Page:The Diary of Dr John William Polidori.djvu/29

Rh save me the trouble of obtaining an injunction, I remain,


 * Sir,
 * Your obedient servant,

,

As you were the first person to whom I wrote to state that the tale of The Vampyre was not Lord Byron's, I beg you to insert the following statement in your paper. . . . The tale, as I stated to you in my letter, was written upon the foundation of a purposed and begun story of Lord Byron's. .. . Lord Byron, in a letter dated Venice, stated that he knew nothing of the Vampyre story, and hated vampyres; but, while this letter was busily circulating in all the London and provincial papers, the fragment at the end of Mazeppa was in the hands of his publishers in Albemarle Street, with the date of June 17, 1816, attached to it, being the beginning of his tale upon this very foundation. My development was written on the Continent, and left with a lady at whose request it was undertaken; in the course of three mornings by her side it was produced, and left with her. From her