The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-19


Lady Byron made but one condition with him.
She had him in her power, and she exacted
that the unhappy partner of his sins should
not follow him out of England, and that the
ruinous intrigue should be given up. Her
inhexibility on this point kept up that en-
nifty which was constantly expressing itself IN /
some publication or other, and which drew
her and her private relations with him before
the public
The story of what Lady Byron did with the
portion of her fortune which was reserved to
her is a record of noble and sIilfully adminis-
tered charities Pitiful, and wise, and strong,
there was no form of human suffering or
sorrow that did not find with her refuge and
help. She gave not only systematically but
also impulsively. Miss Martineau claims for
her the honor Of having first invented prac-
tical schools in which the children of the
poor were turned into agriculturists, arti-
sans, seamStresses, and good wives for poor
men, While she managed with admirable
skill and economy permanent institutions of
this sort, she was always ready to relieve SUI
fering in any form. The fugitive slaves, Will
liam and Ellen Crafts, escaping to England,
were fostered by her protecting care. In many
cases, where there was distress or anxiety
from poverty among those too self-respecting
to make their suherings known, the delicate
hand Of Lady Byron minisJered to the want
with a consideration which spared the most
refined feelings.
As a mother, her course was embarrassed
by peculiar trials. The daughter inherited
from the father not only brilliant talents, but
a restlessness and morbid sensibility which
might be too surely traced to the storms and
agitations Of the period in which she was
born. 1t was necessary to bring her up in
ignorance of the true history of her mothers
life. and the consequence was that she could
not fully understand that mother. During
her early girlhood her career was a source of
more anxiety than of comfort. She married
a man of fashion, ran a brilliant course as
gay woman of fashion, and died early of a
lingering and painful disease. In the silence
and shaded retirement of the sick room the
daughter came wholly back to her mothers
arms and heart; and it was on that
mothers bosom that she leaned as
she went down into the dark valley.
1t was that mother who placed her
weak and dying hand in that of her Almighty
Saviour. To the children left by her daugh-
ter she ministered with the faithfulness of
guardian angel and it is owing to her intlu-
ence that those who yet remain are among the
noblest and best of mankind. The per-
| son whose relation with Byron had been so
disastrous, also in the latter years of her life,
| felt Lady Byrons loving and ennobling inhu-
| ences, and in her last sickness and dying
| hours looked to her for consolation and help.
| There was an unfortunate child of sin, born
with the curse upon her, over whose wayward
nature Lady Byron watched with a mothers
tenderness. She was the one who could
have patience when the patience Of every one
else failed; and, though her task was a diff
| cult one, from the strange, abnormal prOpen-
sites to evil in the object of her cares vet
Lady Byron never faltered and never gave
over, until death took the responsibility from
| her hands.
During all this trial, strange to say. her
belief that the good in Lord Byron would
finally conquer was mistaken. TO a friend
who said to her, "Oh. how could you love
| him = she answered briefly, My dear. there
was the angel in him. 1t is in us all 1t
was in this angel that she had faith. 1t was
! for the deliverance of this angel from de-
gradation and shame and sin that she un-
ceasingly prayed. She read every work that
| Byron wrote-read it with deeper knowledge
than any human being but herself could pos
sess. The ribaldry and the Obscenity, and
the insults with which he strove to make her
ridiculous in the world, fell at her plying
feet unheeded. When he broke away from all
this unworthy life to devote himself to g
manly enterprise for the redemption of
Greece, she thought that she saw the begi II
ming of an answer to her prayers.
Even although one of his latest acts
| concerning her was to repeat to Lady
| DlGSSlIlBlOu lll6 ldlSG uCCNAullOu WHICH
made Lady Byron the author of all his errors,
she still had hopes from the one step taken
in the right direction. In the midst of these
hopes came the news of his sudden death.
On his death-bed it is well known that he
called his confidential English servant to him,
$50 to my sister-tell her-go to Lady Byron
you will see her, and say Here followed
twenty minutes of indistinct mutterings, in
which the names of his wife, daughter, and
sister frequently occurred. He then said:
''Now l have todAyou all. My Lord, re-
piled Fletcher, 81 have not understood word
your lordship has been saying. ''Not under
stand me :" exclaimed Lord Byron, with look
it is too late-all is over" He afterwards,
says Moore tried to utter a few words of
which none were ineligible except ''my sis
ter-my child When Fletcher returned to
London, Lady Byron sent for him, and walked
the room in convulsive struggles to repress
her tears and sobs, while she over and over
again strove to elicit something from him
which should enlghten her upon what that
| last message had been; but in vain-the gates
of eternity were shut in her face and not a
word had passed to tell her if he had re-
pented.
For all that, Lady Byron never doubted his
! salvation Ever before her, during the few
remaining years of her widowhood was the
image of her husband, purified and ennobled,
with the shadows of earth forever dissipated
the stains of sin forever removed-''the angel
in him, as she expressed it, ''made perfect,
according to its divine ideal" =
1t has been thought by some friends who
| have read the proof-sheets of the foregoing.
that the author should state more specifically