CHAPTER VIII Pamela-Her Birth and Origin-Introduced into the Orleans THO WHO was Pamela? It was a question often asked during her lifetime, and which has not unfrequently been repeated since she has gone to a place where birth and parentage are of comparatively small moment. The interest that has been felt in the matter has been indeed altogether incommensurate with its importance. But it is not uncommon for a work to be the more successful by reason of its anonymity, and to the mystery which veiled her origin has been doubtless due part at least of the curiosity testified for the last hundred years with regard to Madame de Genlis's adopted daughter; the touch of romance belonging to her early history, her beauty, and the tragic circumstances connected with her marriage and widowhood investing her with an interest scarcely justified by what is known of her personality. The theory which has found most favour, and which, though discredited alike by facts comparatively recently come to light and by the distinct disclaimers of the persons chiefly concerned, still widely prevails among those who have in any way interested themselves in the matter, would make her the daughter of Egalité, Duc d'Orléans, by Madame de Genlis, his children's governess—a lady in whose person qualities commonly supposed to be antagonistic present a combination which, other alleged facts of her history taken into account, has not been considered such as necessarily to give the lie to the surmise. In support of this hypothesis the supposed likeness of Pamela to the Orleans family has been cited, together with the fact of the fortune settled upon her by her reputed father. It should be remembered, however, with regard to this last piece of evidence, that, according to Madame de Genlis's own account of the matter, this fortune was no free gift on the part of the Duke, but was provided by the commutation of monies due to herself, and would therefore afford no proof of the recognition on his part of paternal obligations. To set against the arguments, such as they are, based upon these circumstances, we have Madame de Genlis's distinct denial, made in later years in the presence of Pamela's daughter; the equally explicit contradiction of the Orleans, their conduct on this occasion contrasting with the admission of the claims of kinship in another case; and the disbelief in the story said to have been entertained by the FitzGerald family themselves. The story told by her adopted mother has also received the following curious corroboration in more recent years, through the enquiries set on foot by Mr. James Fitzgerald, magistrate in the island of Fogo, Newfoundland, the place, according to Madame de Genlis, of Pamela's birth. In the marriage contract between the latter and Lord Edward FitzGerald, the bride is described as "Citoïenne Anne Caroline Stephanie Sims, native de Fogo, dans l'isle de Terre-neuve ; fille de Guillaume. de Brixey et de Mary Sims." This account of her birth and parentage has been very generally attributed to the inventive powers of her guardian, but Mr. Fitzgerald was informed by an inhabitant of Fogo that a daughter of his grandfather's, Mary Sims, had in fact sailed for Bristol at a date corresponding with that of Pamela's birth, in a vessel commanded by a Frenchman named Brixey, taking with her her infant daughter Nancy. Mother and child had disappeared, to be heard of no more till the appearance of Moore's Life of Lord Edward FitzGerald had seemed to furnish a clue to the subsequent history of little Nancy Sims. Except with regard to the name of the fatherwhom Madame de Genlis, though not in the marriage register, preferred to describe as an Englishman of good birth of the name of Seymour-this story tallies well enough with her account of the matter, to which The Tournay register, probably through carelessness, gives the father's name as Berkley, and London as birthplace. independent corroboration is also afforded by an entry in Southey's Commonplace Book, where he gives the result of certain enquiries he had himself instituted at Christchurch, the place from which the child had been despatched to France, no later than August, 1797 -a date at which the incident would still have been fresh in the memory of the inhabitants of the little country town. A woman of Bristol, he was informed-it will be remembered that the destination of Mary Sims, on leaving Fogo, had been Bristol-of the name of Sims had resided at Christchurch with an only daughter, a natural child of exceeding beauty and of about four or five years of age; of which child, in consideration of a small yearly payment, the mother had consented to relinquish the possession, allowing her to be sent to France, to serve as companion to the daughter of the Duc d'Orléans. The affair, it further appears from a letter of Southey's to Miss Bowles, was negotiated by a clergyman of the same name as his correspondent. Thus, weighing all available evidence, it would seem that the story by which royal blood was conferred upon Madame de Genlis's protegée must be dismissed as, to say the least, improbable; and that it is likely that in this instance her guardian had for once adhered to the approximate truth. It might have been well for little Nancy Sims had she been permitted to remain in the sleepy English country town, with its grey old minster, and the broad, green meadows through which the River Avon passes to the sea; but there is no indication that she ever again revisited her early home. In her capacity of governess Madame de Genlis had conceived the idea of accelerating the acquisition. by her pupils of the English language by the introduction of an English child into the Orleans schoolroom. Having gained the consent of the Duke to her project, she commissioned Mr. Forth, ex-Secretary to the British Ambassador at Paris, to select, during a visit to England, a little girl suitable to her purpose. It was upon the daughter of Mary Sims that the choice of Mr. Forth finally fell; and under the care of a horse-dealer, entrusted besides with an addition to the Duke's stables, the child was accordingly despatched to Paris. "I have the honour," wrote Forth to the Duke, "of sending your Serene Highness the prettiest little girl and the handsomest mare in England." Pamela herself declared in after-days that she perfectly recollected being delivered over to the Duc d'Orléans; who, receiving her at a side door of the Palace, took her in his arms, kissed her, and, carrying her along some dusky passages, presented her to Madame de Genlis with the words, "Voilà notre petit bijou!" Whether implicit confidence is to be placed in Pamela's reminiscences may be questioned. She was one of those women to whom it is natural to view themselves in the light of a heroine, and circumstances had fostered the disposition. If one detects in her |