The original draft of the poem, which Byron took out of "the little trunk" and gave to Dallas, had undergone considerable alterations and modifications before this date. Both Dallas and Murray took exception to certain stanzas which, on personal, or patriotic, or religious considerations, were provocative and objectionable. They were apprehensive, not only for the sale of the book, but for the reputation of its author. Byron fought his ground inch by inch, but finally assented to a compromise. He was willing to cut out three stanzas on the Convention of Cintra, which had ceased to be a burning question, and four more stanzas at the end of the First Canto, which reflected on the Duke of Wellington, Lord Holland, and other persons of less note. A stanza on Beckford in the First Canto, and two stanzas in the second on Lord Elgin, Thomas Hope, and the "Dilettanti crew," were also omitted. Stanza ix. of the Second Canto, on the immortality of the soul, was recast, and "sure and certain" hopelessness exchanged for a pious, if hypothetical, aspiration. But with regard to the general tenor of his politics and metaphysics, Byron stood firm, and awaited the issue. There were additions as well as omissions. The first stanza of the First Canto, stanzas xliii. and xc., which celebrate the battles of Albuera and Talavera; the stanzas to the memory of Charles Skinner Matthews, nos. xci., xcii.; and stanzas ix., xcv., xcvi. of the Second Canto, which record Byron's grief for the death of an unknown lover or friend, apparently (letter to Dallas, October 31, 1811) the mysterious Thyrza, and others (_vide post_, note on the MSS. of the First and Second Cantos of _Childe Harold_), were composed at Newstead, in the autumn of 1811. _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, quarto, was published on Tuesday, March 10, 1812--Moore (_Life_, p. 157) implies that the date of issue was Saturday, February 29; and Dallas (_Recollections_, p. 220) says that he obtained a copy on Tuesday, March 3 (but see advertisements in the _Times_ and _Morning Chronicle_ of Thursday, March 5, announcing future publication, and in the _Courier_ and _Morning Chronicle_ of Tuesday, March 10, announcing first appearance)--and in three days an edition of five hundred copies was sold. A second edition, octavo, with six additional poems (fourteen poems were included in the First Edition), was issued on April 17; a third on June 27; a fourth, with the "Addition to the Preface," on September 14; and a fifth on December 5, 1812,--the day on which Murray "acquainted his friends" (see advertisement in the _Morning Chronicle_) that he had removed from Fleet Street to No. 50, Albemarle Street. A sixth edition, identical with the fifth and fourth editions, was issued August 11, 1813; and, on February 1, 1814 (see letter to Murray, February 4, 1814), _Childe Harold_ made a "seventh appearance." The seventh edition was a new departure altogether. Not only were nine poems added to the twenty already