of General Grant to the Prince of Wales, all of which he witnessed, have become historical through his facile pen.
Lady Verney confided to General Badeau, as she did to me at her own house, her displeasure at the revelations of Mrs. Stowe in regard to Lord and Lady Byron. She was the most intimate friend of Lady Byron, and told me that she had from Lady Byron's own lips the following account of the cause of the separation:
Lady Byron found in one of his old desks a certificate of the marriage with the Spanish beauty of whom Moore speaks. Horrified beyond endurance at this terrible disclosure, by which she felt herself not a lawful wife, she went to Sir Samuel Romilly and to Dr. Lushington and asked their advice. They both said to her, "Stay in Byron's house until your child is born, and then leave him and await developments." She followed their advice implicitly. So much was she in love with Byron that she took up his little dog and kissed it as she left the ill-fated house where she had been so badly treated.
The grave question of the legitimacy of Ada prevented her from speaking of this discovery, but she never lived with Byron after it. The Spanish beauty never troubled her, so perhaps it was only a mock-marriage. As for the terrible aspersions on Byron's sister (Lady or Mrs. Augusta Leigh), Lady Verney declared them to have been scandalous lies. She thought Lady Byron could never have uttered them, as the sister of Byron was her friend through life. The only explanation which friends of Lady Byron could give me as to this discrepancy was that Lady Byron was not at all times perfectly sane; but Lady Verney believed differently, and was not at all sparing in her criticisms of Mrs. Stowe.
We came home in November, to begin again that home life which was not to be disturbed for many years; but
