anions his gayety was still the same. Assailed by a
frightful tempest while going by sea from Constantinople to Athens,
shipwreck seemed impending. Every one was crying out in despair; Lord
Byron alone consoled and encouraged the rest, then he wrapped himself up
in his Albanian capote, and went to sleep quietly, until his fate should
be decided. On visiting a cavern with his friend Hobhouse, they lost
their way, their torch went out, and they had no prospect but to remain
there, and perish with hunger. Hobhouse was in despair; but Lord Byron
kept up his courage with jests, and presence of mind fit to save them,
and which did so in effect. Privations, rigor of seasons, sufferings
that drew complaints from the least delicate, and from his own servants,
had no effect on his good-humor.[172]

All this does not simply show his courage and good natural dispositions,
it likewise proves that there was not the making of a misanthrope in
him. And besides, his fellow-traveller Hobhouse says so positively, in
his account of their journey, when relating why Lord Byron could not
accompany him in an excursion to Negropont; for he energetically
expresses his regret at being obliged to separate, even for so short a
time, from a companion, who, according to him, _united to perspicacity
of wit and originality of observation, that gay and lively temper which
keeps attention awake under the pressure of fatigue, softening every
difficulty and every danger_.

Truly it might be said that Lord Byron was superior to the weaknesses of
humanity. He was evidently patient and amiable in the highest degree.
Greece appeared to him delightful,--an enchanting country with a
cloudless sky. He liked Athens so much that, on quitting it for the
first time, he was obliged to set off at a gallop to have courage enough
to go. And when he returned there, though from the cloister of the
Franciscan monastery, where he had fixed his abode, he could no longer
even perceive the pretty heads of the three Graces _entre les plantes
embaumees de la cour_; he felt himself just as happy, because he devoted
his time to study, and mixed with persons of note--such as the
celebrated Lady Hester Stanhope, Lord Sligo, and Bruce: souvenirs which
he has consecrated in his memoirs, saying Lady Hester's (?) was the most
delightful acquaintance he had made in Greece.[173]

He saw Greeks, Turks, Italians, French, and Germans, and was delighted.
Now could he observe the character of