The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-09-22

ter gazing at it with an e1ulting smile, this
was the ejaculation that broke from him: "Oh,
what an implement OF torture have l acquired
in Won n Snch he rendered it by his eyes and
manner, keeping her in perpetual alarm Tor
its safety when in his presence. Al! this reads
madder than believe he was; but she bad not
then made up her mind 10 disbelleve his pre-
tended insanity, and conceived ~ pest TO In
trust her secret With the excellent Dr. Baillle,
telling him all that seemed 10 regard the state
of her husbands mind, and iettlng his adVce
regulate her conduct.
'' sBaillie doubted OF his arrangement, pat,
as he did not reckon bis own opinion infallble,
he wished her to take precautions as II her
husband was 30. he recommended her going;
to the country, but to give him no suspicion of
her intentions of remaining there, and Tor
short time to show no cohness in her letters
till she could better ascertain his state. She
.went-reeretting, as she told me, 10 wear any
semblapce but the truth. A short time dis
closed the story to the word. BE acted the
part OF man driven to despair by her iDfexi-
bic resentment and by the arts OF a goyerness
(once servant in the famiIy1 who hated him.
I will give you,' proceeds Laay:Anne: 2 rev
paragraphs transcribed from one OF Lady
Byron's own letters to me: ,.,
:" 1T is or1owflil to think That In very little
time this Young and amiable creature, wise,
patient and feeling, will have her character
mistaken by every one Who reads Byron's
works. To rescue her from this preserved
her letters, and when she afterwards expressed
a fear that anything Of her writing should ever
fall into hands to lDjure him Il suppose she
meant by publication, I solemnly assured her
that it never should. But here this letter shall
be placed. q sacred record in her favor, un-
known to herself:
LADY BYRoN'g LETTER.
"I am very incompetent judge OF The i'm
preston which the last canto OF Childe Harol1
may produce On the minds Of Indifferent read
ers. 1t contains the usual trace OF a conscience
restlessly awake, though his object has been
too loog 10 agg1avate its burden, as ifit could
be thus oppressed into eternal stupor. will
hope as you do, that it survives his ultimate
good. It was the acuteneBs OF his remorse,
impenitent III it's character, which 80 long
seemed to demand from my compassion to
spare every semblance Of reproacb, every look
of grief, which might have said to his con-
science, "You have made me wretcbed."
l am decidedly of opinion that he is RESPONSE
Bile. BE has wished to be thought partially
deranged, or ON the brink OF it, to perplex
observers and prevent them from tracing et-
fects to their real causes through all the in
tricaces OF his conduct.
''I was. as told you, at one time the dupe
of his acted insanity, anG clupg to the former
delusions in regard 10 the motives that con.
cerned me personally, till the whole system
was laid bare. BE is the absolute monarch of
words, sn1 uses them. as Bonaparte did lives.
for conquest, without more regard for their in
trinsic value. considering them only as ciphers
which must derive all their import from the
situation in which he places them, and the
ends to which he adapts them with such con-
summate skill. Why, then, you will say, does
he not employ them to give better color to
his own character? Because he is too good an
actor to overact, or TO assume moral earb
which it would be easy to strip off, In regard
to his poetry, egotism is the vital principle OF
kindle on any subject with which his own char
acter and interests are not identified; but by
the introduction of fcticious Incidents. BY
change of scene or time, he hasThveloped his
spoetical disclosures il q system impenetrable
except to very few, and his constant desire
of creating sensation makes him not averse
to be the object OF wonder and curiosity, even
though accompanied by some dark and vague
suspicious.
s.Nothing has contributed more TO the misun-
derstandipg Of his real character than the
lonely grandeur-in which he shrouds it, and
his affectation of being above mankind, when
he exists almost in their voice. The romance
of bis sentiments is another feature Of this
mask OF state. know no one more habitually
destitute of that enthusiasm he so beautifully
expresses, and to which he can work up his
fancy chiefly by contagion. l. ha6 heard he
was the best of brothers, the most generous OF
friends, and thought such feelings only re-
quired to be warmed and cherished into more
diffusive benevolence. Though thess opinions
are eradicated, and could never return
but with the decay OF my memory, you will not
lor "a, pha,, he
associations of feelings which arose from them.
soften and sadden my thoughts.
"tBut have not thanked you, dearest Lady
Annie, for your kindness in regard to princI-
pal object-that ofrectifying false impressions.
I trust you understand my wishes, which never
were toiujure Lord Byron in any way; for.
though he would not suffer me to remain his
wife, he cannot prevent me from continuing
his friend; and it was considering myself as
such that slenced the accusations by which
my own conduct might have been more fully
justified. It is not nscessary to speak i'll Of his
heart 10 general; it is sufficient That to me it
was hard and impenetrable-tha my own
must have been broken before bis could have
been touched. would rather represent this
as nv misfortune than as his guilt; but, sure
IL, that misfortune is not 10 be made my
crime. Such are my feelings; you will Judge
how to act.
"Bis allu:ions to me in Childe Harold are
cruel and cold, but with such sembance as
10 make me appear so and attract all sympa.
thy to himself. It 10 said in this poem that
hatred OF him wi 1 be taught as lesson TO his
child. might appeal to all who have ever
heard me speak Of him, and still more 10 my
own heart. to witness that there has been no
moment when I have remembered injury 9th
erwise than aftectiona ely and sorrowfully. It
is not my duty to give way to hopeless and
wholly unrequlted affection; but. so long as
live, my chief struggle will probably be not TO
remember blm too kindly. do not seek the
sympathy OF the world but wish to b, known
by those whose opinion ID valuable and whose
kindness is dear TO me. Among such, my
dear Lady Anne. you will ever be remembered
by your truly affectionate A. BYRON.
'sIt is the province OF your readers and Of the
world at large to judge between the two testi
monies now before them - Lady Byron's in
1916 and 1878, and that pat forward in 1869 by
Mrs. B. Stowe, as communicated by Lady
Byron thirteen years ago. In the face of the
evidence now given, positive, negative and cir.
cumstantal, there can be but two alternatives
in the case-either Mrs. B. Stowe must have
entirely misunderstood Lady byron, and been
thus led into error and mis.s.atemont, or we
must conclude that, under the pressure of
lifelong and secret scrrow, Lady Byron's mind
had become clouded with an hallucination in
respecs of the particular point iu question.
stTno raodar will admire the noble but sevare