in which he chose to indulge, the supposed unluckiness
of Friday, as a day for the commencement of any work, was one by
which he, almost always, allowed himself to be influenced. Soon after
his arrival at Pisa, a lady of his acquaintance happening to meet him
on the road from her house as she was herself returning thither, and
supposing that he had been to make her a visit, requested that he
would go back with her. "I have not been to your house," he answered;
"for, just before I got to the door, I remembered that it was Friday;
and, not liking to make my first visit on a Friday, I turned back."
It is even related of him that he once sent away a Genoese tailor who
brought him home a new coat on the same ominous day.

With all this, strange to say, he set sail for Greece on a
Friday:--and though, by those who have any leaning to this
superstitious fancy, the result maybe thought but too sadly
confirmatory of the omen, it is plain that either the influence of
the superstition over his own mind was slight, or, in the excitement
of self-devotion under which he now acted, was forgotten, In truth,
notwithstanding his encouraging speech to Count Gamba, the
forewarning he now felt of his approaching doom seems to have been
far too deep and serious to need the aid of any such accessory.
Having expressed a wish, on relanding, to visit his own palace, which
he had left to the care of Mr. Barry during his absence, and from
which Madame Guiccioli had early that morning departed, he now
proceeded thither, accompanied by Count Gamba alone. "His
conversation," says this gentleman, "was somewhat melancholy on our
way to Albaro: he spoke much of his past life, and of the uncertainty
of the future. 'Where,' said he, 'shall we be in a year?'--It looked
(adds his friend) like a melancholy foreboding; for, on the same day,
of the same month, in the next year, he was carried to the tomb of
his ancestors."

It took nearly the whole of the day to repair the damages of their
vessel; and the greater part of this interval was passed by Lord
Byron, in company with Mr. Barry, at some gardens near the city. Here
his conversation, as this gentleman informs me, took the same gloomy
turn. That he had not fixed to go to England, in preference, seemed
one of his deep regrets; and so hopeless were the views he expressed
of the whole enterprise before him, that, as it appeared to Mr.
Barry, nothing but a devoted sense of duty and honour could have
deter