late as the 3rd of August,
Byron thought fit to remonstrate with Murray for "advertising _Lara and
Jacqueline_," and confessed to Moore that he was "still demurring and
delaying and in a fuss" (_Letters_, 1899, iii. 115, 119). Murray knew
his man, and, though he waited for Byron's formal and ostensibly
reluctant word of command, "Out with Lara, since it must be" (August 5,
1814, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 122), he admitted (August 6, _Memoir of John
Murray_, 1891, i. 230) that he had "anticipated his consent," and "had
done everything but actually deliver the copies of _Lara_." "The
moment," he adds, "I received your letter, for for it I waited, I cut
the last cord of my aerial work, and at this instant 6000 copies are
sold." _Lara, a Tale_; _Jacqueline, a Tale_, was published on Saturday,
August 6, 1814.

_Jacqueline_ is a somewhat insipid pastoral, betraying the influence of
the Lake School, more especially Coleridge, on a belated and
irresponsive disciple, and wholly out of place as contrast or foil to
the melodramatic _Lara_.

No sooner had the "lady," as Byron was pleased to call her, played her
part as decoy, than she was discharged as _emerita_. A week after
publication (August 12, 1814, _Letters_, iii. 125) Byron told Moore that
"Murray talks of divorcing Larry and Jacky--a bad sign for the authors,
who will, I suppose, be divorced too.... Seriously, I don't care a cigar
about it." The divorce was soon pronounced, and, contrary to Byron's
advice (September 2, 1814, _Letters_, iii. 131), at least four separate
editions of _Lara_ were published during the autumn of 1814.

The "advertisement" to _Lara and Jacqueline_ contains the plain
statement that "the reader ... may probably regard it [_Lara_] as a
sequel to the _Corsair_"--an admission on the author's part which
forestalls and renders nugatory any prolonged discussion on the subject.
It is evident that Lara is Conrad, and that Kaled, the "darkly delicate"
and mysterious page, whose "hand is femininely white," is Gulnare in a
transparent and temporary disguise.

If the facts which the "English Gentleman in the Greek Military Service"
(_Life, Writings, etc., of Lord Byron_, 1825, i. 191-201) gives in
detail with regard to the sources of the _Corsair_ are not wholly
imaginary, it is possible that the original Conrad's determination to
"quit so horrible a mode of life" and return to civilization may have
suggested to Byron the possible adventures and fate of a _gr