ng published the same in your
pages.

'I have the honour to be, sir, yours obediently,

'G. H. AIRD.

'DAOURTY, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, Sept. 29, 1869.'

CHAPTER III. CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF EVENTS.

I have now fulfilled as conscientiously as possible the requests of those
who feel that they have a right to know exactly what was said in this
interview.

It has been my object, in doing this, to place myself just where I should
stand were I giving evidence under oath before a legal tribunal. In my
first published account, there were given some smaller details of the
story, of no particular value to the main purpose of it, which I received
not from Lady Byron, but from her confidential friend. One of these was
the account of her seeing Lord Byron's favourite spaniel lying at his
door, and the other was the scene of the parting.

The first was communicated to me before I ever saw Lady Byron, and under
these circumstances:--I was invited to meet her, and had expressed my
desire to do so, because Lord Byron had been all my life an object of
great interest to me. I inquired what sort of a person Lady Byron was.
My friend spoke of her with enthusiasm. I then said, 'but of course she
never loved Lord Byron, or she would not have left him.' The lady
answered, 'I can show you with what feelings she left him by relating
this story;' and then followed the anecdote.

Subsequently, she also related to me the other story of the parting-scene
between Lord and Lady Byron. In regard to these two incidents, my
recollection is clear.

It will be observed by the reader that Lady Byron's conversation with me
was simply for consultation on one point, and that point whether she
herself should publish the story before her death. It was not,
therefore, a complete history of all the events in their order, but
specimens of a few incidents and facts. Her object was, not to prove her
story to me, nor to put me in possession of it with a view to my proving
it, but simply and briefly to show me what it was, that I might judge as
to the probable results of its publication at that time.

It therefore comprised primarily these points:--

1. An exact statement, in so many words, of the crime.

2. A statement of the manner in which it was first forced on her
attention by Lord Byron's words and actions, including his admissions and
defences of it.

3. The admission o