Residence in Ravenna--The Carbonari--Byron's Part in their Plot--The
Murder of the military Commandant--The poetical Use of the Incident--
"Marino Faliero"--Reflections--"The Prophecy of Dante"

Lord Byron has said himself, that except Greece, he was never so
attached to any place in his life as to Ravenna. The peasantry he
thought the best people in the world, and their women the most
beautiful. "Those at Tivoli and Frescati," said he, "are mere
Sabines, coarse creatures, compared to the Romagnese. You may talk
of your English women; and it is true, that out of one hundred
Italian and English you will find thirty of the latter handsome; but
then there will be one Italian on the other side of the scale, who
will more than balance the deficit in numbers--one who, like the
Florence Venus, has no rival, and can have none in the North. I
found also at Ravenna much education and liberality of thinking among
the higher classes. The climate is delightful. I was not broken in
upon by society. Ravenna lies out of the way of travellers. I was
never tired of my rides in the pine forest: it breathes of the
Decameron; it is poetical ground. Francesca lived and Dante was
exiled and died at Ravenna. There is something inspiring in such an
air.

"The people liked me as much as they hated the government. It is not
a little to say, I was popular with all the leaders of the
constitutional party. They knew that I came from a land of liberty,
and wished well to their cause. I would have espoused it, too, and
assisted them to shake off their fetters. They knew my character,
for I had been living two years at Venice, where many of the
Ravennese have houses. I did not, however, take part in their
intrigues, nor join in their political coteries; but I had a magazine
of one hundred stand of arms in the house, when everything was ripe
for revolt----a curse on Carignan's imbecility! I could have
pardoned him that, too, if he had not impeached his partisans.

"The proscription was immense in Romagna, and embraced many of the
first nobles: almost all my friends, among the rest the Gambas (the
father and brother of the Countess Guiccioli), who took no part in
the affair, were included in it. They were exiled, and their
possessions confiscated. They knew that this must eventually drive
me out of the country. I did not follow them immediately: I was not
to be bullied--I had myself fallen under the eye of the government.