Lady Byron Vindicated | Page 3

their own knowledge of her virtues and limited in view as
aristocratic circles generally are, had no idea of the width of the world
they were living in, and the exigency of the crisis. When time passed
on and no voice was raised, I spoke. I gave at first a simple story, for I
knew instinctively that whoever put the first steel point of truth into this
dark cloud of slander must wait for the storm to spend itself. I must say
the storm exceeded my expectations, and has raged loud and long. But
now that there is a comparative stillness I shall proceed, first, to prove
what I have just been asserting, and, second, to add to my true story
such facts and incidents as I did not think proper at first to state.
CHAPTER II.
THE ATTACK ON LADY BYRON.
In proving what I asserted in the first chapter, I make four points:
1st. A concerted attack upon Lady Byron's reputation, begun by Lord
Byron in self-defence.
2nd. That he transmitted his story to friends to be continued after his
death.
3rd. That they did so continue it.
4th. That the accusations reached their climax over Lady Byron's grave
in 'Blackwood' of 1869, and the Guiccioli book, and that this
re-opening of the controversy was my reason for speaking.
And first I shall adduce my proofs that Lady Byron's reputation was,
during the whole course of her husband's life, the subject of a

concentrated, artfully planned attack, commencing at the time of the
separation and continuing during his life. By various documents
carefully prepared, and used publicly or secretly as suited the case, he
made converts of many honest men, some of whom were writers and
men of letters, who put their talents at his service during his lifetime in
exciting sympathy for him, and who, by his own request, felt bound to
continue their defence of him after he was dead.
In order to consider the force and significance of the documents I shall
cite, we are to bring to our view just the issues Lord Byron had to meet,
both at the time of the separation and for a long time after.
In Byron's 'Memoirs,' Vol. IV. Letter 350, under date December 10,
1819, nearly four years after the separation, he writes to Murray in a
state of great excitement on account of an article in 'Blackwood,' in
which his conduct towards his wife had been sternly and justly
commented on, and which he supposed to have been written by Wilson,
of the 'Noctes Ambrosianae.' He says in this letter: 'I like and admire
W---n, and he should not have indulged himself in such outrageous
license. . . . . When he talks of Lady Byron's business he talks of what
he knows nothing about; and you may tell him no man can desire a
public investigation of that affair more than I do.' {7}
He shortly after wrote and sent to Murray a pamphlet for publication,
which was printed, but not generally circulated till some time
afterwards. Though more than three years had elapsed since the
separation, the current against him at this time was so strong in
England that his friends thought it best, at first, to use this article of
Lord Byron's discreetly with influential persons rather than to give it to
the public.
The writer in 'Blackwood' and the indignation of the English public, of
which that writer was the voice, were now particularly stirred up by the
appearance of the first two cantos of 'Don Juan,' in which the indecent
caricature of Lady Byron was placed in vicinity with other indecencies,
the publication of which was justly considered an insult to a Christian
community.

It must here be mentioned, for the honour of Old England, that at first
she did her duty quite respectably in regard to 'Don Juan.' One can still
read, in Murray's standard edition of the poems, how every respectable
press thundered reprobations, which it would be well enough to print
and circulate as tracts for our days.
Byron, it seems, had thought of returning to England, but he says, in
the letter we have quoted, that he has changed his mind, and shall not
go back, adding 'I have finished the Third Canto of "Don Juan," but the
things I have heard and read discourage all future publication. You may
try the copy question, but you'll lose it; the cry is up, and the cant is up.
I should have no objection to return the price of the copyright, and have
written to Mr. Kinnaird on this subject.'
One sentence quoted by Lord Byron from the 'Blackwood' article will
show the modern readers what the respectable world of that day were
thinking and saying of him:--
'It appears, in