‘A Most Eccentric Character’

Abstract

Whilst Lord Byron remained at Ancona … he was returning into the city after nine o’clock in the evening, and was stopped at the Levant Gate by the guard, who, considering him from his dress a wine-mountaineer or Ragusan peasant, demanded of him his passport. He refused to show one, and would give no account of himself, so that they had him conveyed in a ‘carshal’, or spring-cart, opposite the ‘Spread Eagle Hotel’ (the Austrian arms), where he beckoned to the attendants whom he saw standing at the gate. The cart was stopped, and he got out. The guard then began to be alarmed, fearing they had made some grand mistake; but, having enjoyed his joke, and been satisfied that his queer dress had deceived the penetration of the guard, and occasioned them no little surprise and confusion, he laughed heartily at the joke, and paid them well for the trouble he had given them.

The Life, Writings, Opinions and Times of … Lord Byron … by an English Gentleman, in the Greek Military Service, and Comrade of his Lordship (London, 1825) I , 367–74.