es_ (published April 1815), begun at Seaham in
October 1814, were finished and given to the musical composer, Isaac
Nathan, for publication. _The Siege of Corinth_ and _Parisina_ (published
February 7, 1816) were got ready for the press. On the 10th of December
Lady Byron gave birth to a daughter christened Augusta Ada. To judge from
his letters, for the first weeks or months of his marriage things went
smoothly. His wife's impression was that Byron "had avowedly begun his
revenge from the first." It is certain that before the child was born his
conduct was so harsh, so violent, and so eccentric, that she believed, or
tried to persuade herself, that he was mad.

On the 15th of January 1816 Lady Byron left London for her father's house,
claimed his protection, and after some hesitation and consultation with her
legal advisers demanded a separation from her husband. It is a matter of
common knowledge that in 1869 Mrs Beecher Stowe affirmed that Lady Byron
expressly told her that Byron was guilty of incest with his half-sister,
Mrs Leigh; also that in 1905 the second Lord Lovelace (Lord Byron's
grandson) printed a work entitled _Astarte_ which was designed to uphold
and to prove the truth of this charge. It is a fact that neither Lady Byron
nor her advisers supported their demand by this or any other charge of
misconduct, but it is also a fact that Lord Byron yielded to the demand
reluctantly, under pressure and for large pecuniary considerations. It is a
fact that Lady Byron's letters to Mrs Leigh before and after the separation
are inconsistent with a knowledge or suspicion of guilt on the part of her
sister-in-law, but it is also a fact (see _Astarte_, pp. 142-145) that she
signed a document (dated March 14, 1816) to the effect that any renewal of
intercourse did not involve and must not be construed as a withdrawal of
the charge. It cannot be doubted that Lady Byron's conviction that her
husband's relations with his half-sister before his marriage had been of an
immoral character was a factor in her demand for a separation, but whether
there were other and what issues, and whether Lady Byron's conviction was
founded on fact, are questions which have not been finally answered. Lady
Byron's charge, as reported by Mrs Beecher Stowe and upheld by the 2nd earl
of Lovelace, is "non-proven." Mr Robert Edgcome, in _Byron: the Last Phase_
(1909), insists that Mary Chaworth was the real object of Byron's passion,
and that Mrs Leig