red.

The violence of my mother's affliction had such an effect on her
constitution that she was immediately seized with the pains of childbed;
and had not an old maidservant, to whom she was very dear, afforded
her pity and assistance, at the hazard of incurring my grandfather's
displeasure, she and the innocent fruit of her womb must have fallen
miserable victims to his rigour and inhumanity. By the friendship
of this poor woman she was carried up to a garret, and immediately
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 the embraces of his darling spouse, and while he loaded his
offspring with paternal embraces, could not forbear shedding a flood
of tears on beholding the dear partner of his heart (for whose ease he
would have sacrificed the treasures of the east) stretched upon a
flock bed, in a miserable apartment, unable to protect her from the
inclemencies of the weather. It is not to be supposed that the old
gentleman was ignorant of what passed, though he affected to know
nothing of the matter, and pretended to be very much surprised, when one
of his grandchildren, by his eldest son deceased, who lived with him
as his heir apparent, acquainted him with the affair; he determined
therefore to observe no medium, but immediately (on the third day after
her delivery) sent her a peremptory order to be gone, and turned off
the servant who had preserved her life. This behaviour so exasperated
my father that he had recourse to the most dreadful imprecations; and on
his bare knees implored that Heaven would renounce him if ever he should
forget or forgive the barbarity of his sire.

The injuries which this unhappy mother received from her removal in such
circumstances, and the want of necessaries where she lodged, together
with her grief and anxiety of mind, soon threw her into a languishing
disorder, which put an end to her life. My father, who loved her
tenderly, was so affected with her death that he remained six weeks
deprived of his senses; during which time, the people where he lodged
carried the infant to the old man who relented so far, on hearing the
melancholy story of his daughter-in-law's death, and the deplorable
condition of his son, as to send the child to nurse, and he ordered my
father to be carried home to his house, where he soon recovered the use
of his reason.

Whether this hardhearted judge felt any r