History says that Lord Byron consulted Lady Melbourne on the choice of a wife. His letter just quoted does not give the impression of being the culmination of a series of conversations. It comes like a bolt from the blue. Lady Melbourne, who loved success, would never have proposed Annabella Milbanke as a wife for Lord Byron, but when he suggested it, and moreover said his heart was involved, Lady Melbourne felt that she had every right to endeavour to bring about the marriage. She knew that Lord Byron was not really in love with Lady Caroline, that indeed she had begun to bore him. Lord Byron’s marriage might deliver William from the danger of another scandal such as he had just experienced.
Anne Isabella Milbanke, to give her her true name, was
born in 1792. She was therefore about 20 when Byron
first proposed marriage with her. When young she was described as “pretty not
beautiful, the prevalent expression of her countenance is ingenuousness,” and
later the same writer says “what she may have lost in regular beauty, she made up
in variety and
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“Letters have passed which have put an end to our hopes on that subject. She is so odd a girl—in short she is good amiable and sensible, but cold, prudent & reflecting. Lord Byron makes up to her a little, but she don’t seem to admire him, except as a poet, nor he her, except as a wife.”
Lady Melbourne after receiving Lord Byron’s letter must have decided that the diplomatic way to approach its subject was to ask Annabella what qualities she required in a husband. Poor Annabella described her own nature—and then that of the ideal she had created as a husband. She wrote:
On the opposite side you will find what I promised—do not forget your part.
It is so difficult to speak of oneself exactly as one means,
that I think you might mistake the
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I am never irritated except when others are so, and then I am too apt to imitate them. This makes good temper in my companions very necessary for my peace, and if I am not disturbed by others in this way I have not any disposition to disturb them. I am never sulky, but my spirits are easily depressed, particularly by seeing anybody unhappy.
What I call my Romance is this—that if I had not acquired the habit of reflecting before I act, I should sometimes have sacrificed considerations of prudence to the impulse of my feelings—but I am not conscious of ever having yielded to the temptation which assailed me. I can assure you from experience that I am very thankfully submissive to correction so tell me when I am wrong.
On the “opposite side” she wrote as follows:
“husband.
“He must have consistent principles of Duty governing strong & generous feelings, and reducing them under the command of Reason.
“Genius is not in my opinion necessary, though desirable, if united with what I have just mentioned.
“I require a freedom from suspicion, & from habitual ill-humour—also an equal tenor of affection towards me, not that violent attachment which is susceptible of sudden encrease or diminution from trifles.
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“I wish to be considered by my husband as a reasonable adviser, not as a guide on whom he could implicitly depend.
“So much for the chief requisites of mind, and for the sake of these I could overlook many imperfections in other respects. In regard to external qualifications I would have fortune enough to enable me to continue without embarrassment in the kind of society to which I have been accustomed. I have no inclination to extravagance, and should be content to practise economy for the attainment of this object.
“Rank is indifferent to me. Good connections I think an important advantage.
“I do not regard beauty, but am influenced by the manners of a gentleman, without which I scarcely think that any one could attract me.
“I would not enter into a family where there was a strong tendency to Insanity.”
Lady Melbourne asked for more details on receiving this letter. Annabella explained herself more thoroughly, and admitted she had an irritable temper:
I thank you most warmly for the trouble you have taken which will be of great use to me. I wish to make some remarks on parts of your very kind letter & comments.
I am so deeply sensible of the mischievous consequences that
would ensue from want of temper were I married to a man of warm feelings (and I
could not love one who had them not), that I have thought it a sufficient
reason for
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With this consciousness of my own deficiencies in what is so essential to the conduct of a good wife, I am not in danger of being dissatisfied because I do not find perfection. Believe me I have never imagined myself deserving of attachment from the best kind of imperfect characters, and on that account I did not venture to include in my demands some qualities which you justly consider very great advantages (as those of Talents & Chearfulness) because I would not be conceitedly unreasonable.
In some particulars you have not exactly estimated my
meaning, which I cannot be surprised at when I consider the obscurity &
in-
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With regard to the Principles, which I would have founded on a sense of religion, I thought that if they are consistent they cannot be unsettled, therefore that it is needless to add that they should be fixed. However you are very right in reproving vague expressions, and I should have made the sense less equivocal.
You say that with all these requisites “a man has my free leave to be obstinate, perverse, morose, sulky & ill-natured.” How can these dispositions exist with the well-regulated good feelings which I mention in the first place? Besides I afterwards specify the absence of ill-humoured habits. If I had not thought this sufficient to secure the exclusion of such bad qualities as you describe I should have named them distinctly as objectionable.
After so full an explanation you will perhaps take off my stilts, and allow that I am only on tiptoe. I quite agree with what you say, and I am trying to show you that it agrees more nearly with what I said than you seem to suppose.
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She learnt then, if she had not known it before, that the husband to whom her aunt referred was Lord Byron. Annabella, having thought over the proposal most carefully, calmly and definitely wrote to her aunt and rejected it. She said that, much as she regretted the fact, she could not marry Lord Byron, because she was not in love with him. “La! how comical!” Lady Melbourne must have said to herself, “that my niece should be almost the only woman who knows him who can say that!”
“I do not give my answer without that serious deliberation which is due to the honourable and disinterested nature of Lord Byron’s sentiments. I am convinced that he considers my happiness not less than his own, in the wishes which he has expressed to you, and I think of them with the sincerest gratitude.
“I endeavour not to yield to any decided preference
till my judgment has been strengthened by longer observation, but I will not
assign this as my only motive for declining the estimable and very uncommon
advantages now offered. I should be totally unworthy of Lord Byron’s esteem if I were not to speak the truth
without equivocation. Believing that he never will be the object of that strong
affection which would make me happy in domestic life, I should wrong him by any
measure that might, even indirectly, confirm his present impressions. From my
limited observations of his conduct, I was predisposed to believe your strong
testimony in his favour, and I willingly attribute it more to the defect
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“Perhaps the most satisfactory method of acquainting him with the contents of this letter would be to let him have it. I have too much confidence in his liberality, to think reserve or caution necessary in communicating my feelings. The generous delicacy of his whole conduct towards me, particularly when he acted from the false information of my engagement to another person, is one of many proofs that his principles of Honor deserve my entire reliance. I assure him of my perfect silence on this subject.
Lord Byron kept up a frequent correspondence with
Lady Melbourne at this time. She encouraged it, and
was glad to hear the facts from both sides, for while he confided in Lady
Melbourne she was also receiving the hysterical outpourings of Lady Caroline’s heart. In one of Lady
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“You are too suspicious, after all I have said, it
makes me half angry—in one of yr. last Letters you hinted tht. perhaps I
left yr. Letter in the way on purpose. These are your ‘wounding
flouts’ and shew what those persons are to expect ‘that lye within
the mercy of your Wit.’ I can not bear her having got that Letter whether
she opened it, or found it, ’tis all one, it will be long before I
forgive it, if it was either on my Table or in my Drawer, she has added
falsehood to her other iniquities, for in that case she could not think it was
for her. I have not been in right good humour since I heard it. What high flown
compliments you have paid me, for Heaven’s sake lower me to my proper
level, or I shall be quite alarm’d when I see you again. I shall neither
dare speak before you nor to you, & as to talking my usual nonsense that
must be quite out of the question, or I shall soon drop from the Pinnacle where
you have placed me. Do let me down easily, that I may not break my Bones by a
sudden fall; What can you have in yr. Head? ‘Men of distinguish’d
abilities’ ce sont des Hommes comme les autres, &
I am a Woman comme les autres—superior in nothing. I
happen fortunately to be gifted with a fund of good nature & chearfulness,
& very great spirits—& have a little more tact than my neighbours, & people call me pleasant because I am
always inclined in conversation to enter into the subjects that
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Du ciel alors daignant descendre L’amitié vint à mon secours, Elle étoit peut être aussi tendre Mais moins vive que les amours. |
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“I admire you extremely for your resolutions respecting
her but Dr. Ld. B. you deceive
yourself—you never will be able to keep them. What! pass your time in
endeavouring to put her into good humour, & to satisfy her, & disguise
from her that you are unhappy. Fine Dreams indeed—the first is much
beyond yr. power & finding how ill you succeed, must inevitably prevent you
from persisting in the last. Do not however mistake me, I would not have you
say a harsh sentence to her for the World, or anything that could be
deem’d insulting. I had not the least intention of advising you to do it;
there is no kindness that I would not have you shew her, but sacrificing
yourself to her would only be romantic, & not kind—for supposing the
sentiments you express to me are real, it would be quite the contrary, for it
must lead to unhappiness & misery. If a little trifling expression of
coldness at present would prevent this finale, how much
more kind, to give a little present pain, & avoid her total ruin; however I
do not mean to give any advice, you probably know much better than I do, how to
act. You may depend upon my giving you the earliest intelligence in my power of
their return. I hear no mention of it yet—& if they come back
thro’ holland which was their intention, we shall hear of their leaving
Ireland a long time before they arrive here. I must however add that I think
you attach too much blame to yourself—she was no novice & tho’
I give her credit for being what one must believe every Heroine of a Romance to
be (except Made. Cottin’s) yet she
knew enough to be upon her guard, & cannot be look’d upon as the
Victim of a designing Man. All the world are of a very
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“Poor Annabella, her innocent Eyes will have to contend with the Black & probably experienced ones of yr. Innamorata. Recollect in the meantime how much they will improve if she should be in love with you, the others are acquernis [sic] & will be no better. Eyes require that sort of inspiration. Many people have fine Eyes who do not know what to do with them, many have nothing behind them, then it is hopeless. Mon cher Neveu, vous êtes bien changéant, much like the man in the farce we saw together (the Weathercock) do you recollect it? I thought then it was a character not to be found in nature, however the wind that blows one way to[-day] may blow from the contrary point tomorrow [torn off] but where is all yr. boasted power of forgetting those you have liked? A sound brings those objects (I put them in the plural) back to yr. recollection & displays all the charms tht. had captivated you—& you fall in love anew, but not with them—with that sound—something like Vapid I think, & his Grandmother’s picture. Do you think you can manage both her & C[aroline]? Impossible. As a friend I say flirt as much as you please but do not get into a serious scrape before you are safe from the present one.
“As I was folding up this Letter, a servant arrived fm.
town & brought me two Letters fm.
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“I am now inclined to think that if you could get her into a quiet state by any means, it would be the best chance. You might agree to see her quietly when she returns, provided she made none of the scenes she is so fond of; it might possibly go off in that way, but it never can while she is in this constant state of irritation, and whilst she thinks all about her wish to put an end to it. If she thought her friends cared less she would be more likely to take some other fancy—the result of all this seems to me that the best thing you can do is to marry, & that in fact you can get out of this scrape by no other means.”
One of these letters became the making of a quarrel. Lord Byron had written something important for Lady Melbourne’s eye only, and Lady Caroline had seen it. Lady Melbourne said that Lady Caroline had tampered with her drawers. Lady Caroline said:
“I found on the floor of my room in London
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The incident is mysterious. Did Lady Melbourne wish her daughter-in-law to read the letter and take this means of ensuring that she did so? Lord Byron seemed a little suspicious. When the incident happened Annabella had not refused him. But after Annabella’s refusal there is no evidence that Lady Melbourne ever pressed on the marriage until it was too irrevocably settled for her to do anything but help. Lady Caroline wrote to her mother-in-law on October 15, 1812:
Once more I assure you upon my honour, I never opened or
intentionally read any letter of yours. I found a part of one on the
floor—it was in a hand I used to receive to myself—I made no secret
of it, I have committed no wrong. Hitherto I have
behaved with perfect honour, deceived by every human being I never have
returned in kind their ill-treatment—but as you say it is not for me to
complain, & you shall none of you ever more tax me with too much openness.
I have borne a great deal, & will bear no more—that which is not
spoken is more to be dreaded than that which is seen. I shall write no more,
only entreating you not to write unkindly to my Mother, who says, instead of
delightful letters
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Lady Melbourne had warned Lord Byron that the only way to treat Lady Caroline was with firmness. Fate played into his hand. Lady Caroline in 1813 writes:
“I wrote to him & said: ‘Byron, when my letters tire or when you dislike
writing, only tell truth—I can bear anything but suspense.’ Yet
after far the kindest he ever wrote even more professing than the one I shewed
you, one I could hardly like to shew, so full of such assurances—saying I
must be his; he could not would not live much longer away—I say, after
this letter, I never receivd a word. He was angry I know very well at one I
wrote—a very improper one, no doubt, but I had heard such things, such
double things of his saying & doing, that with my usual violence I wrote.
About ten days after Mamma received a letter very gay & one or two little
things about Cheltenham having cured him. I only had a cover inclosing
John Green’s letter; after that 4 pages in
praise of some other person & these words to me ‘correct yr. vanity
which is ridiculous & proverbial, exert yr. Caprices on your new conquests
& leave me in peace, yrs. Byron.’ I never
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“The express brought me a letter I enclose, & it
made me miserable. But I wrote no more, except the small note I inclos’d
to you, & one other, but without one Idea, without one supposition about
Lady Oxford. I wrote to her saying,
‘my Dearest Aspasia, only think
Byron is angry with me! Will you write
to him, will you tell him I have not done one thing to displease him, &
that I am miserable—tell him I wrote him a cross letter I know. But I
have a thousand times askd his pardon. He is tired of me, I see it by his
letter. I will write no more—never teaze him—never intrude upon
him, only do you obtain his forgiveness.’ I received no answer, &
went to Dublin. There a letter came to me from Lady
Oxford. As I thought it had her seal, I open’d it tho’ I
knew it could not be an answer to mine as there had not been time. But it was a
letter from him saying—‘Lady
Caroline—our affections are not in our own
power—mine are engaged. I love another—were I inclined to
reproach you I might for 20 thousand things, but I will not. They really
are not cause of my present conduct—my opinion of you is entirely
alter’d, & if I had wanted anything to confirm me, your Levities
your caprices & the mean subterfuges you have lately made use of while
madly gay—of writing to me as if otherwise, would entirely have
open’d my eyes. I am no longer yr. lover—I shall but never be
less than your friend—it would be too dishonourable for me to name
her to whom I am now entirely devoted &
attached.’—& he put Lady
Oxford’s
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Later Lady Caroline did ask to see him once more, and Lady Melbourne advised that the interview should be in the presence of witnesses. The witness Lord Byron chose was Lady Oxford. Lady Melbourne reproached him for this, saying, “Why, if a third person was necessary, did you not ask me? I would have left the room if she was calm.”
The final rupture came on July 6, 1813, at a party at Lady Heathcote’s1 house, where all the beauty of London Society was assembled, the younger women, in their short-waisted gowns with tight skirts, their high nodding plumes in the fashion of the Empire, the older women, like Lady Melbourne, with the sweeping robes of their younger days. She was then 61. Though her beauty was less brilliant and her presence more imposing, she was still a magnificent figure
1 Wife of Admiral Sir John Heathcote. |
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Suddenly the crowd broke, and there passed with Lady Oxford on his arm a figure, so sinister in its beauty, so paralysing and fascinating in look, that Moore says Lady Rosebery, wife of the 4th Lord Rosebery, to whom Lord Byron had once spoken in a doorway, “was terrified to meet him, for her heart beat so violently she could not answer him.”1 In the shifting crowd he came face to face with a flitting airy figure, very fair of face, but with haggard dark eyes, worn with weeping. Their eyes met—no shadow even of recognition came into his, and he passed on to the supper room with Lady Oxford, who uttered an affected laugh.
|
1 Moore’s Diary, chap, iii, p. 247. |
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It was too much. Lady Caroline completely lost her self-control; shriek after shriek alarmed the guests, and there followed the scene which is depicted in a letter from the Duchess of Beaufort to Lady Holland:
I am perfectly horror struck, my dear Lady Holland, at the account I have received from town, of the scene at Ly. Heathcote’s. To a degree I hope & think the particulars sent me may be & are exaggerated, but I have been told that poor Ly. C[aroline] L[amb] not only wounded herself in several places, but at last was carried out by several people actually in a straight waistcoat. For her individually I should feel the greatest compassion, but when I think of what poor Lady Bessborough’s feelings must be I really cannot express my strong comiseration at what her sufferings must be. I daresay Beau[fort] will write a line himself but if he does not, you know his good heart sufficiently to judge how much he must suffer on poor Lady B[essborough’s] account. Pray let me hear from you. These tales of horror strike me I assure you with aggravated terror in the country where only imperfect reports reach one, & nothing occurs to drive away the impression that such dreadful details must make on one’s mind. In the world you have such a succession of occurrences that one event drives out another—but in the quiet of St. Leonard’s the recollection
1 Daughter of the 1st Marquess of Stafford, married Lord Worcester, afterwards 5th Duke of Beaufort. |
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Later came an even more distressing account from Lady Melbourne:
She is what she calls calm this morg., & I was in hopes I
might have read some parts of yr. Letter to her—& in that intention
told her I had heard & that you wish’d to know how she was, but I
soon found, that the less I sd. the better. I ask’d her if she had any
message to send; she sd. tell him I have been ill, that I am now calm, but not
very well but don’t tell him what pass’d the other night. I then
sd.—probably you have told him yr. own story, have you written? After an
awkward attempt at equivocation, she confess’d she had, but denied your
having sent an answer. However this I don’t believe, as I do not see how
you could avoid answering her. She then sd. she should not abuse you; she
should keep her thoughts to herself—& to the World she should praise
yr. behaviour—& upon my just hinting that she had sd. shameful things
the other night & that I was glad she had made this determination she went
into a rage, saying tht. she would expose you & clear herself & so on.
She is now like a Barrel of Gunpowder & takes fire with the most trifling
spark. She has been in a dreadfull [sic]—I was
interrupted & obliged to put my paper into my
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So far as can be known by these letters Lady Caroline corresponded no more with Lord Byron, though Lady Melbourne continued writing to him. There is no record of how William Lamb took this last terrible sign of his wife’s madness. Lady Melbourne felt that anything would be better than a separation between Caroline and William. She knew the faults of William’s nature and dreaded his leaving her roof, which he might do were his wife no longer there.
In the midst of all these domestic troubles Lady Melbourne seems to have had little time for influencing the larger issues of life. No letters of hers tell of what was happening in the world and how the country was at that moment passing through the throes of misgovernment. William was no longer in Parliament. His spirit seemed broken by his wife’s vagaries.
Lord Wellesley and Lord
Moira were each in turn asked to form a government. In the end
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The elections in 1812 produced a triumphant Tory majority. Lord Castlereagh had succeeded Lord Wellesley at the Foreign Office. His foreign policy was effective and the Peninsular campaign was going well. The old Whigs did not care to press hostilities when the Government was so successful, and became but a weak opposition. Henry Brougham, who had been Member for Camelford, belonged to the new “Radical Party,” which sat on the same side of the House as the Whigs. He saw that the position between the Prince Regent and his wife the Princess of Wales was a weapon to his hand with which to attack the Government.
The unfortunate position of the Princess excited much compassion, and the middle classes especially sympathized with her. The Regent had as early as 1806 appointed a commission to inquire into his wife’s conduct, and when the old King died would not allow her daughter to see her more than once a fortnight. When the Princess remonstrated he paid no attention, and she published the letter in the Morning Chronicle.
1 Creevy Memoirs, vol. i, p. 158. |
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“Have you read the Times of today? There is an account of Lord Moira having examined two people which will not redound to his honour or to that of his employer. The remarks before the depositions are very good. I am told, but not from good authority, that they are written by Mr. Whitbread.1 I hear it is the fashion amongst Ladies to burn their newspapers—that the servants may not read such improprieties. They had better burn them without reading when they are first brought—that would really be acting with propriety.
“As you sd. I must get well, I have been out this morg. which I was told would do me good, & I have thoughts of going to Ly. Holland’s this Eveg. You see this is doing the best I can in obedience to yr. orders, but if I catch cold in so doing & be lay’d up in a Fever I shall say you made me do this—it is all yr. fault—this is Yr. Lordps method of reasoning.”
Annabella, whose father and mother had taken a house in Portland Place, had been, in spite of her first decision, thinking a great deal of Lord Byron. She wrote to Lady Melbourne on July 18, as she was leaving London:
“I am sorry to find that a report very disadvantageous to Lord Byron is in circulation, and
1 Samuel Whitbread, Member for Tavistock. |
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She also wrote directly she arrived in the country:
“Since I left London I have not heard anything of your
proceedings, except such reports concerning Lady
Caroline as I cannot credit. I am anxious to know if she has
kept her good resolutions, or rather her good promises, for she has hitherto
seemed incapable of forming a serious
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In October she wrote to say that she was reading the “Giaour”:
I have just been reading the enlarged
Edition of Giaour, and think the
additions very beautiful. The description of Love almost makes me in love.
Certainly he excels in the language of Passion, whilst the power of delineating
inanimate nature appears more copiously bestowed on other poets. Perhaps he has
not displayed his excellence in that line only because it has not so much
occupied his attention. In the intellectual he is truly sublime, yet I cannot
believe that his Genius has yet attained its maturity. There is a progressive
improvement in his writings. I shall be glad of his stay in England as I may
hope to have some share of his agreeable society next year in London. After the
lapse of nearly two years since the declaration of his wishes, it is not
probable that they should continue in a sufficient degree to occasion mutual
embarrassment. I consider his acquaintance as so desirable that I would incur
the risk of being called a Flirt for the sake of enjoying it, provided I may do
so without detri-
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The Novel which you recommend will be a welcome interruption to my present studies, which I should suppose were suited to your taste—metaphysical reasoning, Locke, Dugald Stuart, &c. My early study of Mathematics has contributed to lead me to these pursuits, since they are in fact the Demonstrat[ions] of Moral Philosophy. I differ from many in considering such books of great practical utility—even in the commonest circumstances of life. You will laugh, & think I mean to eat my dinner metaphysically. Perhaps I might be allowed to waltz metaphysically without incurring even Lord B.’s censure.
On February 12, 1814, we read that she had finished the “Corsair”:
“I have just finished the Corsair—am in the greatest admiration. In knowledge
of the human heart & its most secret workings surely he may without exaggeration be
compared to Shakespeare. He gives such wonderful
life & individuality to character that from that cause, as well
as from unjust prepossessions as to his own disposition, the idea
that he represents himself in his heroes may be partly accounted for. It is difficult to
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Who hath seen Man as himself—the secret spirit face? |
And on April 29 she wrote:
After this reform in my Constitution you will be happy to hear of a reform in my Character, which is that I am become a great Politician, and there was a bonfire last night on the village green which I admired with a proper degree of patriotism. Have you not been astonished at the fate of Bonaparte? Lord Byron’s Ode to him is, I think, admirable—yet perhaps rather too philosophical for the character of an Ode. I have to inform you that my father & mother, hearing that he was likely to renew his Northern tour, have thought it advisable to invite him here, and, deserving as you think him and as he has proved himself, of the fullest confidence, I trust you will not think it an objectionable measure. I shall be very glad if he should avail himself of the invitation, which my father sends by this post, as it will be one of the best compensations for what I lose in Society this year. I am very indifferent about reports, and I know you think it the wisest plan to be so.
The foundations of the engagement were probably laid during this visit.
After it was settled Lady Melbourne wrote to Lord Byron suggesting
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“So at last yr. Agent condescends to fix some time
when he will meet my Brs. people. I know
tht. all those sort of personages who have had the Management of an Estate,
& of course of the owner of it, are displeased, when they think it likely
they may lose a portion of their power, by its being transferr’d to a
Wife—I mean power over their employer, & mostly dupe. They are
enemies to matrimony, as much as you see I am to them; in truth I never knew a
Man who had not the cleverest & honestest agent in the World & if ever I have become acquainted
with them or their actions, I have seldom found them honest, sometimes sinning
from stupidity, but invariably turning everything to their own advantage &
selfish to the highest degree, and always enriching themselves. Mr. Hansom may be an exception to this
rule—I certainly have no acquaintance with him, & never heard his
Name but from you—so I do not say this from any knowledge I have either
of him or his character but were I to judge from appearances I should say he
has been unpardonably dilatory in this business from the beginning & were I
Annabella I should never forget him. And indeed it may be well for yr. Lordship that I
am not for you would come in for your share of blame too—but we’ll
say no more about it. On this occasion I should wish the whole to be concluded
speedily, & as I am well acquainted with the dilatoriness, puzzleheadedness
&c., &c., of my Brother’s Agents if I were you I would try &
be married upon Articles. If you laugh at this at least acknow-
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Annabella wrote from home saying the marriage would take place about the end of December, but the actual date was January 2, 1815, in the Chapel at Seaham. Whether Lady Melbourne had worked to bring about this result is uncertain, and in the many letters she wrote to Lord Byron after Annabella’s refusal there are nothing but warnings. In one of her replies to him on August 23, 1813, from Cheltenham, where she had gone to take the waters, she says:
“You can not expect me, with my head full of these Waters, (which make even
Nugent’s twirl about, strong as it appears)—to understand & unravel the
confusion tht. exists amongst all the different Ladies you allude to. You are
accustom’d to it; therefore to you I have no doubt it is clear. My Magical
influence!—you make me Laugh. I won’t say, as the Mareshalle d’Ancre (I think it was) when she
was going to be executed for witchcraft & was ask’d by what means she
obtain’d her power over some persons I have forgot—“par
le pouvoir qu’ont les esprits forts sur les ames
faibles”—for I have no pretentions to strength of mind,
& I always think that when people talk of my power they are laughing at me and you
more than anyone I have ever met with. And I have no objection to it, for I like a joke
even when against myself & it always
| 166 | THE AMAZING MARRIAGE |
The result of the marriage is well known. Ada Byron was born on December 10, 1815, and on January 15, 1816, Lady Byron, taking her child with her, left her husband’s home for ever.
That Lady Melbourne, who always knew everything, was a little anxious is proved by the letter she wrote Lord Byron in 1815, saying: “I hope you’ll come very soon do you hear? or rather do you heed?”
From Kirkby, which Lady Byron’s mother had just inherited from her uncle Lord Wentworth, Lady Melbourne received a letter probably from her brother Sir Ralph, telling her of the proposed separation. She answered:
“I am miserable to think what A. must have suffered before she would have resolved to bring such an
appeal before the World. As you say justly you have every consolation from her known
Character, as it is not possible that anyone can stand higher in publick opinion than she
does, or be more beloved by her private friends—& I must add that Ld. Byron appeared to me to appreciate her value most justly
for he came to me the day before this report had made its way into the world & for an
hour talk’d only of her many amiable qualities & how much he lov’d her.
This you may believe rendered me perfectly incredulous at first, & made it difficult if
not impossible for me to believe anything I heard
| THE AMAZING MARRIAGE | 167 |
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