emorse for his cruel treatment
of his son and daughter, or (which is more probable) was afraid his
character would suffer in the neighbourhood, he professed great sorrow
for his conduct to my father, whose delirium was succeeded by a profound
melancholy and reserve. At length he disappeared, and, notwithstanding
all imaginable inquiry, could not be heard of; a circumstance which
confirmed most people in the opinion of his having made away with
himself in a fit of despair. How I understood the particulars of my
birth will appear in the course of these memoirs.

CHAPTER II

I grow up--am hated by my Relations--sent to School--neglected by my
Grandfather--maltreated by my Master--seasoned to Adversity--I form
Cabals against the Pedant--am debarred Access to my Grandfather--hunted
by his Heir--I demolish the Teeth of his Tutor

There were not wanting some who suspected my uncles of being concerned
in my father's fate, on the supposition that they would all share in
the patrimony destined for him; and this conjecture was strengthened by
reflecting that in all his calamities they never discovered the least
inclination to serve him; but, on the contrary, by all the artifices in
their power, fed his resentment and supported his resolution of leaving
him to misery and want. But people of judgment treated this insinuation
as an idle chimera; because, had my relations been so wicked as to
consult their interest by committing such an atrocious crime, the
fate of my father would have extended to me too whose life was another
obstacle to their expectation. Meanwhile, I grew apace, and as I
strongly resembled my father, who was the darling of the tenants, I
wanted nothing which their indigent circumstances could afford: but
their favour was a weak resource against the jealous enmity of my
cousins; who the more my infancy promised, conceived the more implacable
hatred against me: and before I was six years of age, had so effectually
blockaded my grandfather that I never saw him but by stealth, when I
sometimes made up to his chair as he sat to view his labourers in the
field: on which occasion he would stroke my head, bid me be a good boy,
and promise to take care of me.

I was soon after sent to school at a village hard by, of which he had
been dictator time out of mind; but as he never paid for my board, nor
supplied me with clothes, books, and other necessaries I required, my
condition was very ragged and contemptible, a