The ship stopped at Cagliari in Sardinia, and again at Girgenti on the Sicilian coast. Arriving at Malta, they halted there for three weeks--time enough to establish a sentimental, though Platonic, flirtation with Mrs. Spencer Smith, wife of our minister at Constantinople, sister-in-law of the famous admiral, and the heroine of some exciting adventures. She is the "Florence" of _Childe Harold_, and is afterwards addressed in some of the most graceful verses of his cavalier minstrelsy-- Do thou, amidst the fair white walls, If Cadiz yet be free, At times from out her latticed halls Look o'er the dark blue sea-- Then think upon Calypso's isles, Endear'd by days gone by,-- To others give a thousand smiles, To me a single sigh. The only other adventure of the visit is Byron's quarrel with an officer, on some unrecorded ground, which Hobhouse tells us nearly resulted in a duel. The friends left Malta on September 29th, in the war-ship "Spider," and after anchoring off Patras, and spending a few hours on shore, they skirted the coast of Acarnania, in view of localities--as Ithaca, the Leucadian rock, and Actium--whose classic memories filtered through the poet's mind and found a place in his masterpieces. Landing at Previsa, they started on a tour through Albania,-- O'er many a mount sublime, Through lands scarce noticed in historic tales. Byron was deeply impressed by the beauty of the scenery, and the half-savage independence of the people, described as "always strutting about with slow dignity, though in rags." In October we find him with his companions at Janina, hospitably entertained by order of Ali Pasha, the famous Albanian Turk, bandit, and despot, then besieging Ibrahim at Berat in Illyria. They proceeded on their way by "bleak Pindus," Acherusia's lake, and Zitza, with its monastery door battered by robbers. Before reaching the latter place, they encountered a terrific thunderstorm, in the midst of which they separated, and Byron's detachment lost its way for nine hours, during which he composed the verses to Florence, quoted above.