In the second place the letters show Mrs. Leigh, ignorant, indeed, of the specific enormities with which Byron is charged, but well aware of certain circumstances which had made Byron's marriage a dubious experiment. In the earlier letters, indeed those circumstances are only hinted at obscurely, but in the later letters the meaning of the hints is made quite clear. For instance: "I assure you I don't conclude hastily on this subject, and will own to you, what I would not scarcely to any other person that I HAD _many fears_ and much anxiety founded upon many causes and circumstances of which I cannot _write_. Thank God! that they do not appear likely to be realised." That was written during the honeymoon. In letters written shortly after the honeymoon there are similar vague expressions of anxiety. It is not until we come to the letters written after the separation that we begin to get sight of the particulars; but then we light upon this significant passage: "I am afraid to open my lips, though all I say to _you_ I know is secure from misinterpretation. On the opinions expressed by Mr. M. I am _not surprised_. I have seen letters written _to him_ which could not but give rise to such, or confirm them. If I may give you _mine_, it is that _in his own mind_ there _were_ and _are_ recollections, fatal to his peace, and which would have prevented his being happy with any woman whose excellence equalled or approached that of Lady B., from the consciousness of being unworthy of it. Nothing could or can remedy this fatal cause but the consolations to be derived from religion, of which, alas! dear Mr. H., our beloved B. is, I fear, destitute." The idea that the fatal recollections here deplored are recollections of guilty acts in which the writer of the letter was a partner would be too preposterous to be treated with respect even if we did not know what the nature of those recollections was; but, as a matter of fact, a later passage in the same letter supplies the information: "I am glad you were rather agreeably surprised in the poems.... Of course _you_ know to whom the 'Dream' alludes, Mrs. C----." And there, of course, the truth is out. Mrs. C---- is, and can be no one else than, Mary Chaworth. The "causes too simple to be found out" had to do with Byron's imperishable passion for the lady whom we have seen his wife calling a "cat." Byron could not live happily with Lady Byron because he could not forget Mary Chaworth--and Lady Byron knew it. Consequently she set her heart upon obtaining a separation, and, in order to make sure of that separation, "put up" the story, suggested by Lady Caroline Lamb's poisonous tongue. The whole business is as simple as all that; and the subject might properly be dropped at that point if it were not for Lord Lovelace's assertion that papers in his hands demonstrated that Mrs. Leigh had "confessed."