"with him to America. I desired time "to consider; but at last declined it, not 66 wishing to relinquish my Grecian project. “Once landed in that country, perhaps "I should not have soon left it;-I might "have settled there, for I shall never 66 66 nothing but from some of the refugees, who appear chiefly interested for themselves. My accounts from an agent of the Committee, an English gentleman lately gone up to Greece, "are hitherto favourable; but he had not yet "reached the seat of the Provisional Government, " and I am anxiously expecting further advice. 66 "An American has a better right than any "other to suggest to other nations the mode " of obtaining that liberty which is the glory of " his own!" "revisit England. On Lady Noel's death, 66 66 66 66 I thought I should have been forced to 'go home (and was for a moment bent on doing so on another occasion, which you know); but I told Hanson that I "would rather make any sacrifice. "The polite attentions of the American "sailor were very different from the treat 66 66 ment I met with from the captain of a sloop of war belonging to our Navy, "who made the gentleman command 66 66 ing my yacht haul down my pennant. They might have respected the name of "the great navigator.* In the time of * His grandfather, Admiral Byron. I have heard him more than once speak of Campbell's having named him in 'The Pleasures of Hope.' 66 peace, and in a free port, there could "have been no plea for such an insult. "I wrote to the captain of the vessel "rather sharply, and was glad to find "that his first lieutenant had acted with out his orders, and when he was on "shore; but they had been issued, and "could not be reversed. 66 "You see I can't go any where without being persecuted. I am going to Genoa "in a few days." "I have almost finished," said he, "ther play, which I mean to call' Wer"ner.' The story is taken from Miss "Lee's Kruitzner.' There are fine things in The Canterbury Tales;' but "Miss Lee only wrote two of them: the 66 66 others are the the compositions of her sister, and are vastly inferior. There is no tale of Scott's finer than "The German's Tale.' I admired it "when I was a boy, and have continued "to like what I did then. This tale, I 66 remember, particularly affected me. I "could not help thinking of the authoress, who destroyed herself. I was very young when I finished a few scenes "of a play founded on that story. I perfectly remember many of the lines as I go on. 66 66 "Vathek' was another of the tales I had a very early admiration of. You may remember a passage I borrowed "from it in The Siege of Corinth,' which 66 "I almost took verbatim.* No French"man will believe that 'Vathek' is the "work of a foreigner. It was written at "seventeen. What do you think of the "Cave of Eblis, and the picture of Eblis " himself? There is poetry. I class it "in merit with (though it is a diffe 66 66 rent sort of thing from) Paul and Virginia,' and Mackenzie's 'Man of "There is a light cloud by the moon; Hath ceased the shaded orb to veil, Dark will thy doom be-darker still Siege of Corinth. |