P.S.--Murray has _offered_ me a thousand guineas for the _two_ ('Giaour'
and 'Bride'), and told M'e. de Stael that he had _paid_ them to me!! I
should be glad to be able to tell her so too. But the truth is, he
would; but I thought the fair way was to decline it till May, and, at
the end of 6 months, he can safely say whether he can afford it or
not--without running any risk by Speculation. If he paid them now and
lost by it, it would be hard. If he gains, it will be time enough when
he has already funded his profits. But he needed not have told "_la
Baronne_" such a devil of an uncalled for piece of--premature _truth_,
perhaps--but, nevertheless, a _lie_ in the mean time.
[Footnote 1: Hodgson, now engaged to Miss Tayler, was anxious to clear
off his father's liabilities. Byron gave him from first to last the sum
of L1500 for the purpose. Hodgson, in a letter to his uncle, thus
describes the gift ('Memoir of Rev. F. Hodgson', vol. i. pp. 268, 269):
"My noble-hearted friend, Lord Byron, after many offers of a similar
kind, which I felt bound to refuse, has irresistibly in my present
circumstances ... volunteered to pay all my debts, and within a few
pounds it is done! Oh, if you knew (but _you_ do know) the exultation
of heart, aye, and of head too, I feel at being free from these
depressing embarrassments, you would, as I do, bless my dearest friend
and brother Byron."]
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