Mr.Byron, who was her cousin, had been extremely wild, but was quite sane, and had died very quietly in his bed.

What Byron's reason could have been for thus calumniating not only himself but the blood which was flowing in his veins, who can divine?
But, for some reason or other, it seemed to be his determined purpose to keep himself unknown to the great body of his fellow-creatures; to present himself to their view in moral masquerade.' Certainly the character of Lord Byron here given by his friend is not the kind to make him a trustworthy witness in any case: on the contrary, it seems to show either a subtle delight in falsehood for falsehood's sake, or else the wary artifices of a man who, having a deadly secret to conceal, employs many turnings and windings to throw the world off the scent.

What intriguer, having a crime to cover, could devise a more artful course than to send half a dozen absurd stories to the press, which should, after a while, be traced back to himself, till the public should gradually look on all it heard from him as the result of this eccentric humour?
The easy, trifling air with which Lord Byron made to this friend a false statement in regard to his father would lead naturally to the inquiry, on what other subjects, equally important to the good name of others, he might give false testimony with equal indifference.
When Medwin's 'Conversations with Lord Byron' were first published, they contained a number of declarations of the noble lord affecting the honour and honesty of his friend and publisher Murray.

These appear to have been made in the same way as those about his father, and with equal indifference.

So serious were the charges, that Mr.Murray's friends felt that he ought, in justice to himself, to come forward and confront them with the facts as stated in Byron's letters to himself; and in vol.
x., p.143, of Murray's standard edition, accordingly these false statements are confronted with the letters of Lord Byron.