1821 - Richard Monkton Milnes
The Death of the Dismantler of the Elgin Marbles
Athens, Greece
Signor Lusieri, the active agent of this business, died by the breaking of a blood-vessel. The feeling of the people ran so high against him that he thought it necessary to barricade his home at night, particularly as he lived quite alone. The day of his death, the neighbourhood, surprised at his non-appearance, forced the door, and found him extended on the floor, his blood about him, and a huge black cat seated on his breast, which the people to this day believe to have been the avenging spirit, the punisher of his crimes, or else the form assumed by his own black soul; according to this latter notion, the animal was instantly killed.
Milnes, Richard Monkton (Lord Houghton)
Memorials of a Tour in Some Parts of Greece
London 1834