doubt me the less, when I pronounce my firm belief, that Cash is Virtue.

* I cannot reproach myself with much expenditure: my only extra expense (and it is more than I have spent upon myself) being a loan of two hundred and fifty pounds to Hunt; and fifty pounds' worth of furniture which I have bought for him; and a boat which I am building for myself at Genoa, which will cost about a hundred pounds more.

"But to return. I am determined to have all the moneys I can, whether by my own funds, or succession, or lawsuit, or MSS., or any lawful means whatever.

"I will pay (though with the sincerest reluctance) my remaining creditors, and every man of law, by instalments from the award of the arbitrators.

"I recommend to you the notice in Mr. Hanson's letter, on the demand of moneys for the Rochdale tolls.

ter is clearer than your dog-days) lignting the winding Arno, with all her buildings and bridges, so quiet and still!-What nothings are we before the least of these stars!"

LETTER DXLVI.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Pisa, Feb. 19, 1822. "I am rather surprised not to have had an answer to my letter and packets. Lady Noel is dead, and it is not impossible that I may have to go to England to settle the division of the Wentworth property, and what portion Lady B. is to have out of it; all which was left undecided by the articles of separation. But I hope not, if it can be

"Above all, I recommend my interests to your honoura-done without,-and I have written to Sir Francis Burdett ble worship.

"Recollect, too, that I expect some moneys for the various MSS., (no matter what;) and, in short, 'Rem, quocunque modo, Rem!-the noble feeling of cupidity grows upon us with our years.

"Yours ever, &c."

LETTER DXLV.

TO MR. MURRAY.

to be my referee, as he knows the property.

"Continue to address here, as I shall not go if I can avoid it—at least, not on that account. But I may on another; for I wrote to Douglas Kinnaird to convey a message of invitation to Mr. Southey to meet me, either in England, or (as less liable to interruption) on the coast of France. This was about a fortnight ago, and I have not yet had time to have the answer. However, you shall have due notice; therefore continue to address to Pisa. "My agents and trustees have written to me to desire that I would take the name directly, so that I am yours very truly and affectionately,

"NOEL BYRON.

"P.S. I have had no news from England except on business; and merely know, from some abuse in that faithful ex and de-tractor, Galignani, that the clergy are

"Pisa, Feb. 8, 1822. "Attacks upon me were to be expected, but I perceive one upon you in the papers, which I confess that I did not expect. How, or in what manner, you can be considered resposible for what I publish, I am at a loss to conceive. "If Cain' be 'blasphemous,' Paradise Lost is blasphe-up against 'Cain.' There is (if I am not mistaken) some mous; and the very words of the Oxford gentleman, 'Evil, good church preferment on the Wentworth estates; and be thou my good, are from that very poem, from the I will show them what a good Christian I am by patronismouth of Satan; and is there any thing more in that of ing and preferring the most pious of their order, should Lucifer in the Mystery? Cain is nothing more than a opportunity occur. drama, not a piece of argument. If Lucifer and Cain "M. and I are but little in correspondence, and I know speak as the first murderer and the first rebel may be nothing of literary matters at present. I have been wrisupposed to speak, surely all the rest of the personagesting on business only lately. What are you about? Be talk also according to their characters-and the stronger assured that there is no such coalition as you apprehend." passions have ever been permitted to the drama.

"I have even avoided introducing the Deity as in Scripture, (though Milton does, and not very wisely either,) but have adopted his angel as sent to Cain instead, on purpose to avoid shocking any feelings on the subject by falling short of what all uninspired men must fall short in, viz. giving an adequate notion of the effect of the presence of Jehovah. The old Mysteries introduced him liberally enough, and all this is avoided in the new one.

LETTER DXLVII.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Pisa, Feb. 20, 1822.* "Your letter arrived since I wrote the enclosed. It is not likely, as I have appointed agents and arbitrators for the Noel estates, that I should proceed to England on that account,-though I may upon another, within stated. At any rate, continue you to address here till you hear further from me. I could wish you still to arrange for me, &c. I shall not quarrel with any arrangement you may either with a London or Paris publisher, for the things,

"I have appointed Sir Francis Burdett my arbitrator

estates, which are estimated at seven thousand a-year, and rents very well paid,—a rare thing at this time. It is, however, owing to their consisting chiefly in pasture lands, and therefore less affected by corn bills, &c. than properties in tillage.

"The attempt to bully you, because they think it won't succeed with me, seems to me as atrocious an attempt as ever disgraced the times. What! when Gibbon's, Hume's, Priestley's, and Drummond's publishers have been allowed to rest in peace for seventy years, are you to be singled out for a work of fiction, not of history or argument? There must be something at the bottom of this-some please to make. private enemy of your own: it is otherwise incredible. "I can only say, 'Me, me; en adsum qui feci;'-that to decide on Lady Byron's allowance out of the Noel any proceedings directed against you, I beg, may be transferred to me, who am willing, and ought, to endure them all; that if you have lost money by the publication, I will refund any or all of the copyright; that I desire you will say that both you and Mr. Gifford remonstrated against the publication, as also Mr. Hobhouse; that I alone occasioned it, and I alone am the person who, either legally or otherwise, should bear the burden. If they prosecute, in land, I do not know which side to cry out on in politics 1 will come to England-that is, if, by meeting it in my own person, I can save yours. Let me know. You sha'n't suffer for me, if I can help it. Make any use of this letter in 'Cain' that I recollect. I hold no such opinions; but, in a drama, the first rebel and the first murderer must you please. "P.S. I write to you about all this row of bad passions be made to talk according to their characters. However, and absurdities, with the summer moon (for here our win

"Yours ever, &c."

"Believe me yours ever most affectionately, "NOEL BYRON. "Between my own property in the funds, and my wife's

"There is nothing against the immortality of the soul

The preceding letter came enclosed in this.

the parsons are all preaching at it, from Kentish Town and Oxford to Pisa;-the scoundrels of priests, who do more harm to religion than all the infidels that ever forgot their catechism.

"I have not seen Lady Noel's death announced in alignani.-How is that?"

LETTER DXLVIII.

TO MR MOORE.

"Pisa, Feb. 28, 1822.

"I begin to think that the packet (a heavy one) of five acts of Werner,' &c. can hardly have reached you, for your letter of last week (which I answered) did not allude to it, and yet I ensured it at the postoffice here.

"I have no direct news from England, except on the Noel business, which is proceeding quietly, as I have appointed a gentleman (Sir F. Burdett) for my arbitrator. They, too, have said that they will recall the lawyer whom they had chosen, and will name a gentleman too. This is better, as the arrangement of the estates and of Lady B.'s allowance will thus be settled without quibbling. My lawyers are taking out a license for the name and arms, which it seems I am to endue.

meeting is not yet come. I sent the message, with short note, to him through Douglas Kinnaird, and Douglas's response is not arrived. If he accepts, I shall have to go to England; but if not, I do not think the Noel affairs will take me there, as the arbitrators can settle them without my presence, and there do not seem to be any difficulties. The license for the new name and armorial bearings will be taken out by the regular applica tion, in such cases, to the Crown, and sent to me.

"Is there a hope of seeing you in Italy again ever? What are you doing?-bored by me, I know; but I have explained why before. I have no correspondence now one or two friends. My greatest friend, Lord Clare, is with London, except through relations and lawyers and at Rome: we met on the road, and our meeting was quite sentimental-really pathetic on both sides. I have always loved him better than any male thing in the world." The preceding was enclosed in that which follows.

LETTER DL.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Pisa, March 4, 1822. "Since I wrote the enclosed, I have waited another of the packet-a troublesome one, I fear, to you in more post, and now have your answer acknowledging the arrival ways than one, both from weight external and internal.

"By another, and indirect quarter, I hear that 'Cain' has been pirated, and that the Chancellor has refused to give Murray any redress. Also, that G. R.* (your friend 'Ben,) has expressed great personal indignation at the The unpublished things in your hands, in Douglas said poem. All this is curious enough, I think,-after K.'s, and Mr. John Murray's, are, 'Heaven and Earth, a allowing Priestly, Hume, and Gibbon, and Bolingbroke, lyrical kind of Drama upon the Deluge, &c. - Werner, and Voltaire to be published, without depriving the book-now with you;—a translation of the first Canto of the sellers of their rights. I heard from Rome a day or two ago, and, with what truth I know not, that *

LETTER DXLIX.

TO MR. MOORE.

*

*

"Yours, &c."

Morgante Maggiore ;-ditto of an Episode in Dante :some stanzas to the Po, June 1st, 1819-Hints from Horace, written in 1811, but a good deal, since, to be omitted-several prose things, which may, perhaps, as well remain unpublished ;-'The Vision, &c. of Quevedo Redivivus' in verse.

"Here you see is 'more matter for a May morning; but how much of this can be published is for considera"Pisa, March 1, 1822. tion. The Quevedo (one of my best in that line) has As I still have no news of my 'Werner,' &c. packet, appalled the Row already, and must take its chance at sent to you on the 29th of January, I continue to bore you, Paris, if at all. The new Mystery is less speculative (for the fifth time, I believe,) to know whether it has not than 'Cain,' and very pious; besides, it is chiefly lyrical. miscarried. As it was fairly copied out, it will be vex-The Morgante is the best translation that ever was or atious if it be lost. Indeed, I ensured it at the postoffice will be made; and the rest are-whatever you please to make them take more care, and directed it regularly to you at Paris.

to think them.

"I am sorry you think Werner even approaching to any fitness for the stage, which, with my notions upon it, is very far from my present object. With regard to the publication, I have already explained that I have no exor. bitant expectations of either fame or profit in the present instances; but wish them published because they are written; which is the common feeling of all scribblers.

"In the impartial Galignani I perceive an extract from Blackwood's Magazine, in which it is said that there are people who have discovered that you and I are no poets. With regard to one of us, I know that this northwest passage to my magnetic pole had been long discovered by some sages, and I leave them the full benefit of their penetration. I think. as Gibbon says of his History,' that, "With respect to 'Religion,' can I never convince you perhaps, a hundred years hence it may still continue to be that I have no such opinions as the characters in that abused.' However, I am far from pretending to compete drama, which seems to have frightened everybody? Yet or compare with that illustrious literary character. they are nothing to the expressions in Goethe's Faust, "But, with regard to you, I thought that you had al-(which are ten times hardier,) and not a whit more bold ways been allowed to be a poet, even by the stupid as than those of Milton's Satan. My ideas of a character well as the envious-a bad one, to be sure-immoral, may run away with me: like all imaginative men, I, of florid, Asiatic, and diabolically popular,-but still always course, imbody myself with the character while I draw a poet, nem. con. This discovery, therefore, has to me all it, but not a moment after the pen is from off the paper. the grace of novelty, as well as of consolation (according "I am no enemy to religion, but the contrary. As a to Rochefoucault) to find myself no-poetized in such good proof, I am educating my natural daughter a strict Catholic company. I am content to 'err with Plato;' and can in a convent of Romagna, for I think people can never assure you very sincerely, that I would rather be received have enough of religion, if they are to have any. I a non poet with you, than be crowned with all the bays incline, myself, very much to the Catholic doctrines; but of (the yet-uncrowned) Lakers in their society. I believe if I am to write a drama, I must make my characters you think better of those worthies than I do. I know speak as I conceive them likely to argue.

of. With his speculative opinions I have nothing in conmon, nor desire to have.

"The truth is, my dear Moore, you live near the stone of society, where you are unavoidably influenced by its neat and its vapours. I did so once-and too much-and enough to give a colour to my whole future existence. As my success in society was not inconsiderable, I am surely not a prejudiced judge upon the subject, unless in its favour; but I think it, as now constituted, fatal to all great original undertakings of every kind. I never courted it then, when I was young and high in blood, and one of its 'curled darlings;' and do you think I would do so now, when I am living in a clearer atmosphere? One thing only might lead me back to it, and that is, to try once more if I could do any good in politics; but not in the petty politics I see now preying upon our miserable country. "Do not let me be misunderstood, however. If you speak your own opinions, they ever had, and will have, the greatest weight with me. But if you merely echo the monde,' (and it is difficult not to do so, being in its favour and its ferment,) I can only regret that you should ever repeat any thing to which I cannot pay attention.

"But I am prosing. The gods go with you, and as much immortality of all kinds as may suit your present and all other existence.

"Yours, &c."

peace with you, though our war was for other reasons than this same controversy. I have written to Moore by this post to forward to you the tragedy of 'Werner.' I shall not make or propose any present bargain about it or the new Mystery till we see if they succeed. If they do n't sell, (which is not unlikely,) you sha'n't pay; and I suppose this is fair play, if you choose to risk it.

"Bartolini, the celebrated sculptor, wrote to me to desire to take my bust: I consented, on condition that he also took that of the Countess Guiccioli. He has taken both, and I think it will be allowed that hers is beautiful. I shall make you a present of them both, to show that I don't bear malice, and as a compensation for the trouble and squabble you had about Thorwaldsen's. Of my own I can hardly speak, except that it is thought very like what I now am, which is different from what I was, of course, since you saw me. The sculptor is a famous one; and as it was done by his own particular request, will be done well, probably.

"What is to be done about Taafe and his Commentary? He will die, if he is not published; he will be damned if he w; but that he do n't mind. We must publish him.

"All the row about me has no otherwise affected me than by the attack upon yourself, which is ungenerous in Church and State; but as all violence must in time have its proportionate reaction, you will do better by-and-by. "Yours very truly,

LETTER DLI.

TO MR. MOORE.

NOEL BYRON "

"The fact is, I cannot keep my resentments, though violent enough in their onset. Besides, now that all the world are at Murray on my account, I neither can nor ought to leave him; unless, as I really thought, it were better for him that I should.

LETTER DLIII.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Pisa, March 8, 1822. "You will have had enough of my letters by this timeyet one word in answer to you present missive. You are quite wrong in thinking that your advice' had offended me; but I have already replied (if not answered) on that point.

"With regard to Murray, as I really am the meckest and mildest of men since Moses, (though the public and mine 'excellent wife' cannot find it out,) I had already pacified myself and subsided back to Albemarle-street, as But I my yesterday's yepistle will have informed you. thought that I had explained my causes of bile—at least to you.

"I have had no other news from England, except a letter from Barry Cornwall, the bard, and my old schoolfellow. Though I have sickened you with letters lately, believe me "Yours, &c. "Some instances of vacillation, occasional neglect, an I "P. S. In your last letter you say, speaking of Shelley, troublesome sincerity, real or imagined, are sufficient to that you would almost prefer the 'damnning bigot' to the put your truly great author and man into a passion. But 'annihilating infidel.' Shelley believes in immortality, reflection, with some aid from hellebore, hath already however but this by-the-way. Do remember cured me 'pro tempore;' and, if it had not, a request from Frederick the Great's answer to the remonstrance of the you and Hobhouse would have come upon me like two villagers whose curate preached against the eternity of out of the 'tribus Anticyris,'-with which, however, hell's torments? It was thus:-If my faithful subjects Horace despairs of purging a poet. I really feel ashamed of Schrausenhaussen prefer being eternally damned, let of having bored you so frequently and fully of late. But what could I do? You are a friend-an absent one, alas!-and as I trust no one more, I trouble you in proportion.

them!'

you

"Of the two, I should think the long sleep better than the agonized vigil. But men, miserable as they are, cling so to any thing like life, that they probably would prefer damnation to quiet. Besides, they think themselves so important in the creation, that nothing less can satisfy their pride-the insects!"

LETTER DLII.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Pisa, March 6, 1822. "You will long ago have received a letter from me, (or should,) declaring my opinion of the treatment you have met with about the recent publication. I think it disgraceful to those who have persecuted you. I make

"This war of 'Church and State' has astonished me more than it disturbs; for I really thought 'Cain' a speculative and hardy, but still a harmless production. As I said before, am really a great admirer of tangible religion; and am breeding one of my daughters a Catholic, that she may have her hands full. It is by far the most elegant worship, hardly excepting the Greek mythology. What with incence, pictures, statues, a.tars, shrines, relics, and the real presence, confession, absolution,-there is something sensible to grasp at. Besides, it leaves no possibility of doubt; for those who swallow their Deity really and truly, in transubstantiation, can hardly find any thing else otherwise than easy of digestion.

"I am afraid that this sounds flippant, but I do a't meen it to be so; o..ly my turn of mund is so given to taking

things in the absurd point of view, that it breaks out in spite of me every now and then. Still, I do assure you that I am a very good Christian. Whether you will believe me in this, I do not know; but I trust you will take my word for being

naird have in hand, and the 'Vision of Judgment? I you publish the latter in a very cheap edition, so as to baffle the pirates by a low price, you will find that it wil do. The Mystery' I look upon as good, and 'Werner 100, and I expect that you will publish them speedily You need not put your name to Quevedo, but publish it as a foreign edition, and let it make its way. Douglas Kinnaird has it still, with the preface, I believe.

"I refer you to him for documents on the late row here

LETTER DLVI.

"Very truly and affectionately yours, &c. "P. S. Do tell Murray that one of the conditions of peace is, that he publisheth (or obtaineth a publisher for) Taafe's Commentary on Dante, against which there appears in the trade an unaccountable repugnance. It I sent them a week ago. wid make the man so exuberantly happy. He dines with me and half a dozen English to-day; and I have not the heart to tell him how the bibliopolar world shrink from his Commentary-and yet it is full of the most orthodox religion and morality. In short, I make it a point that he shall be in print. He is such a good-natured, heavy * * Christian, that we must give him a shove through the press. He naturally thirsts to be an author, and has been the happiest of men for these two months, printing, correcting, collating, dating, anticipating, and adding to his treasures of learning. Besides, he has had another fall from his horse into a ditch the other day, while riding out with me into the country."

LETTER DLIV.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Pisa, March 15, 1822. "I am glad that you and your friends approve of my letter of the 8th ultimo. You may give it what publicity you think proper in the circumstances. I have since written to you twice or thrice.

"As to a Poem in the old way,' I shall attempt of that kind nothing further. I follow the bias of my own mind, without considering whether women or men are or are not to be pleased: but this is nothing to my publisher, who must judge and act according to popularity.

"Therefore let the things take their chance: if they pay, you will pay me in proportion; and if they do n't, I

must.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Yours, &c."

"Pisa, April 18, 1822.

"I have received the Defence of 'Cain.' Who is my Warburton ?-for he has done for me what the bishop did for the poet against Crousaz. His reply seems to me conclusive: and if you understood your own interest, you would print it together with the poem.

"It is very odd that I do not hear from you. I have forwarded to Mr. Douglas Kinnaird the documents on a squabble here, which occurred about a month ago. The affair is still going on; but they make nothing of it hitherto. I think, what with home and abroad, there has been hot water enough for one while. Mr. Dawkins, the English minister, has behaved in the handsomest and most gentlemanly manner throughout the whole business. "Yours ever, &c.

"P. S. I have got Lord Glenbervie's book, which is very amusing and able upon the topics which he touches upon, and part of the preface pathetic. Write soon."

LETTER DLVII.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Pisa, April 22, 1822. "The Noel affairs, I hope, will not take me to England. "You will regret to hear that I have received intelliI have no desire to revisit that country, unless it be to gence of the death of my daughter Allegra of a fever, in keep you out of a prison, (if this can be effected by my the convent of Bagna Cavallo, where she was placed for taking your place,) or perhaps to get myself into one, by the last year, to commence her education. It is a heavy exacting satisfaction from one or two persons who take blow for many reasons, but must be borne, with time. advantage of my absence to abuse me. Further than his, I have no business nor connexion with England, nor desire to have, out of my own family and friends, to whom I wish all prosperity. Indeed, I have lived upon the whole so little in England, (about five years since I was one-and-twenty,) that my habits are too continental, and your climate would please me as little as the society.

"I saw the Chancellor's Report in a French paper. Pray, why do n't they prosecute the translation of Lucrefius? or the original with its

Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor,' 'Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum ?' "You must really get something done for Mr. Taafe's Commentary; what can I say to him?

"Yours, &c."

LETTER DLV.

"It is my present intention to send her remains to England for sepulture in Harrow church, (where I once hoped to have laid my own,) and this is my reason for troubling you with this notice. I wish the funeral to be very private. The body is embalmed, and in lead. It will be embarked from Leghorn. Would you have any objection to give the proper directions on its arrival? "I am yours, &c. "N. B. "P. S. You are aware that Protestants are not allowed' holy ground in Catholic countries."

LETTER DLVIII.

TO MR. SHELLEY.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"April 23, 1822 "The blow was stunning and unexpected, for I thought the danger over, by the long interval between her stated amelioration and the arrival of the express. But I have "Pisa, April 13, 1822. borne up against it as I best can, and so far successfully, 'Mr. Kinnaird writes that there has been an excel- that I can go about the usual business of life with the lent Defence' of 'Cain,' against 'Oxoniensis: you have same appearance of composure, and even greater. There sent me nothing but a not very excellent of-fence of the is nothing to prevent your coming to-morrow; but, persame poem. If there be such a 'Defender of the Faith,' haps, to-day, and yester-evening, it was better not to have you may send me his thirty nine articles, as a counter-met. I do not know that I have any thing to reproach in balance to some of your late communications. my conduct, and certainly nothing in my feelings and

"Are you to publish, or not, what Moore and Mr. Kin-intentions towards the dead. But it is a moment when

we are ant to think that, if this or that had been done, trical hands. Another Mystery-a Vision-a Dramasuch event might have been prevented; though every day and the like. But you won't tell me what you are doing; and hour shows us that they are the most natural and however, I shall find you out, write what you will. You mevitable. I suppose that Time will do his usual work-say that I should like your son-in-law; it would be very Death has done his difficult for me to dislike any one connected with you; but I have no doubt that his own qualities are all that you describe.

"Yours ever,

LETTER DLIX.

TO SIR WALTER SCOTT.

"N. B."

"Pisa, May 4, 1822.

"MY DEAR SIR WALTER, "Your account of your family is very pleasing: would that I could answer this comfort with the like! but I have just lost my natural daughter, Allegra, by a fever. The only consolation, save time, is the reflection, that she is either at rest or happy; for her few years (only five) prevented her from having incurred any sin, except what we inherit from Adam.

Whom the gods love, die young.'

"I need not say that your letters are particularly welcome, when they do not tax your time and patience; and now that our correspondence is resumed, I trust it will continue.

"I am sorry you do n't like Lord Orford's new work. My aristocracy, which is very fierce, makes him a favourite of mine. Recollect that those 'little factions' comprised Lord Chatham and Fox, the father, and that we live in gigantic and exaggerated times, which make all under Gog and Magog appear pigmean. After having seen Napoleon begin like Tamerlane and end like Bajazet in our own time, we have not the same interest in what would otherwise have appeared important history. But I must conclude. "Believe me ever and most truly yours,

"NOEL BYRON."

LETTER DLX.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Pisa, May, 17, 1822. "I hear that the Edinburgh has attacked the three dramas, which is a bad business for you; and I don't "I have lately had some anxiety, rather than trouble wonder that it discourages you. However, that volume about an awkward affair here, which you may perhaps may be trusted to time-depend upon it. I read it over bave heard of: but our minister has behaved very hand-with some attention since it was published, and I think somely, and the Tuscan Government as well as it is pos-the time will come when it will be preferred to my other sible for such a government to behave, which is not saying writings, though not immediately. I say this without irrimuch for the latter. Some other English, and Scots, and tation against the critics or criticism, whatever they may myself, had a brawl with a dragoon, who insulted one of be, (for I have not seen them ;) and nothing that has or the party, and whom we mistook for an officer, as he was may appear in Jeffrey's Review can make me forget that medalled and well mounted, &c.; but he turned out to be he stood by me for ten good years without any motive to a sergeant-major. He called out the guard at the gates do so but his own good-will. to arrest us, (we being unarmed ;) upon which I and "I hear Moore is in town; remember me to him, and another (an Italian) rode through the said guard; but believe me "Yours truly, they succeeded in detaining others of the party. I rode "N. B. to my house, and sent my secretary to give an account of "P.S. If you think it necessary, you may send me the the attempted and illegal arrest to the authorities, and Edinburgh. Should there be any thing that requires an then, without dismounting, rode back towards the gates, answer, I will reply, but temperately and technically; that which are near my present mansion. Half way I met is to say, merely with respect to the principles of the critimy man, vapouring away, and threatening to draw upon cism, and not personally or offensively as to its literary me, (who had a cane in my hand, and no other arms.) I, merits." still believing him an officer, demanded his name and address, and gave him my hand and glove thereupon. A servant of mine thrust in between us, (totally without orders,) but let him go on my command. He then rode off at full speed; but about forty paces further was stabbed, and very dangerously, (so as to be in peril,) by some Calum Beg or other of my people, (for I have some rough-handed folks about me,) I need hardly say without my crection or approval. The said dragoon had been sabring our unarmed countrymen, however, at the gate, after they were in arrest, and held by the guards, and wounded one, Captain Hay, very severely. However, he got his paiks, having acted like an assassin, and being treated like one. Who wounded him, though it was done before thousands of people, they have never been able to "You will have seen the statement of a squabble, &c ascertain, or prove, nor even the weapon; some said a pistol, an air-gun, a stiletto, a sword, a lance, a pitchfork, &c.* What are you about? Let me hear from you at and what not. They have arrested and examined ser- your leisure, and believe me ever yours, vants and people of all descriptions, but can make out nothing. Mr. Dawkins, our minister, assures me, that no suspicion is entertained of the man who wounded him having been instigated by me, or any of the party. I enclose you copies of the depositions of those with us, and Dr. Craufurd, a canny Scot, (not an acquaintance,) who saw the latter part of the affair. They are in Italian.

LETTER DLXI.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Pisa, May 17, 1822. "I hear you are in London. You will have heard from Douglas Kinnaird (who tells me you have dined with him) as much as you desire to know of my affairs at home and abroad. I have lately lost my little girl Allegra by fever, which has been a serious blow to me.

a

"I did not write to you lately, (except one letter to Murray's,) not knowing exactly your whereabouts. Douglas K. refused to forward my message to Mr Southey-why, he himself can explain.

LETTER DLXII.

10 MR. MURRAY.

"N. B."

"Montenero,† May 26, 1822. "Near Leghorn.

"The body is embarked, in what ship I know not, nei

"These are the only literary matters in which I have been engaged since the publication and row about 'Cain;' Lut Mr. Murray has several things of mine in his obste-of residence during the summer months.

• Here follows a repetition of the details given on this subject to Bis Walter Scott and othert.

A hill, three or four miles from Leghorn, much resurted to at a place