I am a just man. I do not blame my noble friends, my gentle patrons, for
this. No: if I were forgetful of my interests, if I preferred their
pleasure to my happiness and honour, that was any crime, and I deserve the
punishment! But, look you,--time went by, and my constitution was broken;
debts came upon me; I could not pay; men mistrusted my word; my name in
the country fell: With my health, my genius deserted me; I was no longer
useful to my party; I lost my seat in parliament; and when I was on a
sick-bed--you remember it, Constancy--the bailiffs came, and tore me away
for a paltry debt--the value of one of those suppers the Prince used to
beg me to give him. From that time my familiars forsook me!--not a visit,
not a kind act, not a service for him whose day of work was over! 'Poor
Vernon's character was gone! Shockingly involved--could not perform his
promises to his creditors--always so extravagant--quite unprincipled--must
give him up!'

"In those sentences lies the secret of their conduct. They did not
remember that _for_ them, _by_ them, the character was gone, the promises
broken, the ruin incurred! They thought not how I had served them; how my
best years had been devoted to advance them--to ennoble their cause in the
lying page of History! All this was not thought of: my life was reduced
to two epochs--that of use to them--that not. During the first, I was
honoured; during the last, I was left to starve--to rot! Who freed me
from prison?--who protects me now? One of my 'party'--my 'noble
friends'--my 'honourable, right honourable friends'? No! a tradesman whom
I once served in my holyday, and who alone, of all the world, forgets me
not in my penance. You see gratitude, friendship, spring up only in
middle life; they grow not in high stations!

"And now, come nearer, for my voice falters, and I would have these words
distinctly heard. Child, girl as you are--you I consider pledged to