Page:Adventures of Roderick Random.pdf/4

 had such an effect on her constitution, that she was seized with the pains of child-bed; and, but for the assistance of an old maid-servant, she and the innocent fruit of her womb might have fallen victims to his inhumanity. She was carried up to a garret, where she was delivered of a man-child; the story of whose unfortunate birth he himself now relates. My father being informed of what had happened, flew to her, and could not help shedding a flood of tears on beholding the dear partner of his heart laid in a miserable apartment unfit to protect her from the inclemency of the weather. The old gentleman was not ignorant of what had passed, though he affected to be much surprised when he heard it; and gave orders she should immediately be gone. Her want of necessaries where she lodged, and grief and anxiety of mind, soon put an end to her life. My father was so affected with her death, that he remained six weeks deprived of his senses; at which time the infant was carried to the old man who relented so far, on hearing the melancholy story of my mother's death that he sent the child to nurse, and ordered my father home to his house, where he soon recovered the use of his reason, but was so exasperated at the barbarity of his sire, that he soon after disappeared, and, notwithstanding all imaginable enquiry, could never be heard of, which made