]
[Footnote 136: He has adopted this name in his description of the
Seraglio in Don Juan, Canto VI. It was, if I recollect right, in
making love to one of these girls that he had recourse to an act of
courtship often practised in that country,--namely, giving himself a
wound across the breast with his dagger. The young Athenian, by his
own account, looked on very coolly during the operation, considering
it a fit tribute to her beauty, but in no degree moved to gratitude.]
[Footnote 137: Among others, he mentions his passage of the Tagus in
1809, which is thus described by Mr. Hobhouse:--"My companion had
before made a more perilous, but less celebrated, passage; for I
recollect that, when we were in Portugal, he swam from old Lisbon to
Belem Castle, and having to contend with a tide and counter current,
the wind blowing freshly, was but little less than two hours in
crossing the river." In swimming from Sestos to Abydos, he was one
hour and ten minutes in the water.
In the year 1808, he had been nearly drowned, while swimming at
Brighton with Mr. L. Stanhope. His friend Mr. Hobhouse, and other
bystanders, sent in some boatmen, with ropes tied round them, who at
last succeeded in dragging Lord Byron and Mr. Stanhope from the surf
and thus saved their lives.]
[Footnote 138: Alluding to his having swum across the Thames with Mr.
H. Drury, after the Montem, to see how many times they could perform
the passage backwards and forwards without touching land.
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