en I deviated from this principle, my conduct was the
effect of compulsion, and therefore I was never easy under it, having
been reduced to the alternative of two evils, the least of which I was
obliged to choose, as a man leaps into the sea, in order to escape from
a ship that is on fire.

"Though I rejected their love, I did not refuse their company and
conversation; and, though my health was considerably impaired by the
shock I received in my last adventure, which was considerably greater
than I at first imagined, and affected my companion so much, that she
did not recover her spirits till she returned to England, I say,
though I was for some time a valetudinarian, I enjoyed myself in great
tranquility for the space of ten months, during which I was visited
by English, Scotch, and French, of all parties and persuasions; for
pleasure is of no faction, and that was the chief object of my pursuit;
neither was I so ambitious of being a politician, as to employ my time
and thoughts upon subjects which I did not understand. I had admirers of
all sides, and should have spent my time very much to my liking, had not
I felt my funds sensibly diminish, without any prospect of their being
repaired; for I had been obliged to lay out a great part of the sum
allotted for my subsistence, in supplying my companion, my servant, and
myself with necessaries, in lieu of those which we had lost.

"Having before my eyes the uncomfortable prospect of wanting money in
a strange place, I found myself under the necessity of returning to
England, where I had more resources than I could possibly have among
foreigners; and with that view wrote to Lord --'s agents, desiring that
I might be enabled to discharge my obligations at Paris, by the payment
of my pin-money. Thus a negotiation commenced, and his lordship promised
to remit money for the clearance of my Paris debts, which amounted to
four hundred pounds: but he would not advance one farthing more, though
I gave him to understand, that, while he protracted the agreement, I
must inevitably be adding to my encumbrances, and that I should be
as effectually detained by a debt of twenty pounds, as if I owed a
thousand. Notwithstanding all my representations, he would not part with
one shilling over the net sum which I at first stipulated; so that
all my measures were rendered abortive, and I found it altogether
impracticable to execute those resolutions I had formed in his favour.

"Thus did he