ation, to
my readers.

"We were interrupted in our debate by the entrance of a stranger,
whom, on the first glance, I guessed to be an Englishman, but lately
arrived at Constantinople. He wore a scarlet coat, richly embroidered
with gold, in the style of an English aide-de-camp's dress uniform,
with two heavy epaulettes. His countenance announced him to be about
the age of two-and-twenty. His features were remarkably delicate, and
would have given him a feminine appearance, but for the manly
expression of his fine blue eyes. On entering the inner shop, he took
off his feathered cocked-hat, and showed a head of curly auburn hair,
which improved in no small degree the uncommon beauty of his face. The
impression which his whole appearance made upon my mind was such, that
it has ever since remained deeply engraven on it; and although fifteen
years have since gone by, the lapse of time has not in the slightest
degree impaired the freshness of the recollection. He was attended by
a Janissary attached to the English embassy, and by a person who
professionally acted as a Cicerone to strangers. These circumstances,
together with a very visible lameness in one of his legs, convinced me
at once he was Lord Byron. I had already heard of his Lordship, and of
his late arrival in the Salsette frigate, which had come up from the
Smyrna station, to fetch away Mr. Adair, our ambassador to the Porte.
Lord Byron had been previously travelling in Epirus and Asia Minor,
with his friend Mr. Hobhouse, and had become a great amateur of
smoking: he was conducted to this shop for the purpose of purchasing a
few pipes. The indifferent Italian, in which language he spoke to his
Cicerone, and the latter's still more imperfect Turkish, made it
difficult for the shopkeeper to understand their wishes, and as this
seemed to vex the stranger, I addressed him in English, offering to
interpret for him. When his Lordship thus discovered me to be an
Englishman, he shook me cordially by the hand, and assured me, with
some warmth in his manner, that he always felt great pleasure when he
met with a countryman abroad. His purchase and my bargain being
completed, we walked out together, and rambled about the streets, in
several of which I had the pleasure of directing his attention to some
of the most remarkable curiosities in Constantinople. The peculiar
circumstances under which our acquaintance took place, established
between us, in one day, a certain degree