The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-24

most atrocious part Of this affair, and doubt
less the most wounding for him, was pre-
cisely Lady Byron's conduct, and in this con-
duct the worst was her cruel silence!
She has been called, after his words, the
moral Clytemnestra of her husband. Such a
surname is severe; but the repugnance we
feel to condemning a woman cannot prevent
our listening to the voice of justice, which
tells us that the comparison is still In favor Oh
the guilty one of antiquity. For she, driven
to crime by fierce passion overpowerlng rea-
son, at least only deprived her husband OF
physical life, and in committing the deed eX-
posed herself to all its consequences; while
Lady Byron left her husband at the very mo
ment that she saw him struggling amid
thousand shoals in the stormy sea OF embar-
rassments created by his marriage, and pre-
cisely when he more than ever required
a friendly. tender, and indulgent hand to save
him from the tempests of life. Besides, she
shut herself up in silence thousand times
more cruel than Clytemnestra's poniard that
only killed the body; whereas Lady Byrons
silence was destined to kill the soul, and such
a soul, leaving the door open to calumny and
making it to be supposed that her silence was
magnanimity destined to cover over frlghttul
wrongs, perhaps even depravity. In vain did
he, feeling his conscience at ease, lmplore
some inquiry and examination. She refused,
and the only favor she granted him was to
send him, one fine day, two persons to see
whether he were not mad. Happily Lord
Byron only discovered at later period the
purport of this strange visit.
In vain did Lord Byron's friend, the COM
panion of all his travels, throw himself at
Lady Byron's feet, imploring her to give over
this fatal silence. The onlyreplyshe deigned
was, that she had thought him mad. And
why, then, had she believed him mad? Be-
cause she, a methodical, intleXible woman,
with that unbendingness which a profound
mGralist calls the worship rendered to pride
by feelingless soul; because she could not
understand the possibility of tastes and habits
different to those of ordinary routine, or of
her own starched life Not to be hungry
when she was; not to sleep at night, but to
write while she was sleeping, and to sleep
when she was up; in short, to crafty the
requirements of material and intellectual life
at hours different to hers-all that was not
merely annoying for her, but it must be mad
dess; or, if not, it betokened depravity that she
could neither submit to nor tolerate without
imperilling her own morality!
Such was the grand secret of the cruel
silence which exposed Lord Byron to the
most maligeant nterpretations-to all the
calumny and revenge of his enemies. She
was perhaps the only woman in the world 50
strangely organized-the only one, perhaps,
capable of not feeling happy and proud at be-
longing to man superior to the rest of hu-
manity; and fatally was it decreed that this
woman alone of her species should be Lord
Byrons wife!
Before closing this chapter it remains for
us to examine if it be true, as several of his
biographers have pretended, that he wished
to be reunited to his wife. We must here
declare that Lord Byrons intention, in the
last years of his life, was, on the contrary,
not to see Lady Byron again.
Lord Byron has remained unap-
preciated as a man and unfairly judged as a
poet. One calls him the poet of evil an
other the bard of sorrow. But no. Lord
Byron was not exclusively either the one or
the other. He was the poet of the soul, just
as Shakespeare was before him. Lord Byron
In writing never had in view virtue rather
than vice. To take his stand as teacher of
humanity, at his age, would have seemed
ridiculous to him. After having chosen sub
jects in harmony with his genius and point
of view favorable to his poetic temperament
which especially required to throw off the
yoke of artificial passions and Of weak, frivo-
lous sentiments, what he really endeavored
was to be powerfully and energetically true.
He thought that truth ought always to have
precedence over everything else-that it was
the source of the beautiful in art, as well as
of all good in souls. To him lies were evil
and vice; truth was good and virtue. AS a
poet, then, he was the bard of the soul and of
truth; and, as a man, all those who knew him
and all those who read his works must pro-
claim him the poet who has come nearest to
the ideal of truth and sincerity.
And now, after having studied this great
soul under every aspect, if there were in
happy England men who should esteem them
selves higher in the scale of virtue than Lord
| Byron, because having never been troubled
ia their belief, either through circumstances
! or the nature of their own mind, they never
admitted or expressed any doubt: because
| they are the happy husbands of those charm
ing, indulgent, admirable women to be found
in England, who love and forgive so much
because, being rich, they have not refused
some trite out of their superhuity to the
poor; because, proud and happy in privileges
bestowed by their constitution they have
never blamed those in power. If these
prosperous ones deemed themselves superior
to their great fellow-citizen, would it be illibe
raj IN them to express now a differen
opinion? Might we not, without rashness
affirm that they should rather hold themselve
honored in the virtue and glory of their illus
trious countryman, humbly acknowledged,
that their own greater happiness is not tn
work of their own hands?
In addition to the statements of the Counties
Guiccioli, we give the following particular
with regard to the difficulty between ByroI
and his wife. Lady Byrons own statemen
of the facts of the case are interesting
whether as corroborating Mrs. Stoves stor,
or not
| THE SEPARATION.
The circumstances of the separation be