 A few critics disagree with the speculation over Giraud 's and Byron 's relationship . The early 20th @-@ century biographer Ethel Mayne points out both the frequency of such relationships in Byron 's life and their inherent ambiguity when she says , " His stay was also marked by one of those ambiguous friendships with a youth infinitely below him in rank which have already been seen to recur in his life ... The patron was supposed to be learning Italian from [ Girard ] ; this made a pretext for giving him , on their parting at Malta in 1811 ... a considerable sum of money " . Elizabeth Longford , in her 1976 biography , disagrees with the claims that there was a physical relationship between the two and argues , " Byron 's especial favourite among the ' ragazzi ' was Nicolo Giraud . He had first taken up with Nicolo while Hobhouse was away in Euboea the year before , but there is no evidence that his feelings for Nicolo were anything but romantic and protective . " Jerome Christensen followed this view in 1993 and adds , " we know little more than what Byron tells us " . 
