We rode as far as we could along the sea-shore, and then on a kind of
dyke, or embankment, which has been raised where the island was very
narrow, as far as another small fort about half way between the
principal one which I have already mentioned, and the town or village of
Malamocco, which is near the other extremity of the island,--the
distance between the two forts being about three miles.

"On the land side of the embankment, not far from the smaller fort, was
a boundary stone which probably marked some division of property,--all
the side of the island nearest the Lagune being divided into gardens for
the cultivation of vegetables for the Venetian markets. At the foot of
this stone Lord Byron repeatedly told me that I should cause him to be
interred, if he should die in Venice, or its neighbourhood, during my
residence there; and he appeared to think, as he was not a Catholic,
that, on the part of the government, there could be no obstacle to his
interment in an unhallowed spot of ground by the sea-side. At all
events, I was to overcome whatever difficulties might be raised on this
account. I was, by no means, he repeatedly told me, to allow his body to
be removed to England, nor permit any of his family to interfere with
his funeral.

"Nothing could be more delightful than these rides on the Lido were to
me. We were from half to three quarters of an hour crossing the water,
during which his conversation was always most amusing and interesting.
Sometimes he would bring with him any new book he had received, and read
to me the passages which most struck him. Often he would repeat to me
whole stanzas of the poems he was engaged in writing, as he had composed
them on the preceding evening; and this was the more interesting to me,
because I could frequently trace in them some idea which he had started
in our conversation of the preceding day, or some remark, the effect of