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CHAPTER 20.
THE TANGLED SKEIN.
1824.
Byron had a great reception when he arrived at Missolonghi. Prince Mavrocordato, Colonel Stanhope, and Pietro Gamba, who had escaped from the Turks at Patras, were amongst those who welcomed him.
The town of Missolonghi was situated on the edge of a shallow lagoon. It was a busy fishing centre and consisted of about eight hundred scattered houses, all around were marshy swamps, and in the rainy season streets and houses were flooded.
The house that had been prepared for Byron is, alas! no longer standing. It was of considerable size, but had little or nothing to recommend it. On the ground-floor in a large hall he stationed the Suliotes. Stanhope and his printing press occupied the first floor. The top floor accommodated him and his servants. The conditions of life were anything but desirable. There was squalor everywhere—walls were discoloured with damp-stains, and bugs and other marauding creatures found the premises an ideal spot for their revels.
Byron faced up to all this without a word of complaint. He was a soldier now, and determined to bear all the hardships with high-hearted gallantry. To set an example he subsisted on the same rations as those issued to the Greek troops. He exercised the most perfect self-control. It was indeed a wretched existence in Missolonghi, but he preferred it, he said, to drinking in a London drawing-room. “I am thankful that I am now clear of that, and my resolution to remain clear of it for the rest of my life is immutable.”
Preparations for a spring campaign were slowly going forward. The necessity at this particular juncture was that of training men. Accordingly he took five hundred Suliotes under his command at his own expense. These rough, wiry fellows were just the “stuff” that he wanted. They were devoted to their leader, but none the less on occasions they proved themselves to be aggravatingly troublesome.
The weather at this time was appalling. It rained incessantly, but weather conditions were not allowed to interfere with the drilling of his brigade. “It is necessary,” he said, “to employ the troops, and keep them from being idle and creating disturbances.”
Colonel Stanhope was not altogether a satisfactory colleague. He wanted to educate the people by means of a free press, and so he printed newspapers, and arranged for their circulation. Byron was very dubious as to the wisdom of this. He felt that the supreme need of the Greeks was not a Press but an army. “It is odd,” he said, “that Stanhope, the soldier, is all for writing down the Turks, and I, the writer, am all for fighting them down.”
January 22 was his birthday—we have it on the testimony of Gamba that in the morning he walked into the room where his friends were sitting and said: “You were complaining the other day that I never write any poetry now. This is my birthday, and I have just finished something which is, I think, better than what I generally write.” These are the noble and affecting verses which he wrote: —
It was shortly after this that William Parry arrived. He had been sent out by the London Committee to take charge of the artillery. It turned out, however, that he knew very little more about artillery than those who were already on the spot. Byron determined to make the most of him, and explained to him all the difficulties of the situation. In Parry’s eyes it was not very favourable, and Byron himself began to show evident signs of anxiety. His responsibilities were increasing. He came to see that unless he directed operations no one else would, and m> one else could. “It seems that I am to be Commander-in-chief, and the post is by no means a sinecure.”
Plans had been laid for an attack on Lepanto. The way seemed open for an easy conquest. The Suliotes were to bear the brunt of the attack under Byron himself. News of what was happening at Missolonghi reached the ears of Colocotronis, who was operating in Morea. He was afraid that any success on the part of the Greeks under Mavrocordato would strengthen the power of his rival, and in consequence he sent emissaries to sow seeds of dissension among the Suliotes. The result was that when the moment of attack arrived, these crack troops, as they were thought to be, suddenly demanded that twenty-five per cent, of their number should be given commissioned rank; and that the whole brigade should receive additional pay!
Byron’s patience gave way. He had devoted himself to the training of them. He had paid them generously out of his own pocket, and now, when a brilliant victory seemed to be within their grasp, they had let him down. He called together their chiefs and dismissed them. It was a bitter disappointment. All the plans which during the winter he had been working out, and to which he had pinned his hopes, were frustrated by the perfidy of those for whom he had done so much.
The strain of the last few weeks was beginning to tell. On February 15 Gamba went into Byron’s room, and found him in a state of collapse. He pulled himself together and went downstairs to join Parry and Stanhope.
When he complained of being thirsty they gave him some cider. Whilst drinking it, he stood up, and fell into the arms of Parry in a fit of convulsions. Dr. Bruno and Dr. Julius Milligen, a German in the Greek Government Service, waited upon him, and after a short time he recovered himself. He went to bed, but at noon the next day he was up again. It was evident, however, to all his friends that he was desperately ill. They implored him to leave Missolonghi and go to Cephalonia, but he refused to leave his post. He took up his duties again, though he still felt the effects of his seizure. New expeditions were planned, and everything was done to put an end to the factions in the Greek army. There seemed some hope of harmony at last. In every quarter proposals were made that Byron should act as mediator between the disputant parties, and accept the leadership of a united Greece.