‘One morning I was reading the paper to him, while at breakfast, as was my usual custom, when the surprising purport of one paragraph rendered me incapable of attending to any thing else. Read it yourself, and judge what my feelings must have been.’
“Lord Montgomery handed a paper to Theodore, in which he read these words—‘If an unfortunate object, commonly known by the appellation of Barnaby Shute, is yet living, and should meet with this paragraph, let him make the earliest application possible to Mr. Melvin, 46, Cockspur-street, from whom he will learn particulars of the utmost consequence, and tending, in a most particular manner, to his future establishment in life.’
‘You may easily imagine,’ resumed Montgomery, ‘that I repaired immediately to the person mentioned in the advertisement. I found the gentleman at home, who received me with much politeness; and, as a preface to what he had to communicate, begged to know if I had any particular mark by which he could be satisfied that I was the person with whom he was authorised to hold a private conference of a interesting nature. I instantly untied my cravat, and shewed him on my throat the exact representation of a bunch of purple grapes, imprinted there so correctly, that every berry was perfect.’
‘It is enough, Sir,’ said Mr. Melvin; ‘I am convinced of your identity; and now, to spare the confusion of your only existing parent, will enter into a detail of the circumstances which occasioned your being hitherto kept in ignorance that you are presumptive heir to a title and estate of no inconsiderable consequence in this country.’
‘I will pass over my exclamations of surprise at this intelligence, and content myself with repeating his words as exactly as my memory will permit.
‘Your father, Sir, was, very early in life, married, by the persuasions of his family, to a young lady, who had very few personal charms to recommend her. Lord Montgomery had been too fondly attached to a dissipated life to become suddenly a domestic man; and feeling no strong partiality for the lady to whom he was united, after a very few weeks of self-denial, in compliance with the forms propriety dictated, returned, with heightened avidity, to his former licentious companions. Among these was a woman of infamous fame, who had, by her vile artifices, obtained such a complete ascendancy over his Lordship’s inclinations, that she had power to urge or persuade him to any measure which her caprices or necessities dictated.
‘After being married about three years, Lord Montgomery expressed the bitterest dissatisfaction that his lady had not yet brought him any offspring. It was the first wish of his heart to have an heir, and the only consideration which could possibly have induced him to comply with the wishes of his friends. At length the anxiously-desired event took place, and the hopes of the Earl were gratified by the birth of a male child, which the impatient father eagerly waited to embrace. But who can speak his disgust and horror, when an infant the most deformed and hideous was put into his arms!
‘Excuse me, Sir,’ observed Mr. Melvin, ‘that I express myself in this unqualified manner; it is the only palliative that can be offered for the subsequent culpable conduct of Lord Montgomery. The disappointed parent started with dismay at beholding an object so very different from what paternal pride had taught him to expect.
‘This cannot be my child,’ he exclaimed, in unconcealed rage; ‘it is a trick, an imposition practised on my credulity. Does Lady Montgomery imagine I am thus to be deceived with impunity?’
‘It was in vain that the nurse and attendants assured him the child was his. He flew from the house in a state of phrenzy not to be described. For consolation, he hastened to his vile favourite, imparted to her his cause of vexation, and intreating her advice. She heard him with malignant satisfaction; for her terror was extreme, that the fond feelings of a father would restore his affections to his lady, and alienate them from herself.