certain that Shelley wished Byron to receive _both_ the mother and the child; that he did his utmost to bring about an arrangement for Claire to have charge of her offspring _under_ Byron’s roof; and that he strove and hoped to bring about this arrangement, even _after_ Allegra’s transference to her father’s house. I do not say that Mr. Kegan Paul cannot produce evidence to sustain his staggering statement. On the contrary, I have a feeling that he may be able to do so. But I do not hesitate in saying, that to produce any sufficient documentary evidence of Mrs. Shelley’s having written, or thought so ill of Claire in 1817 or 1818, would be to show how little William Godwin knew of his daughter’s real character, and to prove that she was the falsest little minx that ever wore petticoats. If, whilst she was bearing herself to the world with every show of sisterly affection for, and confidence in, her _sister_ (her ‘sister’ of the published _Six Weeks’ Tour_), Mrs. Shelley ever gave anyone to understand that Claire was unfit to discharge the maternal duties to her own child, she was a woman with two faces and a double tongue. Enough has been said to show that, in 1817 and the earlier months of 1818, Claire had good reason for thinking she possessed her sister’s affection, and that Shelley had reason to believe his wife held Claire in sisterly regard. Enough also has been said to show that throughout this same period Shelley was affectionately disposed to his wife’s sister-by-affinity. My strongest evidence that Shelley was so disposed towards Claire has, however, still to be given. Shelley was still at Bath when he instructed a London lawyer to make the will, which was in due course executed in London on 18th February, 1817, and proved as the poet’s last testament in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 1st November, 1844,--more than two-and-twenty years after his death. Lord Byron and Thomas Love Peacock were appointed executors of this will. The testator assigned a sum of 6000_l._ for a provision for his son (Charles Bysshe) by his first wife, another 6000_l._ for a provision for Ianthe (his daughter by the same wife), and a third 6000_l._ for a provision for his son (William) by Mary Godwin; the said three sums of 6000_l._ each being bequeathed to the said Lord Byron and Thomas Love Peacock _In Trust_ for the benefit of the said three children. After providing in this manner for his children, the testator (speaking of Claire, under the name of Mary Jane Clairmont) says,--