him by another, and which she
could not expect herself, though he should lose it.

This was, therefore, an act of wickedness which could not be defeated,
because it could not be suspected; the earl did not imagine there could
exist in a human form a mother that would ruin her son without enriching
herself, and, therefore, bestowed upon some other person six thousand
pounds, which he had in his will bequeathed to Savage.

The same cruelty which incited his mother to intercept this provision
which had been intended him, prompted her, in a short time, to another
project, a project worthy of such a disposition. She endeavoured to rid
herself from the danger of being at any time made known to him, by
sending him secretly to the American plantations[52].

By whose kindness this scheme was counteracted, or by what interposition
she was induced to lay aside her design, I know not; it is not
improbable that the lady Mason might persuade or compel her to desist,
or, perhaps, she could not easily find accomplices wicked enough to
concur in so cruel an action; for it may be conceived, that those who
had, by a long gradation of guilt, hardened their hearts against the
sense of common wickedness, would yet be shocked at the design of a
mother to expose her son to slavery and want, to expose him without
interest, and without provocation; and Savage might, on this occasion,
find protectors and advocates among those who had long traded in crimes,
and whom compassion had never touched before.

Being hindered, by whatever means, from banishing him into another
country, she formed, soon after, a scheme for burying him in poverty and
obscurity in his own; and, that his station of life, if not the place of
his residence, might keep him for ever at a distance from her, she
ordered him to be placed with a shoemaker in Holborn, that, after the
usual time of trial, he might become his apprentice[53].

It is generally reported, that this project was, for some time,
successful, and that Savage was employed at the awl longer than he was
willing to confess; nor was it, perhaps, any great advantage to him,
that an unexpected discovery determined him to quit his occupation.

About this time his nurse, who had always treated him as her own son,
died; and it was natural for him to take care of those effects which, by
her death, were, as he imagined, become his own: he, therefore, went to
her house, opened her boxes, and examined her papers, among