328—to Thomas Moore.

September 8, 1813.

I am sorry to see Toderini again so soon, for fear your scrupulous conscience should have prevented you from fully availing yourself of his spoils. By this coach I send you a copy of that awful pamphlet The Giaour, which has never procured me half so high a compliment as your modest alarm. You will (if inclined in an evening) perceive that I have added much in quantity,—a circumstance which may truly diminish your modesty upon the subject.

You stand certainly in great need of a "lift" with Mackintosh. My dear Moore, you strangely under-rate yourself. I should conceive it an affectation in any other; but I think I know you well enough to believe that you don't know your own value. However, 'tis a fault that generally mends; and, in your case, it really ought. I have heard him speak of you as highly as your wife could wish; and enough to give all your friends the jaundice.

Yesterday

I had a letter from Ali Pacha! brought by Dr. Holland, who is just returned from Albania 1 . It is in Latin, and begins "Excellentissime nec non Carissime," and ends about a gun he wants made for him;—it is signed "Ali Vizir." What do you think he has been about? H. tells me that, last spring, he took a hostile town, where, forty-two years ago, his mother and sisters were treated as Miss Cunigunde 2 was by the Bulgarian cavalry. He takes the town, selects all the survivors of this exploit—children, grandchildren, etc. to the tune of six hundred, and has them shot before his face.

Recollect, he spared the rest of the city, and confined himself to the Tarquin pedigree 3 ,—which is more than I would. So much for "dearest friend."

Footnote 1:

  See Letters, vol. i. p. 246 [Letter 131], and note

[Footnote 1 of Letter 131]. Dr., afterwards Sir Henry, Holland (1788-1873) published his Travels in the Ionian Islands, Albania, etc., in 1815.

Footnote 2:

  Voltaire's Candide, ch. vii.:

"On ne vous a done pas violé? on ne vous a point fendu le ventre, comme le philosophe Pangloss me l'avait assuré? Si fait, dit la belle Cunégonde; mais on ne meurt pas toujours de ces deux accidents."

Footnote 3:

  The "false Sextus... that wrought the deed of shame," and violated Lucretia.