My Memoirs, Vol. III, 1826 to 1830Dumas, Alexandre
General
My Memoirs, Vol. III, 1826 to 1830
Dumas, Alexandre
Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870
On 5 July, the body of the noble lord reached London from Missolonghi.
It lay in a perforated shell steeped in a cask of spirits of wine.
When the body was taken ashore from the _Florida_, in which it had
been conveyed, the captain was going to throw this liquid overboard;
but now that Lord Byron was dead, even his own countrymen became his
worshippers, and these admirers begged the captain for the spirits
of wine in which Lord Byron's body had been preserved, offering a
louis a pint for it. The captain accepted the offer, and the sum thus
received was at the same rate per pint as, so it was said, the poet
had received per line. Two days after the arrival of the body, a
post-mortem examination was made, and the doctors, who really ought
to be able to find out a few things, discovered that Lord Byron had
died because he had refused to be bled. His body was laid in state,
but only those who had special tickets given them by his executor
were admitted; yet, in spite of this precaution, the crowd was so
great it was necessary to call in the aid of an armed force to keep
order. The spirits of wine had preserved the flesh well enough for
the poet to be still recognisable: his hands, especially, had kept
almost life-like in their beauty--those hands of which the eccentric
nobleman had taken such good care that, even when swimming, he had worn
gloves! His beautiful hair, of which he had been very proud, had become
nearly grey, although he was but thirty-seven. Each white hair in the
poet's head could tell a tale of sorrow. Such had been the public
excitement over Byron, that the question at once arose of burying him
in Westminster Abbey; but his friends were afraid the authorities might
refuse the request, and the family declared that his body should be
buried in the vault at Newstead Abbey, where his ancestors lay. Even
his death raised the clamour of tongues that pursued him through life.
On the 12th, an immense crowd collected from break of day along the
route the cortège was to take. Colonel Leigh, Byron's brother-in-law,
was chief mourner; and in the six coaches that followed were the most
famous Opposition Members of Parliament--Hobhouse, Douglas Kinnaird,
Sir Francis Burdett, and O'Meara, surgeon to the emperor. Then, in
their own private carriages, followed the Duke of Sussex, brother of
the king, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl Grey, Lord Holland, etc.
Two Greek deputies closed the procession. When it reached Hampstead
Road, the pace was quickened; it was planned to spend the night
at Welwyn, and to set out early the next day, Tuesday, to reach
Higham-Ferrers that evening; on Wednesday it was to reach Oakham; on
Thursday, Nottingham; and Newstead Abbey on Friday. The arrangement was
punctually carried out, and on Friday, 17 August, the body was laid in
the burying-place of his ancestors. Byron, who had been exiled by his
wife, hunted down by his own family and repulsed by his contemporaries,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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