h was only shielding her.

The separation of Lord and Lady Byron was the talk of the town. Two poems
entitled "Fare Thee Well" and "A Sketch," which Byron had written and
printed for private circulation, were published by _The Champion_ on
Sunday, April 14. The other London papers one by one followed suit. The
poems, more especially "A Sketch," were provocative of criticism. There was
a balance of opinion, but politics turned the scale. Byron had recently
published some pro-Gallican stanzas, "On the 'Star of the Legion of
Honour,'" in the _Examiner_ (April 7), and it was felt by many that private
dishonour was the outcome of public disloyalty. The Whigs defended Byron as
best they could, but his own world, with one or two exceptions, ostracized
him. The "excommunicating voice of society," as Moore put it, was loud and
insistent. The articles of separation were signed on or about the 18th of
April, and on Sunday, the 25th of April, Byron sailed from Dover for
Ostend. The "Lines on Churchill's Grave" were written whilst he was waiting
for a favourable wind. His route lay through the Low Countries, and by the
Rhine to Switzerland. On his way he halted at Brussels and visited the
field of Waterloo. He reached Geneva on the 25th of May, where he met by
appointment at Dejean's Hotel d'Angleterre, Shelley, Mary Godwin and Clare
(or "Claire") Clairmont. The meeting was probably at the instance of
Claire, who had recently become, and aspired to remain, Byron's mistress.
On the 10th of June Byron moved to the Villa Diodati on the southern shore
of the lake. Shelley and his party had already settled at an adjoining
villa, the Campagne Montalegre. The friends were constantly together. On
the 23rd of June Byron and Shelley started for a yachting tour round the
lake. They visited the castle of Chillon on the 26th of June, and, being
detained by weather at the Hotel de l'Ancre, Ouchy, Byron finished (June
27-29) the third canto of _Childe Harold_ (published November 18), and
began the _Prisoner of Chillon_ (published December 5, 1816). These and
other poems of July-September 1816, _e.g._ "The Dream" and the first two
acts of _Manfred_ (published June 16, 1817), betray the influence of
Shelley, and through him of Wordsworth, both in thought and style. Byron
knew that Wordsworth had power, but was against his theories, and resented
his criticism of Pope and Dryden. Shelley was a believer and a disciple,
and converted Byron to the Wordswor