furnish out the riotous expenses of the evening. It was his boast, that
he would breakfast with an empty pocket, and dine with a purse that
should defray the carouse of a dozen friends. And I have known him
fulfil his boast, with a heart as light, too, as became a man who thus
made the credulous fools of the world his bankers.

I was needy, desperate, and an outcast; and I linked my destiny with
Fitzroy's. He had my confidence; such confidence as confederates in
knavery can bestow. When he obtained his liberty, which he did shortly
after my own was accomplished, he introduced me to his companions; men
who, like himself, lived by plundering the unwary, and who looked up to
him as their _Magnus Apollo_. I was soon initiated in all their
mysteries; and played my part to admiration at the gaming-table, on the
race course, and in the ring.

Fitzroy was master of the secret that festered near my heart; the
increased and increasing hatred towards my uncle. I regarded him as
my evil genius; for not only had he thwarted me in two of the dearest
objects of my life; but his prediction of my boyhood had clung to me
like a poisoned garment. I could not shake it off; and now, more than
ever, it seemed accomplishing itself with rapid strides. It made me mad
when I reflected upon the polluted channels through which _my_
precarious means flowed, and thought of the luxurious enjoyments which
_his_ opulence commanded. It was true, I had dashed his cup with
bitterness; but it was no less true, that it still flowed with sweets,
while mine was brimming with gall. Fitzroy would often talk to me upon
this subject, and devise schemes for a successful inroad upon his purse.
At length a plan was matured between us, in which I could not appear,
but which Fitzroy, and a picked few of our associates, undertook to
execute.