PART II.


CHAPTER I. LADY BYRON AS I KNEW HER.


An editorial in The London Times' of Sept. 18 says:--

'The perplexing feature in this "True Story" is, that it is impossible
to distinguish what part in it is the editress's, and what Lady
Byron's own. We are given the impression made on Mrs. Stowe's mind by
Lady Byron's statements; but it would have been more satisfactory if
the statement itself had been reproduced as bare as possible, and been
left to make its own impression on the public.'

In reply to this, I will say, that in my article I gave a brief synopsis
of the subject-matter of Lady Byron's communications; and I think it must
be quite evident to the world that the main fact on which the story turns
was one which could not possibly be misunderstood, and the remembrance of
which no lapse of time could ever weaken.

Lady Byron's communications were made to me in language clear, precise,
terrible; and many of her phrases and sentences I could repeat at this
day, word for word. But if I had reproduced them at first, as 'The
Times' suggests, word for word, the public horror and incredulity would
have been doubled. It was necessary that the brutality of the story
should, in some degree, be veiled and softened.

The publication, by Lord Lindsay, of Lady Anne Barnard's communication,