nsulted a fortune-teller respecting
the destinies of her son, and according to her feminine notions, she
was very cunning and guarded with the sybil, never suspecting that
she might have been previously known, and, unconscious to herself, an
object of interest to the spaewife. She endeavoured to pass herself
off as a maiden lady, and regarded it as no small testimony of the
wisdom of the oracle, that she declared her to be not only a married
woman, but the mother of a son who was lame. After such a marvellous
proof of second-sightedness, it may easily be conceived with what awe
and faith she listened to the prediction, that his life should be in
danger from poison before he was of age, and that he should be twice
married; the second time to a foreign lady. Whether it was this same
fortune-teller who foretold that he would, in his twenty-seventh
year, incur some great misfortune, is not certain; but, considering
his unhappy English marriage, and his subsequent Italian liaison with
the Countess Guiccioli, the marital prediction was not far from
receiving its accomplishment. The fact of his marriage taking place
in his twenty-seventh year, is at least a curious circumstance, and
has been noticed by himself with a sentiment of superstition.

CHAPTER IV

Placed at Harrow--Progress there--Love for Miss Chaworth--His
Reading--Oratorical Powers

In passing from the quiet academy of Dulwich Grove to the public
school of Harrow, the change must have been great to any boy--to
Byron it was punishment; and for the first year and a half he hated
the place. In the end, however, he rose to be a leader in all the
sports and mischiefs of his schoolfellows; but it never could be said
that he was a popular boy, however much he was distinguished for
spirit and bravery; for if he was not quarrelsome, he was sometimes
vindictive. Still it could not have been to any inveterate degree;
for, undoubtedly, in his younger years, he was susceptible of warm
impressions from gentle treatment, and his obstinacy and arbitrary
humour were perhaps more the effects of unrepressed habit than of
natural bias; they were the prickles which surrounded his genius in
the bud.

At Harrow he acquired no distinction as a student; indeed, at no
period was he remarkable for steady application. Under Dr Glennie he
had made but little progress; and it was chiefly in consequence of
his backwardness that he was removed from his academy. When placed
w