h she had been an acknowledged ornament, and quitted
England. This defection society was by no means able to understand. That
a woman of high birth, and rank, and wealth, the niece of one great
minister and the kinswoman of another, should deliberately renounce the
advantages of her position, was a circumstance unintelligible to
ordinary minds, and thenceforth she shared with Lord Byron the curiosity
and speculation of the public. Her singular independence of thought and
character had already invested her with a fatal reputation for
"eccentricity," and to "eccentricity" her action was very generally
attributed. Some, indeed, were pleased to cast upon it a gleam of
romance, and protested that it was brought about by her sweet sorrow for
a young English officer of high rank who had perished on one of the
battle-fields of the Peninsula. Others, who were nearer the truth,
ascribed it to a love of adventure. But, in plain truth, the ruling
motive was pride, a colossal, an all-absorbing pride, which could be
satisfied only by power and influence, and a foremost place. Her great
kinsman's death had necessarily excluded her from the councils of
ministers, and closed upon her the doors of cabinets. The ordinary
pursuits of society afforded her no gratification, opened up no channel
in which her restless energies could expend themselves. She was of too
strong a mind, of too clear an intellect, to value the ephemeral
influence enjoyed by wealth or beauty; she wanted to reign, to rule, to
govern, and as that was no longer a possibility in the political world,
she resolved upon seeking some new sphere where she would always be
first. It was this illimitable pride, this uncontrolled ambition, which
weakened and obscured the elements of true greatness in her character, a
character which cannot fail to possess an extraordinary interest for the
psychological public.

* * * * *

After traversing Europe with impetuous feet she visited Athens in
company with Mr. Bruce. Here she made the acquaintance of Lord Byron. In
the language of Mr. Moore, one of the first objects that met the eyes of
the distinguished travellers, on their approaching the coast of Attica,
was the noble poet, "disporting in his favourite element under the rocks
of Colonna." They were afterwards introduced to each other by Lord
Sligo, and it was in the course of their first interview at Lord Sligo's
table that Lady Hester, with that "livel