Carnival; but, as they are not yet over, I shall not say on.  I will work the mine of my youth to the last veins of the ore, and then—­good night.  I have lived, and am content.

“Hobhouse went away before the Carnival began, so that he had little or no fun.  Besides, it requires some time to be thoroughgoing with the Venetians; but of all this anon, in some other letter.

     “I must dress for the evening.  There is an opera and ridotto, and I
     know not what, besides balls; and so, ever and ever yours,

     “B.

     “P.S.  I send this without revision, so excuse errors.  I delight in
     the fame and fortune of Lalla, and again congratulate you on your
     well-merited success.”

[Footnote 13:  This possibly may have been the subject of the Poem given in p. 152. of the first volume.]

[Footnote 14:  Having seen by accident the passage in one of his letters to Mr. Murray, in which he denounces, as false and worthless, the poetical system on which the greater number of his contemporaries, as well as himself, founded their reputation, I took an opportunity, in the next letter I wrote to him, of jesting a little on this opinion, and his motives for it.  It was, no doubt (I ventured to say), excellent policy in him, who had made sure of his own immortality in this style of writing, thus to throw overboard all us poor devils, who were embarked with him.  He was, in fact, I added, behaving towards us much in the manner of the methodist preacher who said to his congregation—­“You may think, at the Last Day, to get to heaven by laying hold on my skirts; but I’ll cheat you all, for I’ll wear a spencer, I’ll wear a spencer!”]

* * * * *

Of his daily rides on the Lido, which he mentions in this letter, the following account, by a gentleman who lived a good deal with him at Venice, will be found not a little interesting:—­

“Almost immediately after Mr. Hobhouse’s departure, Lord Byron proposed to me to accompany him in his rides on the Lido.  One of the long narrow islands which separate the Lagune, in the midst of which Venice stands, from the Adriatic, is more particularly distinguished by this name.  At one extremity is a fortification, which, with the Castle of St. Andrea on an island on the opposite side, defends the nearest entrance to the city from the sea.  In times of peace this fortification is almost dismantled, and Lord Byron had hired here of the Commandant an unoccupied stable, where he kept his horses.  The distance from the city was not very considerable; it was much less than to the Terra Firma, and, as far as it went, the spot was not ineligible for riding.

“Every day that the weather would permit, Lord Byron called for me in his gondola, and we found the horses waiting for us outside of the fort.  We rode as far as we could along the sea-shore, and then on a kind of dyke, or embankment, which has been raised where the island was very narrow, as far as another small fort about half way between the principal one which I have already mentioned, and the town or village of Malamocco, which is near the other extremity of the island,—­the distance between the two forts being about three miles.