of my conduct, promised to adopt my child, and
seemed to have no doubt of obliging Mr. Venables to hear reason. He wrote
to his friend, by the same post, desiring him to call on Mr. Venables in
his name; and, in consequence of the remonstrances he dictated, I was
permitted to lie-in tranquilly.

"The two or three weeks previous, I had been allowed to rest in peace;
but, so accustomed was I to pursuit and alarm, that I seldom closed my
eyes without being haunted by Mr. Venables' image, who seemed to assume
terrific or hateful forms to torment me, wherever I turned.--Sometimes a
wild cat, a roaring bull, or hideous assassin, whom I vainly attempted to
fly; at others he was a demon, hurrying me to the brink of a precipice,
plunging me into dark waves, or horrid gulfs; and I woke, in violent fits
of trembling anxiety, to assure myself that it was all a dream, and to
endeavour to lure my waking thoughts to wander to the delightful Italian
vales, I hoped soon to visit; or to picture some august ruins, where I
reclined in fancy on a mouldering column, and escaped, in the
contemplation of the heart-enlarging virtues of antiquity, from the
turmoil of cares that had depressed all the daring purposes of my soul.
But I was not long allowed to calm my mind by the exercise of my
imagination; for the third day after your birth, my child, I was
surprised by a visit from my elder brother; who came in the most abrupt
manner, to inform me of the death of my uncle. He had left the greater
part of his fortune to my child, appointing me its guardian; in short,
every step was taken to enable me to be mistress of his fortune, without
putting any part of it in Mr. Venables' power. My brother came to vent
his rage on me, for having, as he expressed himself, 'deprived him, my
uncle's eldest nephew, of his inheritance;' though my uncle's property,
the fruit of his own exertion, being all in the funds, or on landed
securities, there was not a shadow of justice in the charge.

"As I sincerely loved my uncle, this intelligence brought on a fever,
which I struggled to conquer with all the energy of my mind; for, in my
desolate state, I had it very much at heart to suckle you, my poor babe.
You seemed my only tie to life, a cherub, to whom I wished to be a
father, as well as a mother; and the double duty appeared to me to
produce a proportionate increase of affection. But the pleasure I felt,
while sustaining you, snatched from the wreck of hope, was c