men have chosen, I know not for what reason, to ascribe to me; but, notwithstanding the crimes I have committed, the sufferings I have undergone, the calamities which have pursued me, the dangers I have encountered, and the blood I have shed, the voice of nature is not yet utterly quenched within me, nor is my heart so seared by misfortune as to withhold its affection and admiration for heroic virtue. Besides, I love my country, and I loved my friend; the former demanded my sword in her service, nor did she ask in vain; the latter stood by my side in battle; we swore eternal friendship over the bodies of our dead and dying countrymen; and—and I received his last sigh of that glorious day, which saw the star of Greece once more arise in its pristine splendour, and the crescent fallen, and trampled into dust under our feet! Who can describe at once the agony and exultation of such an hour! What heart, not compacted of iron or adamant, could resist the thrilling, the unconquerable recollections of such a scene! I could dwell on it for ever, with insatiate and agonized rapture.

may

chase

But, at present, to my own history. The recital may beguile a tedious hour to you, and awaken some useful reflections; while, as far as concerns myself, it away dark thoughts, supply their place with better, and prevent a mind, but too prone to indulge its gloomy moods, from eating into itself, like the rust into the brand that is no longer fit to be employed in the work of de

struction.

You are already aware of the circumstance that drove me from Athens; for what Greek has not heard of the fate of the accursed Disdar? The Turks could have well forgiven the murder of a detested wretch, whom even they considered as a tyrant and an oppressor: and on that score merely I had little to fear. But I had profaned the sacredness of the bath; I had seen their women in that state in which no eye can behold them, and expect to live; I had enlisted jealousy on the side of vengeance,— and there was my crime and my danger. Ægina, to which I had fled with Haroun, was, therefore, no place of safety for a man who had assassinated a Turkish officer of rank, and inflamed to fury a jealous vengeance which never spares. Fully sensible of my danger, I resolved to lose no time in withdrawing myself beyond its reach. Accordingly, after a short repose, I engaged a vessel to conduct me from Ægina to Port Pidauro, in the Morea, (Peloponnesus), from which I proceeded to Napoli di Romania, (Nauplia), and after a short stay crossed the country to Patras, at the entrance of the Gulf of Lepanto. Here I found a vessel just in the act of getting under weigh, and without stopping to enquire whither she was bound, stepped on board. The master or pilot proved to be a Greek, and the crew natives of Santa Maura, (Leucadia), whither the vessel was now returning, having taken in a cargo of the productions of the Morea, in exchange for articles of English manufacture, chiefly cottons and hardware, with which she had been freighted out by

the owners.

After a short and pleasant voyage, we

reached our destination; and I, considering myself comparatively safe in one of the dependencies of the Septinsular Republic, notwithstanding its proximity to the main land of Acarnania, began to consider in what way I could employ myself so as to give rise to no suspicions; for though I had money and jewels enough to subsist on for a great while to come, I was aware that living in idlneess, without any ostensible source of emolument or income, would speedily occasion such conjectures as might lead to inquiry, and compromise my safety. I had also learned, to my dismay, that the British government in the Ionian Islands were in the constant habit of surrendering, to the Turkish authorities, such criminals as fled to the islands from the main land of Greece, upon a mutual understanding that the Moslems were to act on the same principle, should any of the Islanders seek an asylum from justice, either in Greece Proper, or the Morea. To a person in my situation this could not be considered the most agreeable piece of information in the world; but no opportunity offering to make my escape from this inhospitable island, (for, notwithstanding its being separated from Acarnania by a narrow channel, or salt marsh, I durst not venture thither), I perceived that I must accommodate myself to circumstances, and await with patience what destiny had decreed. In the meanwhile, I assumed the name of Vetraño, and represented myself as the son of a Greek merchant established at Scio, who

found it necessary to travel for the benefit of my health. This lie, or, as the Europeans more gently phrase it, this incognito, served my turn by the confirmation which it received from my emaciated person and cadaverous look ; for I had never thoroughly recovered from the wounds I had received in my miraculous escape from death in the Acropolis; and the fatigue I had necessarily been compelled to undergo, since the adventure of the Bagnio, had consumed the very flesh from my bones, and left me only the ghost of what I once was. Of these favourable circumstances I did not fail to take advantage, and though I felt that the stamina of life within were still vigorous and unexhausted, I assumed all the airs of a confirmed invalid, whom destiny and the doctor had equally designed for a speedy morsel to the worms, and who, like greater men, had bid adieu to my native country, that I might leave my bones to rot on a foreign shore. Haroun seemed at once to comprehend my ob

ject; for few hints how he was to act his part were necessary to one who had been trained to deceit-by

woman.

Of all the human beings I have conversed with, or known, this poor fellow was at once the most faithless and the most faithful. Thrown by unavoidable circumstances upon my protection, his safety was identified with mine. He had been the main instrument in enabling me to destroy the Disdar, and we were therefore bound to each other by the tie of a common and success

ful crime. Hence, while the love of life remained, I was secure against treachery on his part; for, assuredly, whatever punishment might have been inflicted on me, had I been discovered, his would have been still more dreadful. He had committed a crime which an Osmanlee would not have pardoned, for the certain reversion of the Prophet's Paradise, with all the black-eyed Houris destined to fill the arms of the faithful ;-and what was, if possible, worse, he had betrayed his trust, to facilitate the vengeance of a Giaour. Strong holds these on his fidelity!-but I had still a stronger-the poor creature loved me so true is it, that genuine kindness will thaw down the most frozen natures into the firmest attachment, and the most sincere gratitude. Of this I had abundant proof in the sequel.

By the help of the disguise I had assumed, and the most watchful circumspection on the part both of my attendant and myself, we contrived to pass eighteen months in Santa Maura, without our tranquillity being once disturbed by any intimation that our retreat had been discovered, or that we were objects of suspicion to any one. During this period, which seemed to be more than fifty ages, the only amusement had was endeavouring to solace my cheerless exile, by reading the works of the poets, orators, and philosophers of my native country, in the meridian of its renown, and by contrasting what that country now was with what it had formerly been. The lowest and most profligate Greek loves the land of