nsolate bedfellow to a farmhouse, where an
old servant of his mother dwelt. In this ill-adapted situation they
remained for some time, until my mother, hoping that her tears and
condition would move my grandfather to compassion, went, in disguise, to
the house, and implored his forgiveness. My grandfather told her that he
had already made a vow which put it out of his power to assist her; and
this said, he retired.

My mother was so afflicted by this that she was, at once, thrown into
violent pains. By the friendship of an old maidservant she was carried
up to a garret, where I was born. Three days later my grandfather sent a
peremptory order to her to be gone, and weakness, grief, and anxiety
soon put an end to her life. My father was so affected with her death,
that he remained six weeks deprived of his senses; during which time,
the people where he lodged carried the infant to the old man, who
relented so far as to send the child to nurse.

My father's delirium was succeeded by a profound melancholy. At length
he disappeared, and could not be heard of; and there were not wanting
some who suspected my uncles of being concerned in my father's fate, on
the supposition that they would all share in the patrimony destined for
him.

I grew apace; and the jealous enmity of my cousins quickly showed
itself; before I was six years of age their implacable hatred made them
blockade my grandfather, so that I never saw him but by stealth.

I was soon after sent to school at a village hard by, of which my
grandfather had been dictator time out of mind; but as he neither paid
for my board, nor supplied me with clothes, books, or other necessaries,
my condition was very ragged and contemptible; and the schoolmaster gave
himself no concern about the progress I made.

In spite of all this, I became a good proficient in the Latin tongue;
but the contempt which my appearance produced, the continual wants to
which I was exposed, and my own haughty disposition, involved me in a
thousand troubles and adventures. I was often inhumanly scourged for
crimes I did not commit; because having the character of a vagabond in
the village every piece of mischief whose author lay unknown, was
charged upon me. Far from being subdued by this infernal usage, my
indignation triumphed, and the more my years and knowledge increased,
the more I perceived the injustice and barbarity of the treatment I
received. By the help of our usher, I made a surprisin