mentioned at present, but I repeated my directions that he should want for nothing that money could procure him. the satisfaction to think that he wanted nothing Macmahon went down to Mr. Vaughan, and told him what I had said, and that he had my directions to place 5007. in his hands. Mr. Vaughan, with some expression of surprise, declared that no such sum was wanted at present, and it was not without some pressing that he took 2001., and said that if he found it insufficient he would return for more. He did come back, but not for more; for he told Macmahon that he had spent only 1301. or 140., and he gave the most appalling account of the misery which he had relieved with it. He said that he found him and Mrs. Sheridan both in their beds, both apparently dying, and both starving! It is stated in Mr. Moore's book that Mrs. Sheridan attended her husband in his last illness; it is not true, she was too ill to leave her own bed, and was in fact already suffering from the lingering disease of which he died in a couple of years after. They had hardly a servant left. Mrs. Sheridan's maid she was about to send away, but they could not collect a guinea or two to pay the woman's wages. When Mr. Vaughan entered the house he found all the reception As this article is passing through the press rooms bare, aud the whole house in a state. we are surprised by receiving an extraordinary that was quite intolerable. Sheridan himself he supplement to the work we have been disfound in a truckle bed in a garret, with a coarse cussing, in the shape of a catalogue of autoblue and red coverlid, such as one sees used as horse-cloths, over him. Out of his bed he had Mr. Power, which are, at the moment wo graph letters of Moore to his music-publisher, nor could Vaughan discover that any one had taken any notice of write, sold or selling by auction. Of these letters it is stated that only fifty-seven have him, except one lady- whose name I hardly know whether I am authorized to mention. Some been printed in Lord John Russell's work. ice and currant water was sent from Holland This implies that Lord John had a wider House an odd contribution, for if it was known choice, and indeed we find that there are that he wanted these little matters, which might have been had at the confectioner's, it might have been suspected that he was in want of more essential things. not moved for a week. Yet, notwithstanding all this misery, Sheridan on seeing Mr. Vaughan appeared to revive; he said he was quite well, talked of paying off all his debts, and, though he had not eaten a morsel for a week, and had not had a morsel to eat, he spoke with a certain degree of alacrity and hope Mr. Vaughan, however, saw that this was a kind of bravado, and that he was in a fainting state, and he immediately procured him a little spiced wine and toast, which was the first thing (except brandy) that he had tasted for some days. about one hundred and sixty lots, each containing several letters, whose dates are contemporaneous with those given by Lord John. But the striking peculiarity of the catalogue is this, that it notes that Lord John has made many omissions in the letters he has printed, and it gives large extracts from the much greater number that are still unpublished. As far as we can judge from the short notices of the catalogue, Lord John's omissions of passages seem not to have been many, nor of any importance; but if all the letters here catalogued were (as seems implied) placed at his disposal, he has pretty evidently not selected the most characteristic. As to the great mass of those that are unpublished, the extracts from them given in the catalogue appear to us quite as curious as any that and put into the new bed- he had Lord John has published, and even as Moore's the rooms cleansed and fumigated-he dis-own Diary. Mr. Power seems to have been charged, I believe, some immediately pressing the person deepest in his personal confidence demands, and in short, provided, as well as circumstances would admit, for the care and comfort, not only of Sheridan, but of Mrs. Sheridan also. Mr. Vaughan lost no time in next buying a bed and bed-clothes, half a dozen shirts, some basins, towels, &c. &c. He had Sheridan taken up. I sent the next day (it was not till next day that Macmahon repeated this melancholy history to me, for I myself did not see Mr. Vaughan) to inquire after Sheridan, and the answer was that he was better and more comfortable, and I had most employed in all his concerns for many long and struggling years, while Moore looked so gay and prosperous to the world, his only resource almost for his daily bread. The details given in the extracts of the catalogue are often very painful -sometimes ignoble-but they are intensely characteristic of a state of things for which not even the humiliating confessions of the Diary | a power of redemption during the life of had prepared us, and we hesitate not to say, Lord Byron. As the reason pressed upon me even as they stand in the auctioneer's cata- for this change was that their friends thought logue, afford a much clearer, and by their there were some things in the Memoirs that vividness, reality, and truth, more interesting might be injurious to both, I did not hesitate view of Moore's habits, circumstances, and to make this alteration at Mr. Moore's request; feelings, than all Lord John Russell's volumes and, accordingly, on the 6th day of May, 1822, of the value of which, as affording a complete a second deed was executed, stating that, picture of Moore, the catalogue has very con- "Whereas Lord Byron and Mr. Moore are siderably lowered our opinion. We suppose now inclined to wish the said work not to be that another livraison of his lordship's work published, it is agreed that, if either of them must be near at hand, and we must reserve shall, during the life of the said Lord Byron, for that occasion a great deal more than we at repay the 2000 guineas to Mr. Murray, the present have time or space for, both as to latter shall redeliver the Memoirs; but that, portions of these opening volumes on which if the sum be not repaid during the lifetime of we have not touched, and as to this Power Lord Byron, Mr. Murray shall be at full libcorrespondence, of which we confidently ex-erty to print and publish the said Memoirs pect to hear more than the auctioneer has told us. THE DESTRUCTION OF LORD BYRON'S MEMOIRS. within three months after the death of the said Lord Byron. I need hardly call your particular attention to the words, carefully inserted twice over in this agreement, which limited its existence to the lifetime of Lord Byron; the reason of such limitation was LETTER FROM THE LATE JOHN MURRAY TO ME. obvious and natural-namely, that, although (AFTERWARDS SIR) ROBERT WILMOT HORTON. I consented to restore the work, while Lord Byron should be alive to direct the ulterior disposal of it, I would by no means consent to place it after his death at the disposal of any other person. Albemarle Street, May 19, 1824. DEAR SIR On my return home last night I found your letter, dated the 27th, calling on me for a specific answer whether I acknowl- I must now observe that I had never been edged the accuracy of the statement of Mr. able to obtain possession of the original asMoore, communicated in it. However un-signment, which was my sole lien on this pleasant it is to me, your requisition of a specific answer obliges me to say that I cannot, by any means, admit the accuracy of that statement; and in order to explain to you how Mr. Moore's misapprehension may have arisen, and the ground upon which my assertion rests, I feel it necessary to trouble you with a statement of all the circumstances of the case, which will enable you to judge for yourself. property, although I had made repeated applications to Mr. Moore to put me into possession of the deed, which was stated to be in the hands of Lord Byron's banker. Feeling, I confess, in some degree alarmed at the withholding the deed, and dissatisfied at Mr. Moore's inattention to my interests in this particular, I wrote urgently to him in March, 1823, to procure me the deed, and at the same time expressed my wish that the second agreement should either be cancelled or at once executed. Lord Byron having made Mr. Moore a present of his Memoirs, Mr. Moore offered them for sale to Messrs. Longman and Co., who Finding this application unavailing, and however declined to purchase them; Mr. becoming, by the greater lapse of time, still Moore then made me a similar offer, which I more doubtful as to what the intentions of the accepted; and in November, 1821, a joint parties might be, I, in March, 1824, repeated assignment of the Memoirs was made to me by my demand to Mr. Moore in a more perempLord Byron and Mr. Moore, with all legal tory manner, and was in consequence at technicalities, in consideration of a sum of length put into possession of the original 2000 guineas, which, on the execution of the deed. But, not being at all satisfied with agreement by Mr. Moore, I paid to him. the course that had been pursued towards me, Mr. Moore also covenanted, in consideration I repeated to Mr. Moore my uneasiness at the of the said sum, to act as editor of the Me- terms on which I stood under the second agreemoirs, and to supply an account of the sub-ment, and renewed my request to him that sequent events of Lord Byron's life, &c. he would either cancel it, or execute its proSome nonths after the execution of this assignment, Mr. Moore requested me, as a great personal favor to himself and to Lord Byron, to enter into a second agreement, by which I should resign the absolute property which I had in the Memoirs, and give Mr. Moore and Lord Byron, or any of their friends, visions by the immediate redemption of the work, in order that I might exactly know stituted for " immediately" at Mr. Moore's request *The words "within three months" were sub and they appear in pencil, in his own handwriting, upon the original draft of the deed, which is still in existence. what my rights in the property were. Heing an opportunity of making, by a pecuniary requested time to consider of this proposition. sacrifice on my part, some return for the honIn a day or two he called, and told me that or, and I must add the profit, which I had he would adopt the latter alternative -name- derived from Lord Byron's patronage and ly, the redemption of the Memoirs-as he friendship. You will also be able to bear had found persons who were ready to advance witness that although I could not presume the money on his insuring his life; and he to impose an obligation on the friends of Lord promised to conclude the business on the Byron or Mr. Moore, by refusing to receive first day of his return to town, by paying the the repayment of the 2000 guineas advanced money and giving up the agreement. Mr. by me yet I had determined on the deMoore did return to town, but did not, that struction of the Memoirs without any previous I have heard of, take any proceedings for in- agreement for such repayment: - and you suring his life; he positively neither wrote know the Memoirs were actually destroyed nor called upon me as he had promised to do without any stipulation on my part, but even (though he was generally accustomed to make with a declaration that I had destroyed my mine one of his first houses of call); nor own private property, and I therefore had did he take any other step, that I am aware no claim upon any party for remuneration. of, to show that he had any recollection of I remain, dear sir, the conversation which had passed between Your faithful servant, us previous to his leaving town, until the JOHN MURRAY. death of Lord Byron had, ipso facto, cancelled the agreement in question, and completely restored my absolute rights over the property of the Memoirs. (Signed) To Rt. Wilmot Horton, Esq. LADY SALE. Our arrivals from the Cape of Good Hope announce the demise of Lady Sale, You will therefore perceive that there was the widow of the late Sir Robert Sale, and no verbal agreement in existence between Mr. authoress of an account of the captivity of the Moore and ine, at the time I made a verbal officers and ladies in Affghanistan. She expired agreement with you to deliver the Memoirs to at Cape Town on the 6th of July. In the future be destroyed. Mr. Moore might undoubtedly, annals of the women of England Lady Sale will during Lord Byron's life, have obtained pos- hold a high place as the soldier's wife par exsession of the Memoirs, if he had pleased to do cellence. She possessed all the heroic qualities 80; he however neglected or delayed to give husband, she was his companion and friend suited to her position. Warmly attached to her effect to our verbal agreement, which, as well as the written instrument to which it related, thizing with and alleviating the sufferings of the throughout a life of military vicissitude, sympabeing cancelled by the death of Lord Byron, often wounded Sale, and glorying in his successes there was no reason whatsoever why I was and advancements. She had quick perceptions not at that instant perfectly at liberty to dis- and a strong mind, readily adapting herself to pose of the MS. as I thought proper. Had I her position as her husband advanced to rauk considered only my own interest as a trades- and consequence. The journal which she kept man, I would have announced the work for of the unfortunate occurrences at Cabul, and of immediate publication, and I cannot doubt the subsequent treatment which she and her that, under all the circumstances, the public fellow captives experienced at the hands of curiosity about these Memoirs would have Mahomed Akbar Khan, sufficiently demonstrated given me a very considerable profit beyond the masculine quality of her understanding and In the 13th Light the large sum I originally paid for them; but the firmness of her heart. you yourself are, I think, able to do me the died the colonel, she was much respected, and Infantry, in which Sale rose, and of which he justice of bearing witness that I looked at the many officers and men to this hour remember case with no such feelings, and that my re- her unvarying kindness. Since her return to gard for Lord Byron's memory, and my respect India after paying a visit to this country on her for his surviving family, made me more anx-release from captivity, Lady Sale resided on ious that the Memoirs should be immediately the hills in a state of comfort, her majesty havdestroyed, since it was surmised that the pub-ing granted her a pension of £500 a year as a lication might be injurious to the former and mark of her approbation of her own and her painful to the latter. gallant husband's conduct. - United Service Gazette. As I myself scrupulously refrained from looking into the Memoirs, I cannot, from my own knowledge, say whether such an opinion of the contents was correct or not; it was enough for me that the friends of Lord and Lady Byron united in wishing for their destruction. Why Mr. Moore should have wished to preserve them I did not nor will inquire; but, having satisfied myself that he had no right whatever in them, I was happy in hav the expression in the Burial Service, "In the - Notes J. G. T. From Household Words. A LITERARY LADY'S MAID. THE French have, at all times, been famous for their talent for letter and memoir writing; and the idle reader is not a little indebted to their agreeable egotism for some of the most entertaining works of that nature in any language. Amongst numerous clever lady-writers, esteemed in their day that of Le Grand Monarque-a favorite was Mademoiselle de Launai, whose autobiography is extremely characteristic of the manners of the time. The scenes she describes are not unlike some of those which enliven the volumes of that gossipping and self-satisfied young lady, Miss Burney; especially those which display the mode of encouragement afforded to young women of talent by the ladies of Louis the Fourteenth's Court. We read of the same selfish disregard of every person or sentiment which did not contribute to amusement and unintellectual gratification; and of the same ignorance, pride, and airs of patronage, intended to impress the protégée with awe for their dignity, and gratitude for their condescension. Mademoiselle de Launai writes in a lively flowing style, which has been, by French critics, compared to that of Madame de Sevigny; but, pleasant as it is, it scarcely deserves so high an honor as that. Her anecdotes, however, are so amusing, that we leave off disappointed to find that, after her marriage, she gives us no more scenes; the drama terminating as most other dramas end, with the wedding. Her father, M. de Launai, was an artist; who, having been obliged for some political offence to quit France, established himself in England the climate disagreeing with the health of his wife, she returned; and her daughter was born in Paris. The other 800n became a widow. Poor and desolate, she was admitted from charity into a convent in Normandy; where, after her death, her child in due time found a continued asylum and received an excellent education. nuns, under whose roof she was sheltered. As long as the two superiors, who watched over her education, lived, she was treated with all the distinction and tenderness imaginable; but at sixteen her position was altered by the death of her bencfactressos. Finding that she was now entirely destitute, she applied to two friends, the Abbé Vertot and M. Brunel, begging them to assist her in obtaining some situation. They sent her money, which she instantly returned; being resolved, at first setting out in her career, to accept nothing which she saw no chance of being able to repay. "I resolved," she says, "to suffer the extremity of indigence rather than to derogate from the character I desired to be; persuaded that nothing degrades us but our own actions. first proof convinced me that we yield to tomptation, less in consequence of the force of necessity, than by our own weakness." This She was received temporarily in a convent at Paris, where a sister who is only casually named, no account of her having been given before- -came to see her. This sister was an attendant on the Duchesse de la Forté, and obtained for her the means of support: -- "My sister told me that she had mentioned to her mistress, as they were in her carriage going to Versailles, that I had been singularly well educated in a convent in the country, and had recounted to her all my extraordinary knowledge and acquirements. There was no science which she did not assert that I was acquainted with; and, being herself entirely ignorant, the terms she gave to those sciences and accomplishments were somewhat original, and would have startled a lady more instructed than the Duchess : who, not knowing a bit better than my sister, took all for granted, and jumped at once to the conclusion that I must be a prodigy. On arriving at Versailles the Duchess made me the subject of her conversation with the ladies of the Court, glad, probably, of a new object. My sister sent for me, representing that it had become my duty to thank the Duchess for all the fine things she had said of me. "It happened to me," remarks Made- had no dress in which to present myself bemoiselle de Launai, "quite otherwise than fore so great a lady; but was able to borrow what occurs in romances to the general run one of a boarder in the convent, who conof heroines; who, having been brought up sented to lend it me for a couple of hours; as shepherdesses, turn out illustrious prin- and, after it had been properly adjusted by my cesses. I was treated in my early years like sister, I set off with her on my expedition. a person of distinction; and discovered after- We arrived in time for the hour when the wards that I was nobody, and that I pos- Duchess rose in the morning. She was desessed nothing in the world which I could lighted to see me, and declared I was charmcall my own. My mind, however, not having ing; for she was prepared beforehand to think in early life taken the bias that abject for- me so. After having asked me a few comtune usually gives, has ever since resisted mon-place questions - to which I gav the oppression and subjection which has been as common-place replies she exclaimed, my lot." Nothing could equal the atten-"Really and truly, she speaks admirably! tion, kindness and care, which the little How fortunate! She is come just in time stranger received from the good abbess and to write a letter for me to M. Desmarest, I O,' she replied, you can turn the phrases as you like; I want him to grant me a favor, so be sure it is well expressed.' 66 6 But I must first know what favor it is that you desire to ask of M. Desmarest,' I ventured to remark. "Nonsense,' she said, " you will soon understand. I am going to tell you.' "I understood nothing; but, finding I must make an effort, I sat down and, from the disjointed words and interrupted remarks the Duchess made while she went on with her toilet, I contrived to make out pretty well what she wished to ask for. But, as I had not the least idea how to address persons of consequence, and saw plainly that she would confound a fault of ignorance with one of stupidity, I was, in fact, in the utmost perplexity. I went on at hazard, and at last gave her my composition, trembling for its success. 666 Well, to be sure!' cried she; how strange that you should have so exactly caught my ideas; it is perfectly admirable, and I could not have expressed it better. Henrietta, your sister is amazing! Now, since she does it so well, she must write me another letter for my man of business while I finish dressing.' "There was no occasion to ask her the subject this time; for she poured forth such a torrent of words that I found it impossible to follow her, and was even more embarrassed than on my first trial. She named her steward and her two lawyers frequently; but as both these gentlemen were equally unknown to me, I mistook their respective names. When the Duchess read the letter she expressed herself perfectly satisfied with my manner of explaining the business: But,' she exclaimed, I am amazed how a person 80 clever as you are should make such a jumble as you have made of these two names.' above all, my heart sunk within me when I recollected the dress I had on; borrowed for a couple of hours; but in which I seemed destined to make the tour of the globe. "There was nothing now left for me but to obey, and I had not then begun to oppose my will to that of others. With spirits oppressed, and a beating heart, I took my seat in the carriage, and we drove off. On the road she asked me numerous questions, without waiting for replies, and at last she said; No doubt, since you know so many things, you know how to draw horoscopes; there is nothing in the world I like so much!' "I was obliged to confess that I was entirely ignorant of that science. She appeared astonished. "What was the use,' she remarked, of learning so much that is useless, and how came you to neglect this?' She then fell into a rapid eulogy of the sciences of astrology, chiromancy, and geomancy; told me all the predictions that had been made to her; assured me of their fulfilment, poured forth much of the experience of others on the same subject, and ended by relating to me the dream she had had the night before. "At length the journey was over. I was presented to the Duchesse de Ventadour; who received me kindly, and spoke of my mother, who had been her daughter's governess. The next day I was taken to Madame de Noailles; and no sooner had I entered the room, than my conductress called out, I have brought the person I told you so much about, who is so wonderfully clever, and knows such a number of things. Come, child, speak. You will hear how she talks." "I hesitated, and she began prompting me. Come, come, talk a little about religion, first,' said she, and after that go on about something else.' "This absurd scene was acted over and over again at all the different houses to which she took me, and I was carried about like a monkey who does tricks at a fuir!" All this praise and patronage only led to Mademoiselle de Launai's promotion to be the waiting-woman of the Duchesse de Maine : "She had evidently discovered the extent and, as she had not, she declares, the slightof my capacity; but, nevertheless, she did est idea of the functions of such an attendnot withdraw her countenance from me. ant, the Duchess was ill enough served. She She was going to Versailles; I followed her sewed her work upside down, and overturned to her carriage, and she had already got the powder and rouge in handing it to her in as well as my sister who accompanied mistress. On one occasion having caught up her, the door was about to be shut and I a powder box by the top, of course it fell; began to breathe, when, all of a sudden, but the Duchess merely remarked gently, she exclaimed to my sister: After all, I that she ought always to take everything up am thinking that I had better take her with by the bottom. The next thing she had to me. Come in, come in, child,' she con-hand was a purse; and, following the directinued. I shall show you to Madame de tion given, she turned it upside down, sending Ventadour.' all the louis d'ors flying about the room. "I was petrified at this proposal; and haps Mademoiselle's bride exaggerated her |