ty of Ithaca, they
sailed (September 28) through the channel between Ithaca and Cephalonia,
passed the hill of AEtos, on which stood the so-called "Castle of
Ulysses," whence Penelope may have "overlooked the wave," and caught
sight of "the Lover's refuge" in the distance. Towards the close of the
same day they doubled Cape Ducato ("Leucadia's cape," the scene of
Sappho's leap), and, sailing under "the ancient mount," the site of the
Temple of Apollo, anchored off Prevesa at seven in the evening. Poetry
and prose are not always in accord. If, as Byron says, it was "an
autumn's eve" when they hailed "Leucadia's cape afar," if the evening
star shone over the rock when they approached it, they must have sailed
fast to reach Prevesa, some thirty miles to the north, by seven o'clock.
But _de minimis_, the Muse is as disregardful as the Law. And, perhaps,
after all, it was Hobhouse who misread his log-book. (_Travels in
Albania_, i. 4, 5; Murray's _Handbook for Greece_, pp. 40, 46.)]

[141] {125} [The meaning of this passage is not quite so obvious as it
seems. He has in his mind the words, "He saved others, Himself He cannot
save," and, applying this to Sappho, asks, "Why did she who conferred
immortality on herself by her verse prove herself mortal?" Without Fame,
and without verse the cause and keeper of Fame, there is no heaven, no
immortality, for the sons of men. But what security is there for the
eternity of verse and Fame? "_Quis custodiet custodes_?"]

[142] {126} [For Byron's "star" similes, see Canto III. stanza xxxviii.
line 9.]

[ew] ----_and looked askance on Mars_.--[MS. erased.]

[143] [Compare the line in Tennyson's song, _Break, break, break,_ "And
the stately ships go on."]

[ex]
_And roused him more from thought than he was wont_
_While Pleasure almost seemed to smooth his pallid front_.--[MS. D.]
_While Pleasure almost smiled along_----.--[MS. erased.]

[144] [By "Suli's rocks" Byron means the mountainous district in the
south of the Epirus. The district of Suli formed itself into a small
republic at the close of the last century, and offered a formidable
resistance to Ali Pacha. "Pindus' inland peak," Monte Metsovo, which
forms part of the ridge which divides Epirus from Thessaly, is not
visible from the sea-coast.]

[145] {127} ["Shore unknown." (See Byron's note to stanza xxxviii. line
5.)]

[ey] {128} ----_lovely harmful thing_.--[MS. pencil.]

[146] [Compare Byron's _Stanzas w