ABSTRACT
Shelley married Harriet again in March, 1814; he cannot then have designed to separate from her. Professor Dowden suggests that motherhood produced a natural change and development in her character which dismayed Shelley. On July 7, the day on which Hookham received the letter from Harriet which I have quoted; Godwin appears to have got a suspicion, perhaps from Hookham, that Shelley and Mary were too fond of each other. Jane Clairmont, the daughter of the second Mrs. Godwin by her first marriage, came with her. According to Jane Clairmont's own account, she had no idea when she went out with Mary that a flight was intended, and was persuaded at the last moment to share that flight; but her stories are not to be trusted. Napoleon had abdicated only a few months before, and France was still unsettled after the invasion and the disbanding of the army.
