rthodox opinions. This vituperation rose to its height when Byron
dared to satirize George III., and to expose mercilessly in 'Don Juan'
the hypocrisy of English life.

On the 25th of April, 1816, Byron left England, never to return. And
then opened the most brilliant period of his literary career. Instead of
being crushed by the situation, Byron's warlike spirit responded to it
with defiance, and his suffering and his anger invoked the highest
qualities of his extraordinary genius. His career in Italy was as wild
and dissipated as ever. Strange to say, the best influence in his
irregular life was the Countess Guiccioli, who persuaded him at one time
to lay aside the composition of 'Don Juan,' and in whose society he was
drawn into ardent sympathy with the Italian liberals. For the cause of
Italian unity he did much when it was in its darkest period, and his
name is properly linked in this great achievement with those of Mazzini
and Cavour. It was in Switzerland, before Byron settled in Venice, that
he met Shelley, with whom he was thereafter to be on terms of closest
intimacy. Each had a mutual regard for the genius of the other, but
Shelley placed Byron far above himself. It was while sojourning near the
Shelleys on the Lake of Geneva that Byron formed a union with Claire
Clairmont, the daughter of Mrs. Clairmont, who became William Godwin's
second wife. The result of this intimacy was a natural daughter,
Allegra, for whose maintenance and education Byron provided, and whose
early death was severely felt by him.

Byron's life in Italy from 1816 to 1823 continued to be a romance of
exciting and dubious adventure. Many details of it are given in Byron's
letters,--his prose is always as vigorous as his poetry, and as
self-revealing,--and it was no doubt recorded in his famous Diary, which
was intrusted to his friend Tom Moore, and was burned after Byron's
death. Byron's own frankness about himself, his love of mystification,
his impulsiveness in writing anything that entered his brain at the
moment, and his habit of boasting about his wickedness, which always
went to the extent of making himself out worse than he was, stands in
the way of getting a clear narration of his life and conduct. But he was
always an interesting and commanding and perplexing personality, and the
writings about him by his intimates are as various as the moods he
indulged in. The bright light of inquiry always shone upon him, for
Byron was the mo