Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/390

376 she had made herself, by this time, acquainted with the French and German languages.

At his house she became acquainted with Fuseli, Dr. George Fordyce, Mr. Bonnycastle, and Mr. Anderson. In consequence of an attachment she thought herself in danger of imbibing for the former, she left London and went to France, where she resided for upwards of two years.

About four months after her arrival at Paris, she became acquainted with Mr. Gilbert Imlay, a native of the United States of America, and known by a publication on the State of Kentucky.

Always entertaining the most violent prejudices against the condition of European marriages, she yet took upon herself the duties of that state without the ceremony. To screen her from the late decree respecting it in the French convention, she found it expedient to assume the name of Imlay, and pass for the wife of a native of the United States of America; but she refused to be actually married to him, from romantic notions of keeping him free from family embarrassments, and perhaps, from the obstinate vanity of adhering to opinions she had once declared.

Mr. Imlay's pursuits, some time after, led him to Havre de Grace, where, soon after, she repaired, and where she had a daughter; He then went to London, having prevailed with her to return to Paris; and they never met again with cordiality. In April, 1795, she returned to London. But the altered conduct of Mr. Imlay drove her to desperation, and she twice attempted to put an end to her life, but was prevented.

In March, 1796, she totally lost the hope of reclaiming Mr. Imlay, though, twelve months before, all tional