In vain! — As fall the dews on quenchless sands, Blood only serves to wash Ambition's hands! - Lord Byron

With nothing left to love — there’s naught to dread.

What is the end of Fame? 't is but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper:
Some liken it to climbing up a hill,
Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour;
For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill,
And bards burn what they call their 'midnight taper,'
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.

I have fallen in love within the last month with a Romagnuola Countess from Ravenna — the Spouse of a year of Count Guiccioli — who is sixty — the Girl twenty — he has eighty thousand ducats of rent — and has had two wives before — but he is Sixty — he is the first of Ravenna Nobles — but he is sixty — She is fair as Sunrise — and warm as Noon — we had but ten days — to manage all our little matters in beginning middle and end. & we managed them; — and I have done my duty — with the proper consummation. — But She is young — and was not content with what she had done — unless it was to be turned to the advantage of the public — and so She made an eclat which rather astonished even the Venetians — and electrified the Conversazioni of the Benzone — the Albrizzi — & the Michelli — and made her husband look embarrassed. — They have been gone back to Ravenna — some time — but they return in the Winter. — She is the queerest woman I ever met with — for in general they cost one something in one way or other — whereas by an odd combination of circumstances — I have proved an experience to HER — which is not my custom, — but an accident — however it don't mater. — She is a sort of an Italian Caroline Lamb, except that She is much prettier, and not so savage. — But She has the same red-hot head — the same noble disdain of public opinion — with the superstructure of all that Italy can add to such natural dispositions. — To by sure they may go much further here with impunity — as her husband's rank ensured their reception at all societies including the Court — and as it was her first outbreak since Marriage — the Sympathizing world was liberal. — She is also of the Ravenna noblesse — educated in a convent — sacrifice to Wealth — filial duty and all that. — I am damnably in love — but they are gone — gone — for many months — and nothing but Hope — keeps me alive seriously.