“We have a report here from Greece that the English Sec. of Legation and a whole picnic party have been captured by the brigands, and an immense ransom demanded.”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Trieste, April 23, 1870.
“The blow has fallen at last, and I am desolate. My poor darling was taken from me at two this morning, without suffering. It seems to me as if years had gone over since she smiled her last good-bye to me. All the happiness of my life has gone, and all the support. God’s greatest mercy would be to take me from a life of daily looking back, which is all that remains to me now.
“You are, I feel, a true friend who will feel for my great sorrow, and I write this as to one who will pity me.”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Trieste, May 28, 1870.
“Though I cannot read your note by any other light than an affectionate desire to be of service to me, veiled under the notion that I could be of any use to you; and though I say I see all this, and see besides how little capable I now am of even a weak effort, I accept your offer and write at once for leave of absence, which, between ourselves, I do not think would be accorded me if it was guessed that I intended to visit Greece. Indeed I know that Mr Gladstone’s Hellenism is calculated on at Athens to sustain the Greek government through anything that the public opinion of Europe would be likely to submit to.*
* Mr Blackwood proposed that Lever should pay a visit to
Greece, for the purpose of making investigations about an
act of brigandage which had shocked the civilised world. A
party of English tourists, which included Lord and Lady
Muncaster, had been seized by brigands at Oropos, near
Marathon. During the course of the negotiations for the
ransom of the tourists, some members of the British Legation
at Athens had been murdered. Many influential Greeks were
conniving at the act of brigandage, and matters were at this
time in a very disturbed condition in high quarters.—E. D.
“Erskine is an old friend of mine, but he is a very self-contained and reserved fellow, who will reveal nothing, and I would be glad of some Greek introductions to any persons not officially bound to sustain the Queen’s Cabinet. My wish would be to take the Constantinople boat that leaves on Saturday next, the 4th, and reaches Athens on Thursday following, 9th; but if my leave is not accorded me by telegraph I cannot do this, and there is only one boat in the week. I have to-day seen a private telegram from M. W———, the Greek Minister to the Austrian government here, saying that he is on the track of this most infamous outrage, and that if his suspicion prove true, some men of political eminence will have to fly from Greece for ever.