imself in agony at my feet. "I could not, no, I could not, forgive
him such injuries! He had lost me forever!" Astonished at this
return to virtue, my tears, I believe, flowed over his face; and I
said, "Byron, all is forgotten; never, never shall you hear of it
more."

'He started up, and folding his arms while he looked at me, burst out
into laughter. "What do you mean?" said I. "Only a philosophical
experiment; that's all," said he. "I wished to ascertain the value of
your resolutions."'

To ascribe such deliberate cruelty as this to the effect of drink upon
Lord Byron, is the most charitable construction that can be put upon his
conduct.

Yet the manners of the period were such, that Lord Byron must have often
come to this condition while only doing what many of his acquaintances
did freely, and without fear of consequences.

Mr. Moore, with his usual artlessness, gives us an idea of a private
supper between himself and Lord Byron. We give it, with our own italics,
as a specimen of many others:--

'Having taken upon me to order the repast, and knowing that Lord Byron
for the last two days had done nothing towards sustenance beyond
eating a few biscuits and (to appease appetite) chewing mastic, I
desired that we should have a good supply of at least two kinds of
fish. My companion, however, confined himself to lobsters; and of
these finished two or three, to his own share, interposing, sometimes,
a small liqueur-glass of strong white brandy, sometimes a tumbler of
very hot water, and then pure brandy again, to the amount of near half
a dozen small glasses of the latter, without which, alternately with
the hot water, he appeared to think the lobster could not be digested.
After this, we had claret, of which, having despatched two bottles
between us, at about four o'clock in the morning we parted.

'As Pope has thought his "delicious lobster-nights" worth
commemorating, these particulars of one in which Lord Byron was
concerned may also have some interest.

'Among other nights of the same description which I had the happiness
of passing with him, I remember once, in returning home from some
assembly at rather a late hour, we saw lights in the windows of his
old haunt, Stevens's in Bond Street, and agreed to stop there and sup.
On entering, we found an old friend of his, Sir G---- W----, who
joined our party; and, the