Accounts differ as to the extent and origin of his deformity; and the doubts on the matter are not removed by the inconsistent accounts of the indelicate post-mortem examination made by Mr. Trelawny at Mesolonghi.

On the 21st of November he reached Mesolonghi, whore, fifteen years later, he died.

These wild mercenaries becoming turbulent, he was obliged to despatch them to Mesolonghi, then threatened with siege by the Turks and anxiously waiting relief.

" Prince Alexander Mavrocordatosthe most prominent of the practical patriotic leadershaving been deposed from the presidency, was sent to regulate the affairs of Western Greece, and was now on his way with a fleet to relieve Mesolonghi, in attempting which the brave Marco Bozzaris had previously fallen.

Mavrocordatos on entering Mesolonghi lost no time in inviting the poet to join him, and placed a brig at his disposal, adding, "I need not tell you to what a pitch your presence is desired by everybody, or what a prosperous direction it will give to all our affairs.

On the 5th he arrived at Mesolonghi, and was received with salvoes of musketry and music.

Byron brought to the Greeks at Mesolonghi the 4000l.

The dykes of Holland when broken down are the deserts of Arabia, in comparison with Mesolonghi."

On the 30th he was presented with the freedom of the city of Mesolonghi.

Stanhope wrote, on hearing the news, "England has lost her brightest geniusGreece her noblest friend;" and Trelawny, on coming to Mesolonghi, heard nothing in the streets but "Byron is dead!"

The funeral service was performed at Mesolonghi.

Byron had, on occasion, more self-control than Burns, who yielded to every thirst or gust, and could never have lived the life of the soldier at Mesolonghi; but partly owing to meanness, partly to a sound instinct, his memory has been more severely dealt with.

On November 6 he actually laid siege to Mesolonghi, but here his experiences were as discomfiting as Dramali's.

The Ottoman commander in the west raised an auxiliary force of Moslem and Catholic clansmen from northern Albania, and attempted to reach Mesolonghi once more.

At the same time the Ottoman army of the west moved south again under a new commander, Rashid Pasha of Yannina, and laid final siege on April 27 to Mesolonghi, just a year after Byron had died of fever within its walls.

They were indeed the decisive factor; for without the supporting squadron Rashid would have found himself in the same straits as his predecessors at the approach of autumn, while the slackness of the islanders in keeping the sea allowed Mesolonghi to be isolated in January 1826.

In April provisions in Mesolonghi itself gave out, and, scorning surrender, the garrisonmen, women, and children together made a general sortie on the night of April 22.

It was a glorious end for Mesolonghi, but it left the enemy in possession of all north-western Greece.