a most superb uniform as a court-dress, indispensable
in travelling." His plan of visiting Africa was, however,
relinquished. After a short stay at Gibraltar, during which he dined
one day with Lady Westmoreland, and another with General Castanos, he,
on the 19th of August, took his departure for Malta, in the packet,
having first sent Joe Murray and young Rushton back to England,--the
latter being unable, from ill health, to accompany him any further.
"Pray," he says to his mother, "show the lad every kindness, as he is
my great favourite."[124]

He also wrote a letter to the father of the boy, which gives so
favourable an impression of his thoughtfulness and kindliness that I
have much pleasure in being enabled to introduce it here.

LETTER 39.

TO MR. RUSHTON.

"Gibraltar, August 15. 1809.

"Mr. Rushton,

"I have sent Robert home with Mr. Murray, because the country which I
am about to travel through is in a state which renders it unsafe,
particularly for one so young. I allow you to deduct five-and-twenty
pounds a year for his education for three years, provided I do not
return before that time, and I desire he may be considered as in my
service. Let every care be taken of him, and let him be sent to
school. In case of my death I have provided enough in my will to
render him independent. He has behaved extremely well, and has
travelled a great deal for the time of his absence. Deduct the expense
of his education from your rent.

"BYRON."

It was the fate of Lord Byron, throughout life, to meet, wherever he
went, with persons who, by some tinge of the extraordinary in their
own fates or characters, were prepared to enter, at once, into full
sympathy with his; and to this attraction, by which he drew towards
him all strange and eccentric spirits, he owed some of the most
agreeable connections of his life, as well as some of the most
troublesome. Of the former description was an intimacy which he now
cultivated during his short sojourn at Malta. The lady with whom he
formed this acquaintance was the same addressed by him under the name
of "Florence" in Childe Harold; and in a letter to his mother from
Malta, he thus describes her in prose:--"This letter is committed to
the charge of a very extraordinary woman, whom you have doubtless
heard of, Mrs. S---- S----, of whose escape the Marquis de Salvo
published a narrative a few years ago. She has since been shipwrecked,
and her life has been from its co