gotten in the case; nor did the children ever know
anything of their mother to this day, other than as you may have an
account hereafter.

But to look back to the particular observation I was making, which I
hope may be of use to those who read my story, I say it was something
wonderful to me to see this person so exceedingly delighted at the birth
of this child, and so pleased with it; for he would sit and look at it,
and with an air of seriousness sometimes a great while together, and
particularly, I observed, he loved to look at it when it was asleep.

It was indeed a lovely, charming child, and had a certain vivacity in
its countenance that is far from being common to all children so young;
and he would often say to me that he believed there was something
extraordinary in the child, and he did not doubt but he would come to be
a great man.

I could never hear him say so, but though secretly it pleased me, yet it
so closely touched me another way that I could not refrain sighing, and
sometimes tears; and one time in particular it so affected me that I
could not conceal it from him; but when he saw tears run down my face,
there was no concealing the occasion from him; he was too importunate to
be denied in a thing of that moment; so I frankly answered, "It sensibly
affects me, my lord," said I, "that, whatever the merit of this little
creature may be, he must always have a bend on his arms. The disaster of
his birth will be always, not a blot only to his honour, but a bar to
his fortunes in the world. Our affection will be ever his affliction,
and his mother's crime be the son's reproach. The blot can never be
wiped out by the most glorious action; nay, if it lives to raise a
family," said I, "the infamy must descend even to its innocent
posterity."

He took the thought, and sometimes told me afterwards that it made a
deeper impression on him than he discovered to me at that time; but for
the present he put it off with telling me these things could not be
helped; that they served for a spur to the spirits of brave men,
inspired them with the principles of gallantry, and prompted them to
brave actions; that though it might be true that the mention of
illegitimacy might attend the name, yet that personal virtue placed a
man of honour above the reproach of his birth; that, as he had no share
in the offence, he would have no concern at the blot; when, having by
his own merit placed himself out of the reach of scandal,