and made them his home during the remainder of his residence in
Greece; but when I returned to Athens, in October, he was not there
himself. I found, however, his valet, Fletcher, in possession.

There is no very clear account of the manner in which Lord Byron
employed himself after his return to Athens; but various intimations
in his correspondence show that during the winter his pen was not
idle. It would, however, be to neglect an important occurrence, not
to notice that during the time when he was at Athens alone, the
incident which he afterwards embodied in the impassioned fragments of
The Giaour came to pass; and to apprise the reader that the story is
founded on an adventure which happened to himself--he was, in fact,
the cause of the girl being condemned, and ordered to be sewn up in a
sack and thrown into the sea.

One day, as he was returning from bathing in the Piraeus, he met the
procession going down to the shore to execute the sentence which the
Waywode had pronounced on the girl; and learning the object of the
ceremony, and who was the victim, he immediately interfered with
great resolution; for, on observing some hesitation on the part of
the leader of the escort to return with him to the Governor's house,
he drew a pistol and threatened to shoot him on the spot. The man
then turned about, and accompanied him back, when, partly by bribery
and entreaty, he succeeded in obtaining a pardon for her, on
condition that she was sent immediately out of the city. Byron
conveyed her to the monastery, and on the same night sent her off to
Thebes, where she found a safe asylum.

With this affair, I may close his adventures in Greece; for, although
he remained several months subsequent at Athens, he was in a great
measure stationary. His health, which was never robust, was impaired
by the effects of the fever, which lingered about him; perhaps, too,
by the humiliating anxiety he suffered on account of the uncertainty
in his remittances. But however this may have been, it was fortunate
for his fame that he returned to England at the period he did, for
the climate of the Mediterranean was detrimental to his constitution.
The heat oppressed him so much as to be positive suffering, and
scarcely had he reached Malta on his way home, when he was visited
again with a tertian ague.

CHAPTER XXV

Arrival in London--Mr Dallas's Patronage--Arranges for the
Publication of "Childe Harold"--The Death of Mrs B