e sure you could not wish an
indulgence I should not be happy to grant, if it my power.'

Nor was this the only dun of the kind that Selwyn had 'to put up with'
on account of the gaming table. He received the following from Edward,
Earl of Derby.(118)

(118) Edward, twelfth Earl of Derby, was born September 12, 1752, and
died October 21, 1834. He married first, Elizabeth, daughter of James,
sixth Duke of Hamilton, who died in 1799, and secondly, the celebrated
actress, Miss Farren, who died April 23, 1829.

_The Earl of Derby to George Selwyn_.

'Nothing could equal what I feel at troubling you with this disagreeable
note; but having lost a very monstrous sum of money last night, I find
myself under the necessity of entreating your goodness to excuse the
liberty I am taking of applying to you for assistance. If it is not very
inconvenient to you, I should be glad of the money you owe me. If it is,
I must pay what I can, and desire Brookes to trust me for the remainder.
I repeat again my apologies, to which I shall beg leave to add how very
sincerely I have the honour to be, my dear sir,

'Your most obedient humble servant, 'DEBBY.

This is the very model of a dun, and proves how handsomely such ugly
things can be done when one has to deal with a noble instead of a
plebeian creditor.

But Selwyn had not only to endure such indignities, but also to inflict
them, as appears by the following letter to him from the Honourable
General Fitzpatrick, in answer to a dun, which, we are assured, was
'gentle and moderate.'

'I am very sorry to hear the night ended so ill; but to give you some
idea of the utter impossibility of my being useful on the occasion, I
will inform you of the state of my affairs. I won L400 last night, which
was immediately appropriated by Mr _Martindale_, to whom I still owe
L300, and I am in Brookes' book for thrice that sum. Add to all this,
that at Christmas I expect an inundation of clamorous creditors, who,
unless I somehow or other scrape together some money to satisfy them,
will overwhelm me entirely. What can be done? If I could coin my heart,
or drop my blood into drachms, I would do it, though by this time I
should probably have neither heart nor blood left. I am afraid you will
find Stephen in the same state of insolvency. Adieu! I am obliged to you
for the gentleness and moderation of your dun, considering how long I
have been your debtor.

'Yours most sincerely, 'R. F.'(119)