At Lynmouth an Irish servant of Shel ley's was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, but released on his master's recognizances, for distributing and posting up printed papers, bearing no printer's name, of an inflammatory or seditious tendency—being a Declaration of Rights composed by the youth ful reformer, and some verses of his named The Devil's Walk. At Tanyrallt Shelley was (according to his own and Harriet's account, confirmed by the evidence of Miss Westbrook, the elder sister, who continued an inmate in most of their homes) attacked on the night of Feb. 26 by an assassin who fired three pistol shots. It was either a human assassin or (as Shelley once said) "the devil." The motive of the attack was undefined; the fact of its occurrence was generally disbelieved, both at the time and by subsequent inquirers. A disclosure, some years later, proved that a shepherd close to Tanyrallt, named Robin Pant Evan, being irritated by some well-meant acts of Shelley in terminating the lives of dying or diseased sheep, did really combine with two other shepherds to scare the poet, and Evan was the person who played the part of "assassin." This was the break-up of the residence of the Shelleys at Tanyrallt ; they revisited Ireland, and then settled for a while in London. Here, in June 1813, Harriet gave birth to her daughter Ianthe Eliza (she married a Mr. Esdaile, and died in 1876). Here also Shelley brought out his first poem of any importance, Queen Mab; it was privately printed, as its aggressive tone in matters of religion and morals would not allow of publica tion. In July the Shelleys took a house at Bracknell near Windsor Forest, where they had congenial neighbours, Mrs. Boinville and her family. Early in the summer of 1814 Shelley paid his last visit to Field Place (during the absence of his father), to see his mother. Several attempts to arrive at a reconciliation with his father had failed, probably owing, among other circumstances, to the officious intervention of the family solicitor.
The speculative sage whom Shelley especially reverenced was William Godwin (q.v.) ; in 1796 he had married Mary Wollstonecraft, authoress of The Rights of Woman, who died shortly after giving birth, on Aug. 30, 1797, to a daughter Mary. With Godwin Shelley had opened a volunteered corre spondence at the beginning of 1812, and he had known him per sonally since the winter which closed 1812. Godwin was then a bookseller, living with his second wife, who had been a Mrs. Clairmont ; there were four other members of the household, two of whom call for some mention here—Fanny Wollstonecraft, the daughter of the authoress and Mr. Imlay, and Claire (Clara Mary Jane), the daughter of Mrs. Clairmont. Fanny committed suicide in October 1816, being, according to some accounts which remain unverified, hopelessly in love with Shelley; Claire was closely associated with all his subsequent career. It was towards May 1814 that Shelley first saw Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin as a grown-up girl (she was well on towards seventeen) ; he instantly fell in love with her, and she with him. Just before this, on March 24, Shelley had remarried Harriet in London, apparently with a view to strengthening his position in his relations with his father as to the family property; but, on becoming enamoured of Mary, he seems to have rapidly made up his mind that Harriet should not stand in the way. She was at Bath while he was in London. They
had, however, met again in London and come to some sort of understanding before the final crisis arrived—Harriet remonstrat ing and indignant, but incapable of effective resistance—Shelley sick of her companionship, and bent upon gratifying his own wishes, which as we have already seen were not at odds with his avowed principles of conduct. For some months past there had been bickerings and misunderstandings between him and Harriet, aggravated by the now detested presence of Miss Westbrook in the house; more than this cannot be said, and it seems dubious whether more will be hereafter known. Shelley, and not he alone, alleged grave misdoing on Harriet's part—perhaps mistakenly. The upshot came on July 28, when Shelley aided Mary to elope from her father's house, Claire Clairmont deciding to accompany them. They crossed to Calais, and proceeded across France into Switzerland. Godwin and his wife were greatly incensed. Though he and Mary Wollstonecraft had entertained and avowed bold opinions regarding the marriage-bond, similar to Shelley's own, and had in their time acted upon these opinions, it is not clearly made out that Mary Godwin had ever been encouraged by paternal influence to think or do the like. Shelley and she chose to act upon their own responsibility—he disregarding any claim which Harriet had upon him, and Mary setting at nought her father's authority. Both were prepared to ignore the law of the land and the rules of society.
The three young people returned to London in September. In the following January 1815 Sir Bysshe Shelley died, and Percy, who had lately been in great money-straits, became the immediate heir to the entailed property inherited by his father Sir Timothy. This entailed property seems to have been worth I6,000 per annum, or little less. He came to an understanding with his father and, giving up certain future advantages, he received henceforth a regular income of L r,000 a year. Out of this he assigned £200 a year to Harriet, who had given birth in November to a son, Charles Bysshe (he died in 1826). Shelley, and Mary as well, were on moderately good terms with Harriet, seeing her from time to time. His peculiar views as to the relations of the sexes appear markedly again in his having (so it is alleged) invited Harriet to return to his and Mary's house as a domicile; an arrangement which did not take effect. He had, undoubtedly, while previously abroad with Mary, invited Harriet to stay in their immediate neighbourhood. Shelley and Mary (who was naturally always called Mrs. Shelley) now settled at Bishopgate, near Windsor Forest ; here he produced his first excellent poem, Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude, which was published soon afterwards (r816) with a few others. Thomas Love Peacock was one of his principal associates at Bishopgate.