He has suffered
nothing but from cold, heat, and vermin, which those who lie in
cottages and cross mountains in a cold country must undergo, and of
which I have equally partaken with himself; but he is not valiant, and
is afraid of robbers and tempests. I have no one to be remembered to
in England, and wish to hear nothing from it, but that you are well,
and a letter or two on business from H----, whom you may tell to
write. I will write when I can, and beg you to believe me,
Your affectionate son,
"BYRON."
About the middle of November, the young traveller took his departure
from Prevesa (the place where the foregoing letter was written), and
proceeded, attended by his guard of fifty Albanians,[131] through
Acarnania and AEtolia, towards the Morea.
"And therefore did he take a trusty band
To traverse Acarnania's forest wide,
In war well season'd, and with labours tann'd,
Till he did greet white Achelous' tide,
And from his further bank AEtolia's wolds espied."
CHILDE HAROLD, Canto II.
His description of the night-scene at Utraikey (a small place situated
in one of the bays of the Gulf of Arta) is, no doubt, vividly in the
recollection of every reader of these pages; nor will it diminish their
enjoyment of the wild beauties of that picture to be made acquainted
with the real circumstances on which it was founded, in the following
animated details of the same scene by his fellow-traveller:--
"In the evening the gates were secured, and preparations were made for
feeding our Albanians.
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