The fifth book of wonders

will. When I looked forward to nothing more than the solemn trial and my subsequent death—before this revelation came to me that I should have a child—I made my will in the following manner.

After leaving a legacy to my brother and sister to be paid at my death, and an annuity for as long as they lived, along with a few legacies to other relatives and some tokens of affection to my faithful friends who have shown kindness to me and stood faithfully by me ever since I left Devonshire; after leaving these legacies and tokens of affection, which did not amount to more than a thousand pounds; then all the residue of this "great fortune" which the world says I possess, I had left entirely to Mrs. Jane Townley and Mrs. Ann Underwood.

We have lived together for ten years, and this was a mark of my gratitude for them doing everything in their power to make me happy. It was also for their having written all the communications given to me since we have lived together—both for the press and in letters to my friends—for their giving up the world and confining themselves to be with me, and for their making it their study to ease my sorrows and sufferings under every abuse I have had to endure from an unbelieving and malicious world, which has wounded me greatly by its false inventions to injure my character.

When I reflect on the kind attention and affection they have shown me through all the persecution I have had to face, if I could forget their love, then I must have forgotten myself and have an ungrateful, wicked heart to bring in a stranger's child—even if I could do it without anyone's knowledge. But here, men must lack common sense and reason if they suppose that Townley