We do not remember ever to have read a letter more frankly disingenuous than this. The duplicity lurking in every line shows why the cause of the separation between Lord and Lady Byron has been for so long a mystery. Lady Byron herself was mystified by Augusta Leigh. It certainly was not easy for Lady Byron to gauge the deep deception practised upon her by both her husband and Mrs. Leigh; and yet it is surprising that Lady Byron should not have suspected, in Augusta's self-depreciation, an element of fraud. Was it likely that Augusta, who had good reason to hate Lady Byron, would have provided her with such damning proofs against her brother and herself, if she had not possessed a clear conscience in the matter? She relied implicitly upon Byron's letter being destroyed, and so worded her own that it would be extremely difficult for anyone but Lady Byron to understand what she was writing about. It will be noticed that no names are mentioned in any of her missives. People are referred to either as 'maniacs,' 'victims,' 'unfortunate objects,' or as 'that most detestable woman, your relation by marriage,' which, in a confidential communication to a sister-in-law, would be superfluous caution were she really sincere. But, after the separation period, Mrs. Leigh was never sincere in her intercourse with Lady Byron. Through that lady's unflattering suspicions, Augusta had suffered 'too much to be forgiven.' Lady Byron, on the other hand, with very imperfect understanding of her sister-in-law's character, was entirely at her mercy. To employ a colloquialism, the whole thing was a 'blind,' devised to support Augusta's rôle as a repentant Magdalen; to attract compassion, perhaps even pecuniary assistance; and, above all, to shield the mother of Medora. The _ruse_ was successful. Lady Byron saw a chance of eventually procuring, in the handwriting of her husband, conclusive evidence of his crime. In her letter of June 27, 1819, to Mrs. Leigh, she conveyed a hint that Byron might be lured to make 'a more unequivocal disclosure than has yet been made.' Lady Byron, it must be remembered, craved incessantly for documentary proofs, which might be produced, if necessary, to justify her conduct. It is significant that at the time of writing she possessed no evidence, except the letters which Mrs. Clermont had purloined from Byron's writing-desk, and these were pronounced by Lushington to be far from conclusive. Mrs. Leigh seems to have enjoyed the wrigglings of her victim on the hook. 'Decision was never my forte,' she writes to Lady Byron: 'one ought to act _right_, and leave the issue to Providence.'