The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-08-20
Terms $500 per o,,n,.,u. i'm odrouce.

"'sVHCe sEt NutttSttCs
enee with Lord Byron, should avoid all but
nsht anu Soothing topics. Under these i'm
pre'siohs leit London, determined to follow
the ADVICE gwen by DIR. Baillie. Whatever
| toward me from the time of my marriage vet
| supposing him to be in state of mental
| alienation, it was not for me, nor for any per
| son of common humanity. to manifest at that
m oment sense of injury"
Nothing more than this letter from Lady
Byron is necessary to substantiate the fact
that she did not leave her husband, but was
driven from hm-drIven from him that he
might give himself up to the guilty infatua-
ton that was consuming him, without being
tortured by her Imploring face and by the ST.
ient power OF her presence and prayers.
foT long time before this she had seen
| iittie Oh shim. On the day of her departure
she passed by the door Of his room, and
| stopped 10 caress his iavorite spaniel, which
| was lying there; and she confessed Willing
ness even to be something as humble as that
poor little creature, might she only be allow
ed to remain and watch over him. She went
into the room where he and the partner of
his sins were sitting together, and said, "By-
ron, came to say good by" offering at the
same time her hand.
Lord Byron put his hands behind him, re-
treated to the mantelpiece, andl looking
round on the two that stood there with sar-
castle smile, said, when shall we three meet
asain?" Lady Byron answered, ''In Heaven,
trust"
| Now il the reader wishes to understand
| the real talents Of Lord Byron for deception
and dssimulation, let him read, with this
| story in his mind, the "Fare thee WELL"
which he addressed to Lady Byron through
| the printer
Fare thee well, and, ii forever,
| Still forever iare thee well.
| Even though uniorgiving. never
'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.
Would that breast were barred before thee,
Where thy head so oft hath lain,
While that placid sleep cameo 'er thee,
Thou can st never know again.
Though my many faults defaced me,
Could no OH er arm be found
Than the one which once embraced me
To infiict cureless wound?
After this separation the tide of popular
feeling set so strongly against Lord Byron
that he left lEnglano fdr Switzerland. wnere
he conceived and in part wrote the tragedy
OF Manfred" wherein the grief and misery
| of his own life is pictured with almost auto
biographical falthfulness.
While in England in 1856, Mrs. Stowe was
invited by Lady Byron to spend day with
her, and it was at this interview, which had
"aimost the solemnity OF death bed ayowal,"
that the true story of Lady Byron's lilewas
conided to the author of this paper, the con-
cludiDg paragraphs oi which are as follows:
Thaough all this sorrowul history was to
be seen, not the care OF a slandered woman
to make her story good, but the pathetic anx
iety of a mother, who treasures every parti-
Lola of Of m
| son whom she cannot cease to love. With
| indescribable resignation, she dwelt on those
| last hours, those words addressed to her nev-
| er to be understood till repeated in eternity.
But all this she looked upon as forever past;
believing that, with the dropping of the
earthly life, these morbid impulses and infiu-
| ences ceased, and that higher nature which
he often so beautifully expressed in his po-
ems became the triumphant one.
| While speaking on this subject her pale,
| ETHEREAL face became luminous with a heaven
ly radiance; there was something so sublime
| in her belief in the victory of love over evil,
that faith with her seemed to have become
sight. She seemed so clearly to perceive the
/ divine ideal of the man she had loved and
for whose salvation she had been called to
suffer and pray, that all memories of his past
| unworthiness fell away and were lost.
| Her love was never the doting fondness of
| weak women; it was the appreciative and
| discriminating love by which higher nature
recognized gOdlike capabilities under all the
| dust and deflement of misuse and passion;
and she never doubted that the love, which
in her was so strong that no injury or insult
could shake it, was yet stronger in the God
| who made her capable Of such devotion,
and that in Him it was accompanied by pow
er to subdue all things to itself.
The writer was so impressed and excited by
the whole scene and recital that she begged
for two or three days to deliberate, before
forming any opinion. She took the memo
randum with her, returned to London, and
gave a day or two to the consideration OF the
subject. The decision which she made was
chiefly influenced by her love for Lady Byron.
She seemed so frail, she had suffered so much,
she stood at such height above the compre-
| henson of the coarse and common world,
that the author had feeling that 1t would al
! most he like violating shrine to ask her to
| come forth rom Jne sanctuary OF silenoo
where she had so long abode and plead her
cause. She wrote to Lady Byron that while
this act of Justice did seem to be called for,
and to be in some respects most desirable, yet
as it would involve so much that Lady Byron
would be entirely justifiable in leaving the
| truth to be disclosed after her death, and
recommended that all the facts necessary
should be put in the hands of some person to
be so published.
Years passed on. Lady Byron fingered
four years after this interview, to the wonder
of her physicians and all her friends.
After Lady Byron's death the writer looked
anxiously, hoping to see memoir of the per-
son whom she considered the most remark
able woman that England has produced in
the century. No such memoir has appeared
on the part of her friends; and the mistress
OF Lord Byron has the ear of the public, and
is sowing far and wide unworthy ISLANDERS,
which are eagerly gathered up and read by
an uudiscriminating community.
There may be family reasons in England
which prevent Lady Byron's friends from
speaking; but Lady Byron has an American
name and an American existence, and rever-
ence for pure womanhood is. we think, ma
sional characteristic OIL the American; and,
so far as this country is concerned, we feel
that the public should have this refutation of
the ISLANDERS OF the Countess Guicciolis book.