e made this proposition on my part, viz. to abrogate all
prior intentions--and go into court--the very day before the
separation was signed, and it was declined by the other party, as also
the publication of the correspondence during the previous discussion.
Those propositions I beg here to repeat, and to call upon her and hers
to say their worst, pledging myself to meet their
allegations,--whatever they may be,--and only too happy to be informed
at last of their real nature.

'BYRON.'

'August 9, 1817.

'P.S.--I have been, and am now, utterly ignorant of what description
her allegations, charges, or whatever name they may have assumed, are;
and am as little aware for what purpose they have been kept
back,--unless it was to sanction the most infamous calumnies by
silence.

'BYRON.'

'La Mira, near Venice.'

It appears the circulation of this document must have been _very
private_, since Moore, not _over_-delicate towards Lady Byron, did not
think fit to print it; since John Murray neglected it, and since it has
come out at this late hour for the first time.

If Lord Byron really desired Lady Byron and her legal counsel to
understand the facts herein stated, and was willing at all hazards to
bring on an open examination, why was this _privately_ circulated? Why
not issued as a card in the London papers? Is it likely that Mr. Matthew
Gregory Lewis, and a chosen band of friends acting as a committee,
requested an audience with Lady Byron, Sir Samuel Romilly, and Dr.
Lushington, and formally presented this cartel of defiance?

We incline to think not. We incline to think that this small serpent, in
company with many others of like kind, crawled secretly and privately
around, and when it found a good chance, bit an honest Briton, whose
blood was thenceforth poisoned by an undetected falsehood.

The reader now may turn to the letters that Mr. Moore has thought fit to
give us of this stay at La Mira, beginning with Letter 286, dated July 1,
1817, {28a} where he says: 'I have been working up my impressions into a
_Fourth_ Canto of Childe Harold,' and also 'Mr. Lewis is in Venice. I am
going up to stay a week with him there.'

Next, under date La Mira, Venice, July 10, {28b} he says, 'Monk Lewis is
here; how pleasant!'

Next, under date July 20, 1817, to Mr. Murray: 'I write to give you
notice that I have _completed the fourth and ultimate canto of Childe
Harold_