-I
could hardly be very sensible even if I understood it, as, before it
can take place, I shall be where "nothing can touch him further." . .
. I advise you, however, to anticipate the period of your intention,
for, be assured, no power of figures can avail beyond the present; and
if it could, I would answer with the Florentine:--

'"Ed io, che posto son con loro in croce
. . . . . e certo
La fiera moglie, piu ch'altro, mi nuoce." {44}

'BYRON.

'To Lady Byron.'

Two things are very evident in this correspondence: Lady Byron intimates
that, if he publishes his story, some _consequences_ must follow which
she shall regret.

Lord Byron receives this as a threat, and says he doesn't understand it.
But directly after he says, 'Before IT can take place, I shall be,' etc.

The intimation is quite clear. He _does_ understand what the
consequences alluded to are. They are evidently that Lady Byron will
speak out and tell her story. He says she cannot do this till _after he
is dead_, and then he shall not care. In allusion to her accuracy as to
dates and figures, he says: 'Be assured no power of figures can avail
beyond the present' (life); and then ironically _advises_ her to
_anticipate the period_,--i.e. to speak out while he is alive.

In Vol. VI. Letter 518, which Lord Byron wrote to Lady Byron, but did not
send, he says: 'I burned your last note for two reasons,--firstly,
because it was written in a style not very agreeable; and, secondly,
because I wished to take your word without documents, which are the
resources of worldly and suspicious people.'

It would appear from this that there was a last letter of Lady Byron to
her husband, which he did not think proper to keep on hand, or show to
the 'initiated' with his usual unreserve; that this letter contained some
kind of _pledge_ for which he preferred to take her word, _without
documents_.

Each reader can imagine for himself what that _pledge_ might have been;
but from the tenor of the three letters we should infer that it was a
promise of silence for his lifetime, on _certain conditions_, and that
the publication of the autobiography would violate those conditions, and
make it her duty to speak out.

This celebrated autobiography forms so conspicuous a figure in the whole
history, that the reader must have a full idea of it, as given by Byron
himself, in Vol. IV. Letter 344, to Murray:--

'I g