FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125  
126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   >>   >|  
mium_ of vehicles. On the first precipitous elevation I turned to laugh at my pursuers, when, to my horror, I saw Strong's omnibus lumbering along in the distance, surrounded by a considerable crowd, and I distinguished the loud shouts of the mob:--+Pou einai ho trelos ho Anglos+; "Where is the mad Englishman?" So my melancholy was conducting me to madness. My alarm dispelled all my reminiscences of Lord Cochrane, and my visions of the Olympic games. I sprang into the droschky of a Greek sailor, who drove over the rocks as if he only expected his new profession to endure for a single day. We were soon on the Piraeus road, which I well knew runs along the foundations of one of the long walls; but I was too glad to escape, like Lord Palmerston and M. Thiers, unscathed from the imbroglio I had created, to honour even Themistocles with a single thought. My charioteer was a far better specimen of the present, than foundations of long walls, ruined temples, and statues without noses, can possibly be of the past. He informed me he was a sailor: by so doing, he did not prove to me that he estimated my discernment very highly, for that fact required no announcement. He added, however, what was more instructive; _to wit_, that he had received the droschky with the horses, that morning, from a Russian captain, in payment of a bad debt. He had resolved to improviso the coachman, though he had never driven a horse before in his life--+eukolon einai+--"it is an easy matter;" and he drove like Jehu, shouted like Stentor, and laughed like the Afrite of Caliph Vathek. He ran over nobody, in spite of his vehemence. Perhaps his horses were wiser than himself: indeed I have remarked, that the populace of Greece is universally more sagacious than its rulers. In taking leave of this worthy tar at the Hotel de Londres, I asked him gravely if he thought that, in case Russia, England, or France should one day take Greece in payment of a bad debt, they would act wisely to drive her as hard as he drove his horses? He opened his eyes at me as if he was about to unskin his head, and began to reflect in silence; so, perceiving that he entertained a very high opinion of my wisdom, I availed myself of the opportunity to advise him to moderate his pace a little in future, if he wished his horses to survive the week. During my stay at Athens, King Otho was absent from his capital; so that, though I lost the pleasure of beholding the beautiful and gra
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125  
126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

horses

 

droschky

 

thought

 
sailor
 
foundations
 

Greece

 
payment
 

single

 

remarked

 

universally


populace
 

sagacious

 

rulers

 

Afrite

 

driven

 
eukolon
 

coachman

 

Russian

 

morning

 
captain

resolved

 
improviso
 

vehemence

 

Perhaps

 

Vathek

 

Caliph

 

matter

 
shouted
 

Stentor

 

laughed


Russia

 

advise

 

opportunity

 

moderate

 

future

 

availed

 

entertained

 

perceiving

 

opinion

 

wisdom


wished

 

survive

 

capital

 

pleasure

 

beholding

 

beautiful

 
absent
 

During

 

Athens

 

silence