greece, and nothing else; and even indulged the people of the country I will do all I can to secure it; but I cannot in paying for the religious ceremonies which consent-I never will consent to the English they deemed essential to their success. public, or English individuals being deceived In the meanwhile, Lord Byron's friends as to the real state of Greek affairs. The proceeded to Tripolitza, and found Coloco-rest, gentlemen, depends on you; you have troni (the enemy of Mavrocordato, who had fought gloriously; act honourably towards been compelled to flee from the presidency) your fellow-citizens, and towards the world, in great power: his palace was filled with and then it will no more be said, as has been armed men, like the castle of some ancient repeated for two thousand years, with the Rofeudal chief, and a good idea of his character man historian, that Philopomen was the last may be formed from the language he held. He of the Grecians. Let not calumny itself (and declared that he had told Mavrocordato, that it is difficult to guard against it in so difficult unless he desisted from his intrigues, he would a struggle) compare the Turkish Pacha with put him on an ass and whip him out of the the patriot Greek in peace, after you have Morea, and that he had only been withheld exterminated him in war." from doing so by the representation of his friends, who had said that it would injure the cause. The dissensions among the Greek chiefs evidently gave great pain to Lord Byron, whose sensibility was keenly affected by the They next proceeded to Salamis, where the slightest circumstance which he considered congress was sitting, and Mr. Trelawney likely to retard the deliverance of Greece. agreed to accompany Odysseus, a brave moun-"For my part," he observes, in another of his tain chief, into Negropont. At this time the letters, "I will stick by the cause, while a Greeks were preparing for many active en- plank remains which can be honourably clung terprises. Marco Botzaris' brother, with his to; if I quit it, it will be by the Greeks' conSuliotes and Mavrocordato, were to take duct, and not the Holy Allies, or the holier charge of Missolonghi, which, at that time, Mussulmans." In a letter to his banker at (October, 1823), was in a very critical state, Cephalonia, he says: "I hope things here will being blockaded both by land and sea. "There go well, some time or other; I will stick by have been," says Mr. Trelawney, "thirty bat- the cause as long as a cause exists." tles fought and won by the late Marco Bot- His playful humour sometimes broke ou zaris, and his gallant tribe of Suliotes, who amidst the deep anxiety he felt for the sucare shut up in Missolonghi. If it fall, Athens cess of the Greeks. He ridiculed, with great will be in danger, and thousands of throats cut. pleasantry, some of the supplies which had A few thousand dollars would provide ships been sent out from England by the Greek to relieve it; a portion of this sum is raised- committee. In one of his letters, also, after and I would coin my heart to save this key of alluding to his having advanced 4,000l., and Greece!" A report like this was sufficient to expecting to be called on for 4,000l. more, he show the point where succour was most need- says: "How can I refuse, if they (the Greeks) ed, and Lord Byron's determination to relieve will fight, and especially if I should happen Missolonghi, was still more decidedly con- to be in their company? I therefore request firmed by a letter, which he received from and require that you should apprise my trusty Mayrocordato. and trustworthy trustee and banker, and crown and sheet-anchor, Douglas Kinnaird his attention, was to mitigate the ferocity with the honourable, that he prepare all moneys of which the war had been carried on. The very mine, including the purchase-money of Roch-day of his lordship's arrival was signalized by dale manor, and mine income for the year A. D. 1824, to answer and anticipate any orders or drafts of mine, for the good cause, in good and lawful money of Great Britain, etc. etc. etc. May you live a thousand years! which is nine hundred and ninety-nine longer than the Spanish Cortes constitution." 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 long at Missolonghi, before an opportunity presented itself for showing All being ready, two Ionian vessels were his sense of Yusuff Pacha's moderation in reordered, and, embarking his horses and ef- leasing Count Gamba. Hearing that there fects, Lord Byron sailed from Argostoli on the were four Turkish prisoners in the town, he 29th of December. At Zante, his lordship requested that they might be placed in his took a considerable quantity of specie on hands. This being immediately granted, he board, and proceeded towards Missolonghi. sent them to Patras, with a letter addressed Two accidents occurred in this short passage. to the Turkish chief, expressing his hope that Count Gamba, who had accompanied his lord- the prisoners thenceforward taken on both ship from Leghorn, had been charged with sides, would be treated with humanity. This the vessel in which the horses and part of the act was followed by another equally praisemoney were embarked. When off Chiarenza, worthy, which proved how anxious Lord Bya point which lies between Zante and the ron felt to give a new turn to the system of place of their destination, they were surprised warfare hitherto pursued. A Greek cruiser at daylight on finding themselves under the having captured a Turkish boat, in which bows of a Turkish frigate. Owing, however, there was a number of passengers, chiefly to the activity displayed on board Lord By- women and children, they were also placed ron's vessel, and her superior sailing, she es- in the hands of Lord Byron, at his particular caped, while the second was fired at, brought request; upon which a vessel was immediately to, and carried into Patras. Count Gamba hired, and the whole of them, to the number and his companions, being taken before Yusuff of twenty-four, were sent to Previsa, provided Pacha, fully expected to share the fate of with every requisite for their comfort during some unfortunate men whom that sanguinary the passage. The Turkish governor of Prechief had sacrificed the preceding year at visa thanked his lordship, and assured him, Previsa, and their fears would most prob- that he would take care equal attention should ably have been realized, had it not been for be in future shown to the Greeks who might the presence of mind displayed by the count, become prisoners. who, assuming an air of hauteur and indiffer- Another grand object with Lord Byron, and ence, accused the captain of the frigate of a one which he never ceased to forward with scandalous breach of neutrality, in firing at the most anxious solicitude, was to reconcile and detaining a vessel under English colours, the quarrels of the native chiefs, to make them and concluded by informing Yusuff, that he friendly and confiding towards one another, might expect the vergeance of the British and submissive to the orders of the governgovernment, in thus interrupting a nobleman ment. He had neither time nor opportunity who was merely on his travels, and bound to to carry this point to any great extent: much Calamos. The Turkish chief, on recognising good was, however, done. in the master of the vessel a person who had Lord Byron landed at Missolonghi animated saved his life in the Black Sea fifteen years with military ardour. After paying the fleet, before, not only consented to the vessel's re- which, indeed, had only come out under the lease, but treated the whole of the passengers expectation of receiving its arrears from the with the utmost attention, and even urged loan which he promised to make to the prothem to take a day's shooting in the neighbour-visional government, he set about forming a hood. brigade of Suliotes. Five hundred of these," Owing to contrary winds, Lord Byron's ves- the bravest and most resolute of the soldiers sel was obliged to take shelter at the Scropes, of Greece, were taken into his pay on the 1st a cluster of rocks within a few miles of Mis- of January, 1824. An expedition against Lesolonghi. While detained here, he was in panto was proposed, of which the command considerable danger of being captured by was given to Lord Byron. This expedition, the Turks. however, had to experience delay and disapLord Byron was received at Missolonghi pointment. The Suliotes, conceiving that they with enthusiastic demonstrations of joy. No had found a patron whose wealth was inex mark of honour or welcome which the Greeks haustible, and whose generosity was bound. could devise was omitted. The ships anchored less, determined to make the most of the or off the fortress, fired a salute as he passed. casion, and proceeded to the most extravagant Prince Mavrocordato, and all the authorities, demands on their leader for arrears, and unwith the troops and the population, met him der other pretences. These mountaineers on his landing, and accompanied him to the untameable in the field, and unmanageable in house which had been prepared for him, amidst a town, were, at this moment, peculiarly disthe shouts of the multitude, and the discharge posed to be obstinate, riotous, and mercenary They had been chiefly instrumental in pre One of the first objects to which he turned serving Missolonghi, when besieged the pre of cannon. 1 vious autumn by the Turks; had been driven cies of motion to which Suliotes are not ac from their abodes; and the whole of their customed, the man carelessly advanced; upon families were, at this time, in the town, des- which the serjeant of the guard (a German) titute of either home or sufficient supplies. demanded his business, and receiving no satOf turbulent and reckless character, they isfactory answer, pushed him back. These kept the place in awe; and Mavrocordato wild warriors, who will dream for years of a having, unlike the other captains, no sol- blow if revenge is out of their power, are not diers of his own, was glad to find a body of slow to resent even a push. The Suliote struck valiant mercenaries, especially if paid for out again, the serjeant and he closed and strugof the funds of another; and, consequently, gled, when the Suliote drew a pistol from his was not disposed to treat them with harshness. belt; the serjeant wrenched it out of his hand, Within a fortnight after Lord Byron's arrival, and blew the powder out of the pan. At this a burgher refusing to quarter some Suliotes, moment, Captain Sass, a Swede, seeing the who rudely demanded entrance into his house, fray, came up, and ordered the man to be tawas killed, and a riot ensued, in which some ken to the guard-room. The Suliote was then lives were lost. Lord Byron's impatient spirit disposed to depart, and would have done so if could ill brook the delay of a favourite scheme, the serjeant would have permitted him. Unbut he saw, with the utmost chagrin, that the fortunately, Captain Sass did not confine himstate of his troops was such as to render any self to merely giving the order for his arrest; attempt to lead them out at that time imprac- for when the Suliote struggled to get away, ticable. Captain Sass drew his sword, and struck him The project of proceeding against Lepanto with the flat part of it; whereupon the enbeing thus suspended, at a moment when Lord raged Greek flew upon him, with a pistol in Byron's enthusiasm was at its height, and when one hand and the sabre in the other, and at he had fully calculated on striking a blow the same moment nearly cut off the Captain's which could not fail to be of the utmost ser- right arm, and shot him through the head. vice to the Greek cause, the unlooked-for dis- Captain Sass, who was remarkable for his appointment preyed on his spirits, and pro- mild and courageous character, expired in a duced a degree of irritability, which, if it was few minutes. The Suliote also was a man of not the sole cause, contributed greatly to a distinguished bravery. This was a serious afsevere fit of epilepsy, with which he was at- fair, and great apprehensions were entertained tacked on the 15th of February. His lordship that it would not end here. The Suliotes rewas sitting in the apartment of Colonel Stan-fused to surrender the man to justice, alleging hope, talking in a jocular manner with Mr. that he had been struck, which, in Suliote Parry, the engineer, when it was observed, law, justifies all the consequences which may from occasional and rapid changes in his coun- follow. mal 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." tenance, that he was suffering under some In a letter written a few days after Lord strong emotion. On a sudden he complained Byron's first attack, to a friend in Zante, he of a weakness in one of his legs, and rose, but speaks of himself as rapidly recovering. "I finding himself unable to walk, he cried out am a good deal better," he observes, "though for assistance. He then fell into a state of of course weakly. The leeches took too much nervous and convulsive agitation, and was blood from my temples the day after, and there placed on a bed. For some minutes his coun- was some difficulty in stopping it; but I have tenance was much distorted. He however been up daily, and out in boats or on horsequickly recovered his senses, his speech re-back. To-day I have taken a warm bath, turned, and he soon appeared perfectly well, and live as temperately as well can be, withalthough enfeebled and exhausted by the vio- out any liquid but water, and without any anilence 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 Notwithstanding Lord Byron's improvement bleeding, cold bathing, perfect relaxation of in health. his friends felt, from the first, that mind, etc., and he gradually recovered. An he ought to try a change of air. Missolonghi accident, however, happened a few days after is a flat, marshy, and pestilential place, and, his first illness, which was ill calculated to aid except for purposes of utility, never would the efforts of his medical advisers. A Suliote, have been selected for his residence. A genaccompanied by another man, and the late tleman of Zante wrote to him early in March, Marco Botzaris' little boy, walked into the to induce him to return to that island for a Seraglio, a place which, before Lord Byron's time. To his letter the following answer was arrival, had been used as a sort of fortress and received :barrack for the Suliotes, and out of which they "I am extremely obliged by your offer of were ejected with great difficulty for the re- your country-house, as for all other kindness, ception of the committee-stores, and for the in case my health should require my removal; occupation of the engineers, who required it but I cannot quit Greece while there is a for a laboratory. The sentinel on guard or- chance of my being of (even supposed) utility. dered the Suliote to retire, which being a spe-There is a stake worth millions such as I am, |