The Life of Lord Byron
Chapter XLIV
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CHAPTER XLIV.
Voyage To Cephalonia.—Letter.—Count Gamba’s
address.—Grateful feelings of the Turks.—Endeavours of Lord
Byron to mitigate the horrors of the war.
Lord Byron, after leaving
Argostoli, on the 29th December, 1823, the port of Cephalonia, sailed for Zante, where he took
on board a quantity of specie. Although the distance from Zante to Missolonghi is but a few
hours’ sail, the voyage was yet not without adventures. Missolonghi, as I have already
mentioned, was then blockaded by the Turks, and some address was necessary, on that account, to
effect an entrance, independent of the difficulties, at all times, of navigating the canals
which intersect the shallows. In the following letter to Colonel
Stanhope, his Lordship gives an account of what took place. It is very
characteristic; I shall therefore quote it.
“Scrofer, or some such name, on board a
Cephaloniate Mistice, Dec. 31, 1823.
“My Dear Stanhope,
“We are just arrived here—that is, part of my
people and I, with some things, &c., and which it may be as well not to specify
in a letter (which has a risk of being intercepted, perhaps); but Gamba and my horses, negro, steward, and the
press, and all the committee things, also some eight thousand dollars of mine (but
never mind, we have more left—do ![]()
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you understand?) are
taken by the Turkish frigates; and my party and myself in another boat, have had a
narrow escape, last night (being close under their stern, and hailed, but we would
not answer, and bore away) as well as this morning. Here we are, with sun and
charming weather, within a pretty little port enough; but whether our Turkish
friends may not send in their boats, and take us out (for we have no arms, except
two carbines and some pistols, and, I suspect, not more than four fighting people
on board), is another question; especially if we remain long here, since we are
blocked out of Missolonghi by the direct entrance. You had better send my friend
George Drake, and a body of Suliotes, to
escort us by land or by the canals, with all convenient speed.
Gamba and our Bombard are taken into Patras, I suppose,
and we must take a turn at the Turks to get them out. But where the devil is the
fleet gone? the Greek, I mean—leaving us to get in without the least
intimation to take heed that the Moslems were out again. Make my respects to
Mavrocordato, and say that I am here at
his disposal. I am uneasy at being here. We are very well.—Yours, &c.
“P.S. The Bombard was twelve
miles out when taken; at least, so it appeared to us (if taken she actually be,
for it is not certain), and we had to escape from another vessel that stood
right in between us and the port.”
Colonel Stanhope on receiving this despatch, which was
carried to him by two of Lord Byron’s servants, sent
two armed boats, and a company of Suliotes, to escort his Lordship to Missolonghi, where he
arrived on the 5th of January, and was received with military honours, and the most
enthusiastic demonstrations of popular joy. No mark of respect which the Greeks ![]()
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could think of was omitted. The ships fired a salute as he passed.
Prince Mavrocordato, and all the authorities, with
the troops and the population, met him on his landing, and accompanied him to the house which
had been prepared for him, amid the shouts of the multitude and the discharge of cannon.
In the mean time, Count Gamba and his
companions being taken before Yusuff Pashaw at Patras,
expected to share the fate of certain unfortunate prisoners whom that stern chief had
sacrificed the preceding year at Prevesa; and their fears would probably have been realised but
for the intrepid presence of mind displayed by the Count, who, assuming a haughty style,
accused the Ottoman captain of the frigate of a breach of neutrality, in detaining a vessel
under English colours, and concluded by telling the Pashaw that he might expect the vengeance
of the British Government in thus interrupting a nobleman who was merely on his travels, and
bound to Calamata. Perhaps, however, another circumstance had quite as much influence with the
Pashaw as this bravery. In the master of the vessel he recognised a person who had saved his
life in the Black Sea fifteen years before, and in consequence not only consented to the
vessel’s release, but treated the whole of the passengers with the utmost attention, and
even urged them to take a day’s shooting in the neighbourhood.*
* To the honour of the Turks, grateful recollections of this kind are
not rare among them: I experienced a remarkable example of it myself. Having entered Widin
when it was besieged by the Russians, in the winter of 1810—11, I was closely
questioned as to the motives of my visit, by Hassan Pashaw, the
successor of the celebrated Paswan Oglou, then governor of the
fortress. I explained to him, frankly, the motives of my visit, but he required that I
should deliver my letters and papers to be examined. This I refused to do, unless he had a
person who could read English, and understand it when spoken. In the mean time my Tartar,
the better to prove our innocence of all sinister purposes, turned out the contents of his
saddle-bags, and behold, among several letters and parcels was a packet for
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The first measure which his Lordship attempted after his arrival, was to
mitigate the ferocity with which the war was carried on; one of the objects, as he explained to
my friend who visited him at Genoa, which induced him to embark in the cause. And it happened
that the very day he reached the town was signalised by his rescuing a Turk who had fallen into
the hands of some Greek sailors. This man was clothed by his Lordship’s orders, and sent
over to Patras; and soon after Count Gamba’s
release, hearing that four other Turks were prisoners in Missolonghi, he requested that they
might be placed in his hands, which was immediately granted. These he also sent to Patras, with
a letter, of which a copy is
Prince Italinski, from the French minister at Constantinople. This
I of course instantly ordered to be delivered to the pashaw. In the evening, an old
Turk who had been present during the proceedings, and at the subsequent consultations
as to what should be done with me, called, and advised me to leave the town; telling me
at the same time, that when he was a boy he had been taken prisoner by the Hungarians
at Belgrade, and had been so kindly treated, that after being sent home he had never
ceased to long for an opportunity of repaying that kindness to some other Frank, and
that he thought my case afforded an opportunity. He concluded by offering me the use of
twenty thousand piastres, about a thousand pounds sterling, to take me across the
continent to England. I was then on my way to Orsova, to meet a gentleman from Vienna,
but being informed that he would not be there, I resolved to return to Constantinople,
and accordingly accepted from the Turk so much money as would serve for the expenses of
the journey, giving him an order for repayment on an agent whose name he had never
heard of, nor any one probably in the town. The whole adventure was curious, and ought
to be mentioned, as affording a favourable view of Ottoman magnanimity.
The pashaw was so well pleased with the manner in which I had acted
in the affair of the despatches, that he sent me notice in the morning that horses and
a guard were at my command so long as I chose to remain in the fortress, and that he
had forwarded the packet unbroken to the Russian commander; he even permitted me, in
the course of the afternoon, to visit the Russian encampment on the other side of the
Danube, which I accordingly did, and returned across the river in the evening.
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in the Appendix, addressed to Yusuff, expressing his hope that the prisoners thenceforward taken on both
sides would be treated with humanity. This act was followed by another equally praiseworthy. A
Greek cruiser having captured a Turkish boat, in which there was a number of passengers,
chiefly women and children, they were also placed at the disposal of his Lordship, at his
particular request. Captain Parry has given a
description of the scene between Lord Byron, and that
multitude of mothers and children, too interesting to be omitted here. “I was summoned
to attend him, and receive his orders that everything should be done which might contribute
to their comfort. He was seated on a cushion at the upper end of the room, the women and
children were standing before him with their eyes fixed steadily on him; and on his right
hand was his interpreter, who was extracting from the women a narrative of their
sufferings. One of them, apparently about thirty years of age, possessing great vivacity,
and whose manners and dress, though she was then dirty and disfigured, indicated that she
was superior in rank and condition to her companions, was spokeswoman for the whole. I
admired the good order the others preserved, never interfering with the explanation, or
interrupting the single speaker. I also admired the rapid manner in which the interpreter
explained everything they said, so as to make it almost appear that there was but one
speaker. After a short time it was evident that what Lord Byron was
hearing affected his feelings; his countenance changed, his colour went and came, and I
thought he was ready to weep. But he had, on all occasions, a ready and peculiar knack in
turning conversation from any disagreeable or unpleasant subject; and he had recourse to
this expedient. He rose up suddenly, and, turning round on his heel as was his wont, he
said something to his interpreter, who immediately repeated it to the women. ![]()
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All eyes were immediately fixed on me; and one of the party, a young
and beautiful woman, spoke very warmly. Lord Byron seemed satisfied,
and said they might retire. The women all slipped off their shoes in an instant, and, going
up to his Lordship, each in succession, accompanied by their children, kissed his hand
fervently, invoked, in the Turkish manner, a blessing, both on his hand and heart, and then
quitted the room. This was too much for Lord Byron, and he turned his
face away to conceal his emotion”
A vessel was then hired, and the whole of them, to the number of twenty-four,
were sent to Prevesa, provided with every requisite for their comfort during the passage. These
instances of humanity excited a sympathy among the Turks. The Governor of Prevesa thanked his
Lordship, and assured him that he would take care that equal attention should be in future paid
to the Greeks, who might fall into his hands.
Leigh Hunt,
Lord Byron and Some of his Contemporaries (London: Henry Colburn, 1828)
An article was
written in “The Westminster
Review” (Medwin says
by Mr. Hobhouse) to show that the Conversations were altogether unworthy of
credit. There are doubtless many inaccuracies in the latter; but the spirit remains
undoubted; and the author of the criticism was only vexed, that such was the fact. He
assumes, that Lord Byron could not have made this or that statement to
Captain Medwin, because the statement was erroneous or untrue; but
an anonymous author has no right to be believed in preference to one who speaks in his own
name: there is nothing to show that Mr. Hobhouse might not have been
as mistaken about a date or an epigram as Mr. Medwin; and when we find
him giving us his own version of a fact, and Mr. Medwin asserting that
Lord Byron gave him another, the only impression left upon the
mind of any body who knew his Lordship is, that the fault most probably lay in the loose
corners of the noble Poet’s vivacity. Such is the impression made upon the author of
an unpublished Letter to Mr.
Hobhouse, which has been shown me in print; and he had a right to it. The
reviewer, to my knowledge, is mistaken upon some points, as well as the person he reviews.
The assumption, that nobody can know any thing about Lord Byron but
two or three persons who were conversant with him for a certain space of time, and whom he
spoke of with as little ceremony, and would hardly treat with more confidence than he did a
hundred others, is ludicrous; and can only end, as the criticism has done, in doing no good
either to him or them. . . .
John Galt,
“Pot versus Kettle” in Fraser’s Magazine
Vol. 2
No. 11 (December 1830)
“Dear Sir;—Amongst the
agreeable things which you say of me in your life of Lord Byron, you conjecture that I
‘condemned’
Childe Harold
previously to its publication. There is not the slightest foundation for this
supposition—nor is it true as you state, ‘that I was the only person
who had seen the poem in manuscript, as I was with Lord
Byron whilst he was writing it.’ I had left
Lord Byron before he had finished the two cantos, and,
excepting a few fragments, I had never seen them until they were printed. My own
persuasion is, that the story told in Dallas’s Recollections of some
person, name unknown, having dissuaded Lord Byron from
publishing Childe Harold, is a
mere fabrication, for it is at complete variance with all Lord
Byron himself told me on the subject. At any rate, I was not that
person; if I had been, it is not very likely that the poem which I had endeavoured
to stifle in its birth, should, in its complete, or, as Lord
Byron says, in its ‘concluded state,’ be dedicated to
me. I must, therefore, request you will take the earliest opportunity of relieving
me from this imputation, which, so far as a man can be written down by any other
author than himself, cannot fail to produce a very prejudicial effect, and to give
me more uneasiness than I think it can be your wish to inflict on any man who has
never given you provocation or excuse for injustice. . . .
John Galt,
“Pot versus Kettle” in Fraser’s Magazine
Vol. 2
No. 11 (December 1830)
I am glad to find my college
stories administered relief to your nerves, when we were together in the Malta
packet some one and twenty years ago; and I am not sorry that my wearing a red
coat at Cagliari, and cutting my finger in the quarries of Pentelicus, should
have furnished materials for your present volume; but to repay me for having
supplied these timely episodes, as well as for your copious extracts from my
travels in Albania, and also for inserting my note about Madame Guiccioli without my leave, you must
positively cancel the passage respecting Childe Harold
in page 161 of your little volume. . . .
John Galt,
“Pot versus Kettle” in Fraser’s Magazine
Vol. 2
No. 11 (December 1830)
I wonder that even common policy did not induce you to be
more cautious in making statements which might be so easily disproved, and
which have, indeed, been already incontrovertibly refuted. The very
conversation, which you have judiciously selected from Medwin, as one of those parts of his trumpery book to the truth of which you
can speak, I know to be a lie; for I never went the tour of the lake of Geneva
with Lord Byron. . . .
John Galt,
“Pot versus Kettle” in Fraser’s Magazine
Vol. 2
No. 11 (December 1830)
You tell me that your wish has
been to give only an outline of his intellectual character. I am at a loss to
understand how your gossip about him and me, and the silly anecdotes you have
copied from very discreditable authorities, can be said to be fairly comprised
in such an outline. But your plan ought certainly to have compelled you to make
yourself thoroughly acquainted with his poetry, and to quote him just as he
wrote. Nevertheless, you have misrepresented him at least nine times in the ten
stanzas of that poem which you call the last, and which was not the last, he
ever wrote. Oh, for shame! stick to your acknowledged fictions—there you
are safe—you may deal with Leddy
Grippy and Laurie Todd as
you please, but not with those who have really lived, or who are still
alive. . . .
[John Wilson et. al.],
“Noctes Ambrosianae XVII” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 16
No. 94 (November 1824)
And there was another funny thing o’ his, till a queer looking lad, one
Mr. Skeffington, that wrote a tragedy, that was called
“The Mysterious Bride,” the whilk
thing made the Times newspaper for once witty—for it
said no more o’t, than just “Last night a play called The Mysterious
Bride, by the Honorable Mr. Skeffington, was performed at Drury Lane.
The piece was damned.” Weel, ye see it happened that there was a masquerade some nights after,
and Mr. Cam Hobhouse gaed till’t in the disguise
o’ a Spanish nun, that had been ravished by the French army— . . .
Pietro Gamba (1801-1827)
The brother of Teresa Guiccioli and member of Carbonieri. He followed Byron to Greece and
left a memoir of his experiences.
Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos [Αλεξανδρος Μαβροκορδατος] (1791-1865)
Greek statesman and diplomat with Byron at Missolonghi; after study at the University of
Padua he joined the Greek Revolution in 1821 and in 1822 was elected by the National
Assembly at Epidaurus. He commanded forces in western Central Greece and retired in 1826
after the Fall of Messolonghi.
William Parry (1773-1859)
Military engineer at Missolonghi; he was author of
The Last Days of
Lord Byron (1825).
Leicester Fitzgerald Charles Stanhope, fifth earl of Harrington (1784-1862)
The third son of the third earl; in 1823 he traveled to Greece as the Commissioner of the
London Greek Committee; there he served with Byron, whom he criticizes in
Greece in 1823 and 1824 (1824). He inherited the earldom from his brother in
1851.
Yusuf Pasha (1824 fl.)
The Turkish commander at Patras during the Greek War of Independence.
