“We came from Padua hither in a gondola; and the Gondoliere, among other things, without any hint on our part, began talking of Lord Byron. He said he was a ‘Giovanotto Inglese,’ with a ‘nome stravagante,’ who lived very luxuriously, and spent great sums of money. * * *
“At three o’clock I called on Lord Byron. He was delighted to see me, and our first conversation of course consisted in the object of our visit. * * *. He took me in his gondola, across the Laguna, to a long, strandy sand, which defends Venice from the Adriatic. When we disembarked, we found his horses waiting for us, and we rode along the sands, talking. Our conversation consisted in histories of his own wounded feelings, and questions as to my affairs, with great professions of friendship and regard for me. He said that if he had been in England, at the time of the Chancery affair, he would have moved heaven and earth to have prevented such a decision. He talked of literary matters,—his Fourth Canto, which he says is very good, and indeed repeated some stanzas, of great energy, to me. When we returned to his palace, which is one of the most magnificent in Venice, &c. &c.”
