yours, though it is no very extended period of life, still it is one when the habits and thought are generally so formed as to admit of no modification; and as we could not agree when younger, we should with difficulty do so now.

"I say all this, because I own to you, that, notwithstanding everything, I considered our reunion as not impossible for more than a year after the separation;-but then I gave up the hope entirely and for ever. But this very impossibility of reunion seems to me at least a reason why, on all the few points of discussion which can arise between us, we should preserve the courtesies of life, and as much of its kindness as people who are never to meet may preserve perhaps more easily than nearer connections. For my own part, I am violent, but not malignant ; for only fresh provocations can awaken my resentments. To you, who are colder and more concentrated, I would just hint, that you may sometimes mistake the depth of a cold anger for dignity, and a worse feeling for duty. I assure you that I bear you now (whatever I may have done) no resentment whatever. Remember, that if you have injured me in aught, this forgiveness is something; and that, if I have injured you, it is something more still, if it be true, as the moralists say, that the most offending are the least forgiving.

"Whether the offence has been solely on my side, or reciprocal, or on yours chiefly, I have ceased to reflect upon any but two things—namely, that you are the mother of my child, and that we shall never meet again. I think if you also consider the two corresponding points with reference to myself, it will be better for all three.-Yours ever,

NOEL BYRON " 1

If anything resulted from Colonel Montgomery's negotiation, or if it was ever attempted, none of the biographies informs us. It does not appear from her book that Lady Blessington met Teresa Guiccioli at this time; but their later correspondence seems to prove that they had known and liked one another at some period of the Blessingtons' stay in Italy, which lasted for several years. Byron spoke much of her, confessing that he was not happy, but admitting that it was his own fault. Teresa had, he said, all the qualities to render a reasonable being happy. Lady Blessington, en revanche, observed that she feared the Countess Guiccioli had little reason to be satisfied with her lot. He answered, "Perhaps you are right; yet she must know that I am sincerely attached to her. But the truth is my habits are not those requisite to form the happiness of any woman. am worn out in feelings. I like solitude 1 L. and J. v. 480-I.

...

am fond of

shutting myself up for hours, and, when with the person I like, am often distrait and gloomy ". He added on another occasion that if he and Teresa were married, they would, he was sure, be cited as an example of conjugal happiness. How much irony there may have been in this, it is difficult to guess; Leigh Hunt's story leads us to believe that there was some. But Byron spoke tenderly, if remotely, of the girl who had given him all she had to give. "Of the Guiccioli I could not, if I would, speak ill; her conduct towards me has been faultless, and there are few examples of such complete and disinterested affection as she has shown me all through our attachment ".1

It is significant that Teresa was eager to affirm that Byron saw Lady Blessington only five or six times in two months, and that his feelings of friendship towards her were not of an ardent nature. That she deluded herself, or desired to delude posterity, in this respect, is evident from Byron's notes to the Blessingtons during their Genoese sojourn from them we gather that he saw the Earl and Countess nearly every day.

Before they left, the Greek adventure was almost decided on; but Lady Blessington thought it "extraordinary to see a man engage in a chivalrous . . . undertaking, for which his habits peculiarly unfit him, without any indication of enthusiasm ". She found his mockery on this subject disheartening: "the action loses all its charms ". He declared that as the moment approached for undertaking it, he almost wished he had never thought of it. "This", he said, "is one of the many scrapes into which my poetical temperament has led me. It appears now only fit for a travesty. Well, if I do . . . outlive the campaign, I shall write two poems on the subjectone an epic, and the other a burlesque in which none shall be spared, and myself least of all ".

...

The Blessingtons left Genoa on June 3. Byron was with them on the evening before their departure-in very low spirits. "I have a sort of boding that we see each other for the last time; something tells me I shall never return from Greece " He then leaned his head on the arm of the sofa where he and Lady Blessington were seated, and broke into uncontrollable tears. On his recovery he tried to turn off attention by some ironical remark, spoken with a sort of hysterical laugh, upon the effects of nervousness. He begged Lady Blessington to give him some trifle that she had worn, as a keepsake; she gave

1 Her disinterestedness is fully attested. When Byron went to Greece he gave his banker, Mr. Barry, orders to advance her money; but she never would consent to receive any. He had also intended to bequeath £10,000 to her, but she had dissuaded him from fulfilling this purpose. Moore, Hobhouse, and Barry all testify to her refusal of any settlement.

him one of her rings, and he took a pin from his breast containing a small cameo of Napoleon which he said he had worn for long, and presented it to her. But next morning she received a note saying that he was superstitious, and had recollected that memorials" with a point" are of evil augury. He therefore begged her to accept instead a chain which he enclosed, and which had been worn oftener and longer than the other.

CHAPTER XXVI

GREECE: THE END

The Greek Revolution-Greek Committee formed in London: Byron elected a member-Teresa Guiccioli-The departure Dr. Bruno-A letter from Goethe-The transit-Cephalonia-Illness-Byron's tacticsArrival of Stanhope-Disappointments-Dr. Kennedy-MissolonghiDespair-Last verses-A seizure-Hatadjé-Ada-Last words to TeresaHer subsequent history-Ambitions in Greece-Suicidal abstinenceTroubles increase-Last Days-The Confusion of Tongues-Incompetence of doctors-Fletcher, and the message to Lady Byron-Byron's deathFuneral honours-Trelawny's betrayal-Byron's body embarked for England-Hobhouse-Burial in the Abbey refused-The funeral-Hucknall Torkard, and the grave-Lady Byron's last word-Summing-up

N 1821, during the Italian insurrectionary movement, Byron had written in the Ravenna Journal: "It is a grand object -the very poetry of politics. Only think-a free Italy!" It would be almost true to say that from the time of the Carbonarist fiasco, Italy became distasteful to him. Not long after the movement had collapsed, his attention fixed itself on Greece, where a revolution had broken out at about the same time. One of its first stages ended with the defeat of Hypsilantes in Wallachia on June 19, 1821. In the Morea the insurgents were more successful, and soon the movement spread over the country south of Thermopyla and Actium. Military successes against the Turks were frequent; but political affairs fell into a state of anarchy. There was no real leader; all parties pursued their own interests alone. At the end of 1822 Odysseus (whom Byron called Ulysses) was undisputed master of Eastern Hellas; in the Peloponnesus, Kolokotronis was the star; in Western Hellas, Mavrocordato, long since foremost in fame but discredited by his political action during the war, was now regaining prestige by his defence of Missolonghi against the Turkish forces. The siege was raised on January 12, 1823; and the Senate of the National Assembly-constituted in January of the year before— elected Mavrocordato their President. But he, in fear of his life from Kolokotronis-the popular leader, "a brigand by lineage and profession, and a cattle-dealer by trade "-did not dare to take office. The Senate summoned him, threatened him, and

forced him to accept; he, too prudent in matters of personal safety, more of the ambitious statesman than of the soldier, eventually fled to Hydra. That was in August 1823, the time of Byron's arrival at Cephalonia; and thenceforth the state of parties in Greece grew ever more complicated. "Every corner of the peninsula was torn to pieces by obscure civil contests ".1

66

In January 1823 one Andreas Luriottis had arrived in England to plead the cause of the Greeks. A Greek Committee was formed, and was joined by many distinguished men, among whom were Sir J Mackintosh (whom Byron had known and greatly liked), Jeremy Bentham, and Hobhouse. At the first meeting, Edward Blaquiere, author of several books on Spain, offered to return with Luriottis to Greece and collect information. He saw Byron on the way at about the beginning of April, and Byron then learnt for the first time that in March he had been unanimously elected a member of the Committee, and that “his name was a tower of strength". This had been brought about by Trelawny, who had written to Blaquiere, mentioning Byron's interest in the cause. "The proposition", says the Cornishman, came at the right moment: the Pilgrim 2 was dissatisfied with himself and his position. Greece and its memories warmed him, a new career opened before him. His first impulses were always ardent, but if not acted on instantly, they cooled. . . . The negotiations with the Committee occupied some months before Byron, perplexed in the extreme, finally committed himself ". Trelawny was away at this time; but he heard from Captain Roberts and Mary Shelley of Byron's vacillations. "Well, Captain', said the Pilgrim, 'if we do not go to Greece, I am determined to go somewhere . . . as I am tired of this place, the shore, and all the people on it'". But already in May Mrs. Shelley had perceived the reason for these vacillations. "The G—— is an obstacle, and certainly her situation is rather a difficult one. But he does not seem disposed to make a mountain of her resistance, and he is far more able to take a decided than a petty step in contradiction to the wishes of those about him".

Jeaffreson points out that Byron could well have taken Teresa to the Ionian Islands (then under the protection of Eng

1 Gordon, History of the Greek Revolution, ii. 72.

• Byron was thus designated by the Shelley circle after the stanza in Adonais, where he is called the Pilgrim of Eternity".

• Captain Daniel Roberts, R.N., was a friend of Trelawny and Edward Williams. Byron had seen much of him during the Pisan sojourn, and Roberts had superintended the building of Shelley's Ariel and Byron's Bolivar.