This sad event is first announced in a letter from ight, Esq., to Mr. Il—ray, ‘ Clarkville, Tuesday, © August ’ [1783]: I am made the most miserable man alive, my dear sir, in the loss of my charming and most affectionate niece Caroline. She was carried off this morning by a party of Indians from the heights of Silver Creek...I Captain Arl—ton, however, writes to Mr. Il—ray from Kaskaskia in September [1783]: Caroline has fallen into my hands!—she is at this moment decorating the gardens of this place while I am writing to you, and seems to give enchantment to the whispering breezes that are wafted to my window, and which in their direction, as they pass her, collect from her sweets the fragrance of ambrosia, and the exhilarating charms of love itself...The weather was very fine, and as my rafts were well constructed, I ordered them to be brought alongside each other, and lash together; in order to render us more compact in case we should be followed: which was not very likely, as it would take them too long to prepare a raft, and it was impossible for them to procure a canoe— but it was not unlikely they would cross and follow down upon the opposite shore...for that reason I determined to float the whole night...accord- M,W, 241 Q SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS ingly I had a canopy stretched in such a manner as _ to secure Caroline a place to sleep, who I knew must be much fatigued from our rapid movements, independent of the perils and hardships she must have undergone during her captivity.
Indeed I wondered that she was alive—but she was not only alive, my friend! but she looked more lovely than ever—the lustre of her eyes was like the torch of love—her smiles like the genial hours of May when nature blooms in all its eradiated charms; and though her beateous face had been lacerated with brambles, still the little loves seemed to vie with each other, as if to prove, which of her features the most fascinating.
The sun had declined below the horizon, and the bird of Minerva had resumed its nightly vigils, when Andrew told Caroline, that a pallet was pre- pared for her under the canopy, and that she must retire to rest; for, said he, my good mistress, master would keep you up half the night, and I am sure you cannot have spirits or strength to support fatigue. Andrew was in the right.
When Venus lies sleeping on the couch of night, and one half of the world is cheered by the brilliancy of her charms, so looked my Caroline when Somnus had sealed up eyelides, and while Morpheus, his minister of dreams, was agitating her tender heart, her bosom disclosed the temple of bliss, while her lips distilled nectareous sweets.
I was already distracted by the potency of the bewitching joys which I had snatched in my embrace upon the river bank; and while I was constrained to watch as she slept, it was impossible for me to withstand the reflection of the taper, that Andrew had lighted, and which cast its rays upon a bosom more transparent than the effulgence of Aurora, when robed in all her charms, and more lovely than a poetical imagination can paint, when influenced 242 GIDBERT “IML AT by all its enthusiasm;—and which was now half naked. I was obliged to extinguish the light, to preserve my reason.
Oh! how I could for ever her adore, By tasting sweets new beauties to explore, The to entangle in her lovely arms, And drown ev’ry sense in unrivall’d charms?
I have found only two reviews of this book. The British Critic, July 1793 (1: 341), abruptly dismissed it in a most sarcastic manner; the Monthly Review, August 1793 (II: 468, 9), took quite the opposite view, and gave it two pages.
It remains to relate briefly the exact nature of Imlay’s ‘ business ’—a matter which has puzzled his commentators ever since 1879, when Kegan Paul ventured that his ‘ trade was presumably in lumber.’ Both Dr. Garnett in D.N.B. account of Imlay, and Roger Ingpen in his edition of Letters have repeated this assumption. Another worker on Imlay, Professor Rusk, gives acontrary opinion. ‘ Of Imlay’s activities in the lumber business in America,’ he says, ‘I have found no trace.’
What isthetruth? Mary herself, in one of her letters, gave a clue. The letter was written to Imlay from Paris, September 22, 1794, and contains this sentence: Well, this you will say is trifling—shall we talk about alum and soap?
The solution of the mystery was revealed in the account of Elias Backman (1760-1829) that I obtained from Stockholm. Backman, who was in Paris during 1792-3, became associated there with Imlay, and on his return to Gothenburg acted as Imlay’s agent, and 243 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS is so termed in the power of attorney with which Imlay sent Mary to Scandinavia in an endeavour to © straighten out his tangled affairs there.
Elias Backman was engaged in large export and import transactions in Gothenburg. He exported. to England, France and Spain. His business included grain, steel, iron, wooden goods, alum, pitch, etc., etc. According to available records in the Swedish state archives he received between 1790 and 1800 royal permission to import silver and gold to the country for the purpose of strengthening the Swedish finances. He...also exported cannon and gunpowder from the Swedish government supplies, but whether there were shipped to France or to the United States, is not known. With the latter country he had many business transactions.; Elias Backman was in 1797 appointed American consul for Gothenburg, and ‘ such districts as were nearer Gothenburg than any other city with an American Consul.’ He was probably the first American Consul in Sweden. His appointment was signed by General Washington, and is now in the possession of his family. ~ eS ae eT ee oe ee The problem of Imlay’s business is therefore solved. What finally became of Imlay? On this point I can only quote Richard Garnett, who sent the following to the Athenaeum (No. 3955) of August 15, 1903 (p. 219): GILBERT IMLAY. Hampstead, July 150m I am not aware whether any facts have been ascertained respecting the end of Gilbert Imlay, the false lover of Mary Wollstonecraft, who, Like the base Indian threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe. 244 CHOBE R LT lab AyY When I wrote the article upon him for the Dictionary of National Biography, the latest re- ference to him I could find was Godwin’s account of his meeting with Mary in April, 1796. (See Memoirs.)
I have, however, recently become possessed of a copy, made in 1833, of a curious epitaph in prose and verse upon a Gilbert Imlay, which then existed in the churchyard of St. Brelade’s, Jersey. The prose part is as follows: ‘Here was (sic) intered (sic) the perishable remains of Gilbert Imlay, Esq., who was born Feb. 9, 1758 and expired on the 20 Novr., 1828.’
I am informed by the incumbent that the age of the deceased as stated in the parish register would correspond not with 1758 as the year of birth, but with 1754. This would agree better with the probable date of Imlay’s birth, which in my memotr, from some slight indications furnished by himself, I conjectured to have been 1755. On the whole, considering the close parallel of time, the juxta- position of two unusual names as Gilbert and Imlay, the latter hardly met with elsewhere, and the hint in the metrical part that the subject had affected the character of a philosopher, I am much disposed to think that the grave in St. Brelade’s Churchyard really does or did contain the remains of Mary Wollstonecraft’s faithless lover. The point might, perhaps, be absolutely determined if a will or letters of administration could be found.
I have not been able to ascertain whether the epitaph still exists in the churchyard. On this account, and from the light it contributes to the identity of the person it commemorates, it might be worth while to reproduce it, even if its special 245 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS demerit did not entitle it to a place among remark- © able epitaphs: 3 Stranger intelligent! should you pass this way Speak of the social advances of the day— Mention the greatly good, who’ve serenely shone Since the soul departed its mortal bourne;, Say if statesmen wise have grown, and priests sincere Or if hypocrisy must disappear As phylosophy extends the beam of truth, Sustains rights divine, its essence, and the worth Sympathy may permeate the mouldering earth, Recal the spirit, and remove the dearth, Transient hope gleams even in the grave, Which is enough dust can have, or ought to crave. Then silently bid farewell, be happy, For as the globe moves round, thou will grow nappy-. Wake to hail the hour when new scenes arise, As brightening vistas open in the skies.
And now for Mary’s less intimate (and less disastrous) friends. Jean Caspard Schweizer (1754- 1811) and his wife Madeleine (née Hess) (1751-1814) 5 were a pleasant Swiss couple. According to Schweizer’s biographer, Mary was one of the dis- tinguished friends whom they entertained in Paris at their luxurious home in the ‘ Rue Taitbout, Chaussée d’Antin,’ a company reported to have been made up of personages such as Bernardin de St. Pierre ® See also: Joh. Caspar Schweizer / Ein Charakterbild aus dem Zeitalter der / franzésischer Revolution / von / David Hess / Eingeleitet und herausgegeben / von / Jakon Baechtold / Roscher & Cie., Verlag, Zurich. 1919. (An exact reprint from the first edition, Jena, 1881.) 246 EAN AND MADELINE (author of Paul and Virginia), General Dumouriez, Lafayette, Anacharsis Cloots, Count von Schlabren- dorf, George Forster, Mirabeau and the Prince of Conti. Mary mentions Madeleine in a couple of letters, and each of the Schweizers have made in- teresting reference to Mary.
Madeleine kept a journal, and during 1794 described an evening she passed with Mary in the country: I was very fond of Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of Rights of Woman, and should have liked to regard her with constant affection, but she was so intolerant that she repulsed those women who were not inclined to be subservient to her; whilst to her servants, her inferiors, and the wretched in general, she was gentle as an angel. Were it not for her excessive sensibility, which too often gains the upper hand, her personality would be exquisite. I passed one evening with her in the country. The blending of the varying tints of colour in the sky were of a marvellous poetical beauty. Mary was sitting with the B(aron) de W(olzogen?) beneath a tree gilded by the rays of the setting sun. I was opposite them, and was so enraptured by the scene that I said to you: ‘Come, Mary,—come, nature lover,—and enjoy this wonderful spectacle—this constant transition from colour to colour!’ But, to my great surprise, Mary was so indifferent that she never turned her eyes from him by whom she was at the moment captivated. I must confess that this erotic absorption made such a disagreeable impression on me, that all my pleasure vanished.
The reference made by Schweizer himself may be dated during the four weeks in 1801 that he remained in London on his way to Paris. He called at the studio of his old friend and fellow townsman Fuselt. 247 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS He knocked at the door: but Fuseli, for some unknown reason, refused him admittance. Schweizer sent him these lines: Und war dein grosser Pinsel auch, O Fiiessli, Der ausgeriss’nen Fichten Rolande eine, Troff von der gliihenden Palette dir Des Aetnas Lava selbst auf’s Tuch herab: Alleins! Wenn dir auch nicht das schéne Kolorit Der Seelenwarme auf dein Antlitz quillt, Wenn alte Freundschaft an dein Hausthor klopft, So fahre wohl! Ich meld es zum Elysium Wollstonecraft und Lavatern, es sei Has hart’ste Erz zu deinem Bild—dein Herz!
Gustav, Graf von Schlabrendorf (1750-1824) has been called an ‘odd philanthropist.’ The only accounts of his life which I have been able to find are those in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, and Michaud’s Biographie Universelle. Michaud gives his full name as ‘ Christophe George Gustave, comte de Schlaberndorf,’ and also says he ‘ naquit a Breslau en 1749.’ The last name is of course wrongly spelt, and I am inclined to think the date and place of birth are also incorrect. The German authority gives this account: Born 22 March 1750 at Stettin, Germany, 3rd son of Ernest William von S., who was afterwards prime minister of Silesia, and whose descendants rankes as counts by favour of the king. At Breslau, whither his father removed in 1755, he received a thorough private education which enabled him to enter the High School, Frankfort on the Oder, 1767-9, and at Halle on the Saale, 1769-72. He was entered as a student of law in preparation for govern- 248 VON SCHLABRENDORF ment service, studied different sciences, ancient languages, philosophy and public law. His father died, 1769, leaving him a fortune, which, with the income already received from a Chapter in the Cathedral of Magdeburg, gave him ample means to travel.
He set out at once, and travelled through Ger- many, Switzerland, France and England. England interested him by its originality, its constitution, its developed industries and philanthropic institu- tions. He made the acquaintance of prominent men, accompanied Freiherr von Stein and von Reden on their travels for the study of mines and the smelting industry; became also the friend of Friederich Heinrich Jacobi, the philosopher. At this period his originality was first displayed in peculiar acts of philanthropy. Once he stayed in the prison cell of a young man convicted of robbery and sentenced to death, and walked by his side to the gallows, consoling him.
Shortly before the French revolution he removed to Paris, enthusiastically following the phases of the people’s uprising. There he came in contact with other Germans, L. E. Oelsner, George Kerner (brother of Justinus) and George Forster.
After the downfall of the Girondists he was arrested and imprisoned towards the end of 1793, which event dissolved his engagement for marrying Miss Christie, a lady from Scotland.® ®T am sure this was a sister of Mary’s friend Thomas . Christie, who has often been mentioned in Memoirs as being in Paris at that time. M. André Maurois tells us in Amel that Shelley gave Mary a copy of Queen Mab, a poem which had been dedicated to his first wife, and that under the dedication Shelley wrote: ‘ Count Slobendorf was about to Marry a woman who, attracted solely by his fortune, proved her selfishness by deserting him in prison.’ It was not, therefore, Schlabrendorf’s imprisonment which ‘ dissolved his engagement,’ but the selfishness of this Miss Christie. 249 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS It was probably soon after Schlabrendorf’s con- finement in January that Mary began to visit him and bring him comfort. I am sure she went as — often as she was allowed, for nothing pleased her more than giving aid to the wretched and un- fortunate. Schlabrendorf himself records her kind- ness to him and his gradually increasing affection for her.
My first knowledge of the relations between Mary and Von Schlabrendorf—apart from the brief mention Godwin makes in Memoirs—was from Emma Rauschenbusch-Clough’s well written book on Mary Wollstonecraft.?
In this book one may read: Count Schlabrendorf had an intimate friend, Carl Gustav Jochmann, with whom he conversed about many notable events and persons, and who thought these conversations of sufficient value to take notes of them. Asamark of special confidence, evidently, Schlabrendorf told him of his acquaintance with Mary Wollstonecraft.
Having traced Jochmann’s own narrative of his friend’s confidences,* I found therein an article headed: ‘Mary WotisTonecraFtT.’ Here is given a sketch of her life (condensed from Memoirs), together 7A Study / of / Mary Wollstonecraft / and / The Rights of Woman / By / Emma Rauschenbusch-Clough. / Long- mans, Green, and Co. / 39 Paternoster Row, London / New York and Bombay / 1895.
§Carl Gustav Jochmann’s / von Pernau, / Reliquien. / Aus seinen nachgelassenen Papieren. / Gesammelt / von Heinrich Zschokke. / (printer’s ornament) / Erster Band. / (double lines across page) / Hechingen. / Verlag von Georg Egersdorff. (1836.)
250 VON SCHLABRENDORF with the notes that Schlabrendorf inscribed in his copy of Memoirs. Jochmann says: My honoured friend (Schlabrendorf) gave to me William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author, etc. (2nd edition, London, 1798), in which he had underlined many passages and added marginal notes, some of which I have included in the above sketch. He evidently showed the book to but a few of his best friends. Humboldt had it for a time. ‘ Perhaps you will occasionally smile,’ said the Count, as he handed it to me. But how mistaken he was! I was deeply touched by it.
The notes are as follow: The author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman wrote as she believed, loved and lived. Therefore she became unhappy, therefore was she scorned by her own sex...And yet, Mary was the noblest, purest and most intelligent woman I. have ever met. I knew her well, even before the time of my imprisonment, during the reign of terror. Mary was, without being a dazzling beauty, yet of a charming grace. Her face, so full of expression, presented a style of beauty beyond that of merely regular features. There was enchantment in her glance, her voice, and her movement. While in prison she often visited me; she enthralled me more and more. Not until after she had left Paris, did I realize that I loved her. Her unhappy union with Imlay prevented any closer bond with her.
Speaking of the time at which Mary took Imlay’s name, (August 1793), Schlabrendorf wrote: At that time she visited me and comforted me in prison. Imlay did not appreciate her worth and 251 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS became indifferent. At Havre she gave birth to a daughter. He in the meantime went to England ~ and became attached to an actress. She brought up her child according to her principles, simply, naturally, not spoiling her. The women of Havre called her the ‘ rdven mother.’ When I asked her _ what the women of that place had said to her, she replied: ‘They all thought I was not worthy of having such a child.’
Of Archibald Hamilton Rowan, who spent nearly a year in Paris when Mary was there, there is a good account in the D.N.B. But the relations between Mary and himself are narrated in his Autobiography.® Rowan, born in 1751 and a United Irishman, was the only son and heir of Gawin Hamilton, of Killyleagh Castle, co. Down; he took his grandfather’s name as one of the conditions of the will, by which he inherited considerable wealth. In 1781, in Paris, he married Sarah Ann Dawson, daughter of Walter Dawson, of Lisawsk, near Carrickmacross, co. Monaghan. They resided in Paris until 1784, when, at the request of his mother, Rowan and his wife returned to Ireland. He soon became active in politics, and in 1791 was brought up for trial in the king’s bench on a charge of distri- buting a seditious pamphlet. The charge was un- founded, for Rowan had neither written the pamphlet, nor disseminated it. Curran defended him in what is called his ablest speech, but Rowan was convicted, and sentenced to a fine and two years’ imprisonment. Soon after his confinement in the Dublin Newgate, with the aid of friends, and a convenient vessel, he escaped and sailed to France. He probably reached ® Dublin, Thomas Tegg & Co. 1840.
259 “3+ Peer RALD ALSTROWAN Paris in June 1794, and it was there that he met Mary, and that they became such good friends.
It may be assumed that they met soon after Mary’s arrival in September 1794. In April 1795 they both left Paris in different directions. It is evident from Rowan’s devotion to his wife, plainly displayed in every letter he wrote her and from the tone of their letters to each other, that his six months’ intimacy with Mary was purely platonic.
What follows is from Rowan’s Autobiography. He gives this record of their first meeting in a letter to his wife: On the day of the celebration of one of the numerous feasts with which this country has abounded...Mr. B(ingham) who was with me, joined a lady who spoke English, and who was followed by her maid with an infant in her arms, which I found belonged to the lady. Her manners were interesting and her conversation spirited, yet not out of her sex. B(ingham) whispered me that she was the author of the Rights of Woman. I started! ‘What!, said I within myself, ‘this is Miss Mary Wollstonecraft, parading about with a child at her heels, with as little ceremony as if it were a watch she had just bought at the jeweler’s. So much for the rights of women,’ thought I. But upon further inquiry, I found that she had, very fortunately for her, married an American gentleman a short time before the passing of that decree which indiscriminately incarcerated all the British subjects who were at that moment in this country. My society, which before that time, was wholly male, was now most agreeably increased, and I got a dish of tea, and an hour’s rational conversation whenever I called on her.
253 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS The relative duties of man and wife was frequently the topic of our conversation; and here I found ~ myself deeply wounded; because if my dearest — thought as Mrs. Imlay did, and many of their sentiments seemed to coincide, my happiness was at anend. I have sometimes told her so; but there must be something about me of deep deception, for I never seemed to have persuaded her that I had merited, or that you would treat me with the neglect that I then thought was my portion. Her account of Mr. Imlay made me wish for his acquaintance; and my description of my love made her desirous of your acquaintance, which it is possible may happen; and until you can decide for yourself, repay her, my dearest friend, some of those kind attentions I received from her when my heart was ill at ease. Mr. Imlay was expected over here; but his affairs keep him in England, and she is gone to join him.
The following letter was also written by Rowan to his wife, from Paris, dated March 20, 1795. ‘ James Thomson’ was the name he used while in exile.
This letter will probably be delivered to my inestimable friend, by the sister? of a lady formerly Mary Wollstonecraft, now Imlay, who has un- knowingly given me many a heart ache, since (I have) had the pleasure of being acquainted with her. There is an avowal for you! Was ever any thing so impertinent? Yes, she has made my heart ache when she has persisted that no motive upon earth ought to make a man and wife live together a 1 This last sentence plainly dates the letter as early as April 1795, since Rowan sailed from Havre only a few days after Mary had departed from the same place.
4 Probably Eliza Bishop, then a teacher in a school in Dublin.
254 WROHIP BADD <H- “ROWAN moment after mutual love and regard were gone. Now ill-usage and neglect naturally destroying the strongest attachment, I could not help reflecting that I was not to be pitied, because I deserved the fate which I then thought had befallen me. I at last told her of my supposed situation, and she said that if 1 painted you right, she thought I had no reason to be alarmed; for that when a person whom we have loved was absent, all the faults he might have were diminished, and his virtues augmented in proportion; and her prophecy has been true, and you have fulfilled it by the kind, affectionate letters you have sent me; all of which, except one, have come to hand safe; and I am now as happy as a man can be, whose dearest, and almost his only comfort is withheld from him, at least for some PAA eet on.
I have bought a watch for G. M. which shows the hours on one face, and the day of the month, day of the week, and name of the month on the other face; Mrs. Imlay will take it over.
James THOMSON.
Rowan makes one more reference, which reveals a hitherto unnoticed residence of Mary’s (whence I am inclined to believe she wrote the letter to Mrs. Barlow which later appears) (see below, p. 261): During my residence at Paris I had become acquainted with Mary Wollstonecraft who had visited Paris with the intention of making herself acquainted with the true state of that country, and lived in a small cottage close to Paris. As Ameri- cans were then the only avowed foreigners protected in that city...an American family, of the name of Christie, with whom she was intimate, offered her an asylum at their house. There she became acquainted with Mr. Imlay, also an American, who 255 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS paid his addresses to her; and partly as a safeguard against prosecution by being the wife of an Ameri- can, she submitted to a republican marriage, and from that time she was called Mrs. Imlay. She took care of his house and commercial concerns — during his absence on various speculations, and was treated as his wife by all who knew her. He had a house in Havre, whither she was then going with her infant daughter. She offered me a lodging there while waiting for a passage to America, and from thence, and from London, I received the following letters, which I add, as they show the state of her feelings at a remarkable period, when her — case was pitiful.
pe are ee pe are ee Thomas Cooper, of Manchester (1759-1840), scientist author, lawyer, judge, and college president, appears — in the D.N.B. Additional facts are contained in a — little pamphlet * written by a member of the faculty — of Dickinson School of Law, Carlisle, Penn., at which institution (when it was known as Dickinson College), Cooper was Professor of Chemistry. The monograph has a good portrait of Cooper.
Cooper was in Paris in 1792, and was associated there with Brissot and the Revolutionary party. In the following year he gave a letter to Imlay introducing him to Brissot; and after his first American visit in 1794 he wrote a book about that country * which % Life and Times / of / Judge Thomas Cooper / Jurist, Scientist, Educator, Author, Publicist / By / Professor Charles F. Himes, Ph.D., LL.D. / Dickinson School of Law / Carlisle, Pa. / 1918.
4Some Information / Respecting / America, / Collected by / Thomas Cooper, Late of Manchester. / London: / Printed for J.: Johnson, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard. / MDCCXCIV, 256 ly,, JOEL BARLOW _J. Johnson published and from which Mary quoted in her Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden.
Mary thus referred to Cooper’s book: A sensible writer ® has lately observed (I have not his work by me, therefore cannot quote his exact words) ‘that the americans very wisely let the europeans make their books and fashions for them.’ But I cannot coincide with him in this opinion. The reflection necessary to produce a certain number of even tolerable productions, augments, more than he is aware of, the mass of knowledge in the community.
There remains Joel Barlow (1754-1812), American poet and diplomatist. With him, it will be remem- bered, Mary consulted in 1792 on the advisability of placing Charles ona farm in America. His wife, Ruth Baldwin, was a good friend of Mary and received two interesting letters from her.
An account of Barlow may be found in Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, and more par- ticularly in a book entitled: Life and Letters of Joel Barlow, LL.D. Poet, Statesman, Philosopher. By Charles Burr Todd. New York: 1886.
Barlow was born in Reading, Conn.; graduated from Yale, 1778, delivering the Commencement Poem;® 5 See Mr. Cooper’s account of America.
6 The Prospect of Peace, A Poetical Composition, De- livered in Yale College, at the Public Examination of the Candidates for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts; July 23, 1778, by Joel Barlow, Esq. New Haven: Printed by Thomas and Samuel Green, M.DCC.LXXVIII.
M.W. 257 R SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS in 1780 he was chaplain of Poore’s brigade of the Massachusetts line; married Ruth Baldwin of New Haven in 1781; settled in Hartford two years ~ tol es later, where, with Elisha Babcock, he founded The — American Mercury, and was its editor during its short life. About this time he wrote and published his — chief work: The Vision of Columbus, A Poem in Nine — Books, which attracted so much favourable attention ~ that he was offered the agency in France of the Scioto — Land Co., to sell there the three million acres of Ohio land which the company claimed to have, to prospective settlers. Barlow sailed in May 1788, and ~ apparently disposed of the land to a French syndicate; but it unfortunately turned out a losing venture to its investors, though from no fault on his part. Barlow ~ remained in Paris, where his wife joined him, until about the middle of 1791, when conditions resulting from the Revolutionary uprising made life in that city unsafe. While he was there he translated Brissot’s Nouveau Voyage dans les Etat Unis d’ Amerique Septentrionale, Paris, 1791, calling his version New Travels in the United States of America, Performed in 1788.
In 1791 Barlow and his wife went to London and took lodgings in Lichfield Street, then the literary centre. Here they became friends with Mary. Johnson published three of Barlow’s Revolutionary pamphlets in 1792.
“She turned her eyes on her cruel master” From the original drawing by William Blake 7 (cf. above, pp. 207-12) 1793-1794 uf “7 a) 4: "ind AL AY’S ABSENCE—ALONE IN PARIS—BIRTH OF _ FANNY—AN HISTORICAL AND MORAL VIEW OF THE ORIGIN AND BROS OFSTHE _ FRENCH REVOLUTION.
a was in Paris at the beginning of 1793. She had _ made frequent visits of comfort to her friend von _ Schlabrendorf, then in prison, and it was ‘ about the _ middle of April’ according to Godwin, that she first met Imlay at the Christie house. Not very long afterwards she left her ‘ lodgings at Neuilly,’ and went to live with Imlay ‘under the same roof.’ In September he departed for Havre, giving the excuse of his business, and ostensibly for a short while only. f It was a sad year for Mary, for many of her own friends followed the king and queen to the guillotine. Brissot and twenty-one of his party underwent this fate in October, at the news of which she says she suffered ‘one of the most intolerable sensations she had ever experienced’; and in November both the Rolands died: she, bravely, by the guillotine; he, on his own sword, from grief at her death. 259 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS A short time after Imlay had departed from Havre, Mary now first realised that she was with child. She wrote to Imlay: Sunday night.
Ever since you last saw me inclined to faint, I have felt some gentle twitches, which makes me begin to think, that I am nourishing a creature who will soon be sensible of my care.—This thought has not only produced an overflowing of tenderness to you, but made me very attentive to calm my mind and take exercise, lest I should destroy an object, in whom we are to have a mutual interest, you know.?
Mary, alone in Paris, with all the tragic events of that dreadful year going on before her, very naturally longed for Imlay’s prompt return, and wrote him: Sunday morning. [December 29, 1793].
You seem to have taken up your abode at H[avre]. Pray sir! when do you think of coming home? or, to write very considerately, when will business permit you? I shall expect (as the country people say in England) that you will make a power of money to indemnify me for your absence.”
Imlay, apparently, returned no satisfactory reply, and ‘ the growing cruelties of Robespierre ’ determined her to wait no longer, but to set out for Havre by herself.
She arrived there in January; her child was born in May; and from then until September, when Imlay made his final departure—though little did Mary dream that it was final—she passed what was probably the happiest part of her life.
1 Letter v. Posthumous Works, iii. p. 11. * Letter vii. Posthumous Works, iii. 17. 260 BaD te OF TE AN NY The birth was not at all a difficult one. After Imlay had gone and Mary had returned to Paris, she wrote to Everina: Paris, Sept. 20th [1792]...1 want you to see my little girl, who is more like a boy. She is ready to fly away with spirits, and has eloquent health in her cheeks and eyes. She does not promise to be a beauty, but appears wonderfully intelligent, and though I am sure she has her father’s quick temper and feelings, her good humour runs away with all the credit of my good nursing.
I managed myself so well that my lying-in scarcely deserves the name. I only rested, through persuasion, in bed one day, and was out a-walking on the eighth. She is now only four months old. She caught the smallpox at Havre, where they treat the dreadful disorder very improperly. I however determined to follow the suggestion of my own reason, and saved her much pain, probably her life, for she was very full, by putting her twice a-day into a warm bath...You will see the last vol. I have written, it is the commencement of a considerable work.?
It was while she and Imlay were still in Havre, dwelling happily together, that she wrote the following letter to her friend Ruth Barlow, then in London: Havre, July 8th, ’94. My DEAR FRIEND, I received but the other day your letter of May the 6th, and since then | have written to you or Mr. B. several times—yesterday, I find, by a letter 3 Kegan Paul, William Godwin, i. 220. The ‘ last vol.’ is her French Revolution, which, although labelled ‘ Volume the First,’ was never accompanied by another volume.
261 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS from Mr. B. that he wrote to me by the Dane, enclosing one from Charles.—It would have given me great pleasure to have received this letter, but, as I fear I shall never see it, I must beg you, or Mr. B. to endeavour to recollect the substance of it, for I long to hear how Charles has succeeded.—Tell me likewise, at the same time, what Mr. J[ohnson] says, for I cannot get a line from him.