to the plain of Marathon, I set out on such
a morning as can only be witnessed under the pure sky of Attica.

The scenery of our ride is now familiar to tourists. Parnes or Parnethus
with its double top,{A} Brilessus or Pentelicus with its numerous rills
and fountains, and Hymettus with its balmy odours, have been "hymned by
loftier harps than mine." My companions proved gay and agreeable young
men. They knew every body at Athens, and every thing, and willingly
communicated their stores of knowledge. I cannot resist recounting some
of the anecdotes I heard, as they do no discredit to the noble princes
to whom they relate.

When an English prince visited Athens, King Otho, who it seems is his
own minister, and conducts business quite in a royal way, learned that
he was no Whig, and instantly conceived the sublime idea of making use
of his royal highness's services to obtain Lord Palmerston's dismissal
from office. The monarch himself arranged the plan of his campaign. The
prince was invited to a _fete champetre_ at Phyle, and when the party
was distributed in the various carriages, he found himself planted in a
large barouche opposite the king and queen. King Otho then opened his
intrigue; he told the prince of the notes in favour of constitutional
government and economical administration which Lord Palmerston had
written, and Sir Edmund Lyons had presented; and he exclaimed, "I assure
you, my dear prince, all this is done merely to vex me, because I would
not keep that speculating charlatan Armansperg! Lord Palmerston cares no
more about a constitution, nor about economy, than Queen Victoria, or
you and I. When the Duc de Broglie, who has really more conscience than
our friend the Viscount, proposed that Greece should be pestered with a
constitution and such stuff, Palmerston answered very judiciously,
'Greece--bah!--Greece is not fit for a constitution, nor indeed for any
other government but that of my nabob!' Now, my dear prince, Queen
Victoria can never mean to offend me, the sovereign of Greece, when the
Ottoman empire is so evidently on the eve of dismemberment; and," quoth
Otho the gleaner, "I am deeply offended, at which her British majesty
must feel grievously distressed." The prince doubtless thought her
majesty's distress was not inconsolable; but he only assured his
Hellenic majesty that he could be of no possible use to him in his
delicate intrigue at the court of St James's. He tried to get a view of
the