Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824 -- Last years; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography
'Coming to Greece, one of my principal objects was to alleviate as
much as possible the miseries incident to a warfare so cruel as the
present. When the dictates of humanity are in question, I know no
difference between Turks and Greeks. It is enough that those who want
assistance are men, in order to claim the pity and protection of the
meanest pretender to humane feelings. I have found here twenty-four
Turks, including women and children, who have long pined in distress,
far from the means of support and the consolations of their home. The
Government has consigned them to me: I transmit them to Prevesa,
whither they desire to be sent. I hope you will not object to take
care that they may be restored to a place of safety, and that the
Governor of your town may accept of my present. The best recompense I
can hope for would be to find that I had inspired the Ottoman
commanders with the same sentiments towards those unhappy Greeks who
may hereafter fall into their hands.
'I beg you to believe me, etc.,
'NOEL BYRON.'
The details of this incident have hitherto passed almost unnoticed. The
whole story is full of pathos, and affords a view of Byron's real
character.
In June, 1821, when Missolonghi and Anatolico proclaimed themselves parts
of independent Greece, all Turkish residents were arrested. The males were
cruelly put to death, and their wives and families were handed over to the
Greek householders as slaves. The miseries these defenceless people
endured while Death stared them daily in the face are indescribable.
Millingen says:
'One day, as I entered the dispensary, I found the wife of one of the
Turkish inhabitants of Missolonghi who had fled to Patras. The poor
woman came to implore my pity, and begged me to allow her to take
shelter under my roof from the brutality and cruelty of the Greeks.
They had murdered all her relations, and two of her boys; and the
marks remained on the angle of the wall against which, a few weeks
previously, they had dashed the brains of the youngest, only five
years of age. A little girl, nine years old, remained to be the only
companion of her misery. Like a timid lamb, she stood by her mother,
naked and shivering, drawing closer and closer to her side. Her little
hands were folded like a suppliant's, and her large, beautiful
eyes--so accustomed to see acts of horror and cruelty--looked at me
now and then, hardly daring to implore pity. "Take us," said the
mother; "we will serve you and be your slaves; or you will be
responsible before God for whatever may happen to us."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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