hing 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. By whose kindness this
scheme was counteracted, or by whose 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.

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 which he found
some letters written to her by the Lady Mason, which informed him of
his birth, and the reasons for which it was concealed. He was no longer
satisfied with the employment which had been allotted him, but thought
he had a right to share the affluence of his mother; and therefore
without scruple applied to her as