Mr.Moore also covenanted, in consideration of the said sum, to act as Editor of the Memoirs, and to supply an account of the subsequent events of Lord Byron's life, etc.
Some months after the execution of this assignment, Mr.Moore requested me, as a great personal favour to himself and to Lord Byron, to enter into a second agreement, by which I should resign the absolute property which I had in the Memoirs, and give Mr.Moore and Lord Byron, or any of their friends, a power of redemption _during the life of Lord Byron_.

As the reason pressed upon me for this change was that their friends thought there were some things in the Memoirs that might be injurious to both, I did not hesitate to make this alteration at Mr.Moore's request; and, accordingly, on the 6th day of May, 1822, a second deed was executed, stating that, "Whereas Lord Byron and Mr.Moore are now inclined to wish the said work not to be published, it is agreed that, if either of them shall, _during the life of the said Lord Byron_, repay the 2,000 guineas to Mr.Murray, the latter shall redeliver the Memoirs; but that, if the sum be not repaid _during the lifetime of Lord Byron_, Mr.Murray shall be at full liberty to print and publish the said Memoirs within Three Months [Footnote: The words "within Three Months " were substituted for "immediately," at Mr.Moore's request--and they appear in pencil, in his own handwriting, upon the original draft of the deed, which is still in existence.] after the death of the said Lord Byron." I need hardly call your particular attention to the words, carefully inserted twice over in this agreement, which limited its existence to the _lifetime of Lord Byron_; the reason of such limitation was obvious and natural--namely that, although I consented to restore the work, _while Lord Byron should be alive_ to direct the ulterior disposal of it, I would by no means consent to place it _after his death_ at the disposal of any other person.
I must now observe that I had never been able to obtain possession of the original assignment, which was my sole lien on this property, although I had made repeated applications to Mr.Moore to put me into possession of the deed, which was stated to be in the hands of Lord Byron's banker.

Feeling, I confess, in some degree alarmed at the withholding the deed, and dissatisfied at Mr.Moore's inattention to my interests in this particular, I wrote urgently to him in March 1823, to procure me the deed, and at the same time expressed my wish that the second agreement should either be cancelled or _at once executed_.
Finding this application unavailing, and becoming, by the greater lapse of time, still more doubtful as to what the intentions of the parties might be, I, in March 1824, repeated my demand to Mr.Moore in a more peremptory manner, and was in consequence at length put into possession of the original deed.

But, not being at all satisfied with the course that had been pursued towards me, I repeated to Mr.Moore my uneasiness at the terms on which I stood under the second agreement, and renewed my request to him that he would either cancel it, or execute its provisions by the immediate redemption of the work, in order that I might exactly know what my rights in the property were.

He requested time to consider this proposition.