mbered that troubles of a kindred
nature had driven Mrs. Bishop to insanity. All the Wollstonecrafts
inherited a peculiarly excitable temperament. Mary, had she not lost all
self-control, would have been deterred from suicide, as she had been from
thoughts of it in Sweden, by her love for Fanny. But her grief was so
great it drowned all memory and reason. The morning after this night of
agony she wrote to Imlay:--

"I write you now on my knees, imploring you to send my child and
the maid with ---- to Paris, to be consigned to the care of Madame
----, Rue ----, Section de ----. Should they be removed, ---- can
give their direction.

"Let the maid have all my clothes, without distinction.

"Pray pay the cook her wages, and do not mention the confession
which I forced from her; a little sooner or later is of no
consequence. Nothing but my extreme stupidity could have rendered
me blind so long. Yet, whilst you assured me that you had no
attachment, I thought we might still have lived together.

"I shall make no comments on your conduct or any appeal to the
world. Let my wrongs sleep with me! Soon, very soon, I shall be at
peace. When you receive this, my burning head will be cold.

"I would encounter a thousand deaths, rather than a night like the
last. Your treatment has thrown my mind into a state of chaos; yet
I am serene. I go to find comfort; and my only fear is that my poor
body will be insulted by an endeavor to recall my hated existence.
But I shall plunge into the Thames where there is the least chance
of my being snatched from the death I seek.

"God bless you! May you never know by experience what you have made
me endure. Should your sensibility ever awake, remorse will find
its way to your heart; and, in the midst of business and sensual
pleasures, I shall appear before you, the victim of your deviation
from rectitude."

Then she left her house to seek refuge in the waters of the river. She
went first to Battersea Bridge, but it was too public for her purpose.
She could not risk a second frustration of her designs. There was no
place in London where she could be unobserved. With the calmness of
despair, she hired a boat and rowed to Putney. It was a cold, foggy
November day, and by the time she arrived at her destination the night
had come, and the rain fell in torrents. An idea occurred