Such was the pretended negotiation through Madame de Stael, and such now this apparently fair and generous offer to let Lady Byron see and mark this manuscript.
The little Ada is now in her fifth year--a child of singular sensibility and remarkable mental powers--one of those exceptional children who are so perilous a charge for a mother.
Her husband proposes this artful snare to her,--that she shall mark what is false in a statement which is all built on a damning lie, that she cannot refute over that daughter's head,--and which would perhaps be her ruin to discuss.
Hence came an addition of two more documents, to be used 'privately among friends,' {43} and which 'Blackwood' uses after Lady Byron is safely out of the world to cast ignominy on her grave--the wife's letter, that of a mother standing at bay for her daughter, knowing that she is dealing with a desperate, powerful, unscrupulous enemy.
'Kirkby Mallory: March 10, 1820.
'I received your letter of January 1, offering to my perusal a Memoir of part of your life.

I decline to inspect it.

I consider the publication or circulation of such a composition at any time as prejudicial to Ada's future happiness.

For my own sake, I have no reason to shrink from publication; but, notwithstanding the injuries which I have suffered, I should lament some of the consequences.
'A.

Byron.
'To Lord Byron.' Lord Byron, writing for the public, as is his custom, makes reply:-- 'Ravenna: April 3, 1820.
'I received yesterday your answer, dated March 10.