and though the woman loses her senses by the shock, her paramour glories in his guilt, accuses his parent and sovereign of injustice, and dies impenitent. Such is the poem of Parisina, in which the noble author has taken the liberty, not indeed an unusual one with him, of paraphrasing the words of a modern writer without any acknowledgment. The passage alluded to is that where the guilty duchess appears before the assembled court, consisting of persons whose former admiration of her was such, that

"had her eye in sorrow wept,

A thousand warriors forth had leapt ;
A thousand swords had sheathless shone,
And made her quarrel all their own."

Thus Burke, after the beautiful description which he has given of the unfortunate Maria Antoinette, in her splendour and fall, breaks out with this fine exclamation: "Little did I dream that when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace, concealed in that bosom; little did I dream that I

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should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult."

CHAPTER XI.

Birth of a Daughter to Lord Byron.—Differences with his Lady-She quits his Residence.-Causes of the Separation.-The Lady's conduct approved. -Strange procedure of his Lordship.-The Editor of the Morning Chronicle's interference.Lord Byron's Verses to his Wife, and Satire upon her Governess.-His Lordship leaves the kingdom.

OUR attention is now called from literary to personal history; and here also, by a fatality peculiarly unfortunate, we find more room for complaint and censure, than gratulation or praise, in the conduct of the noble person whose wayward course we are pursuing. Private memoirs are of so delicate a nature, that few circumstances can warrant the discussion of facts which, though made matter of public notoriety, involve the peace of families and the character of individuals. Still, however, there are some cases in

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which, as it is impossible to be absolutely indifferent, so neither is it just to remain altogether silent. But in the present instance there can be little call for an apology, since, substantially, nothing is left to be told, more than what has already been made known to the world either in the form of narrative or in the nature of explanatory appeal, by those who in prudence should have avoided that tribunal.

At the beginning of 1815 Lord Byron married, and towards the close of the same year his lady brought him a daughter; so that, as the union, to all appearance, was one of love, the fruits of it gave the promise of permanent felicity. That prospect, however, was not realized'; and the harmony which the birth of a first child seemed most likely to promote, was within a few weeks after that event so completely broken, that an absolute separation took place. Various causes were assigned for this rupture, but all of them concurring in the suspicion of infidelity against the noble husband-of which, if some were strong, others were slight and equivocal. Yet it could not be said, nor indeed was it even pretended, that the charges alledged were totally void of foundation. Enough appeared,

232

IMPROPER CONNEXIONS.

upon investigation, to convince those who acted with a sincere regard to both parties, that there was but little chance of tranquillity, where jealousy on the one side and levity on the other continually created new sources of disquiet. The share which Lord Byron had been unfortunately led to take in the direction of the concerns of Drury-Lane Theatre, contributed very much to increase his domestic trouble; by bringing about him a set of persons with whom a lady of high sensibility could not willingly associate. The scruples of such a mind every man of feeling will be careful to respect, because he sees in them the best security of his own happiness. Here, on the contrary, the repugnance to join that sort of society which the husband selected was treated with stern contempt; and those connexions were openly continued, the propriety of which became as much a matter of public scandal as of private disagreement. It might have been expected, that in the situation of the lady some regard would have been paid to her mental repose, if not to the opinion of the world: but great genius is above the ordinary rules of life; it scorns to be restricted in its pursuit of pleasure by the laws of decorum, and "at one slight bound it overleaps all bounds."