It was evident that Lady Byron was clutching at straws to save her child from Mrs. Leigh, and to prevent this it was essential to prove Mrs. Leigh's unworthiness. In her maternal anxiety she stuck at nothing, and for a time she triumphed. Her private correspondence was drenched with the theme that had impressed Lushington so strongly. A fortnight after signing her 'statement,' Lady Byron writes to Mrs. George Lamb, in reference to Mrs. Leigh: 'I am glad that you think of _her_ with the feelings of pity which prevail in my mind, and surely if in _mine_ there must be some cause for them. I never was, nor ever can be, so _mercilessly_ virtuous as to admit _no_ excuse for even the worst of errors.' Such letters go perilously near that charge which Lady Byron's representatives had repudiated in the presence of Hobhouse. But Lady Byron was desperate, and her whole case depended on a general belief in that foul accusation. What could not be done openly could be done secretly, and she poisoned the air to save her child. Colonel Doyle, who seems to have been one of the few on Lady Byron's side who kept his head, wrote to her on July 9, 1816: 'I see the possibility of a contingency under which the fullest explanation of the motives and grounds of your conduct may be necessary; I therefore implore of you to suffer no delicacy to interfere with your endeavouring to obtain the fullest _admission_ of the fact. If you obtain an acknowledgment of the facts and that your motives be, as you seem to think, properly appreciated, I think on the whole we shall have reason to rejoice that you have acted as you have done, but I shall be very anxious to have a more detailed knowledge of what has passed, and particularly of the state in which you leave it. The step you have taken was attended with great risk, and I could not, contemplating the danger to which it might have exposed you, have originally advised it. 'If, however, your correspondence has produced an acknowledgment of the fact even previous to your marriage, I shall be most happy that it has taken place.' Colonel Doyle, by no means easy in his own mind, again writes to Lady Byron on July 18, 1816: 'I must recommend you to act as if a time might possibly arise when it would be necessary for you to justify yourself, though nothing short of an absolute necessity so imperative as to be irresistible could ever authorize your advertence to your present communications. Still, I cannot dismiss from my mind the experience we have had, nor so far forget the very serious embarrassment we were under from the effects of your too confiding disposition, as not to implore you to bear in mind the importance of securing yourself from eventual danger. 'This is my first object, and if that be attained, I shall approve and applaud all the kindness you can show [to Mrs. Leigh].'