"I was by this time sufficiently intimate with him to answer his question as to what I thought of him before I had seen him. He laughed much at the idea which I had formed of him, and said, 'Well, you find me like other people, do you not?' He often afterwards repeated, 'And so you thought me a finer fellow, did you?' I remember once telling him, that notwithstanding his vivacity, I thought myself correct in at least one estimate which I had made of him, for I still conceived that he was not a happy man. He enquired earnestly what reason I had for thinking so, and I asked him if he had never observed in little children, after a paroxysm of grief, that they had at intervals a convulsive or tremulous manner of drawing in a long breath. Wherever I had observed this, in persons of whatever age, I had always found that it came from sorrow. He said the thought was new to him, and that he would make use of it. "Lord Byron, and all the party, left Villa Rossa (the name of their house) in a few days, to pack up their things in their house at Pisa. He told me that he should remain a few days there, and desired me, if I could do any thing more to the pictures, to come and stay with him. He seemed at a loss where to go, and was, I thought, on the point of embarking for America. I was with him at Pisa for a few days; but he was so annoyed by the police, and the weather was so hot, that I thought it doubtful whether I could improve the pictures, and, taking my departure one morning before he was up, I wrote him an excuse from Leghorn. Upon the whole, I left him with an impression that he possessed an excellent heart, which had been misconstrued on all hands from little else than a reckless levity of manners, which he took a whimsical pride in opposing to those of other people." * * * * * LETTER 499. TO MR. MURRAY. "Pisa, July 6. 1822. "I return you the revise. I have softened the part to which Gifford objected, and changed the name of Michael to Raphael, who was an angel of gentler sympathies. By the way, recollect to alter Michael to _Raphael_ in the _scene_ itself throughout, for I have only had time to do so in the list of the dramatis personæ, and _scratch out all the pencil-marks_, to avoid puzzling the printers. I have given the '_Vision of Quevedo Redivivus_' to John Hunt, which will relieve you from a dilemma. He must publish it at his _own_ risk, as it is at his own desire. Give him the _corrected_ copy which Mr. Kinnaird had, as it is mitigated partly, and also the preface. "Yours," &c. * * * * * LETTER 500. TO MR. MURRAY. "Pisa, July 8. 1822. "Last week I returned you the packet of proofs. You had, perhaps, better not publish in the same volume the _Po_ and _Rimini_ translation.