certainly not the person towards whom I felt personally hostile. On the contrary, my whole thoughts were engrossed by one, whom I had reason to consider as my worst literary enemy, nor could I forsee that his former antagonist was about to become his champion. You do not specify what you would wish to have done: I can neither retract nor apologise for a charge of falsehood which I never advanced.

In the beginning of the week, I shall be at No. 8, St James's Street. Your friend Mr Rogers, or any other gentleman delegated by you, will find me most ready to adopt any conciliatory proposition which shall not compromise my own honour,—or, failing in that, to make the atonement you deem it necessary to require.

(1811, October 27, Cambridge. Letter 202, to Thomas Moore, Vol. II., p. 59.)

With regard to the passage [in English Bards, etc.] on Mr Way's loss [of several thousand pounds at the Argyle Institution, of which Colonel Greville was manager], no unfair play was hinted at, as may be seen by referring to the book; and it is expressly added, that the managers were ignorant of that transaction. As to the prevalence of play at the Argyle, it cannot be denied that there were billiards and dice;-Lord B. has been a witness to the use of both at the Argyle Rooms. These, it is presumed, come under the denomination of play. If play be allowed, the President of the Institution can hardly complain of being termed the "Arbiter of Play,"or what becomes of his authority? Lord B. has no

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personal animosity to Colonel Greville. A public institution, to which he himself was a subscriber, he considered himself to have a right to notice publicly. Of that institution Colonel Greville was the avowed director; it is too late to enter into a discussion of its merits or demerits.

If the

Lord B. must leave the discussion of the reparation, for the real or supposed injury to Colonel G.'s friend and M' Moore, the friend of Lord B.-begging them to recollect that, while they consider Colonel G.'s honour, Lord B. must also maintain his own. business can be settled amicably [eventually, it was so settled], Lord B. will do as much as can and ought to be done by a man of honour towards conciliation; -if not, he must satisfy Colonel G. in the manner most conducive to his further wishes.

([Undated.] Letter 229, to Thomas Moore, Vol. II., p. 109.)

In the "mail-coach copy of the Edinburgh, I perceive The Giaour is second article. The numbers are still in the Leith smack-pray which way is the wind? The said article is so very mild and sentimental, that it must be written by Jeffrey in love;you know he is gone to America to marry some fair one, of whom he has been, for several quarters, éperdument amoureux. [Jeffrey married, as his second wife, at New York, in October, 1813, Charlotte Wilkes, a grand-niece of John Wilkes.] Seriously -as Winifred Jenkins says of Lismahago-M1 Jeffrey (or his deputy) "has done the handsome thing by me," and I say nothing. But this I will say, if you and I had knocked one another on the head in

this quarrel, how he would have laughed, and what a mighty bad figure we should have cut in our posthumous works. By the by, I was call'd in the other day to mediate between two gentlemen bent upon carnage, and-after a long struggle between the natural desire of destroying one's fellow-creatures, and the dislike of seeing men play the fool for nothing, I got one to make an apology, and the other to take it, and left them to live happy ever after. One was a peer [Lord Foley], the other a friend untitled [Scrope Berdmore Davies], and both fond of high play;—and one, I can swear for, though very mild, "not fearful," and so dead a shot, that, though the other is the thinnest of men, he would have split him like a cane. They both conducted themselves very well, and I put them out of pain as soon as I could.

(1813, August 22. Letter 322, to Thomas Moore, Vol. II., p. 246.)

I do not know, and have no clue but conjecture [to the authorship of a certain newspaper attack]. If discovered, and he turns out a hireling, he must be left to his wages; if a cavalier, he must "wink, and hold out his iron.'

I had some thoughts of putting the question to C*** r [Croker], but Hobhouse, who, I am sure, would not dissuade me if it were right, advised me by all means not; "that I had no right to take it upon suspicion," etc., etc. Whether H. is correct I am not aware, but he believes himself so, and says there can be but one opinion on that subject. This I am, at least, sure of, that he would never prevent me from doing what he deemed the duty of a preux

BYRON USES "THE MAILED FIST"

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chevalier. In such cases-at least, in this countrywe must act according to usages. In considering this instance, I dismiss my own personal feelings. Any man will and must fight, when necessary, even without a motive. Here, I should take it up really without much resentment; for, unless a woman one likes is in the way, it is some years since I felt a long anger. But, undoubtedly, could I, or may I, trace it to a man of station, I should and shall do what is proper.

(1814, February 26. Letter 419, to Thomas Moore, Vol. III., p. 50.)

The other day, I had a squabble on the high-way, as follows:-I was riding pretty quickly from Dolo home about eight in the evening, when I passed a party of people in a hired carriage, one of whom, poking his head out of the window, began bawling to me in an inarticulate but insolent manner; I wheeled my horse round, and overtaking, stopped the coach, and said, "Signor, have you any commands for me?" He replied, impudently, as to manner, "No." I then asked him what he meant by that unseemly noise, to the discomfiture of the passers-by. He replied by some piece of impertinence, to which I answered by giving him a violent slap in the face. I then dismounted (for this passed at the window, I being on horseback still), and opening the door, desired him to walk out, or I would give him another. But the first had settled him except as to words, of which he poured forth a profusion in blasphemies, swearing that he would go to the police and avouch a battery sans provocation. I said he lied, and was a

***

and if he did not hold his tongue, should be dragged out and beaten anew. He then held his tongue. I, of course, told him my name and residence, and defied him to the death, if he were a gentleman, or not a gentleman, and had the inclination to be genteel in the way of combat. He went to the police; but there having been bystanders in the road-particularly a soldier, who had seen the business-as well as my servant, notwithstanding the oaths of the coachman and five inside besides the plaintiff, and a good deal of perjury on all sides, his complaint was dismissed, he having been the aggressor-and I was subsequently informed that, had I not given him a blow, he might have been had into durance.

So set down this,-"that in Aleppo once" I "beat a Venetian"; but I assure you that he deserved it, for I am a quiet man, like Candide, though with somewhat of his fortune in being forced to forego my natural meekness every now and then.

(1817, July 8, La Mira, near Venice. Letter

662, to John Murray, Vol. IV., p. 145.)

I have been in a rage these two days, and am still bilious therefrom. You shall hear. A Captain of Dragoons, Ostheid, Hanoverian by birth, in the Papal troops at present, whom I had obliged by a loan when nobody would lend him a Paul, recommended a horse to me, on sale by a Lieutenant Rossi, an officer who unites the sale of cattle to the purchase of men. I bought it. The next day, on shoeing the horse, we discovered the thrush the animal being warranted sound. I sent to reclaim the contract, and the money. The Lieutenant desired to speak with