declare me an outcast forever. To this hour I feel my
thankfulness to those who thus acknowledged me; nor can I even yet
conquer an unforgiving memory of some chance, mayhap unintentional,
rudeness which, as it were, seemed to stamp my degradation more deeply
upon me. Stranger still that I must own how my political bias was
decided by these accidental causes; for while the great Tory leaders
rarely or never noticed me, the Whigs--a younger and more joyous section
in those times--always flung me a passing word, and would even
occasionally condescend to listen to my repartee.

I must guard myself from giving way to the memories which are already
crowding fast about me. Names, and characters, and events rise up
before my mind in myriads, and it is with difficulty I can refrain from
embarking on that flood of the past which now sweeps along through my
brain. The great, the high-born, the beautiful, the gifted, all dust and
ashes now!--they who once filled the whole page of each day's history
utterly ignored and forgotten! It is scarcely more than fifty years
ago; and yet of all the eloquence that shook the "House," of all the
fascinations that stirred the hearts of princes, of the high ambitions
that made men demigods in their time, how much have reached us? Nothing,
or less than nothing. A jest or a witticism that must be read with a
commentary, or told with an explanation,--the repartee that set the
table in a roar, now heard with a cold, half-contemptuous astonishment,
or a vacant inquiry "if such were really the wits of those times."

Amongst those with whose appearance I had become familiar were three
young men of very fashionable exterior, who always were seen together.
They displayed, by the dress of blue coat and buff waistcoat, the
distinctive colors of the Whigs; but their buttons more emphatically
declared their party in the letters P. F., by which the friends of the
Prince then loved to designate themselves. The "Bucks" of that age had
one enormous advantage over the Dandies of ours,--they had no imitators.
They stood alone and unapproachable in all the glories of tight leathers
and low top-boots. No spurious copies of them got currency; and the man
of fashion was unmistakable amongst a thousand. The three of whom I have
made mention were good specimens of that school, which dated its
birth from the early years of the Prince, and by their habits and tone
imparted a distinctive character to the party. They dresse