veins of my fathers, and in ours
When we were in our youth, and had one heart,
And loved each other as we should not love.'

This work was conceived in the commotion of mind immediately following
his separation. The scenery of it was sketched in a journal sent to his
sister at the time.

In letter 377, defending the originality of the conception, and showing
that it did not arise from reading 'Faust,' he says,--

'It was the Steinbach and the Jungfrau, and something else, more than
Faustus, that made me write "Manfred."'

In letter 288, speaking of the various accounts given by critics of the
origin of the story, he says,--

'The conjecturer is out, and knows nothing of the matter. I had a
better origin than he could devise or divine for the soul of him.'

In letter 299, he says:--

'As to the germs of "Manfred," they may be found in the journal I sent to
Mrs. Leigh, part of which you saw.'

It may be said, plausibly, that Lord Byron, if conscious of this crime,
would not have expressed it in his poetry. But his nature was such that
he could not help it. Whatever he wrote that had any real power was
generally wrought out of self; and, when in a tumult of emotion, he could
not help giving glimpses of the cause. It appears that he did know that
he had been accused of incest, and that Shelley thought that accusation
the only really important one; and yet, sensitive as he was to blame and
reprobation, he ran upon this very subject most likely to re-awaken
scandal.

But Lord Byron's strategy was always of the bold kind. It was the plan
of the fugitive, who, instead of running away, stations himself so near
to danger, that nobody would ever think of looking for him there. He
published passionate verses to his sister on this principle. He imitated
the security of an innocent man in every thing but the unconscious energy
of the agony which seized him when he gave vent to his nature in poetry.
The boldness of his strategy is evident through all his life. He began
by charging his wife with the very cruelty and deception which he was
himself practising. He had spread a net for her feet, and he accused her
of spreading a net for his. He had placed her in a position where she
could not speak, and then leisurely shot arrows at her; and he
represented her as having done the same by him. When he attacked her in
'Don Juan,' and strove to take from her the very protection {227}of
womanly sacredne