Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 5 / With His Letters and Journals

LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF LORD BYRON, WITH NOTICES OF HIS LIFE, from October, 1820, to November, 1822.
LETTER 394. TO MR. MOORE.
Ravenna, October 17. 1820.
Have you gone on with your Poem? I have received the French of mine. Only think of being traduced into a foreign language in such an abominable travesty! It is useless to rail, but one can't help it.
Have you got my Memoir copied? I have be gun a continuation. Shall I send it you, as far as it is gone?
I can't say any thing to you about Italy, for the Government here look upon me with a suspicious eye, as I am well informed. Pretty fellows!—as if I, a solitary stranger, could do any mischief. It is because I am fond of rifle and pistol shooting, I believe; for they took the alarm at the quantity of cartridges I consumed,—the wiseacres!
You don't deserve a long letter—nor a letter at all—for your silence. You have got a new Bourbon, it seems, whom they have christened 'Dieu-donné;'—perhaps the honour of the present may be disputed. Did you write the good lines on ——, the Laker?
The Queen has made a pretty theme for the journals. Was there ever such evidence published? Why, it is worse than 'Little's Poems' or 'Don Juan.' If you don't write soon, I will 'make you a speech.' Yours, &c.
LETTER 395. TO MR. MURRAY.
Ravenna, 8bre 25°, 1820.
Pray forward the enclosed to Lady Byron. It is on business.
In thanking you for the Abbot, I made four grand mistakes, Sir John Gordon was not of Gight, but of Bogagicht, and a son of Huntley's. He suffered not for his loyalty, but in an insurrection. He had nothing to do with Loch Leven, having been dead some time at the period of the Queen's confine ment: and, fourthly, I am not sure that he was the Queen's paramour or no, for Robertson does not allude to this, though Walter Scott does , in the list he gives of her admirers (as unfortunate) at the close of 'The Abbot.'