"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.