Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

PATRIOTIC WAR.

103

sympathy with the injured, appears to have been felt by Lord Byron when, on passing the gentle river that divided Portugal from Spain, he heard that warlike sound which threatened the annihilation of a kingdom, and the subjection of the people to a foreign and hated yoke. Instead of being warmed, with the usual ardour of youthful heroism in such a cause, and looking upon the men with admiration, who were thus generously resolved to save their country or to perish with its independence, Lord Byron ventured to ridicule the Spanish Patriots as fools, and to pronounce a decisive judgment against the mighty undertaking in which they were gloriously embarked.

It is much to be regretted, that a mind so feelingly alive to the harmony of nature in other respects, and so susceptible of the most powerful impressions from the wonders of the material creation, should have been out of tune only when brought into association with the rest of the species. Yet thus early did the disposition to expel the whole moral world from the communion of charitable sentiment develope itself in this noble person, who saw nothing wrong in the universe, except mankind.

[blocks in formation]

From Seville, which, according to the representation given of the place by its noble visitant, was at this period sunk in lewdness, his lordship proceeded to Cadiz, where he remained some time, and then embarked with his friend Hobhouse in an English frigate for the Mediterranean.

Our travellers explored Albania before they visited any other part of the Ottoman dominions, and having reached Joannina, the capital of Ali Pacha's territory, were presented to that chief by Major now Colonel Leake, the English resident. Ali received them with the greatest respect, and gave them an invitation to Tepaleni, his birth-place, and favourite seat, which though only one day's distance from Berent, where he then was, the journey took up nine in the accomplishment, on account of the rains. In this excursion, Lord Byron and his companion were overtaken by a violent thunderstorm, during which the guides lost their way, so that it was with great difficulty and no little peril that they regained the right road in this mountainous country. The resemblance between the inhabitants of this region, and the Highlanders of Scotland, in dress, figure, and manner of living, struck his lordship very

THE INHABITANTS.

105

forcibly. The very mountains of Albania seemed to him Caledonian, but only with a kinder climate. The kilt, though white; the spare active form; the dialect, Celtic in its sound; and the hardy habits of the Albanians, all carried the mind of the noble traveller back to the days of his childhood, and the hills of Morven. "No nation," says he, "are so detested by their neighbours, as these mountaineers are by all the tribes in the vicinity. The Greeks hardly regard them as Christians, or the Turks as Moslems; and in fact, they are a mixture of both, and sometimes neither. Their habits are predatory: all are armed; and the red-shawled Arnaouts, the Montenegrins, Chimariots and Gaydes, are treacherous; the others differ somewhat in garb, and essentially in character. As far as my own experience goes," continues the noble lord, "I can speak favourably. I was attended by two, an Infidel and a Mussulman, to Constantinople, and every other part of Turkey which came within my observation; and men more faithful in peril, or indefatigable in service, are rarely to be found. The Infidel was named Basilius, the Moslem Dervish Tahiri: the former a man of middle age, and the latter about my own. Basilius was strictly charged

1

[blocks in formation]

by Ali Pacha in person to attend us; and Dervish was one of fifty who accompanied us through the forests of Acarnania to the banks of the Achelous, and onward to Messalunghi in Ætolia. There I took him into my own service, and never had occasion to repent till the moment of my departure."

Of the attachment of these mountaineers his lordship gives the following remarkable instances:

"When in 1810, after the departure of my friend Mr. Hobhouse for England, I was seized with a severe fever in the Morea, these men saved my life, by frightening away my physician, whose throat they threatened to cut, if I was not cured within a given time. To this consolatory assurance of posthumous retribution, and a resolute refusal of Dr. Romanelli's prescriptions, I attribute my recovery. I had left my last remaining English servant at Athens; my dragoman, or interpreter, was as ill as myself; and my poor Arnaouts nursed me with an attention which would have done honour to civilization.

"When preparations were made for my return, my

[blocks in formation]

Albanians were summoned to receive their pay. Basilius took his with an awkward show of regret at my intended departure, and marched away to his quarters with his bag of piastres. I sent for Dervish, but for some time he was not to be found; at last he entered, just as Signor Logotheti, father to the Anglo-consul at Athens, and some other of my Greek acquaintances, paid me a visit. Dervish took the money, but on a sudden dashed it to the ground, and clasping his hands, which he raised to his forehead, rushed out of the room weeping bitterly. From that moment to the hour of my embarkation, he continued his lamentations, and all our efforts to console him only produced this answer, "He leaves me!"Signor Logotheti, who never wept before for any thing less than the loss of a para, (about the fourth of a farthing,) the Padre of the convent, my attendants, and my visitors, melted; and I verily believe that even Sterne's foolish fat scullion would have left her fish-kettle to sympathize with the unaffected and unexpected sorrow of this barbarian. For my own part, when I remembered that, a short time before my departure from England, a noble and most intimate associate had excused himself from taking leave of me,

« AnteriorContinuar »