Part 22 (1/2)

In letter 288, speaking of the various accounts given by critics of the origin of the story, he says,--

'The conjecturer is out, and knows nothing of the in than he could devise or divine for the soul of hierms of ”Manfred,” they h, part of which you saw'

It may be said, plausibly, that Lord Byron, if conscious of this crime, would not have expressed it in his poetry But his nature was such that he could not help it Whatever he wrote that had any real poas generally wrought out of self; and, when in a tulimpses of the cause It appears that he did know that he had been accused of incest, and that Shelley thought that accusation the only really important one; and yet, sensitive as he was to blame and reprobation, he ran upon this very subject most likely to re-awaken scandal

But Lord Byron's strategy was always of the bold kind It was the plan of the fugitive, who, instead of running away, stations hier, that nobody would ever think of looking for him there He published passionate verses to his sister on this principle He i but the unconscious energy of the agony which seized hiave vent to his nature in poetry

The boldness of his strategy is evident through all his life He began by charging his ith the very cruelty and deception which he was hi He had spread a net for her feet, and he accused her of spreading a net for his He had placed her in a position where she could not speak, and then leisurely shot arrows at her; and he represented her as having done the same by him When he attacked her in 'Don Juan,' and strove to take from her the very protection {227}of wo her na, and he knew it He ainst it; and he fought it down, and gained his point By sheer boldness and perseverance, he turned the public froroans and protests His 'Manfred' and his 'Cain' were parts of the saame But the involuntary cry of reh his own artifices, in a manner that produced a conviction of reality

His evident fear and hatred of his ere other symptoms of crime

There was no apparent occasion for hiht, ae had been a very uncomfortable one; and he said to Madaed Why, then, did he hate her for wanting to live peaceably by herself? Why did he so fear her, that not one year of his life passed without his concocting and circulating soainst her? She, by his own showing, published none against him It is remarkable, that, in all his zeal to represent hile re either directly or indirectly from her or her family He is in a fever in Venice, not from what she has spoken, but because she has sealed the lips of her counsel, and because she and her fanorant what forainst him may take He had heard from Shelley that his wife silenced the h a visit; and yet he is afraid of her,--so afraid, that he tells Moore he expects she will attack hirave

Now, if Lord Byron knew that his wife had a deadly secret that she could tell, all this conduct is explicable: it is in the ordinary course of human nature Men always distrust those who hold facts by which they can be ruined They fear theonistic to the of Falkland to Caleb Williams, as portrayed in Godwin's masterly sketch, is perfectly natural, and it is exactly illustrative of what Byron felt for his wife He hated her for having his secret; and, so far as a hu could do it, he tried to destroy her character before the world, that she ainst him If we admit this solution, Byron's conduct is at least that of aas men ordinarily would act under such circu like a fiend Let us look at adloomy, melancholy, e, unaccountable treate; such that her confidential maid advises her return to her parents In Lady Byron's letter to Mrs Leigh, she reminds Lord Byron that he always expressed a desire and detere Lord Byron himself admits to Madame de Stael that his behaviour was such, that his wife ht him insane Noe are asked to believe, that simply because, under these circumstances, Lady Byron wished to live separate from her husband, he hated and feared her so that he could never let her alone afterwards; that he charged her with ainst himself, merely out of spite, because she preferred not to live with him This last view of the case certainly makes Lord Byron more unaccountably wicked than the other

The first supposition shows hiony of self-preservation; the second as a fiend, delighting in gratuitous deceit and cruelty

Again: a presumption of this crime appears in Lord Byron's aditi at the time

In letter 307, to Mr Moore, under date Venice, Feb 2, 1818, Byron says, speaking of Moore's loss of a child,--

'I kno to feel with you, because I aitiiti of one before; and I look forward to one of these as the pillar ofthat I ever reach, as I hope I never shall, that desolating period'

The illegitimate child that he had ra, born about nine or ten itimate alluded to was born before, and, as the reader sees, was spoken of as still living

Moore appears to be puzzled to knoho this child can be, and conjectures that it may possibly be the child referred to in an early poem, written, while a schoolboy of nineteen, at Harrow

On turning back to the note referred to, we find two things: first, that the child there mentioned was not claimed by Lord Byron as his own, but that he asked histo a schoolmate now dead; second, that the infant died shortly after, and, consequently, could not be the child mentioned in this letter

Now, besides this fact, that Lord Byron aditimate child born before Ada, we place this other fact, that there was a child in England which was believed to be his by those who had every opportunity of knowing

On this subject we shall cite a passage froland, and written by a person who appears well informed on the subject of his letter:--

'The fact is, the incest was first committed, and the child of it born before, shortly before, the Byron hter) hter of Lord Byron, born about a year after his separation

'The history, more or less, of that child of incest, is known to many; for in Lady Byron's attempts to watch over her, and rescue her froents at different tinition, by an intelligent person in England, of a child corresponding ith Lord Byron's declaration of an illegitiland

Up to this point, we have, then, the circuood and amiable woman, who had married him froreatest lawyers of England confirmed her in this decision, and threatened Lord Byron, that, unless he consented to this, they would expose the evidence against him in a suit for divorce He fled froation

He was angry with and malicious towards the counsel who supported his wife; he was angry at and afraid of a ho did nothing to injure hirade her He gave such evidence of res as to lead ereat crime The public rumour of his day specified what the criainst him The report was silenced by his wife's efforts only

Lord Byron subsequently declares the existence of an illegiti to this, there is the history, known in England, of a child believed to be his, in whom his wife took an interest