Clare Clairmont chose to accompany them. Godwin was totally opposed to
the whole transaction, and Mrs. Godwin even pursued the fugitives across
the Channel; but her appeal was unavailing, and the youthful and defiant
trio proceeded in much elation of spirit, and not without a good deal of
discomfort at times, from Calais to Paris, and thence to Brunen by the
Lake of Uri in Switzerland. It is a curious fact, and shows how
differently Shelley regarded these matters from most people, that he
wrote to Harriet in affectionate terms, urging her to join them there or
reside hard by them. Mary, before the elopement took place, had made a
somewhat similar proposal. Harriet had no notion of complying; and, as
it turned out, the adventurers had no sooner reached Brunen than they
found their money exhausted, and they travelled back in all haste to
London in September,--Clare continuing to house with them now, and for
the most part during the remainder of Shelley's life. Even a poet and
idealist might have been expected to show a little more worldly wisdom
than this. After his grievous experiences with Eliza Westbrook, the
sister of his first wife, Shelley might have managed to steer clear of
Clare Clairmont, the sister by affinity of his second partner in life.
He would not take warning, and he paid the forfeit: not indeed that
Clare was wanting in fine qualities both of mind and of character, but
she proved a constant source of excitement and uneasiness in the
household, of unfounded scandal, and of harassing complications.

In London Shelley and Mary lived in great straits, abandoned by almost
all their acquaintances, and playing hide-and-seek with creditors. But
in January 1815 Sir Bysshe Shelley died, and Percy's money affairs
improved greatly. An arrangement was arrived at with his father, whereby
he received a regular annual income of £1000, out of which he assigned
to Harriet £200 for herself and her two children--a son, Charles Bysshe,
having been born in November 1814 (he died in 1826). Shelley and Mary