[The story of the cage is said to be a fable. After the battle of Angora, July 20, 1402, Bajazet, whose escape from prison had been planned by one of his sons, was chained during the night, and placed in a kafes (_kàfess_), a Turkish word, which signifies either a cage or a grated room or bed. Hence the legend.--_Hist. de l'Empire Othoman_, par J. von Hammer-Purgstall, 1836, ii. 97.] [it] _There Timour in his captive cage_.--[First Proof.] [258] [Presumably another instance of "careless and negligent ease."] [259] ["Have you heard that Bertrand has returned to Paris with the account of Napoleon's having lost his senses? It is a _report_; but, if true, I must, like Mr. Fitzgerald and Jeremiah (of lamentable memory), lay claim to prophecy."--Letter to Murray, June 14, 1814, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 95.] [260] Prometheus. [iu] _He suffered for kind acts to men_ _Who have not seen his like again,_ _At least of kingly stock_ _Since he was good, and thou but great_ _Thou canst not quarrel with thy fate_.--[First Proof, stanza x.] [261] {313} "O! 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock, To lip a wanton in a secure couch, And to suppose her chaste!" _Othello_, act iv. sc. 1, lines 69-71. [We believe there is no doubt of the truth of the anecdote here alluded to--of Napoleon's having found leisure for an unworthy amour, the very evening of his arrival at Fontainebleau.--_Note to Edition_ 1832. A consultation of numerous lives and memoirs of Napoleon has not revealed the particulars of this "unworthy amour." It is possible that Murray may have discovered the source of Byron's allusion among the papers "in the possession of one of Napoleon's generals, a friend of Miss Waldie," which were offered him "for purchase and publication," in 1815.--See _Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 279.] [iv] _And--were he mortal had as proudly died,_--[Alteration in First Proof.] [262] [Of Prometheus-- "Unlike the offence, though like would be the fate-- _His_ to give life, but _thine_ to desolate; _He_ stole from Heaven the flame for which he fell, Whilst _thine_ be stolen from thy native Hell." --Attached to Proof v., April 25.] [iw] _While earth was Gallia's, Gallia thine_.--[MS.] [ix] {314} _Where is that tattered_----.--[MS.] [iy] ----_the laurel-circled crest_.--[MS.]