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THE COURT OF THE KING OF _BANTAM_.

This Money certainly is a most devilish Thing! I'm sure the Want of it
had like to have ruin'd my dear _Philibella_, in her Love to _Valentine
Goodland_; who was really a pretty deserving Gentleman, Heir to about
fifteen hundred Pounds a Year; which, however, did not so much recommend
him, as the Sweetness of his Temper, the Comeliness of his Person, and
the Excellency of his Parts: In all which Circumstances my obliging
Acquaintance equal'd him, unless in the Advantage of their Fortune. Old
Sir _George Goodland_ knew of his Son's Passion for _Philibella_; and
tho' he was generous, and of a Humour sufficiently complying, yet he
could by no means think it convenient, that his only Son should marry
with a young Lady of so slender a Fortune as my Friend, who had not
above five hundred Pound, and that the Gift of her Uncle Sir _Philip
Friendly_: tho' her Virtue and Beauty might have deserv'd, and have
adorn'd the Throne of an _Alexander_ or a _Caesar_.

Sir _Philip_ himself, indeed, was but a younger Brother, tho' of a good
Family, and of a generous Education; which, with his Person, Bravery,
and Wit, recommended him to his Lady _Philadelphia_, Widow of Sir
_Bartholomew Banquier_, who left her possess'd of two thousand Pounds
_per Annum_, besides twenty thousand Pounds in Money and Jewels; which
oblig'd him to get himself dubb'd, that she might not descend to an
inferior Quality. When he was in Town, he liv'd--let me see! in the
_Strand_; or, as near as I can remember, somewhere about
_Charing-Cross_; where first of all Mr. _Would-be King_, a Gentleman of
a large Estate in Houses, Land and Money, of a haughty, extravagant and
profuse Humour, very fond of every new Face, had the Misfortune to fall
passionately in love with _Philibella_, who then liv'd with her Uncle.

This Mr. _Would-be_ it seems had often been told, when he was yet a
Stripling, either by one of his Nurses, or his own Grandmother, or by
some other Gypsy, that he should infallibly be what his Sirname imply'd,
a King, by Providence or Chance, ere he dy'd, or never. This glorious
Prophecy had so great an Influence on all his Thoughts and Actions, that
he distributed and dispers'd his Wealth sometimes so largely, that one
would have thought he had undoubtedly been King of some Part of the
_Indies_; to see a Present made to-day of a Diamond