Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824 -- Last years; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography
not contain his precious remains; the tomb will remain void; but a few
days more will his body remain on the face of our land--of his new
chosen country; it cannot be given over to our arms; it must be borne
to his own native land, which is honoured by his birth.
'Oh daughter! most dearly beloved by him, your arms will receive him;
your tears will bathe the tomb which shall contain his body; and the
tears of the orphans of Greece will be shed over the urn containing
his precious heart, and over all the land of Greece, for all the land
of Greece is his tomb. As in the last moments of his life you and
Greece were alone in his heart and upon his lips, it was but just that
she (Greece) should retain a share of the precious remains.
Missolonghi, his country, will ever watch over and protect with all
her strength the urn containing his venerated heart, as a symbol of
his love towards us. All Greece, clothed in mourning and inconsolable,
accompanies the procession in which it is borne; all ecclesiastical,
civil, and military honours attend it; all his fellow-citizens of
Missolonghi and fellow-countrymen of Greece follow it, crowning it
with their gratitude and bedewing it with their tears; it is blessed
by the pious benedictions and prayers of our Archbishop, Bishop, and
all our clergy. Learn, noble lady, learn that chieftains bore it on
their shoulders, and carried it to the church; thousands of Greek
soldiers lined the way through which it passed, with the muzzles of
their muskets, which had destroyed so many tyrants, pointed towards
the ground, as though they would war against that earth which was to
deprive them for ever of the sight of their benefactor;--all this
crowd of soldiers, ready at a moment to march against the implacable
enemy of Christ and man, surrounded the funeral couch, and swore never
to forget the sacrifices made by your father for us, and never to
allow the spot where his heart is placed to be trampled upon by
barbarous and tyrannical feet. Thousands of Christian voices were in a
moment heard, and the temple of the Almighty resounded with
supplications and prayers that his venerated remains might be safely
conveyed to his native land, and that his soul might repose where the
righteous alone find rest.'
* * * * *
'When the funeral service was over,' says Gamba, 'we left the bier in
the middle of the church, where it remained until the evening of the
next day, guarded by a detachment of his own brigade. The church was
crowded without cessation by those who came to honour and to regret
the benefactor of Greece.
'On the evening of the 23rd the bier was privately carried back by
Byron's officers to his own house. The coffin was not closed until the
29th April.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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