Not long after the publication of Childe Harold, the noble author paid me a visit, one morning, and, putting a letter into my hands, which he had just received, requested that I would undertake to manage for him whatever proceedings it might render necessary.  This letter, I found, had been delivered to him by Mr. Leckie (a gentleman well known by a work on Sicilian affairs), and came from a once active and popular member of the fashionable world, Colonel Greville,—­its purport being to require of his Lordship, as author of “English Bards,” &c., such reparation as it was in his power to make for the injury which, as Colonel Greville conceived, certain passages in that satire, reflecting upon his conduct as manager of the Argyle Institution, were calculated to inflict upon his character.  In the appeal of the gallant Colonel, there were some expressions of rather an angry cast, which Lord Byron, though fully conscious of the length to which he himself had gone, was but little inclined to brook, and, on my returning the letter into his hands, he said, “To such a letter as that there can be but one sort of answer.”  He agreed, however, to trust the matter entirely to my discretion, and I had, shortly after, an interview with the friend of Colonel Greville.  By this gentleman, who was then an utter stranger to me, I was received with much courtesy, and with every disposition to bring the affair intrusted to us to an amicable issue.  On my premising that the tone of his friend’s letter stood in the way of negotiation, and that some obnoxious expressions which it contained must be removed before I could proceed a single step towards explanation, he most readily consented to remove this obstacle.  At his request I drew a pen across the parts I considered objectionable, and he undertook to send me the letter re-written, next morning.  In the mean time I received from Lord Byron the following paper for my guidance:—­

“With regard to the passage on Mr. Way’s loss, no unfair play was hinted at, as may be seen by referring to the book; and it is expressly added that the managers were ignorant of that transaction.  As to the prevalence of play at the Argyle, it cannot be denied that there were billiards and dice;—­Lord B. has been a witness to the use of both at the Argyle Rooms.  These, it is presumed, come under the denomination of play.  If play be allowed, the President of the Institution can hardly complain of being termed the ’Arbiter of Play,’—­or what becomes of his authority?

“Lord B. has no personal animosity to Colonel Greville.  A public institution, to which he himself was a subscriber, he considered himself to have a right to notice publicly.  Of that institution Colonel Greville was the avowed director;—­it is too late to enter into the discussion of its merits or demerits.

“Lord B. must leave the discussion of the reparation, for the real or supposed injury,