Napier said that, of all the
Englishmen who came to assist the Greek revolution, Byron was the one
who comprehended best the character of the modern Greek--"all the rest
expected to find Plutarch's men." It is another fashion of the moment to
put aside as of small account the glittering cantos which stirred the
English-speaking world in the early days of this century. But it is not
while the wild, beautiful Albanian mountains are rising above your head
that you think meanly of them. "Remember all the splendid things he said
of Greece," says some one. When you are in Greece, you do remember.

The only brigands we saw we met at Patras. Missolonghi is on the
northern shore of the bay; to reach Patras the steamer crosses to the
Peloponnesus side. It was a dark night, and I don't know where we
stopped, but it must have been far out from land. The barges which came
to meet us were rough craft, with loose boards for seats and water in
the bottom. We obtained places in one of them, and after twenty minutes
of pitching up and down, shouting, tumbling about, and splashing, the
crew bent to their big oars, and we started. Swaying lights glimmered
through the darkness here and there; they came from vessels at anchor in
the roadstead. We plunged and rolled, apparently making no progress; but
at last a long, wet breakwater, dimly seen, appeared on the right, and
finally we perceived the lights of the landing-place, which is the
water-side of one of the squares of the town. Our crew jumped out in the
surf, and drew the heavy boat up to the steps of the embankment. Here
were assembled the brigands. There were a hundred of them at least, all
yelling. Probably they were astonished to see ladies landing from the
Greek coaster. This was part of our original misconception in the
selection of that steamer (a mistake, however, which had turned out to
be such a picturesque success); but it was part also of a general error
which came from our nationality. For we were natives of the one land on
earth where to women is always accorded, without question, a first
place. It had never occurred to us that we could be jostled. After
Patras we were more careful (and more proud of our country than ever).
But at the moment, as we were pulled first to the right by men who
wished to carry us and our travelling-bags in that direction, and then
to the left by others who had attacked the first party, felled them, and
captured their prey--at the moment when we w