s compulsion he had no cause to
complain; a foreigner meddling with the politics of the country in
which he was only accidentally resident, could expect no deferential
consideration from the government. It has nothing to do with the
question whether his Lordship was right or wrong in his principles.
The government was in the possession of the power, and in self-
defence he could expect no other course towards him than what he did
experience. He was admonished to retreat: he did so. Could he have
done otherwise, he would not. He would have used the Austrian
authority as ill as he was made to feel it did him.

In the autumn of 1821, Lord Byron removed from Ravenna to Pisa, where
he hired the Lanfranchi palace for a year--one of those massy marble
piles which appear

"So old, as if they had for ever stood--
So strong, as if they would for ever stand!"

Both in aspect and character it was interesting to the boding fancies
of the noble tenant. It is said to have been constructed from a
design of Michael Angelo; and in the grandeur of its features
exhibits a bold and colossal style not unworthy of his genius.

The Lanfranchi family, in the time of Dante, were distinguished in
the factions of those days, and one of them has received his meed of
immortality from the poet, as the persecutor of Ugolino. They are
now extinct, and their traditionary reputation is illustrated by the
popular belief in the neighbourhood, that their ghosts are restless,
and still haunt their former gloomy and gigantic habitation.

The building was too vast for the establishment of Lord Byron, and he
occupied only the first floor.

The life he led at this period was dull and unvaried. Billiards,
conversations, reading, and occasionally writing, constituted the
regular business of the day. In the cool of the afternoon, he
sometimes went out in his carriage, oftener on horseback, and
generally amused himself with pistol practice at a five-paul piece.
He dined at half an hour after sunset, and then drove to Count
Gamba's, where he passed several hours with the Countess Guiccioli,
who at that time still resided with her father. On his return he
read or wrote till the night was far spent, or rather till the
morning was come again, sipping at intervals spirits diluted with
water, as medicine to counteract some nephritic disorder to which he
considered himself liable.

Notwithstanding the tranquillity of this course of life, he was
acci