What tho' no purpos'd malice stain'd thee o'er;
Had Heav'n befriended thy unhappy side,
Thou had'st not been provok'd, or thou had'st died.

Far be the guilt of home-shed blood from all,
On whom, unfought, imbroiling dangers fall.
Still the pale dead revives and lives to me,
To me through pity's eye condemn'd to see.
Remembrance veils his rage, but swells his fate,
Griev'd I forgive, and am grown cool too late,

Young and unthoughtful then, who knows one day,
What rip'ning virtues might have made their way?
He might, perhaps, his country's friend have prov'd,
Been gen'rous, happy, candid and belov'd;
He might have sav'd some worth now doom'd to fall,
And I, perchance, in him have murder'd all.

Savage had now obtained his liberty, but was without any settled means
of support, and as he had lost all tenderness for his mother, who had
thirsted for his blood, he resolved to lampoon her, to extort that
pension by satire, which he knew she would never grant upon any
principles of honour, or humanity. This expedient proved successful;
whether shame still survived, though compassion was extinct, or whether
her relations had more delicacy than herself, and imagined that some of
the darts which satire might point at her, would glance upon them: Lord
Tyrconnel, whatever were his motives, upon his promise to lay aside the
design of exposing his mother, received him into his family, treated him
as his equal, and engaged to allow him a pension of 200 l. a year.

This was the golden part of Mr. Savage's life; for some time he had no
reason to complain of fortune; his appearance was splendid, his expences
large, and his acquaintance extensive. 'He was courted, says the author
of his life, by all who endeavoured to be thought men of genius, and
caressed by all that valued themselves upon a fine taste. To admire Mr.
Savage was a proof of discernment, and to be acquainted with him was a
title to poetical reputation. His presence was sufficient to make any
place of entertainment popular; and his approbation and example
constituted the fashion. So powerful is genius, when it is invested with
the glitter of affluence. Men willingly pay to fortune that regard which
they owe to merit, and are pleased when they have at once an opportunity
of exercising their vanity, and practising their duty. This interval of
prosperity furnished him with opportunities of enlarging his knowledge
of human nature, by contemp