time to think. One night, luck ran against me; I lost every thing I had, and to retrieve, I had recourse to deceit. I succeeded beyond my expectation, and for some months continued by the same means to win large sums, which benefited me but little, for I spent them as fast as they were acquired, in debauchery and extravagance of every sort. At length I was detected in the arts I practised, and driven with ignominy from the regiment. I had just money enough to carry me to Paris, where, for a while, I suffered all those miserable alternations of fate to which a sharper is subject; one day at the very height of prosperity, another sunk to the most abject distress; one day shielding my almost detected villany by bully and bravado, another obliged to skulk in private, to avoid the retribution of justice. But in all these vicissitudes, I gained not only the knowledge, but the practice of a thousand arts and deceptions, by which the common classes of mankind are gulled

VOL. III.

I

and

and betrayed; and with a stock of inge nious and refined knavery, which I was well aware could not be matched in England, I at length returned to my native country, prepared to turn to my own advantage the vices and follies of my fellow

creatures.

"At a gambling-house in London, I became acquainted with Mr. —; I saw`he was a fool, and inquired his fortune, which I found to be very large; and having lately come into it, it hung loosely about him. I therefore determined to pursue him, till I had disencumbered him of the whole of it; but I soon perceived that, several others of his good friends were animated with the same kind intention towards him, and I boldly told them my suspicion. They were startled, and were undecided whether to bully or to truckle. A word, well or ill applied, decides every thing in the world; I shewed them that I knew them-I told them my own plan, and offered to share with them. The last

proposal

proposal settled it, and it was agreed that we should pluck the pigeon amongst us, though the chief conduct of the scheme still remained in my hands: but on the very evening that we had fixed for carrying our purpose into effect, you, my lord, formed one of the party at his house. I knew enough of your character to be uneasy at your presence, and rightly; for, as you must well remember, you detected my false play. There was not one of us who would have taken ten thousand pounds for his share of that night's winnings; and by the defeat of my scheme, all the rancorous feelings I had before nourished against you were revived with double acrimony. I struck you, and you took instant revenge, which called from me a challenge, that I scarcely expected you would accept. France was appointed for our meeting; but on arriving at Calais, I found that the police were on the watch for me, on account of some of my former operations. This, however, did not deter

me from giving you the rendezvous at Guisnes. A thousand motives prompted me to carry the business through at all risks in the first place, revenge, the strongest passion of my nature, excited me to punish you for the insult you had offered me; in the next, I hoped by shooting you, to wipe away the reproach from my character; and lastly, I well knew that a duel with a man of your rank and reputation, would at all events give me an eclat in society, which I could scarcely gain by any other means: and I was so practised a shot, that I did not doubt that I should kill you."

He paused a moment, and held one pale bony hand towards heaven.-"Thank God," he said, "I did not-that, at least, is one crime off my soul; but I must make haste, for my strength is failing. I missed you, as you know; some good angel must have protected you; and in return you wounded me, as you thought,

mortally,

mortally, and no doubt fancied done a benefit to society."

you had

"On my honour," replied lord Burton, "I never intended to fire at you; my glove got entangled about the trigger, or I should have discharged my pistol in the air."

Colonel Stanhope seemed surprised."Indeed!" he exclaimed; but then taking lord Burton's hand, as he sat by him, he pressed it tight in his, adding, "I believe you it is like yourself. How strange it is," he continued, "that you, whom I have persecuted all my life, are the only person in whom I could put perfect confidence! But let me go on; the man who acted as my second was one of the few to whom I had shewn disinterested kindness, and one of the still fewer number who are capable of feeling gratitude. He soon saw that I was not dead, and had me conveyed to his house; but knowing that the police were at my heels, he spread the report of my death, which received confirmation in I 3

every