with whom he was conversing on the subject of
Lady Byron, having ventured to enumerate to him the various causes he
had heard alleged for the separation, the noble poet, who had seemed
much amused with their absurdity and falsehood, said, after listening to
them all: 'The causes, my dear sir, were too simple to be easily found
out.'

"In truth, the circumstances, so unexampled, that attended their
separation, the last words of the wife to the husband being those of the
most playful affection, while the language of the husband toward the
wife was in a strain, as the world knows, of tenderest eulogy, are in
themselves a sufficient proof that, at the time of their parting, there
could have been no very deep sense of injury on either side. It was not
till afterward that, in both bosoms, the repulsive force came into
operation, when, to the party which had taken the first decisive step in
the strife, it became naturally a point of pride to persevere in it with
dignity, and this unbendingness provoked, as naturally, in the haughty
spirit of the other, a strong feeling of resentment which overflowed, at
last, in acrimony and scorn. If there be any truth, however, in the
principle, that they never pardon who have done the wrong, Lord Byron,
who was, to the last, disposed to reconciliation, proved, at least, that
his conscience was not troubled by any very guilty recollections.

"But though it would have been difficult perhaps, for the victims of
this strife themselves to have pointed out the real cause for their
disunion, beyond that general incompatibility which is the canker _of
all such marriages_, the public, which seldom allows itself to be at
fault on these occasions, was, as usual, ready with an ample supply of
reasons for the breach, all tending to blacken the already-darkly
painted character of the poet, and representing him, in short, as a
finished monster of cruelty and depravity. The reputation of the object
of his choice for every possible virtue, was now turned against him by
his assailants, as if the excellences of the wife were proof positive of
every enormity they chose to charge upon the husband. Meanwhile, the
unmoved silence of Lady Byron under the repeated demands made for a
specification of her charges against him, left to malice and imagination
the fullest range for their combined industry. It was accordingly
stated, and almost universally believed, that the noble lord's second
proposal to Miss Milbank h