hing him in his
retirement, it may be sufficient to mention that, while by Metaxa,
the present governor of Missolonghi, he was entreated earnestly to
hasten to the relief of that place, which the Turks were now
blockading both by land and by sea, the head of the military chiefs,
Colocotroni, was no less earnestly urging that he should present
himself at the approaching congress of Salamis, where, under the
dictation of these rude warriors, the affairs of the country were to
be settled,--while at the same time, from another quarter, the great
opponent of these chieftains, Mavrocordato, was, with more urgency,
as well as more ability than any, endeavouring to impress upon him
his own views, and imploring his presence at Hydra, whither he
himself had just been forced to retire.

The mere knowledge, indeed, that a noble Englishman had arrived in
those regions, so unprepossessed by any party as to inspire a hope of
his alliance in all, and with money, by common rumour, as abundant as
the imaginations of the needy chose to make it, was, in itself, fully
sufficient, without any of the more elevated claims of his name, to
attract towards him all thoughts. "It is easier to conceive," says
Count Gamba, "than to relate the various means employed to engage him
in one faction or the other: letters, messengers, intrigues, and
recriminations,--nay, each faction had its agents exerting every art
to degrade its opponent." He then adds a circumstance strongly
illustrative of a peculiar feature in the noble poet's
character:--"He occupied himself in discovering the truth, hidden as
it was under these intrigues, and _amused himself in confronting the
agents of the different factions_."

During all these occupations he went on pursuing his usual simple and
uniform course of life,--rising, however, for the despatch of
business, at an early hour, which showed how capable he was of
conquering even long habit when necessary. Though so much occupied,
too, he was, at all hours, accessible to visitors; and the facility
with which he allowed even the dullest people to break in upon him
was exemplified, I am told, strongly in the case of one of the
officers of the garrison, who, without being able to understand any
thing of the poet but his good-nature, used to say, whenever he found
his time hang heavily on his hands,--"I think I shall ride out and
have a little talk with Lord Byron."

The person, however, whose visits appeared to give him most