"You will make what use you please of this letter; and Mr.
Kinnaird, who has power to act for me in my absence, will, I am
sure, readily join you in any steps which it may be proper to take
with regard to the absurd falsehood of this poor creature. As you
will have recently received several letters from me on my way to
Venice, as well as two written since my arrival, I will not at
present trouble you further.

"Ever, &c.

"P.S. Pray let me hear that you have received this letter. Address
to Venice, _poste restante_.

"To prevent the recurrence of similar fabrications, you may state,
that I consider myself responsible for no publication from the year
1812 up to the present date which is not from your press. I speak
of course from that period, because, previously, Cawthorn and Ridge
had both printed compositions of mine. 'A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem!'
How the devil should I write about _Jerusalem_, never having yet
been there? As for 'A Tempest,' it was _not_ a _tempest_ when I
left England, but a very fresh breeze: and as to an 'Address to
little Ada,' (who, by the way, is a year old to-morrow,) I never
wrote a line about her, except in 'Farewell' and the third Canto of
Childe Harold."

* * * * *

LETTER 257. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Venice, Dec. 27. 1816.

"As the demon of silence seems to have possessed you, I am
determined to have my revenge in postage; this is my sixth or
seventh letter since summer and Switzerland. My last was an
injunction to contradict and consign to confusion that Cheapside
impostor, who (I heard by a letter from your island) had thought
proper to append my name to his spurious poesy, of which I know
nothing, nor of his pretended purchase or copyright. I hope you
have, at least, received _that_ letter.

"As the news of Venice must be very interesting to you, I will
regale you with it.

"Yesterday being the feast of St. Stephen, every mouth was put in
motion. There was nothing but fiddling and playing on the
virginals, and all kinds of conceits and divertissements, on every
canal of this aquatic city. I dined with the Countess Albrizzi and
a Paduan and Venetian party, and afterwards went to the opera, at
the Fenice theatre (which opens for the Carnival on that day),--the
fin