Page:Wives of the prime ministers, 1844-1906.djvu/43

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LADY CAROLINE LAMB

"which is ridiculous," to exert her absurd caprices on others, and to leave him in peace.[1] This "cruel letter" threw her into such a fever that fears were entertained for her mind, but thanks to the careful nursing of her mother, she recovered and was brought home. She became more eccentric, unmanageable, and uncertain in temper than ever. One day she actually called on Byron. He was out, but she insisted on being shown to his room. On the table she found Beckford's Vathek, and wrote in the first page: "Remember me!" Byron on his return wrote under her words these stanzas:

"Remember thee! remember thee!
  Till Lethe quench life's burning stream
 Remorse and shame shall cling to thee,
  And haunt thee like a feverish dream!

 Remember thee! Aye, doubt it not.
  Thy husband too shall think of thee;
 By neither shalt thou be forgot,
  Thou false to him, thou friend to me."


Lady Caroline marked the end of her connection with Byron by burning him in effigy one winter's day at Brocket with elaborate ceremonial, not omitting a poem specially

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  1. See p. 40.