l that the secret war going on against him delighted all his rivals,
who, not having dared to show their spite at the time of his triumphs,
had bided patiently the day of vengeance.

He was aware of it all, but did not therefore draw back; and looking
fearlessly at the pile heaped with all these combustible materials
intended for his martyrdom, he did not any the more cease from his work.
He resisted, and accepted martyrdom like a _hero_.

"You can have no conception of the uproar the eight lines on the little
Royalty's weeping in 1812 (now republished) have occasioned.... The
'Morning Post,' 'Sun,' 'Herald,' 'Courier,' have all been in
hysterics.... I am an atheist, a rebel, and at last the devil
(_boiteux_, I presume). My demonism seems to be a female's
conjecture.... The abuse against me in all directions is vehement,
unceasing, loud."[206]

The editor, alarmed, proposed to have them disavowed.

"Take any course you please to vindicate yourself," Lord Byron answered
him; "but leave me to fight my own way, and, as I before said, do not
_compromise_ me by any thing which may look like _shrinking_ on my part;
as for your own, make the best of it.... I have already done all in my
power by the suppression" (of the satire). "If that is not enough, they
must act as they please; but I will not 'teach my tongue a most inherent
baseness,' come what may.... I shall bear what I can, and what I can not
I shall resist. The worst they could do would be to exclude me from
society. I have never courted it, nor, I may add, in the general sense
of the word, enjoyed it; and there is a world elsewhere!

"Any thing remarkably injurious I have the same means of repaying as
other men, with such interest as circumstances may annex to it."

After this first great explosion, of which the verses addressed to the
Princess Charlotte had formed the occasion and the pretext, the
commotion appeared to subside. But the fire in the mine had not gone
out. It still circulated obscurely, gathering strength in the quiet
darkness. Another occasion was alone wanting for a second explosion, and
a hand to strike the spark. The circumstance of his unhappy marriage,
which had taken place in the interval, presented this occasion; and the
hand to strike the spark was the one which had received the nuptial
ring a year before. The explosion was brutal, abominable,
insensate--unworthy of the society that tolerated it.

Then came another interval; the good who