Suppose there are some anomalies hard to explain in Lady Byron's
conduct. Could a young and guileless woman, in the hands of such a
man, be expected to act in any given way, or would she not be likely
to waver, to doubt, to hope, to contradict herself, in the anomalous
position in which, without experience, she found herself?
As to the intrinsic evidence contained in the poems, I think it
confirms rather than contradicts the hypothesis of guilt. I do not
think that Butler's argument, and all the other attempts at
invalidation of the story, avail much in the face of the acknowledged
fact that it was told to various competent and honest witnesses, and
remains without a satisfactory answer from those most interested.
I know your firm self-reliance, and your courage to proclaim the truth
when any good end is to be served by it. It is to be expected that
public opinion will be more or less divided as to the expediency of
this revelation. . . .
Hoping that you have recovered from your indisposition,
I am Faithfully yours,
0. W. HOLMES.
While undergoing the most unsparing and pitiless criticism and brutal
insult, Mrs. Stowe received the following sympathetic words from Mrs.
Lewes (George Eliot):--
THE PRIORY, 21 NORTH BANK, _December_ 10, 1869.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--. . . In the midst of your trouble I was often
thinking of you, for I feared that you were undergoing a considerable
trial from the harsh and unfair judgments, partly the fruit of
hostility glad to find an opportunity for venting itself, and partly
of that unthinking cruelty which belongs to hasty anonymous
journalism.
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