"While Thee I seek, protecting Power,"
are probably unaware by what "Williams" it was written.
"Affected but kind-hearted" was the verdict passed on her by Mary Wollstonecraft, who, disappointed of joining Fuseli's proposed party to Paris, went thither alone in December 1792 for the purpose of learning French and of finding a situation as teacher for her sister. Walpole styles Mary a "hyæna in petticoats," because she attacked Marie Antoinette even after death; yet tears fell from her eyes when she saw Louis pass on his way to trial, displaying more dignity than she had expected. She unluckily met Imlay, heedlessly acted upon her theory of free-love, joined him at Havre in 1794, gave birth to a child there, and on business calling Imlay to London, returned with her infant to Paris. Hamilton Rowan, the Irish agitator, arriving shortly before Robespierre's fall, heard at some festival a lady talking English to a nursemaid carrying an infant,[1] and made acquaintance with this by courtesy Mrs. Imlay. She remained in France till the following year, having, however, previously sent off her manuscripts, for had these been found, her life would not have been worth much; but her book
- ↑ Poor Fanny Godwin (so called), her cradle rocked by the Revolution; her girlhood passed with a needy, tyrannical stepfather, and a stepmother styled by Lamb "a very disgusting woman, wearing green spectacles;" her end a bottle of laudanum in a Bath hotel!
