[144] [By "Suli's rocks" Byron means the mountainous district in the south of the Epirus. The district of Suli formed itself into a small republic at the close of the last century, and offered a formidable resistance to Ali Pacha. "Pindus' inland peak," Monte Metsovo, which forms part of the ridge which divides Epirus from Thessaly, is not visible from the sea-coast.] [145] {127} ["Shore unknown." (See Byron's note to stanza xxxviii. line 5.)] [ey] {128} ----_lovely harmful thing_.--[MS. pencil.] [146] [Compare Byron's _Stanzas written on passing the Ambracian Gulph_.] [147] [Nicopolis, "the city of victory," which Augustus, "the second Cæsar," built to commemorate Actium, is some five miles to the north of Prevesa. Byron and Hobhouse visited the ruins on the 30th of September, and again on the 12th of November (see Byron's letter to Mrs. Byron. November 12, 1809: _Letters_, 1898, i. 251).] [ez] _Imperial wretches, doubling human woes!_ _God!--was thy globe ere made_----.--[MS. erased.] [148] {129} [The travellers left Prevesa on October 1, and arrived at Janina on October 5. They left Janina on October 11, and reached Zitza at nightfall (Byron at 3 a.m., October 12). They left Zitza on October 13, and arrived at Tepeleni on October 19.] [149] [On the evening of October 11, as the party was approaching Zitza, Hobhouse and the Albanian, Vasilly, rode on, leaving "Lord Byron and the baggage behind." It was getting dark, and just as the luckier Hobhouse contrived to make his way to the village, the rain began to fall in torrents. Before long, "the thunder roared as it seemed without any intermission; for the echoes of one peal had not ceased to roll in the mountains before another crash burst over our heads." Byron, dragoman, and baggage were not three miles from Zitza when the storm began, and they lost their way. After many wanderings and adventures they were finally conducted by ten men with pine torches to the hut; but by that time it was three o'clock in the morning. Hence the "Stanzas composed during a Thunderstorm."--Hobhouse's _Travels in Albania_, i. 69-71.] [150] {130} ["The prior of the monastery, a humble, meek-mannered man, entertained us in a warm chamber with grapes and a pleasant white wine ...We were so well pleased with everything about us that we agreed to lodge with him."--Hobhouse's _Travels in Albania_, i. 73.] [fa] _Here winds, if winds there be, will fan his breast_.--[MS. D. erased.] [fb] _Keep Heaven for better souls, my shade shall seek for none_.--[MS. erased.] [fc] {132} _But frequent is the lamb, the kid, the goat_-- _And watching pensive with his browsing flock_.--[MS. erased.] [fd] _Counting the hours beneath yon skies unerring shock_.--[MS. erased.]