ven years from this period, when some
sceptical traveller ventured to question, after all, the
practicability of Leander's exploit, Lord Byron, with that jealousy on
the subject of his own personal prowess which he retained from
boyhood, entered again, with fresh zeal, into the discussion, and
brought forward two or three other instances of his own feats in
swimming,[137] to corroborate the statement originally made by him.

In one of these letters to his mother from Constantinople, dated May
24th, after referring, as usual, to his notable exploit, "in humble
imitation of Leander, of amorous memory, though," he adds, "I had no
Hero to receive me on the other side of the Hellespont," he continues
thus:--

"When our ambassador takes his leave I shall accompany him to see the
sultan, and afterwards probably return to Greece. I have heard nothing
of Mr. Hanson but one remittance, without any letter from that legal
gentleman. If you have occasion for any pecuniary supply, pray use my
funds as far as they _go_ without reserve; and, lest this should not
be enough, in my next to Mr. Hanson I will direct him to advance any
sum you may want, leaving it to your discretion how much, in the
present state of my affairs, you may think proper to require. I have
already seen the most interesting parts of Turkey in Europe and Asia
Minor, but shall not proceed further till I hear from England: in the
mean time I shall expect occasional supplies, according to
circumstances; and shall pass my summer amongst my friends, the Greeks
of the Morea."

He then adds, with his usual kind solicitude about his favourite
servants:--

"Pray take care of my boy Robert, and the old man Murray. It is
fortunate they returned; neither the youth of the one, nor the age of
the other, would have suited the changes of climate, and fatigue of
travelling."

LETTER 44.

TO MR. HENRY DRURY.

"Constantinople, June 17. 1810.

"Though I wrote to you so recently, I break in upon you again to
congratulate you on a child being born, as a letter from Hodgson
apprizes me of that event, in which I rejoice.

"I am just come from an expedition through the Bosphorus to the Black
Sea and the Cyanean Symplegades, up which last I scrambled with as
great risk as ever the Argonauts escaped in their hoy. You remember
the beginning of the nurse's dole in the Medea, of which I beg you to
take the following translation, done on the summit:--

"Oh how I wish that an