expect
to find them here. Yet here comes one of them with golden cups and
coffee, and another with a book. The book is a register of names....
Among these is Lord Byron's connected with some lines which I shall send
you: 'Fair Albion,' etc." (See _Travels in Italy, Greece, etc._, by H. W.
Williams, ii. 290, 291; _Life_, p. 101.)]

[n] _Song_.--[1812.]

[10] [The Maid of Athens was, it is supposed, the eldest of three
sisters, daughters of Theodora Macri, the widow of a former English
vice-consul. Byron and Hobhouse lodged at her house. The sisters were
sought out and described by the artist, Hugh W. Williams, who visited
Athens in May, 1817: "Theresa, the Maid of Athens, Catinco, and Mariana,
are of middle stature.... The two eldest have black, or dark hair and
eyes; their visage oval, and complexion somewhat pale, with teeth of
pearly whiteness. Their cheeks are rounded, their noses straight, rather
inclined to aquiline. The youngest, Mariana, is very fair, her face not
so finely rounded, but has a gayer expression than her sisters', whose
countenances, except when the conversation has something of mirth in it,
may be said to be rather pensive. Their persons are elegant, and their
manners pleasing and lady-like, such as would be fascinating in any
country. They possess very considerable powers of conversation, and
their minds seem to be more instructed than those of the Greek women in
general."--_Travels in Italy, Greece, etc._, ii. 291, 292.

Other travellers, Hughes, who visited Athens in 1813, and Walsh
(_Narrative of a Resident in Constantinople_, i. 122), who saw Theresa
in 1821, found her charming and interesting, but speak of her beauty as
a thing of the past. "She married an Englishman named Black, employed in
H.M. Consular Service at Mesolonghi. She survived her husband and fell
into great poverty.... Theresa Black died October 15, 1875, aged 80
years." (See _Letters_, 1898, i. 269, 270, note 1; and _Life_, p. 105,
note.)

"Maid of Athens" is possibly the best-known of Byron's short poems, all
over the English-speaking world. This is no doubt due in part to its
having been set to music by about half a dozen composers--the latest of
whom was Gounod.]

[11] {16} Romaic expression of tenderness. If I translate it, I shall
affront the gentlemen, as it may seem that I supposed they could not;
and if I do not, I may affront the ladies. For fear of any
misconstruction on the part of the latter, I shall do so, b