wrongs
Lady Byron may have endured are shrouded in an impenetrable mist of
her own creation,--a poisonous miasma in which she enveloped the
character of her husband, raised by her breath, and which her breath
only could have dispersed.
"She dies and makes no sign. O God! forgive her."'
As we have been obliged to review accusations on Lady Byron founded on
old Greek tragedy, so now we are forced to abridge a passage from a
modern conversations-lexicon, that we may understand what sort of
comparisons are deemed in good taste in a conservative English review,
when speaking of ladies of rank in their graves.
Under the article 'Brinvilliers,' we find as follows:--
MARGUERITE D'AUBRAI, MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS.--The singular
atrocity of this woman gives her a sort of infamous claim to notice.
She was born in Paris in 1651; being daughter of D'Aubrai, lieutenant-
civil of Paris, who married her to the Marquis of Brinvilliers.
Although possessed of attractions to captivate lovers, she was for
some time much attached to her husband, but at length became madly in
love with a Gascon officer. Her father imprisoned the officer in the
Bastille; and, while there, he learned the art of compounding subtle
and most mortal poisons; and, when he was released, he taught it to
the lady, who exercised it with such success, that, in one year, her
father, sister, and two brothers became her victims. She professed
the utmost tenderness for her victims, and nursed them assiduously. On
her father she is said to have made eight attempts before she
succeeded. She was very religious, and devoted to works of charity;
and visited the hospitals a great deal, where it is said she tried her
poisons on the sick.'
People have made loud outcries lately, both in America and England, about
violating the repose of the dead. We should like to know what they call
this. Is this, then, what they mean by respecting the dead?
Let any man imagine a leading review coming out with language equally
brutal about his own mother, or any dear and revered friend.
Men of America, men of England, what do you think of this?
When Lady Byron was publicly branded with the names of the foulest
ancient and foulest modern assassins, and Lord Byron's mistress was
publicly taken by the hand, and encouraged to go on and prosper in her
slanders, by one of the oldest and most influential British rev
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