Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6: With His Letters and JournalsMoore, Thomas
General
Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6: With His Letters and Journals
Moore, Thomas
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography
[Footnote 1: "Lord Byron declared that, as far as he was concerned,
no barbarous usages, however adopted even by some civilised people,
should be introduced into Greece; especially as such a mode of
punishment would disgust rather than reform. We hit upon an expedient
which favoured our military discipline: but it required not only all
Lord Byron's eloquence, but his authority, to prevail upon our
Germans to accede to it. The culprit had his uniform stripped off his
back, in presence of his comrades, and was afterwards marched through
the town with a label on his back, describing, both in Greek and
Italian, the nature of his offence; after which he was given up to
the regular police. This example of severity, tempered by a humane
spirit, produced the best effect upon our soldiers, as well as upon
the citizens of the town. But it was very near causing a most
disagreeable circumstance; for, in the course of the evening, some
very high words passed on the subject between three Englishmen, two
of them officers of our brigade, in consequence of which cards were
exchanged, and two duels were to have been fought the next morning.
Lord Byron did not hear of this till late at night: but he
immediately ordered me to arrest both parties, which I according did;
and, after some difficulty, prevailed on them to shake hands."--COUNT
GAMBA'S _Narrative_.]
"I wish something was heard of the arrival of part of the Loan, for
there is a plentiful dearth of every thing at present."
LETTER 560. TO MR. BARFF.
"April 6.
"Since I wrote, we have had some tumult here with the citizens and
Cariascachi's people, and all are under arms, our boys and all. They
nearly fired on me and fifty of my lads[1], by mistake, as we were
taking our usual excursion into the country. To-day matters are
settled or subsiding; but, about an hour ago, the father-in-law of
the landlord of the house where I am lodged (one of the Primates the
said landlord is) was arrested for high treason.
[Footnote 1: A corps of fifty Suliotes which he had, almost ever
since his arrival at Missolonghi, kept about him as a body-guard. A
large outer room of his house was appropriated to these troops; and
their carbines were suspended along the walls. "In this room (says
Mr. Parry), and among these rude soldiers, Lord Byron was accustomed
to walk a great deal, particularly in wet weather, accompanied by his
favourite dog, Lion."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account