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AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREEK. 2 1 would find themselves and I could not separate them again." Many a beautiful night I spent at the Phaleron with a dear Greek friend, a grave man of science. He recited for me many of the Klepht songs ; one of those I liked the best was a bal- lad, and when I heard it I said at once, Burger must have borrowed from it for his best poem, " Leonore." It was as follows: " O mother with thy nine sons and thy only daughter, thy beloved daughter is tenderly caressed. She was twelve years old and the sun had not seen her yet. Thou bathest her, and thou braidest her hair in the shade of the night, and thou fastenest the hair with ribbons under the rays of the evening star or the morning star. She is asked to marry in a foreign land, quite far away, in Babylonia. Her eight brothers re- fuse their consent, but Constantine consents: Give her, O my mother, send Arete into the foreign land, that I may find consolation when- ever I shall travel far away, and there may be a roof under which I can repose. Thou art pru- dent, Constantine, but what thou sayest is not wise. And when, O my son, sickness or death should happen to us, who will bring her to me? He gave God for bond and called the saints as