Athens

Athens appears as a place of political danger and personal confrontation in Paxton Hibben’s wartime experiences. During its bombardment, he walked the terrace with King Constantine; elsewhere in the city, a dispute in the dining room of the Grande Bretagne escalated into a duel. These scenes show Hibben repeatedly entering trouble on behalf of others or an idea, rather than cautiously protecting his prospects.

Setting and Episodes

During the bombardment of Athens, Hibben walked up and down the terrace with King Constantine. The account offers no further explanation of their conversation or of the circumstances of the bombardment, but places Hibben in the company of the king amid an attack on the city.

A separate confrontation began in the dining room of the Grande Bretagne. A French commission agent got up and left when a German sat down to eat. Hibben thought the ensuing duel was a joke, until his friends began putting on silk hats. He then stood still while the Frenchman fired two shots at him, before firing his own shot into the ground. The scene turns on Hibben’s belated recognition that the challenge was serious, followed by his refusal to make the encounter more violent.

Hibben’s Conduct in the City

The account presents Athens as one more place where Hibben was “always in hot water.” It describes him as slightly built and truculent, but also as someone who stood up for friends, people out of luck, and an idea. The incidents give that portrait concrete form: the duel arose from an encounter involving a Frenchman and a German, and Hibben responded to the danger without shooting at his opponent.

His conduct is linked to the difficulty of building a respectable career. The narrative characterizes him as too reckless to lay down the careful steppingstones such a career required. Athens therefore serves not only as the setting for an episode of wartime danger, but also as a place where his combative loyalty and impatience with caution become visible.