The crisis came shortly after Lady Byron's confinement, in the early days of 1816. Augusta, Byron's cousin, Captain George Byron, and Mrs. Clermont, a waiting woman who had been promoted to be Lady Byron's governess and companion, were all in the house at the time. They had witnessed some of the scenes of which we have spoken--scenes which appear to have included, if not to have been provoked by, irritating references to "the women of the theatre." Byron is said to have been aggressive in his allusions to them; and there is no evidence that Lady Byron was conciliatory on the subject. The state of his liver and of her general health would naturally have tended to accentuate any differences that arose. Things came to such a pass that, for a few days, they communicated in writing instead of by word of mouth; and Byron sent a note to Lady Byron's room. He spoke in this note of the necessity of breaking up his establishment--a necessity of which, in view of the frequent invasions of the bailiffs, she can scarcely have then heard for the first time. He asked her to fix a date for accepting an invitation to stay with her mother at Kirkby Mallory. He proposed that that date should be as early as was compatible with her convenience, and added: "The child will, of course, accompany you." Whereto Lady Byron replied, also in writing: "I shall obey your wishes and fix the earliest day that circumstances will admit for leaving London." Neither letter is particularly amiable. On the other hand, neither letter suggests that Lady Byron was leaving, or being asked to leave, as the direct consequence of any specific quarrel. There was no question of a separation--only of a visit to be paid; and the dread of more "men in possession" sufficiently explains Byron's wish that it should be paid without delay. Lady Byron would obviously be more comfortable at Kirkby Mallory than in a house besieged or occupied by minions of the law. Her husband would have time, while she was there, to turn round and reconsider his position. The temporary estrangement--the interchange of heated recriminations--did not make the execution of the plan any the less desirable. On the contrary, it might afford opportunity for tempers to cool and for absence to make the heart grow fonder.