Chapter XXV: Letter 296: To Mr. Hoppner

"La Mira, Sept. 12. 1817.

"I set out yesterday morning with the intention of paying my
respects, and availing myself of your permission to walk over the
premises.[7] On arriving at Padua, I found that the march of the
Austrian troops had engrossed so many horses[8], that those I could
procure were hardly able to crawl; and their weakness, together
with the prospect of finding none at all at the post-house of
Monselice, and consequently either not arriving that day at Este,
or so late as to be unable to return home the same evening, induced
me to turn aside in a second visit to Arqua, instead of proceeding
onwards; and even thus I hardly got back in time.

"Next week I shall be obliged to be in Venice to meet Lord Kinnaird
and his brother, who are expected in a few days. And this
interruption, together with that occasioned by the continued march
of the Austrians for the next few days, will not allow me to fix
any precise period for availing myself of your kindness, though I
should wish to take the earliest opportunity. Perhaps, if absent,
you will have the goodness to permit one of your servants to show
me the grounds and house, or as much of either as may be
convenient; at any rate, I shall take the first occasion possible
to go over, and regret very much that I was yesterday prevented.

"I have the honour to be your obliged," &c.

[Footnote 7: A country-house on the Euganean hills, near Este, which Mr. Hoppner, who was then the English Consul-General at Venice, had for some time occupied, and which Lord Byron afterwards rented of him, but never resided in it.]

[Footnote 8: So great was the demand for horses, on the line of march of the Austrians, that all those belonging to private individuals were put in requisition for their use, and Lord Byron himself received an order to send his for the same purpose. This, however, he positively refused to do, adding, that if an attempt were made to take them by force, he would shoot them through the head in the middle of the road, rather than submit to such an act of tyranny upon a foreigner who was merely a temporary resident in the country. Whether his answer was ever reported to the higher authorities I know not; but his horses were suffered to remain unmolested in his stables.]

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