20 LOVE AND MADNESS. 



ness, and he felt that, wander where he might, that happiness could 

 never return. At length, to crown his misery, the last ray of hope 



was shortly after shaded by the marriage of his mistress. W 



now abandoned every prospect at home, and, in order to shake oft' 

 that melancholy which was gathering like rust around his heart, 

 went to the Continent ; but change of scene is but a change of ill to 

 those who must bear with them the cause of their sorrow, and find 

 within " that aching void the world can never fill." He hurried in 

 yain from one scene of excitement to another; society had no spell 

 to soothe his memory, and change no charm to lull it. 



" Still slowly passed the melancholy day. 

 And still the stranger wist not where to stray." 



At length he joined the cause of the struggling Greeks, and his 

 name has been often and honourably mentioned amongst the com- 

 panions of Lord Byron, at Missolonghi. After his Lordship's death 

 he still remained in Greece, but his constitution was too weak to 

 permit him to be of active service as a Palikari. He had, therefore, 

 taken a post in the garrison, which held possession of the castle and 

 town of Navarino, in the Morea, and was wounded in the action at 

 Sphacteria, in the summer of 1825. 



The unskilful management of a native surgeon during his confine- 

 ment in the fortress, previous to its surrender to Ibrahim Pacha, 

 and a long and dangerous fever from the malaria of Pylos combined 

 with scanty diet and bad attendance from his Greek domestics, 

 united with his broken spirits to bring on a rapid consumption. 



It was under these circumstances that Mr. R , who now ac- 

 companied him, had found him at a village in the district of Mainu, 

 and had since paid him every attention in his power. By cautious 

 management and gentle voyages he had brought him to Hydra, 

 where he was enabled to procure him a passage in a French vessel, 

 from whence he hoped to find" a British ship to land him in Eng- 

 land, where his last moments might be watched by friendly eyes, 

 and his bones rest with his fathers. The particulars of his inhos- 

 pitable reception here I have already recounted ; but we at last saw 

 him fixed under the care of an old French officer at Smyrna, who 

 engaged to pay him every requisite attention, till he should depart 

 for Europe, or for another world. 



The following day we called to see W , but we found that 



human sympathy would soon (jease to avail him; the step of death 

 was already on his threshold. The surgeon of one of the ships of 

 war had been to see him, but all prospect of his surviving had fled. 

 The fatigue of his removal from the vessel, his exposure to the sun 



