[32] [Compare Campbell's _Gertrude of Wyoming_, ii. 8. 1--"Yet deem not Gertrude sighed for foreign joy."] [af] {24} _His house, his home, his vassals, and his lands_.--[MS. D.] [ag] _The Dalilahs_----.--[MS. D.] _His damsels all_----.--[MS. erased.] [ah] ----_where brighter sunbeams shine_.--[MS. erased.] [33] "Your objection to the expression 'central line' I can only meet by saying that, before Childe Harold left England, it was his full intention to traverse Persia, and return by India, which he could not have done without passing the equinoctial" (letter to Dallas, September 7, 1811; see, too, letter to his mother, October 7, 1808: _Letters_, 1898, i. 193; ii. 27). [ai] _The sails are filled_----.--[MS.] [34] He experienced no such emotion on the resumption of his Pilgrimage in 1816. With reference to the confession, he writes (Canto III. stanza i. lines 6-9)-- "... I depart, Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by, When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye." [35] {25} [See Lord Maxwell's "Good Night" in Scott's _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_ (_Poetical Works_, ii. 141, ed. 1834): "Adieu, madam, my mother dear," etc. [MS.]. Compare, too, Armstrong's "Good Night" _ibid._-- "This night is my departing night, For here nae langer mun I stay; There's neither friend nor foe of mine, But wishes me away. What I have done thro' lack of will, I never, never can recall; I hope ye're a' my friends as yet. Good night, and joy be with you all."] [36] {26} [Robert Rushton, the son of one of the Newstead tenants. "Robert I take with me; I like him, because, like myself, he seems a friendless animal. Tell Mr. Rushton his son is well, and doing well" (letter to Mrs. Byron, Falmouth, June 22, 1809: _Letters_, 1898, i. 224).] [aj] {27} _Our best gos-hawk can hardly fly_ _So merrily along_.--[MS.] _Our best greyhound can hardly fly_.--[D. erased.] [ak] Here follows in the MS. the following erased stanza:-- _My mother is a high-born dame_, _And much misliketh me;_ _She saith my riot bringeth shame_ _On all my ancestry_. _I had a sister once I ween_, _Whose tears perhaps will flow;_ _But her fair face I have not seen_ _For three long years and moe._ [al] _Oh master dear I do not cry_ _From fear of wave or wind_.--[MS.] [37] [Robert was sent back from Gibraltar under the care of Joe Murray (see letter to Mr. Rushton, August 15, 1809: _Letters_, 1898, i. 242).] [38] {28} [William Fletcher, Byron's valet. He was anything but "staunch" in the sense of the song (see Byron's letters of November 12, 1809, and June 28, 1810) (_Letters_, 1898, i. 246, 279); but for twenty years he remained a loyal and faithful servant, helped to nurse his master in his last illness, and brought his remains back to England.]