scheme of burying him in poverty and obscurity; and that the state of
his life, if not the place of his residence, might keep him for ever at
a distance from her, she ordered him to be placed with a Shoemaker in
Holbourn, that after the usual time of trial he might become his
apprentice. It is generally reported, that this project was, for some
time, successful, and that Savage was employed at the awl longer than he
was willing to confess; but an unexpected discovery determined him to
quit his occupation.

About this time his nurse, who had always treated him as her own son,
died; and it was natural for him to take care of those effects, which by
her death were, as he imagined, become his own. He therefore went to her
house, opened her boxes, examined her papers, and found some letters
written to her by the lady Mason, which informed him of his birth, and
the reasons for which it was concealed.

He was now no longer satisfied with the employment which had been
allotted him, but thought he had a right to share the affluence of his
mother, and therefore, without scruple, applied to her as her son, and
made use of every art to awake her tenderness, and attract her regard.
It was to no purpose that he frequently sollicited her to admit him to
see her, she avoided him with the utmost precaution, and ordered him to
be excluded from her house, by whomsoever he might be introduced, and
what reason soever he might give for entering it.

Savage was at this time so touched with the discovery of his real
mother, that it was his frequent practice to walk in the dark evenings
for several hours before her door, in hopes of seeing her by accident.

But all his assiduity was without effect, for he could neither soften