The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-02-17
first received her devotion with complacen.

/ first received her devotion with complscen
( Cy.
4 In marrying the Puritanic Miss Milbanke
i Byron put the black seal on his life. Sh,
never properly knew him, and her fatal stcy
I taken year after the union made him al
exile and debauchee. Passing over hi
many adventures in Venice, the historian
comes to the last great epoch of Byront
heart-life; his meeting with Teresa, th,
Countess Guiccioli.
As exemplifying the fascinations of the
poet aud his great popularity with women,
CASTELAR, devotes some pages to an intimacy
formed by Byron with Margherita, Vene-
tian woman, and one of the people, though
it is always made to appear that such in.
anuratas hdng themselves at the man.
''She was tall, her shoulders broad, and
her arms robust; her face was handsome,
and her head vulgar; her eyes seemed t.
consume like flaming fire. She loved al
most tn folly, but was jealous TO madDess.
She carressed Lord Byron and she NAL
treated him."
The influence, it is said, that this fierce
creature exercised over the poet seems total
ly ineXplicable, she was utterly lacking
i'll refinement, land could neither read nor
write"
This person, cunning in her infirmity, in
tercepted ByrOn's letters, and had others
read them to her, determined he should have
no secrets from her.
The friends who visited Lord Byron at
this time did not recognize him. HIS wasted
form and his pallid face gave him the ap,
pearauce OF corpse, animated only by the
6rilIiancy of his fatally beautiful eyes"
1t Was at this time, and to save him from
these tormenting, but passing affections,
that the young and beautiful Teresa (Guic-
cloli) appeared.
Castelar, clothes their acquaintance and
intimacy with sentiment and romance, stri D.
ping 1t of much of the revolving vulgsrity
and effrontery which other historians fling
around 1t.
In 1919, Teresa was weary of festivities,
and Byron was tired OF women"
The cold and fiippant character developed
by this woman after the death of the poet
Is what CASTELAR, most wonders at, as she
was undoubtedly passionately fond OF him
however, she was then but eighteen years
old.
''She taught him to love Greece and
Italy * In fine, she showed him
how to die. And teaching him to die for
many, instead of living for himself alone,
of transformations-mart and TO his
Immortality the noblest of all temples-the
heart Of the people Teresa could have
been herself immortal-like Heloise-like
Isabel of Segura, like Sappho-if she had
preserved forever, under the pines of Italy,
by the shores of the Arno, the glorious
widOwhoOd of the love of Byron. Attwen-
ty, she was one of the muses., and ut sixty
eight she was IL wealthy old Marchioness
who flung an ill-considered book upon the
poets grave. Greece will eternal
ly count Byron among her poets and her
heroes"
There is no tragedy comparable to the
tragedy of Byron's own heart, the historian
says, in summing up the man and poet
And again: 1T is true that his position
and his faulty honors contributed much tC
bis success-that is, his hereditary dignity,
his nobility, and his seat in the House o1
Peers. But it is also true that he made his
own sorrows those of his age. HIS was 6
strange history and genealogy. His uncle
had killed one of his relatives. HIS father
stole his first wife and deceived his second
the mother of Lord Byron. She died of 8
stroke of apoplexy, brought on by fit o.
passion. The friends to whom the poet hs6
given his first affections all died young,
ueSoldIlDS MS youth. Inc woman IOl
whom he felt his earliest love married an
other, and the recollection of this childisf
passion filled hls heart with bitterness Ht
scarcely met any one to receive and welcom,
his rising glory in the day that he first en-
! tered the House of Lords. Criticism Wal
severe upon him. He set out on his travels
and the ruin of his estates obliged him t.
return to his country. He became ensmoreo
of celebrated urhoress, Osdy Caroline
LAMB and this love was to him fountain
of disgrace and calamity.
''He married and his wife abandoned him
He had daughter, and this daughter grew
up and was educated far from the heart anC
the influence of her father.
she had a country which should hav,
counted him her pride and glory, and hi
country cursed him. In Italy he becam,
transformed by the ardent kisses of her sun
he felt the duty and the necessity of action
took ship and went to help Gret ce in he
struggle for liberty, and, scarcely arrived
there, he died!'
'Can any thing be more sad than this his
tory2"
"He often wandered from the right path
but he was the echo o. an uncertain age
OF him history may write-r forgive thee
| for thou hast loved much.'"