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DEPARTURE OF LORD BYRON.

was in itself incompatible with the principles of honour, and an act that showed the utmost malignity of mind. Had the injured party sought redress against the noble traducer in a court of justice, the plea of having composed the libel for his own private fancy, would have been little attended to by an upright judge, and an intelligent jury; especially when it came out, as the fact must in evidence, that the copies in circulation proceeded from the author; and consequently that the publication could not have been altogether without his privity.

Yet perhaps it was not much to be regretted, that this atrocious compound of hatred and impiety made its appearance when it did, since it afforded a complete illustration of the hypocritical character of the lines bearing the title of "Fare thee well;" so that if any persons were cheated by the affected sensibility displayed in that performance, they had only to read the "Sketch from Private Life," to exclaim with the offended husband in the comedy, "Oh! confound your sentiments." All this took place in the months of March and April; and while the public were anxiously waiting to see the course which the noble lord would adopt for re

LINES ON HIS DEPARTURE.

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claiming his rights and vindicating his character, he suddenly left the kingdom, with the resolution never to return. This was another inexplicable proceeding, for which Lord Byron's most ardent admirers could not account; and though some strong necessity must have arisen for so extraordinary an abandonment of high duties and near connexions, no reason was ever assigned for the dereliction, either by his lordship or his friends. There were some, however, who considered this abdication as a full justification of the lady's conduct, in having withdrawn from such a partner; and one writer, of no common powers, published a poem on the occasion, entitled, "Lines on the departure of a great Poet;" the introduction to which is thus vigorously expressed:

"From native England, that endured too long
The ceaseless burden of his impious song;

His mad career of crimes and follies run,
And grey in vice, when life was scarce begun ;
He goes, in foreign lands prepared to find
A life more suited to his guilty mind;
Where other climes new pleasures may supply
For that pall'd taste, and that unhallow'd eye :-
Wisely he seeks some yet untrodden shore,

For those who know him less may prize him more."

CHAPTER XII.

On the Banishment of Ovid.-Lord Byron's Visit to the Field of Waterloo.-Fortress of Ehrenbreitstein.-French General Marceau.-Pyramid of Bones at Morat.-Clarens, on the Lake of Geneva.-Rousseau.—Monks of St. Bernard.Superstition and Infidelity contrasted.-Description of the Jungfraw.-Departure for Italy.

IT is not improbable but that the exile of Lord Byron, though his own spontaneous act, may, in a distant age, form as curious a question in literary history, as the banishment of Ovid has hitherto proved to commentators. The Roman poet, if we are to take his own word for it, was not sent to waste the remainder of his life on the borders of the Euxine, for any fault of his own, but simply because it was his misfortune to have witnessed something which he ought not to have seen. Hence conjectures have multiplied to

BANISHMENT OF OVID.

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the wildest extent, to ascertain the cause of this harsh measure; and, in order to save the character of a favourite writer, that of Augustus has been calumniated without mercy; though, luckily for his reputation, the matters alledged against him are fully disproved by the evidence of facts and dates. But there is still more than this to be said in favour of the emperor; for if the poet was actually the victim of imperial tyranny, it is scarcely to be believed that he would have idolized the author of his wrongs. Yet Ovid, after his exile, praised Augustus in the highest terms for his liberality, and even when he had nothing more to hope or dread from his power, the poet erected an altar to his memory among the Getæ, in whose country he resided.

Such being the fact, it is reasonable to suppose that the misfortune of this ingenious writer was the consequence of his own indiscretion, and that it did not proceed from the capriciousness of despotism. There is nothing in the known history of Ovid to make one think more favourably of him; and his writings are alone sufficient to induce the belief that his relegation, notwithstanding his insinuation to the

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CASE OF LORD BYRON.

contrary, was a punishment justly inflicted upon for his criminality.

him

The author of Childe Harold has also endeavoured to persuade the world that he is a persecuted man; and that his exile, though not a judicial stretch of power, has been produced by oppression of a severer description. It must, perhaps, be left to posterity to determine the truth of this point, when time shall have developed those scenes and circumstances which prudence now buries in secresy: in the mean time, however, it ill becomes a man to complain of what he had it in his power to avoid; and, therefore, he who omits to perform those things which are necessary for the preservation of his own peace and character, must be content to endure the consequences of his neglect. If Lord Byron, instead of guarding the various important trusts belonging to him in his own land, thought it expedient to become a wanderer upon earth, he may thank himself for the hard judgment which the public has formed, and still continues to entertain of that conduct which led him to renounce his country, on the extraordinary pretence that his wife had forsaken him. The laws were sufficiently strong, and

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