fficult, on their removal, to stop the blood,
which continued to flow so copiously, that from exhaustion he
fainted. It must have been on this day that the scene thus described
by Colonel Stanhope occurred:--

"Soon after his dreadful paroxysm, when, faint with over-bleeding, he
was lying on his sick bed, with his whole nervous system completely
shaken, the mutinous Suliotes, covered with dirt and splendid
attires, broke into his apartment, brandishing their costly arms, and
loudly demanding their wild rights. Lord Byron, electrified by this
unexpected act, seemed to recover from his sickness; and the more the
Suliotes raged, the more his calm courage triumphed. The scene was
truly sublime."

Another eye-witness, Count Gamba, bears similar testimony to the
presence of mind with which he fronted this and all other such
dangers. "It is impossible," says this gentleman, "to do justice to
the coolness and magnanimity which he displayed upon every trying
occasion. Upon trifling occasions he was certainly irritable; but the
aspect of danger calmed him in an instant, and restored to him the
free exercise of all the powers of his noble nature. A more undaunted
man in the hour of peril never breathed."

The letters written by him during the few following weeks form, as
usual, the best record of his proceedings, and, besides the sad
interest they possess as being among the latest from his hand, are
also precious, as affording proof that neither illness nor
disappointment, neither a worn-out frame nor even a hopeless spirit,
could lead him for a moment to think of abandoning the great cause he
had espoused; while to the last, too, he preserved unbroken the
cheerful spring of his mind, his manly endurance of all ills that
affected but himself, and his ever-wakeful consideration for the
wants of others.

LETTER 543. TO MR. BARFF.

"February 21.

"I am a good deal better, though of course weakly; the leeches took
too much blood from my temples the day after, and there was some
difficulty in stopping it, but I have since been up daily, and out in
boats of on horseback. To-day I have taken a warm bath, and live as
temperately as can well be, without any liquid but water, and without
animal food.

"Besides the four Turks sent to Patras, I have obtained the release
of four-and-twenty women and children, and sent them at my own
expense to Prevesa, that the English Consul-General may consign them
to their relations. I did this