From this background of proof, I come forward, and testify to an interview with Lady Byron, in which she gave me specific information of the facts in the case.  That I report the facts just as I received them from her, not altered or misremembered, is shown by the testimony of my sister, to whom I related them at the time.  It cannot, then, be denied that I had this interview, and that this communication was made.  I therefore testify that Lady Byron, for a proper purpose, and at a proper time, stated to me the following things:—­

1.  That the crime which separated her from Lord Byron was incest.

2.  That she first discovered it by improper actions towards his sister, which, he meant to make her understand, indicated the guilty relation.

3.  That he admitted it, reasoned on it, defended it, tried to make her an accomplice, and, failing in that, hated her and expelled her.

4.  That he threatened her that he would make it his life’s object to destroy her character.

5.  That for a period she was led to regard this conduct as insanity, and to consider him only as a diseased person.

6.  That she had subsequent proof that the facts were really as she suspected; that there had been a child born of the crime, whose history she knew; that Mrs. Leigh had repented.

The purpose for which this was stated to me was to ask, Was it her duty to make the truth fully known during her lifetime?

Here, then, is a man believed guilty of an unusual crime by two lawyers, the best in England, who have seen the evidence,—­a man who dares not meet legal investigation.  The crime is named in society, and deemed so far probable to the men of his generation as to be spoken of by Shelley as the only important allegation against him.  He acts through life exactly like a man struggling with remorse, and afraid of detection; he has all the restlessness and hatred and fear that a man has who feels that there is evidence which might destroy him.  He admits an illegitimate child besides Allegra.  A child believed to have been his is known to many in England.  Added to all this, his widow, now advanced in years, and standing on the borders of eternity, being, as appears by her writings and conversation, of perfectly sound mind at the time, testifies to me the facts before named, which exactly correspond to probabilities.

I publish the statement; and the solicitors who hold Lady Byron’s private papers do not deny the truth of the story.  They try to cast discredit on me for speaking; but they do not say that I have spoken falsely, or that the story is not true.  The lawyer who knew Lady Byron’s story in 1816 does not now deny that this is the true one.  Several persons in England testify that, at various times, and for various purposes, the same story has been told to them.  Moreover, it appears from my last letter addressed to Lady Byron on this subject, that I recommended her to leave all necessary papers