The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-10-05
Court Gossip of Interesting
Events on Two Continents

to tame him into the model Of COM
monpIace, domestic husband. He would
not be tanned. He was straining at his fet-
ters Sometimes he went to seek adYen-
lures and when he returned home again
was impatient with his wife's tears and
reproachful eyes and texts of morality. IL
she had had more tact, il she had been
more gracious and tolerant, she might
have awakened that chivalTy which was
in his nature; but her bad temper, her
air of martyrdom. drove him to seek
consolation elsewhere. This was not diffi-
cult for him to find There were many
women eager to thrust their love upon
him One of them was the charming
Lady Oxford. Another was young &C
tress named Jane ClaremOnt' who I'M
pIored him to let her devote her life to
him Byron fiirted with the titled lady
and with the actress, but kept on the
safe side of the danger line.
Lady Byron met Mary ChawOrth, and
declared she was a cat She was
Jealous of her. as she was Jealous of all
the women with whom her husband had
friendly relations. She suspected him OF
infdeIity She brOOded over her sus-
picions, and exaggerated them until they
became a kind of madness.
Affairs became serious when Byron fell
into debt BaiIiffs came to seize some
Of his furniture. 4 mob assembled out
side to watch the scene. Byron acted
wisely when he sent his wife with her
unborn child to stay with her mother
She went willingly, though afterward she
accused him of "expelling her" Her first
letters were affectiOnate.
Then a thunderbolt fell. Lady Byron
wrote to her husband. demanding a sepa-
IA ton and declaring that she would never
live with him again. Byron was as
founded. He demanded to know her rea-
sons. but she refused to give them or
to see him. In fact, she limited at "hOr-
ribIe charges which would he brought
against him II he appealed to the courts
for a restitution Of conjugal, rights
Lady Caroline Lamb, who hated the
man she had once loved. was spreading
stories Of scandal. When Byron APP
peared in a London drawingrOom he was
ostracised: and. indeed. it is impossible to
believe that Lady Byron would have
written Cndearing words to her husband :
sister had she suspected her guilty Of an
unnatural passion, for this is the great
mystery which lurked about the story
Of ByrOn's marriage and poisoned the
weIl-springs of his fame.
Byron left his country in ISIS and never
returned to II. He carried with him a
heart burning with Indignation and a
tice that for a time he abandoned all
the fine instincts Of his nature and gave
free reign to his baser passions From
that time Byron played the part of rake
deliberately.
Jane Claremont the actress. made it
all too easy for him. She followed him
TO Switzerland. where he was travelling
with the poet. Shelley. and his wife, who
were relatives of hers, and flung her
to be loved, yet he was glad TO get
rid of her.
At Venice he sank deeper into the mire
and spent his days in riotous living. In
his letters to friends in England he took
a bitter joy in exaggeratIng the squalor
Of these scenes He begged them To
convey the details to Lady Byron as
though to say. See what you have made
Of me" Reading between the lines t
Is clear to see that he had no pleasure
ia this life. and that it was adopted in
passionate resentment against the woman
who had abandoned him and the public
who had maligned him
II was a relief 10 his friends when he
became the lover OF the Countess GuiC-
Cion. who like so many Of Byrons
women friends. ran after him.
But az last he tired OF it Suddenly he
swept il all away from him. and his
heart leaped toward those high ideals
which had always lurked beneath the
dross Of his character. With a noble
enthusiasm he offered himself vOlUn-
teer in the Greek army OF liberty. AMI
died OF fever among the Greek soldiers.
FLNNEUR