avarice was his ruling passion, and stifled gratitude.
He had paid her unprincipled husband a large sum for his victim, and was
determined to reimburse himself. All the favour he conferred upon her
was, that he did not dispose of her with the same regardlessness as to
who was the purchaser, but kept her on board several days, while he made
inquiries as to an eligible situation. Those who knew him gave him
little credit for his endeavours, and did not scruple to say that he was
as anxious to drive a good bargain for himself as to find a good master
for her. Whatever was his motive, it turned out very fortunate for her,
as I heard afterwards; for a rich shipowner of the city, whose wife had
died a few months before, satisfied the captain's cupidity, and took
her to his house as a governess to his children, three of whom were
daughters. Before I left Maryland, I heard that she had learned, through
the English papers, which her master regularly got, by one or other of
the many vessels that traded to this port, that her unprincipled husband
had been condemned and executed for robbing his aunt of a large sum of
money, and forging an order upon her banker, not many weeks after we had
left Scotland. Many years afterwards, I learned, in Edinburgh, from
William, who had returned, after a long stay in Baltimore, with a
considerable sum of money, and had commenced builder, that before he
left the city, she had married her master, and was as wealthy and happy
as any lady in the province. But what struck me most forcibly was, the
just retribution that had taken place in her singular fortunes. Her
stepmother was, when he left, actually living an humble dependent upon
her bounty, in Baltimore. It appeared that, after she had succeeded in
forcing her stepdaughter into the fatal marriage with her nephew,
and obtained the object she plotted for--possession of the whole
property--she herself fell a victim to a husband nearly as bad--a
gambler and adventurer, of a most prepossessing figure and address; the
consequence was, that all she possessed was lost by him at play, or
squandered in dissipation. Both had been living in London in extreme
want, when he was detected in swindling transactions to a considerable
amount. Whether guilty or innocent of the fraudulent acts of her
husband, there were many suspicious circumstances which she could not
explain to the satisfaction of a jury, and both were convicted and
banished to the plantations. By go