ich he darkened his
strain, served only to heighten its success. The Prince Regent had the
poet presented to him, and the author of "Marmion" offered his praise.
In the following May appeared the wild and beautiful fragment, "The
Giaour." This new offspring of his genius was hailed with wonder and
delight, and on my rejoining him in town this spring, I found an intense
enthusiasm for Byron throughout the literary and social world. But his
mind was already turning to freedom and solitude, and his third and last
speech in the House of Lords was made in June.

_III.--Byron's Unfortunate Marriage_

Byron's restlessness is reflected throughout his "Journal," which he
began at this time. He had dreams of living in the Grecian Islands and
of adopting an Eastern manner of life; but in December, 1813, when "The
Bride of Abydos" was published, he was still feverishly dissipating
himself in England.

A significant entry in the "Journal" says: "A wife would be the
salvation of me," and Lord Byron became a suitor for the hand of Miss
Milbanke, a relative of Lady Melbourne. His proposal was not at first
accepted, but a correspondence ensued between them, and in September,
1814, after the appearance of "The Corsair" and "Lara," they became
formally affianced. I was much in his society at this time, and was
filled with foreboding anxieties, which the unfortunate events that
followed only too fully justified. At the end of December he set out for
Seaham, the seat of Sir Ralph Milbanke, the lady's father, and on
January 2, 1815, was married. On March 8, he wrote to me from Seaham:
"Bell is in health, and unvaried good-humour and behaviour."

Lord Byron's pecuniary embarrassments now accumulated upon him, and just
a year after his marriage, and shortly after the birth of their
daughter, I received a letter which breathed a profound melancholy, due
partly to his difficulties, but more, I thought, to a return of the
restless and roving spirit. I replied: "Do tell me you are happier than
that letter has led me to fear, and I shall be satisfied." It was only a
few weeks later that Lady Byron adopted the resolution of parting from
him. She had left London in January on a visit to her father, and Byron
was to follow her. They had parted in the utmost kindness; she wrote him
a letter, full of playfulness and affection, on the road; but
immediately on her arrival her father wrote to acquaint Lord Byron that
she would return to him no more