good-luck has really a great deal to say with the prosperity of men.
The earl, who had not for years been in the country, came down in
the summer from London, and I, together with the other magistrates
and council, received an invitation to dine with him at the castle.
We all of course went, "with our best breeding," as the old proverb
says, "helped by our brawest cleeding;" but I soon saw that it was
only a PRO FORMA dinner, and that there was nothing of cordiality in
all the civility with which we were treated, both by my lord and my
lady. Nor, indeed, could I, on an afterthought, blame our noble
entertainers for being so on their guard; for in truth some of the
deacons, (I'll no say any of the bailies,) were so transported out
of themselves with the glory of my lord's banquet, and the thought
of dining at the castle, and at the first table too, that when the
wine began to fiz in their noddles, they forgot themselves entirely,
and made no more of the earl than if he had been one of themselves.
Seeing to what issue the matter was tending, I set a guard upon
myself; and while my lord, out of a parly-voo politess, was egging
them on, one after another, to drink deeper and deeper of his old
wines, to the manifest detriment of their own senses, I kept myself
in a degree as sober as a judge, warily noting all things that came
to pass.

The earl had really a commendable share of common sense for a lord,
and the discretion of my conduct was not unnoticed by him; in so
much, that after the major part of the council had become, as it may
be said, out o' the body, cracking their jokes with one another,
just as if all present had been carousing at the Cross-Keys, his
lordship wised to me to come and sit beside him, where we had a very
private and satisfactory conversation together; in the which
conversation, I said, that it was a pity he would not allow himself