Byron's last verses were lines written on January 22, 1824, at Missolonghi. To one of his English military associates in the expedition of Lepanto he remarked: "You were complaining that I never write any poetry now. This is my birthday, and I have just finished something which, I think, is better than what I usually write." They were the famous lines, "On this Day I complete my Thirty-sixth Year":
'Tis time the heart should be unmoved, Since others it hath ceased to move; Yet, though I cannot be beloved, Still let me love!
My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone!
Awake! (not Greece--she is awake!) Awake my spirit! Think through whom Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake, And then strike home!
If thou regret'st thy youth, why live? The land of honorable death Is here--Up, to the field, and give Away thy breath!
Seek out--less often sought than found-- A soldier's grave, for thee the best! Then look around, and choose thy ground, And take thy rest!
[Sidenote: Russian suzerainty rejected by Greeks]
When Byron died, Missolonghi had been delivered from its first siege. Greece was plunged in civil war. Kolokotrones, who set himself up against the government of Konduriottes and Kolletes, was overthrown and lodged in a prison on the island of Hydra. An offer of Russian intervention at the price of Russian suzerainty was rejected by the Greeks. Encouraged by this, the Sultan appealed to his vassal, Mehemet Ali of Egypt, to help him exterminate the Greeks. The island of Crete was held out to Mehemet Ali as a prize. The ambitious ruler of Egypt responded with enthusiasm. He raised an army of 90,000 men and a fleet, and sent them forth under the command of his adopted son Ibrahim. Early in the spring the Egyptian expedition landed in Crete and all but exterminated its Greek population. The island of Kossos was next captured; and its inhabitants were butchered. In July, the Turkish fleet took advantage of the Greek Government's weakness to make a descent upon Psara, one of the choicest islands of Greece. In spite of desperate resistance, the citadel of Psara was stormed, and the Psariotes were put to the sword. Thousands were slain, while the women and children were carried off as slaves. How little the miseries of the Greeks affected the rulers of Europe may be gathered from this bright side light on Metternich given by his secretary Gentz: