him, but of a kind to make him conjugate verbs
equally disagreeable; for they came caused by grief and irritation. In
an infamous, ignoble publication, called "The Scourge," an anonymous
author, probably making himself the organ of those who wished to avenge
Lord Byron's satires, attacked his birth, and the reputation of his
mother, who, despite her faults, was a very respectable, excellent
woman.

"During the first winters after Lord Byron had returned to England,"
says Mr. Galt, "I was frequently with him. At that time, the strongest
feeling by which he appeared to be actuated was indignation against a
writer in a scurrilous publication, called 'The Scourge,' in which he
was not only treated with unjustifiable malignity, but charged with
being, as he told me himself, the illegitimate son of a murderer. I had
not read the work; but the writer who could make such an absurd
accusation, must have been strangely ignorant of the very circumstances
from which he derived the materials of his own libel. When Lord Byron
mentioned the subject to me, and that he was consulting Sir Vicary Gibbs
with the intention of prosecuting the publisher and the author, I
advised him, as well as I could, to desist simply because the
allegations referred to well-known occurrences. His grand-uncle's duel
with Mr. Chaworth, and the order of the House of Peers to produce
evidence of his grandfather's marriage with Miss Trevannion, the facts
of which being matter of history and public record, superseded the
necessity of any proceeding.

"Knowing how deeply this affair agitated him at that time, I was not
surprised at the sequestration in which he held himself, and which made
those who were not acquainted with his shy and mystical nature apply to
him the description of his own 'Lara.'"[176]

Lord Byron's conduct at this period, led those who did not know his
timid mystery-loving nature, to fancy that they recognized him in the
portrait drawn of "Lara." Probably they were unaware how his hard fate
was now not sparing him one single grief or mortification; how he was
struggling between the necessity of putting up Newstead for sale and the
extreme repugnance he felt to such a step.

"Before his resolve was taken on this head," says Mr. Galt, "he was
often so troubled in mind, as to be unable to hide his sadness; and he
often spoke of leaving England forever."

Already, long absence had made him lose sight of several early comrades;
his mother was