"fore he could be brought to trial. Such 66 was the fate of one who had all the qualifi "cations of a hero and a patriot! Had he 66 lived, perhaps Ireland had not now been a "land of Helots." "What did you mean," asked I one day, "by that line in ́ Beppo ?'— 6 'Some play the devil, and then write a novel.' "I alluded," replied he, "to a novel that "had some fame in consequence of its be 66 "ing considered a history of my life and "adventures, character and exploits, mix"ed up with innumerable lampoons upon "others. Madame de Staël asked me if the 66 66 65 picture was like me,-and the Germans think it is not a caricature. One of my foreign biographers has tacked name, place, and circumstance to the Florence “fable, and gives me a principal instead of "a subordinate part in a certain tragical "history therein narrated. Unfortunately "for my biographers, I was never at Flo66 rence for more than a few days in my life. Hence, however, it has been alleged that "murder is my instinct; and to make in 66 66 66 nocence my victim and my prey, part of my nature. I imagine that this dark hint "took its origin from one of my Notes in “The Giaour,' in which I said that the "countenance of a person dying by stabs "retained the character of ferocity, or of "the particular passion imprinted on it at "the moment of dissolution. A sage re"viewer makes this comment on my re"mark :-"It must have been the result of "personal observation !' "But I am made out a very amiable per "son in that novel! The only thing be"longing to me in it, is part of a letter; 66 66 but it is mixed up with much fictitious "and poetical matter. Shelley told me he was offered, by the bookseller in "Bond Street, no small sum if he would 66 compile the Notes of that book into a "story; but that he declined the offer. * "But if I know the authoress, I have seen "letters of hers much better written than 66 any part of that novel. A lady of my "acquaintance told me, that when that book 66 was going to the press, she was threaten "ed with cutting a prominent figure in it "if But the story would only "furnish evidence of the unauthenticity of "the nature of the materials, and shew the 66 manner and spirit with which the piece "was got up.-Yet I don't know why I "have been led to talk about such non 66 sense, which I paid no more attention to "than I have to the continual calumnies "and lies that have been unceasingly cir"culated about me, in public prints, and "through anonymous letters. I got a "whole heap of them when I was at Ve"nice, and at last found out that I had to "thank Mr. Sotheby for the greater share "of them. It was under the waspishness 66 produced by this discovery that I made "him figure also in my 'Beppo' as an ‘an"tique gentleman of rhyme,' a 'bustling "Botherby,' &c. I always thought him "the most insufferable of bores, and the 66 curse of the Hampbell, as Edgeworth was "of his club. There was a society formed "for the suppression of Edgeworth, and "sending him back to Ireland ;-but I "should have left the other to his "tended to take for an old arm-chair, if "he had not made himself an active bore, 66 66 by dunning me with disagreeable news,— and, what was worse, and more nauseous "and indigestible still, with his criticisms "and advice. 66 "When Galignani was about to publish a new edition of my works, he applied to "Moore to furnish him with some anecdotes "of me; and it was suggested that we "should get up a series of the most unac"countable and improbable adventures, to "gull the Parisian and travelling world "with: but I thought afterwards that he |