We regret to say that the publication of this document was not brought
forth to clear Lady Byron's name from her husband's slanders, but to
shield _him_ from the worst accusation against him, by showing that this
crime was not included in the few private confidential revelations that
friendship wrung from the young wife at this period.

Lady Anne Barnard, authoress of 'Auld Robin Grey,' a friend whose age and
experience made her a proper confidante, sent for the broken-hearted,
perplexed wife, and offered her a woman's sympathy.

To her Lady Byron wrote many letters, under seal of confidence, and Lady
Anne says: 'I will give you a few paragraphs transcribed from one of Lady
Byron's own letters to me. It is sorrowful to think that in a very
little time this young and amiable creature, wise, patient, and feeling,
will have her character mistaken by every one who reads Byron's works. To
rescue her from this I preserved her letters, and when she afterwards
expressed a fear that anything of her writing should ever fall into hands
to injure him (I suppose she meant by publication), I safely assured her
that it never should. But here this letter shall be placed, a sacred
record in her favour, unknown to herself.

'I am a very incompetent judge of the impression which the last Canto
of "Childe Harold" may produce on the minds of indifferent readers.

'It contains the usual trace of a conscience restlessly awake, though
his object has been too long to aggravate its burden, as if it could
thus be oppressed into eternal stupor. I will hope, as you do, that
it survives for his ultimate good.

'It was the acuteness of his remorse, impenitent in its character,