When I arrived, the earl took me into his private library, and we
had some serious conversation about the captain's sister; and, when
I had related the circumstantialities of her end to him, he sent for
the captain, and with great tenderness, and a manner most kind and
gracious, told him what he had noticed in the conduct of the
officers, offering his mediation to appease any difference, if it
was a thing that could be done.

While my lord was speaking, the captain preserved a steady and
unmoved countenance: no one could have imagined that he was
listening to any thing but some grave generality of discourse; but
when the earl offered to mediate, his breast swelled, and his face
grew like his coat, and I saw his eyes fill with water as he turned
round, to hide the grief that could not be stifled. The passion of
shame, however, lasted but for a moment. In less time than I am in
writing these heads, he was again himself, and with a modest
fortitude that was exceedingly comely, he acknowledged who he was,
adding, that he feared his blameless disgrace entailed effects which
he could not hope to remove, and therefore it was his intention to
resign his commission. The earl, however, requested that he would
do nothing rashly, and that he should first allow him to try what
could be done to convince his brother officers that it was unworthy
of them to act towards him in the way they did. His lordship then
led us to the drawing-room, on entering which, he said aloud to the
countess in a manner that could not be misunderstood, "In Captain
Armour I have discovered an old acquaintance, who by his own merits,
and under circumstances that would have sunk any man less conscious
of his own purity and worth, has raised himself, from having once
been my servant, to a rank that makes me happy to receive him as my
guest."