and how in turn * * * paid for
his atrocity. It is an odd world; but the watch has its mainspring,
after all.

"So the Prince has been repealing Lord Edward Fitzgerald's
forfeiture? _Ecco un' sonetto!_

"To be the father of the fatherless,
To stretch the hand from the throne's height, and raise
_His_ offspring, who expired in other days
To make thy sire's sway by a kingdom less,--
_This_ is to be a monarch, and repress
Envy into unutterable praise.
Dismiss thy guard, and trust thee to such traits,
For who would lift a hand, except to bless?
Were it not easy, sir, and is't not sweet
To make thyself beloved? and to be
Omnipotent by Mercy's means? for thus
Thy sovereignty would grow but more complete,
A despot thou, and yet thy people free,
And by the heart, not hand, enslaving us.

"There, you dogs! there's a sonnet for you: you won't have such as
that in a hurry from Mr. Fitzgerald. You may publish it with my
name, an' ye wool. He deserves all praise, bad and good; it was a
very noble piece of principality. Would you like an epigram--a
translation?

"If for silver, or for gold,
You could melt ten thousand pimples
Into half a dozen dimples,
Then your face we might behold,
Looking, doubtless, much more snugly,
Yet ev'n _then_ 'twould be d----d _ugly_.

"This was written on some Frenchwoman, by Rulhieres, I believe.
Yours."

[Footnote 42: The "Dama," in whose company he witnessed this
representation, thus describes its effect upon him:--"The play was that
of Mirra; the actors, and particularly the actress who performed the
part of Mirra, seconded with much success the intentions of our great
dramatist. Lord Byron took a strong interest in the representation, and
it was evident that he was deeply affected. At length there came a point
of the performance at which he could no longer restrain his
emotions;--he burst into a flood of tears, and, his sobs preventing him
from remaining any longer in the box, he rose and left the theatre.--I
saw him similarly affected another time during a representation of
Alfieri's 'Philip,' at Ravenna."--"Gli attori, e specialmente l' attrice
che rappresentava Mirra secondava assai bene la mente del nostro grande
tragico. L.B. prece molto interesse alla rappresent