The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-08-25
A Sensational scandal.

ten sensational article for the Atlantic
Monthly, protesting to give the true cause
Of the separation of Lord and Lady By
ron. We have not space for publica-
tion of these beastly charges, bat give,
in lieu thereof, such comments of the
press as throw light on the alleged mys-
terry, and develop exactly the worth and
infa,ny OF the evidence. The Missouri
Republican says:
''This mystery-if we are to believe
Mrs. Stoves accounts now cleared
away by the revelation of such awful
guilt that the tragic story of Beatrice
Cenci is is as nothing in comparison.
The following words contain the
essence of the charge preferred against
Lord Byron by his wife, speaking
through her friend:
"'From the height at which he might
have been happy as the husband Of a
secret adulterous intrigue with blood
relation, so near in consanguinity, that
discovery must have been utter ruin and
expulsion from civilized society,"
'The person here alluded to can be
no other than Lord Byron's half-sister,
the Honorable Augusta Maria Leigh. It
will be remembered that the father of
the poet, Mad Jack Byron, es he was
called, was confirmed roue, so utterly
Infamous in his wickedness that he was
virtually banished from decent society
In his twenty-seventh year, he eloped
with the Marohioness of Carmartheu.
whose husband shortly after procured a
divorce, when Byron married her. She
died in 1884, victim of his neglect and
ill-treatment. One daughter, Augusta,
was the sole fruit of this wretched union.
The following year Byron married Miss
Catherine Gordon, the mother of the
author of 'Childe Harold Augusta,
then, must have been at least two or
three years the senior of her half-brother,
but strong affection existed between
them, the records of which are scat
tered through both his poetry and COR
respondence. She was the last to leave
him previous to his final departure from
England; her name was among the last
that fingered on his lips when he lay
dying at Missolonghi, and he bequeathed
cept what was already settled upon Lady
Byron and Ada. It was Aueusta's hand
which placed over Byron's tomb. in
Hucknall Church, the tablet which bears
name that needs no sculptured marble
to make it immortal.
Augusta died a, number of years
since, and, up to this time, no breath of
slander from any quarter has ever stained
her reputation.
"The world is now asked to believe
that this lady formed, and continued
through several years at least, IN inces-
tuous connection with her brother, and
that child was born of the unnatural
aillance.f But this is not all; we are
asked to believe that Lady Byron knew
of the connection immediately after her
marriage, and that, from sense of duty
to her husband, and for the sake of the
angel that was in him. she tacitlv sane
toned it by permitting the partner of
his crime to remain under her roof while
she herself continued to hold the posi-.
ton of wife. More than this even: we
are told that she did not leave Lord By-
ron of her own free will, but was driven
away by him; that the offspring of the
intrigue was protected and cared for by
her until its death, and that the same
Kind offices were afterward extended to
the mother. The world shrinks back in
voluntarily from the contemplation of
the horrible theme, and nothing but
Mrs. Stoves high character for integrity
anG truthfulness prevents the story from
"o oaoo couslBueQ 10 OBLIVION as q
slander too vile for criticism, much less
contradiction. But there can be no
doubt on one point-what Mrs. Stowe
says was derived from conversations
with and memoranda submitted to her
by Lady Byron herself. The whole
fabric, then, must stand or fall upon the
veracity of Lady Byron; there is no
other proof. nor does Mrs. Stowe claim
that there ia anv
"Now, while we are willing to concede
all the admirable qualities to Lady
Byron which it is possible for q woman
to possess, we are forced to the conclu-
sion that she either deliberately falsified
or was cheated into believing as real
what was only monstrous hallncination
OF the brain. Bryon's open immortality
has long been acknowledged, even by
the most enthusiastic admirers of his
genius, but we contend that there is
nothing in his recorded words or actions
which will justify such allegations as
these. Reckless, defiant sinner he may
have been, but that he ever stepped him.
self in such beastly criminality as is here
set forth, we do not believe. Nor if he
did, do we imagine for moment that O
woman of Lady Byron's purity and