ted his executors to
pay to his daughter an annuity of one hundred pounds, while her lord and
she should continue to live separate; and this allowance was to cease on
Lord A--'s death.

"While she remained in this solitary situation, the child was
universally known and received as the legitimate son and heir of her
lord, whose affection for the boy was so conspicuous, that, in the midst
of his own necessities, he never failed to maintain him in the dress and
equipage of a young nobleman. In the course of his infancy, his father
having often changed his place of residence, the child was put under
the instructions of a great many different schoolmasters, so that he was
perfectly well known in a great many different parts of the kingdom; and
his mother seized all opportunities, which were but rare, on account of
his father's orders to the contrary, of seeing and giving him proofs
of her maternal tenderness, until she set out for England, after having
been long in a declining state of health, by a paralytical disorder;
upon the consequence of which, such dependence was placed by her
inconsiderate husband, who was by this time reduced to extreme poverty,
that he actually married a woman whom he had long kept as a mistress.
This creature no sooner understood that Lady A-- was departed from
Ireland, than she openly avowed her marriage, and went about publicly
with Lord A--, visiting his acquaintances in the character of his wife.

"From this era may be dated the beginning of Mr. A--'s misfortune. This
artful woman, who had formerly treated the child with an appearance of
fondness, in order to ingratiate herself with the father, now looking
upon herself as sufficiently established in the family, thought it was
high time to alter her behaviour with regard to the unfortunate boy;
and accordingly, for obvious reasons, employed a thousand artifices to
alienate the heart of the weak father from his unhappy offspring.
Yet, notwithstanding all her insinuations, nature still maintained her
influence in his heart; and though she often found means to irritate
him by artful and malicious accusations, his resentment never extended
farther than fatherly correction. She would have found it impossible
to accomplish his ruin, had not her efforts been reinforced by a new
auxiliary, who was no other than his uncle, the present usurper of
his title and estate; yet even this confederacy was overawed, in some
measure, by the fear of alarming the u