Such was Trelawny's opinion of Byron in April, 1824. From all that the present writer has been able to gather, both from Trelawny's lips and from his 'Recollections,' published thirty-four years after Byron's death, such was his real opinion to the last. Mrs. Julian Marshall, having called attention[24] to the fact that, four months after Byron's death, Trelawny, in a letter to Mary Shelley, spoke in contemptuous terms of Byron, we feel bound to refer to it here. It must be remembered that the letter in question was of a strictly private nature. In making it public, Mrs. Marshall _unintentionally_ dealt a severe blow at Trelawny, which, in justice to his memory, we will endeavour to soften. To anyone acquainted with the character of this remarkable man--the fearless soul of honour--such a _volte-face_ seems absurd, except on the hypothesis that something had transpired, since Byron's death, sufficient to destroy a long-tried friendship. The fact is that during those four months the whole situation had changed. Trelawny, no longer a free-lance, was practically a prisoner in a cave on Mount Parnassus. His friend Odysseus went about in daily fear of assassination, and was persecuted by the active hostility of a Government which both Odysseus and Trelawny thought was inspired by Mavrocordato. Trelawny's opinion of the latter, whose cause Byron had espoused, may be gathered from his letter to Mary Shelley: 'A word as to your wooden god Mavrocordato. He is a miserable Jew, and I hope ere long to see his head removed from his worthless and heartless body. He is a mere shuffling soldier, an aristocratic brute--wants Kings and Congresses--a poor, weak, shuffling, intriguing, cowardly fellow; so no more about him.' It will be seen that Trelawny, when fairly warmed up, did not mince his words. It is indeed a pity that these heated adjectives were served up to the public. It was only because Byron had consistently supported Mavrocordato as the Governor of Western Greece that Trelawny, in his indiscriminative manner, assailed his memory. But his letter was evidently only the peevish outburst of an angry man, and closed with these words: 'I would do much to see and talk to you, but, as I am now too much irritated to disclose the real state of things, I will not mislead you by false statements.' The state of things at the time may be gathered from a letter addressed to Colonel Stanhope by Captain Humphreys, who was then serving the Greek cause as a volunteer.