Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/710

696 was expired, returned, but without him; the reason of his staying behind, was, as he pretended, the prospect of some preferment. But in a short time he and two booksellers were taken up for handing some treasonable poems to the press. On his being released, he let her know he would return to Ireland, but had no money to bear the expence. Upon which she prevailed on her father to send him a bill of 20 l. and then he came home.

Not long after this, an accident happened, which threw her affairs into great confusion. Her father was stabbed, she says, by accident, but many in Dublin, believed it was by his wife, though some said, by his own hand: Mr. Pilkington having now no farther expectation of a fortune by her, threw off all reserve in his behaviour, and wanted an opportunity to get rid of her, which soon offered itself, and shews at least great indiscretion, if not guilt on her side.

She came afterwards to England, and settled in London, where her story getting known by the means of Colley Cibber, she lived some time on contributions from the great; but these succours at length failing, was afterwards in the prison of the Marshalsea. After lying nine weeks here, she was released by the generosity of Mr. Cibber, and then, weary of attending on the great, she resolved to employ five guineas she had left, in trade; and accordingly taking a little shop in St. James's Street, furnished it with pamphlets and prints. How long she continued behind the counter is not said; but she has told us, that by the liberality of her friends, and the bounty of her subscribers, she was set above want, and that the autumn of her days was likely to be spent in peace and serenity. Whatever were her prospects, she lived not long to enjoy the comforts of this ;