farthing's account; all the debts would have been left on my shoulders;
and my enemies would have triumphed over me: which, to a man of my
honourable spirit, was 'the unkindest cut of all,' as some poet says.

I confess, then, it was my wish to supplant these scoundrels; and, as I
could not do so without an heir to my property, _I_ DETERMINED TO FIND
ONE. If I had him near at hand, and of my own blood too, though with
the bar sinister, is not here the question. It was then I found out the
rascally machinations of my enemies; for, having broached this plan to
Lady Lyndon, whom I made to be, outwardly at least, the most obedient
of wives,--although I never let a letter from her or to her go or arrive
without my inspection,--although I allowed her to see none but those
persons who I thought, in her delicate health, would be fitting society
for her; yet the infernal Tiptoffs got wind of my scheme, protested
instantly against it, not only by letter, but in the shameful libellous
public prints, and held me up to public odium as a 'child-forger,' as
they called me. Of course I denied the charge--I could do no otherwise,
and offered to meet any one of the Tiptoffs on the field of honour, and
prove him a scoundrel and a liar: as he was; though, perhaps, not
in this instance. But they contented themselves by answering me by a
lawyer, and declined an invitation which any man of spirit would have
accepted. My hopes of having an heir were thus blighted completely:
indeed, Lady Lyndon (though, as I have said, I take her opposition for
nothing) had resisted the proposal with as much energy as a woman of her
weakness could manifest; and said she had committed one great crime in
consequence of me, but would rather die than perform another. I could
easily have brought her Ladyship to her senses, however: but my scheme
had taken wind, and it was now in vain to attempt it. We might have had
a dozen children in honest wedlock, and people would have said they were
false.

As for raising money on annuities, I may say I had used her life
interest up. There were but few of those assurance societies in my time
which have since sprung up in the city of London; underwriters did
the business, and my wife's life was as well known among them as, I do
believe, that of any woman in Christendom. Latterly, when I wanted to
get a sum against her life, the rascals had the impudence to say my
treatment of her did not render it worth a year's purchase,--as