A seventh edition of the _Giaour_, including the final additions, and the first edition of the _Bride of Abydos_, were published on the twenty-ninth of November, 1813. In less than three weeks (December 18) Byron began the _Corsair_, and completed the fair copy of the first draft by the last day of the year. The _Corsair_ in all but its final shape, together with the sixth edition of the _Bride of Abydos_, the seventh of _Childe Harold_, and the ninth of the _Giaour_, was issued on the first of February, 1814. A letter from John Murray to Lord Byron, dated February 3, 1814 (_Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 223), presents a vivid picture of a great literary triumph-- "My Lord,--I have been unwilling to write until I had something to say.... I am most happy to tell you that your last poem _is_--what Mr. Southey's is _called_--a _Carmen Triumphale_. Never in my recollection has any work ... excited such a ferment ... I sold on the day of publication--a thing perfectly unprecedented--10,000 copies.... Mr. Moore says it is masterly--a wonderful performance. Mr. Hammond, Mr. Heber, D'Israeli, every one who comes ... declare their unlimited approbation. Mr. Ward was here with Mr. Gifford yesterday, and mingled his admiration with the rest ... and Gifford did, what I never knew him do before--he repeated several stanzas from memory, particularly the closing stanza-- "'His death yet dubious, deeds too widely known.' "I have the highest encomiums in letters from Croker and Mr. Hay; but I rest most upon the warm feeling it has created in Gifford's critic heart.... You have no notion of the sensation which the publication has occasioned; and my only regret is that you were not present to witness it." For some time before and after the poem appeared, Byron was, as he told Leigh Hunt (February 9, 1814; _Letters_, 1899, iii. 27), "snow-bound and thaw-swamped in 'the valley of the shadow' of Newstead Abbey," and it was not till he had returned to town that he resumed his journal, and bethought him of placing on record some dark sayings with regard to the story of the _Corsair_ and the personality of Conrad. Under date February 18, 1814, he writes-- "The _Corsair_ has been conceived, written, published, etc., since I last took up this journal [?last day but one]. They tell me it has great success; it was written _con amore_ [i.e. during the reign of Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster], and much from _existence_." And again, _Journal_, March 10 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 399),