THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

144 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
He also
aided in this work by the engineer Parry.
planned an attack on Lepanto; but its execution was
and
prevented by the insubordination of the Suliots;
his remaining weeks of life were embittered by the
feuds and broils of which he was compelled to be the
helpless witness. A regular war broke out between
Anatoliko and Missolonghi. Karaiskakis marched,
with three hundred men, from the former place, and
in revenge for some injury received,
primates from Missolonghi;
carried off two
while the dismissed Suliots
returned and seized the fort of Vasiladi, which
commanded the town from the lagoon.
Prostrated by sickness and racked with pain,
Byron preserved among all these troubles, which he
was powerless to prevent, the same unshaken fortitude
and unbroken spirit. Even on his death-bed,
his cool courage
and indomitable will cowed into silence
the fierce Suliot warriors, who had burst, with
brandished knives and wild threats, into his room.
It may perhaps be doubted whether he would, had he
lived, have proved a really effective general, or have
been able to reunite the shattered fragments of Greece,
before they were once more welded together by the
blows of a common misfortune.
It is certain that his
death was the best service that he could have rendered
to the cause he had at heart; for all Europe felt that he