and so I never wholly knew why John Paul abandoned his
deep-rooted purpose to obtain advancement in London by grace of the
accomplishments he had laboured so hard to attain. But I believe the
beginning was at the meeting at Windsor with the slim and cynical
gentleman who had treated him to something between patronage and
contempt. Then my experience with Mr. Manners had so embedded itself in
his mind that he could never speak of it but with impatience and disgust.
And, lastly, the bailiff's hotel contained many born gentlemen who had
been left here to rot out the rest of their dreary lives by friends who
were still in power and opulence. More than once when I climbed to our
garret I found the captain seated on the three-legged chair, with his
head between his hands, sunk in reflection.

"You were right, Richard," said he; "your great world is a hard world for
those in the shadow of it. I see now that it must not be entered from
below, but from the cabin window. A man may climb around it, lad, and
when he is above may scourge it."

"And you will scourge it, captain!" I had no doubt of his ability one
day to do it.

"Ay, and snap my fingers at it. 'Tis a pretty organization, this
society, which kicks the man who falls to the dogs. None of your fine
gentlemen for me!"

And he would descend to talk politics with our fellow-guests. We should
have been unhappy indeed had it not been for this pastime. It seems to
me strange that these debtors took such a keen interest in outside
affairs, even tho' it was a time of great agitation. We read with
eagerness the cast-off newspapers of the first-floor gentlemen. One poor
devil who had waddled (failed) in Change Alley had collected under his
mattress the letters of Junius, then selling the Public Advertiser as few
publications had ever sold before. John Paul devoured these attacks upon
his Majesty and his ministry in a single afternoon, and ere long he had
on the tip of his tongue the name and value of every man in Parliament
and out of it. He learned, almost by heart, the history of the
astonishing fight made by Mr. Wilkes for the liberties of England, and
speedily was as good a Whig and a better than the member from Middlesex
himself.

The most of our companions were Tories, for, odd as it may appear, they
retained their principles even in Castle Yard. And in those days to be a
Tory was to be the friend of the King, and to be the friend of the King
was to have some hope of a