ritan, and starches for the godly. She was at first
very wary and reserved in her communications; but by siding with her
prejudices and humours, and by the intercession of the Rev. Mr. Graves
(of her own persuasion), I have got her to open her lips. It seems that
these Braddells lived very unhappily; the husband, a pious dissenter,
had married a lady who turned out of a very different practice and
belief. Jane Prior pitied her master, and detested her mistress. Some
circumstances in the conduct of Mrs. Braddell made the husband, who was
then in his last illness, resolve, from a point of conscience, to save
his child from what he deemed the contamination of her precepts and
example. Mrs. Braddell was absent from Liverpool on a visit, which
was thought very unfeeling by the husband's friends; during this time
Braddell was visited constantly by a gentleman (Mr. Ardworth), who
differed from him greatly in some things, and seemed one of the
carnal, but with whom agreement in politics (for they were both great
politicians and republicans) seems to have established a link. One
evening, when Mr. Ardworth was in the house, Jane Prior, who was
the only maidservant (for they kept but two, and one had been just
discharged), had been sent out to the apothecary's. On her return, Jane
Prior, going into the nursery, missed the infant: she thought it was
with her master; but coming into his room, Mr. Braddell told her to shut
the door, informed her that he had intrusted the boy to Mr. Ardworth,
to be brought up in a righteous and pious manner, and implored and
commanded her to keep this a secret from his wife, whom he was resolved,
indeed, if he lived, not to receive back into his house. Braddell,
however, did not survive more than two days this event. On his death,
Mrs. Braddell returned; but circumstances connected with the symptoms
of his malady, and a strong impression which haunted himself, and with
which he had infected Jane Prior, that he had been poisoned, led to a
posthumous examination of his remains. No trace of poison was, however,
discovered, and suspicions that had been directed against his wife could
not be substantiated by law; still, she was regarded in so unfavourable
a light by all who had known them both, she met with such little
kindness or sympathy in her widowhood, and had been so openly denounced
by Jane Prior, that it is not to be wondered at that she left the
place as soon as possible. The house, indeed, was take