have no cause of grief but the reflection that we are not together. When you write to me speak to me of yourself, and say that you love me; never mind commonplace people and topics which can be in no degree interesting to me who see nothing in England but the country which holds _you_, or around it but the sea which divides us. They say absence destroys weak passions, and confirms strong ones. Alas! _mine_ for you is the union of all passions and of all affections--has strengthened itself, but will destroy me; I do not speak of physical destruction, for I have endured, and can endure, much; but the annihilation of all thoughts, feelings, or hopes, which have not more or less a reference to you and to _our recollections_. Ever, dearest, INDEX Albrizzi, Countess, 300, 302 Allegra, Byron's natural daughter, 272, 345-346 Bankes, William, 150 Becher, Rev. John, 44, 50 Benzoni, Countess, 300, 302-303 Bessborough, Lady, 148 Blessington, Lady, 336-337, 342, 352-353 "_Bride of Abydos, The_," 170 Broglie, Duc de, 265 Byron, Admiral Lord, 6 Byron, Augusta. _See_ Leigh, Augusta Byron, Captain George, the poet's cousin, 209, 226 Byron, Captain, "Mad Jack," the poet's father, 6-7, 10-11 Byron, George Noel Gordon, Lord, ancestors, parents, and hereditary influences, 1-9; childhood and schooldays, 10-22; schoolboy love affairs, 23-34; life at Cambridge, and flirtations at Southwell, 35-49; revelry at Newstead, 50-62; the "grand tour," 63-74; flirtations in Spain, 70-74; meeting with Mrs. Spencer Smith, 74-86; at Athens, 87; swims the Hellespont, 94; return to England, 101; death of his mother, 101; publishes "_Childe Harold_," 103-111; recollections of Mary Chaworth, 114-126; infatuation of Lady Caroline Lamb, 128-145; acquaintance with Lady Oxford, 148-155; renewed relations with Mary Chaworth, 164-181; Marriage with Miss Milbanke, 182-193; disagreements, 194-207; Lady Byron demands separation, 208-226; scandalous accusations against him, 226-252; departure for the Continent, 253; acquaintance with Miss Clairmont, 256-263, 271-273; at Geneva, 264-276; in Italy, 277 _et seq._; moral decline, 280-298; in the Venetian salons, 300; attachment to Countess Guiccioli, 302-328; revolutionary activities, 324-335; life at Pisa and Genoa, 336-355; enlists in the Greek cause, 356-373; illness and death, 369-373 Byron, John, Lord, 2 Byron, Lady, wife of the poet, marriage, 192; disagreements, 194-207; demands separation, 208-226; scandalous admissions, 226-252; mentioned, 339-341, 373. _See also_ Milbanke, Anna Isabella Byron, Mrs., the poet's mother, 10-17, 28, 31, 37-38, 42, 51, 101 Byron, Richard, Lord, 2 Byron, Sir John, of Claydon, 1 Byron, "the wicked Lord," 4-6, 12, 15 Byron, William, Lord, 3 Canning, Sir Stratford, 96-98