ion and order are
confirmed, all hopes of a loan will be in vain, and all the
assistance which the Greeks could expect from abroad, an assistance
which might be neither trifling nor worthless, will be suspended or
destroyed; and what is worse, the great powers of Europe, of whom no
one was an enemy to Greece, but seemed inclined to favour her in
consenting to the establishment of an independent power, will be
persuaded that the Greeks are unable to govern themselves, and will,
perhaps, undertake to arrange your disorders in such a way, as to
blast the brightest hopes you indulge, and that are indulged by your
friends."

In the meantime, Lord Byron was still at the villa he had hired in
Cephalonia, where his conduct was rather that of a spectator than an
ally. Colonel Stanhope, in a letter of the 26th of November,
describes him as having been there about three months, and spending
his time exactly as every one acquainted with his habits must have
expected. "The first six weeks he spent on board a merchant-vessel,
and seldom went on shore, except on business. Since that period he
has lived in a little villa in the country, in absolute retirement,
Count Gamba (brother to the Guiccioli) being his only companion."--
Such, surely, was not exactly playing that part in the Greek cause
which he had taught the world to look for. It is true, that the
accounts received there of the Greek affairs were not then
favourable. Everybody concurred in representing the executive
government as devoid of public virtue, and actuated by avarice or
personal ambition. This intelligence was certainly not calculated to
increase Lord Byron's ardour, and may partly excuse the causes of his
personal inactivity. I say personal, because he had written to
London to accelerate the attempt to raise a loan, and, at the
suggestion of Colonel Stanhope, he addressed a letter to Mavrocordato
respecting the inevitable consequences of their calamitous
dissensions. The object of this letter was to induce a
reconciliation between the rival factions, or to throw the odium, of
having thwarted the loan, upon the Executive, and thereby to degrade
the members of it in the opinion of the people. "I am very uneasy,"
said his Lordship to the prince, "at hearing that the dissensions of
Greece still continue; and at a moment when she might triumph over
everything in general, as she has triumphed in part. Greece is at
present placed between three measures; either