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
"Adolphe (the younger) commanded at Navarino for a short time; the
other, a more material person, 'the bold Bavarian in a luckless
hour,' seems chiefly to lament a fast of three days at Argos, and the
loss of twenty-five paras a day of pay in arrear, and some baggage at
Tripolitza; but takes his wounds, and marches, and battles in very
good part. Both are very simple, full of naivete, and quite
unpretending: they say the foreigners quarrelled among themselves,
particularly the French with the Germans, which produced duels.
"The Greeks accept muskets, but throw away _bayonets_, and will _not_
be disciplined. When these lads saw two Piedmontese regiments
yesterday, they said, 'Ah! if we had but _these_ two, we should have
cleared the Morea:' in that case the Piedmontese must have behaved
better than they did against the Austrians. They seem to lay great
stress upon a few regular troops--say that the Greeks have arms and
powder in plenty, but want victuals, hospital stores, and lint and
linen, &c. and money, very much. Altogether, it would be difficult to
show more practical philosophy than this remnant of our 'puir hill
folk' have done; they do not seem the least cast down, and their way
of presenting themselves was as simple and natural as could be. They
said, a Dane here had told them that an Englishman, friendly to the
Greek cause, was here, and that, as they were reduced to beg their
way home, they thought they might as well begin with me. I write in
haste to snatch the post.
"Believe me, and truly,
"Your obliged, &c.
"P.S. I have, since I wrote this, seen them again. Count P. Gamba
asked them to breakfast. One of them means to publish his Journal of
the campaign. The Bavarian wonders a little that the Greeks are not
quite the same with them of the time of Themistocles, (they were not
then very tractable, by the by,) and at the difficulty of
disciplining them; but he is a 'bon homme' and a tactician, and a
little like Dugald Dalgetty, who would insist upon the erection of 'a
sconce on the hill of Drumsnab,' or whatever it was;--the other seems
to wonder at nothing."
LETTER 522. TO LADY ----.
"May 17. 1823.
"My voyage to Greece will depend upon the Greek Committee (in
England) partly, and partly on the instructions which some persons
now in Greece on a private mission may be pleased to send me. I am a
member, lately elected, of the said Committee; and my object in going
up would be to do any little good in my power;--but as there are some
_pros_ and _cons_ on the subject, with regard to how far the
intervention of strangers may be advisable, I know no more than I
tell you; but we shall probably hear something soon from England and
Greece, which may be more decisive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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