Lady Byron Vindicated - A history of the Byron controversy from its beginning in 1816 to the present time by Harriet Beecher Stowe
page 38 of 358 (10%)
page 38 of 358 (10%)
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'I _had heard he was the best of brothers_, the most generous of friends.
I thought these feelings only required to be warmed and cherished into more diffusive benevolence. THESE OPINIONS ARE ERADICATED, AND COULD NEVER RETURN BUT WITH THE DECAY OF MEMORY.' Let me ask those who give this letter as a proof that at this time no idea such as I have stated was in Lady Byron's mind, to account for these words. Let them please answer these questions: Why had Lady Byron ceased to think him a good brother? Why does she use so strong a word as that the opinion was eradicated, torn up by the roots, and could never grow again in her except by decay of memory? And yet this is a document Lord Lindsay vouches for as authentic, and which he brings forward _in defence_ of Lord Byron. Again she says, 'Though he _would not suffer me to remain his wife_, he cannot prevent me from continuing his friend.' Do these words not say that in some past time, in some decided manner, Lord Byron had declared to her his rejection of her as a wife? I shall yet have occasion to explain these words. Again she says, 'I silenced accusations by which my conduct might have been more fully justified.' The people in England who are so very busy in searching out evidence against my true story have searched out and given to the world an important confirmation of this assertion of Lady Byron's. It seems that the confidential waiting-maid who went with Lady Byron on her wedding journey has been sought out and interrogated, and, as appears by description, is a venerable, respectable old person, quite in |
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