robably inspired there,
although the poem was written in London. It was also here, but not
on this occasion, that the poet first became acquainted with the
Albanian belief in second-hearing, to which he alludes in the same
poem:

Deep in whose darkly-boding ear
The death-shot peal'd of murder near.

"This superstition of a second-hearing," says Lord Byron, "fell once
under my own observation. On my third journey to Cape Colonna, as we
passed through the defile that leads from the hamlet between Keratea
and Colonna, I observed Dervish Tahiri (one of his Albanian servants)
riding rather out of the path, and leaning his head upon his hand as
if in pain. I rode up and inquired. 'We are in peril!' he answered.
'What peril? we are not now in Albania, nor in the passes to Ephesus,
Missolonghi, or Lepanto; there are plenty of us well armed, and the
Choriotes have not courage to be thieves.'--'True, Affendi; but,
nevertheless, the shot is ringing in my ears.'--'The shot! not a
tophaike has been fired this morning.'--'I hear it, notwithstanding--
bom--bom--as plainly as I hear your voice.'--'Bah.'--'As you please,
Affendi; if it is written, so will it be.'

"I left this quick-eared predestinarian, and rode up to Basili, his
Christian compatriot, whose ears, though not at all prophetic, by no
means relished the intelligence. We all arrived at Colonna, remained
some hours, and returned leisurely, saying a variety of brilliant
things, in more languages than spoiled the building of Babel, upon
the mistaken seer; Romaic, Arnaout, Turkish, Italian, and English
were all exercised, in various conceits, upon the unfortunate
Mussulman. While we were contemplating the beautiful prospect,
Dervish was occupied about the columns. I thought he was deranged
into an antiquarian, and asked him if he had become a palaocastro
man. 'No,' said he, 'but these pillars will be useful in making a
stand' and added some remarks, which at least evinced his own belief
in his troublesome faculty of fore-hearing.

"On our return to Athens we heard from Leone (a prisoner set on shore
some days after) of the intended attack of the Mainotes, with the
cause of its not taking place. I was at some pains to question the
man, and he described the dresses, arms, and marks of the horses of
our party so accurately, that, with other circumstances, we could not
doubt of his having been in 'villainous company,' and ourselves in a
bad neighbourhood.