where
it is said a first-rate horse is always sure to fetch its value; that
place is Horncastle, in Lincolnshire; you should take him thither."

Francis Ardry and myself dined together, and after dinner partook of a
bottle of the best port which the inn afforded. After a few glasses, we
had a great deal of conversation: I again brought the subject of marriage
and love, divine love, upon the carpet, but Francis almost immediately
begged me to drop it; and on my having the delicacy to comply, he
reverted to dog-fighting, on which he talked well and learnedly; amongst
other things, he said that it was a princely sport of great antiquity,
and quoted from Quintus Curtius to prove that the princes of India must
have been of the fancy, they having, according to that author, treated
Alexander to a fight between certain dogs and a lion. Becoming,
notwithstanding my friend's eloquence and learning, somewhat tired of the
subject, I began to talk about Alexander. Francis Ardry said he was one
of the two great men whom the world has produced, the other being
Napoleon: I replied that I believed Tamerlane was a greater man than
either; but Francis Ardry knew nothing of Tamerlane, save what he had
gathered from the play of Timour the Tartar. "No," said he; "Alexander
and Napoleon are the great men of the world, their names are known
everywhere. Alexander has been dead upwards of two thousand years, but
the very English bumpkins sometimes christen their boys by the name of
Alexander--can there be a greater evidence of his greatness? As for
Napoleon, there are some parts of India in which his bust is worshipped."
Wishing to make up a triumvirate, I mentioned the name of Wellington, to
which Francis Ardry merely said, "Bah!" and resumed the subject of dog-
fighting.

Francis Ardry remained at the inn during that day and the next, and then
departed to the dog and lion fight; I never saw him afterwards, and
merely heard of him once after a lapse of some years, and what I then
heard was not exactly what I could have wished to hear. He did not make
much of the advantages which he possessed, a pity, for how great were
those advantages,--person, intellect, eloquence, connection, riches! yet,
with all these advantages, one thing highly needful seems to have been
wanting in Francis. A desire, a craving, to perform something great and
good. Oh! what a vast deal may be done with intellect, courage, riches,
accompanied by the desire of doi