Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/19

Rh would eſpouſe her cauſe, a helpleſs, uſeleſs load of grief and melancholy! with child! diſgraced! her own relations either unable, or unwilling to relieve her.

Thus was ſhe detained by unhappy circamſtances, and his prevailing arts to wear away three wretched years with him, in the ſame houſe, though ſhe moſt ſolemnly proteſts, and ſhe has a right to be believed, that no perſuaſion could ever again reconcile her to his impious arms. Whenever ſhe call her eyes upon her ſon, it gave a mortal wound to her peace: The circumſtances of his birth glared full on her imagination; ſhe ſaw him, in future, upbraided with his father’s treachery, and his mother’s misfortunes. Thus forſaken of all the world, in the very morning of her life, when all things ſhuld have been gay, and promiſing, ſhe wore away three wretched years. Mean time her betrayer had procured for himſelf a conſiderable employment; the duties of which obliged him to go into the country where his firſt wife lived. He took leave of his injured innocent, with much ſeeming tenderneſs; and made the moſt ſacred proteſtations, that he would not ſuffer her, nor her child ever to want.

He endeavoured to perſuade her to accompany him into the country, and to ſeduce, and quiet her conſcience, ſhewed her a celebrated piece written in defence of Polygamy, and Concubinage: When he was gone, he ſoon relapſed into his former extravagancies, forgot his promiſe of providing for his child, and its mother, and inhumanly left them a prey to indigence and oppreſſion. The lady was only happy in being releaſed from the killing anguiſh, of every day having before her eyes the object of her undoing.

When ſhe again came abroad into the world, ſhe was looked upon with cold indifference; that which had been her greateſt misfortune, was imputed to