[e] {4} _Written in an Album_.--[Editions 1812-1831.] _Written in Mrs. Spencer S.'s_----.--[MS. M. erased] _Written at the request of a lady in her memorandum book_.--[MS. B. M.] "_Mrs. S. S.'s request_."--[Erased. MS. B.M.] [4] [The possessor of the album was, doubtless, Mrs. Spencer Smith, the "Lady" of the lines _To Florence_, "the sweet Florence" of the _Stanzas composed during a Thunderstorm_, and of the _Stanzas written in passing through the Ambracian Gulf_, and, finally, when "The Spell is broke, the Charm is flown," the "fair Florence" of stanzas xxxii., xxxiii. of the Second Canto of _Childe Harold_. In a letter to his mother, dated September 15, 1809, Byron writes, "This letter is committed to the charge of a very extraordinary woman, whom you have doubtless heard of, Mrs. Spencer Smith, of whose escape the Marquis de Salvo published a narrative a few years ago (_Travels in the Year 1806, from Italy to England through the Tyrol, etc., containing the particulars of the liberation of Mrs. Spencer Smith from the hands of the French Police_, London: 12mo, 1807). She has since been shipwrecked, and her life has been from its commencement so fertile in remarkable incidents, that in a romance they would appear improbable. She was born at Constantinople [_circ._ 1785], where her father, Baron Herbert, was Austrian Ambassador; married unhappily, yet has never been impeached in point of character; excited the vengeance of Buonaparte by a part in some conspiracy; several times risked her life; and is not yet twenty-five." John Spencer Smith, the "Lady's" husband, was a younger brother of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, the hero of the siege of Acre. He began life as a Page of Honour to Queen Charlotte, was, afterwards, attached to the Turkish Embassy, and (May 4, 1798) appointed Minister Plenipotentiary. On January 5, 1799, he concluded the treaty of defensive alliance with the Porte; and, October 30, 1799, obtained the freedom of the Black Sea for the English flag (see _Remains of the late John Tweddell_. London: 1815. See, too, for Mrs. Spencer Smith, _Letters_, 1898, i. 244, 245, note 1).] [f] {5} _To_----.--[Editions 1812-1832.] [g] {6} _Through giant Danger's rugged path_.--[MS. M.] [h] {7} _Stanzas_--[1812.] [5] Composed Oct^r. 11, 1809, during the night in a thunderstorm, when the guides had lost the road to Zitza, near the range of mountains formerly called Pindus, in Albania. [Editions 1812-1831.]